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Song Of Lahore – The Sachal Ensemble (2016)

by Audiophile Audition | Nov 8, 2016 | DVD & Blu-ray Video Reviews

Song Of Lahore – The Sachal Ensemble (2016) A compelling documentary about a Pakistani jazz group! Studio: Broadgreen Pictures 94174630 Directors: Andy Schocken & SharmeenObaid-Chinoy featuring The Sachal Ensemble and guest performers – Wynton Marsalis and The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 Video 1.78:1 for widescreen 16:9, color Length: 82 minutes Ratings: Audio: **** Video: ***1/2 Overall:***1/2 It’s not often that a musical documentary tackles complicated socio-political issues and provides great music. But Song Of Lahore does exactly that. This is a tale of a Pakistani musical group, older in age, trying to navigate the intrinsic need to reconcile their artistic vision and heritage (with a decidedly American jazz influence) with the overall restrictive cultural limitations of Sharia law. There is a seventies montage that provides the historical context for this complicated narrative. Bitterness doesn’t overtake the life of Nijat Ali as he tries to manage the music group at The Sachal Studios. Following the previously mentioned Sharia law in the seventies, the ties that bind have been breached. The struggle is with reviving this special music and band and extricating them from generational conflicts that serve as a sub-text for the […]

BRAHMS: Symphony No. 1 in c minor; LEIF SEGERSTAM: Symphony No. 288, “Letting the Flow go on…” – Turku Philharmonic Orch. /Leif Segerstam – Alba

by Audiophile Audition | Aug 20, 2016 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews

Fine, sensitive performance of the Brahms. JOHANNES BRAHMS: Symphony No. 1 in c minor; LEIF SEGERSTAM: Symphony No. 288, “Letting the Flow go on…” – Turku Philharmonic Orch. /Leif Segerstam – Alba Records multichannel SACD ABCD390, 71:35 [Distr. by Albany] (7/29/16) ***: The first things I noticed about this new (and very good) rendition of the Brahms first is the cover. We get one of the best known photos of Johannes Brahms aside that of the physically quite similar composer-conductor Leif Segerstam (only Brahms looks less manic) The other thing that caught my attention immediately was the title and mere fact of the existence of Segerstam’s Symphony No. 288 (Two Hundred Eighty-Eight! …. Haydn and Hovhaness, move over). More on that. Segerstam’s rendition of the iconic Brahms Symphony No. 1 is quite good. While I really, really like a couple of the older versions, such as those by Giulini and von Karajan, this is a very nicely paced performance with great sensitivity to style. I found the second movement especially lovely. This is, in my opinion, one of the best symphonies by any composer, ever, and there are certainly and literally hundreds of recordings to choose from (because it’s a […]

J. Peter Schwalm – The Beauty of Disaster – RareNoise

by Audiophile Audition | Apr 10, 2016 | Jazz CD Reviews

The fascination and allure of catastrophe. J. Peter Schwalm – The Beauty of Disaster [TrackList follows] – RareNoise RNR059, 60:20 [2/26/16] ****: (J. Peter Schwalm – producer, guitar, piano, electronic devices, acoustic and digital sound modules, mixing decks, drums, synths; Neil Catchpole – viola (track 1); Eivind Aarset – guitar (track 2-4); Tim Harries – bass (tracks 2, 7-8); Martin France – drums (tracks 2, 8); Michael Wöllny – pump organ (track 5); Christine Schütze – grand piano (track 9)) Guitarist and keyboardist J. Peter Schwalm is probably best known for his partnership with Brian Eno, such as the 2001 album Drawn From Life. As a solo artist, Schwalm has reinterpreted the work of others: notable exemplifications being the 2013 commission, Kraftwerk Uncovered—A Future Past, for the Icebreaker orchestral ensemble; and the 2014 studio project, Wagner Transformed, which comprised reconfigurations of Richard Wagner’s “Tristan & Isolde,” “Parsifal” and other Wagner material. For the hour-long instrumental CD, The Beauty of Disaster, Schwalm found inspiration from pictures of environmental devastation, specifically the 2010 BP oil spill which affected the southeast US. He clarifies, “I had been deeply impressed by satellite images of the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico while composing […]