Perpetuum Jazzile - Africa (live, HQ)

You must see this to believe it...

Toto's Africa by Perpetuum Jazzile, performed live at Vokal Xtravaganzza 2008 (October 2008).

For more information, check out Perpetuum Jazzile site

Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells (Mercury / Universal, 2009) en Spotify

Para los que aún no tienen decidido comprar la edición Ultimate, ya se puede es­cu­char en Spo­tify de forma legal y gra­tui­ta la edi­ción di­gi­tal del Tu­bu­lar Bells Box Set.

En­tran­do en Spo­tify, ac­ce­de­mos al con­sa­bi­do con­te­ni­do ín­te­gro de la caja.

Actualización: Destacar que el álbum Tubular Bells ha alcanzado directamente el puesto 21 (justo por debajo de U2) en el top 100 de álbumes entre el 8 y el 14 de junio, justo en su semana de estreno, según Promusicae.



For those who hadn't decided to buy Tubular Bells Ultimate Edition, there is another option to access it by listening to it legally, just accessing to Spotify application, just pressing over here. In the other hand, capitalising the purchase of box set may be a nice investment. And I did it buying it, as probably seen in a forementioned post.

Anything I have to remind everyone. If you've never used Spotify before and don't know how to open published links over here, just download the program and install it from:

https://www.spotify.com/en/get-started/

Prog Rock Britannia

At last, I could accomplish some code to embed the full documentary about progressive rock broadcasted some time ago by British BBC Four TV channel and which I stated in this blog on September 2008.

Prog Rock Britannia claims to be the first comprehensive, feature-length documentary about progressive music and the generation of bands that made it – from the international success stories of Yes, Genesis, ELP, King Crimson and Jethro Tull, to the trials and tribulations of lesser-known bands such as Caravan and Egg.

Narrated by Nigel Planer, the film is structured in three parts – charting the birth, rise and decline of a movement famed for complex musical structures, weird time signatures, technical virtuosity and strange – quintessentially English – literary influences.

It looks at the psychedelic pop scene that gave birth to progressive rock in the late Sixties, the golden age of progressive music in the early Seventies – complete with drum solos and gatefold record sleeves – and the over-ambition, commercialisation and eventual fall from grace of this rarefied musical experiment at the hands of punk in 1977.

Contributors include Robert Wyatt, Mike Oldfield, Pete Sinfield, Rick Wakeman, Phil Collins, Arthur Brown, Carl Palmer and Ian Anderson.



There's another version on YouTube of same programme divided in three parts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8T904BrY_k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7Xt4D8ANGc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh4P-LMfQ8o

Also it is preserved at ProgRock.ning Network and here is a chance to get the full document in one piece and watch it quietly on your PC or television set.

© bbc.co.uk/musictv/progbritannia/

Constance Demby - Novus Magnificat (1986)

1 - Part One - 26:15
a) Soul's Journey
b) Ascent
c) Tears for Terra
d) Exultate
e) My Heart Doth Soar

2 - Part Two - 27:14
a) The Flying Bach
b) Trust
c) Bridging Dimensions
d) Through the Stargate
e) Magnificat
f) Cosmic Carousel

Buy it:

- Constance Demby official site
- Amazon USA
- Amazon USA (MP3)
- Rhapsody
- CD Universe
- Tower Records
- E-Music
- MP3 Sparks
- The MP3 Archive
- All Best Music

David Bedford - The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner (Live concert, 1979)

Live performance of a short arrangement over 1975 studio album, with Queen's College girls and chorus, David Bedford on piano and little orchestra direction and Mike Oldfield on electric guitar. BTW, I haven't found any image from that concert and the photograph here included is a shot made during The Odyssey rehearsals for the live performance made in 1977 at the Royal Albert Hall, London.

The only archive content is divided, in musical terms, in several sections, as featured here:

a: 00:00-01:53 Mike Oldfield: guitar at 1:21
b: 01:53-03:33
c: 03:33-07:01 Mike Oldfield: guitar at 3:36, 5:20, 6:24
d: 07:01-10:34 [Rio Grande I] Mike Oldfield: guitar at 9:04
e: 10:34-16:02 [Rio Grande II] Mike Oldfield: guitar at 10:34, 12:39, 14:40
f: 16:03-16:58 audience clapping, end

This concert was recorded on Feb. 14th, 1979 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.

Repost: David Bedford - The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner (1975)

Narrated by Robert Powell, this work was released by Virgin Records in 1975. Great album sleeve with a noteworthy credit being Mike Oldfield assisting on guitars. The album itself comprises of two parts, Rime Of The Ancient Mariner 1 & 2. Oldfield's association with David Bedford went back to The Kevin Ayers and the Whole World band. While Oldfield was flexing his creative muscle and getting frustrated within the confines of that band he confided more and more with David Bedford and struck up a strong rapport with the keyboard player that lasted long after 1975.

This is an unusual album, typical of a Virgin release for the mid 70's in that it allowed the artists to express freely their creative juices. Part one for me is the least accessible with long passages of of frenetic discord with some elements of calm. Remember David Bedford was depicting the mood around the Rime, doldrums, ghosts etc. all interspersed by Powell's narrative. Part two seems to lift up both in mood and in creative output not least some excellent guitar work from Mike Oldfield. The Queen's College Choir lend some pleasant vocal backdrops too. It is a strong work perhaps indicating that composer and keyboardist Bedford was thoroughly enjoying these experimental days. He did though have stronger studio output than this.

Indeed, the most accesible part of this album belongs to the performance of a nice tune called The Rio Grande, based on "a traditional sea-shanty" as Bedford said, sung by Queen's College Choir and soloists, accompanied by Oldfield's talent with his guitar. There are only two tracks on this CD. So you can't go straight to that part, which you may well want to. But the work's only 40 minutes long, and you need to hear it all.

In 1970's speak, it's an experience.

Tracklist:

Part 1 – 20'29"
Part 2 – 20'38"

Cómpralo aquí / Buy it here:

- Amazon UK
- Amazon USA
- CD Universe
- 7-Digital ES
- 7-Digital UK
- Play.com

Repost: David Bedford - Star's End (1974)

David Bedford (1937) is a British composer who has pursued two parallel careers, one as an avantgarde composer in the vein of John Cage and one as a popular composer of epic-length melodic fantasies in the vein of Mike Oldfield.

A pupil of Lennox Berkeley at London's Royal Academy Of Music and of Luigi Nono in Venezia, Bedford began by writing music that mirrored the techniques of the 1960s. Two Poems for Chorus (1963) already displayed his love for the choir, while A Dream of the Seven Lost Stars (1965) first betrayed his passion for astronomy. Bedford's eccentric taste and sense of humour was evident in An Exciting New Game For Children Of All Ages, whose development depends on dice, and in With 100 Kazoos, a piece for audience playing a hundred toy kazoos. Music For Albion Moonlight (1970), a chamber work for soprano and septet composed in 1965, was the first one to be released on record.

The mini-album Garden of Love (Voiceprint, 1997) contains the 1970 piece for chamber ensemble and rock group (Kevin Ayers, Mike Oldfield, Robert Wyatt, David Bedford, Lol Coxhill) inspired by William Blake's poetry.

Nurses Songs With Elephants (Dandelion, 1972) collects the title-track, a minimalistic work for ten acoustic guitars, Trona (1967) and Some Bright Stars for Queen's College (1969), a composition for 80 college girls' voices and 27 plastic pipe twirlers.

His music for the opera From Marie Antoinette to the Beatles (1968) somehow introduced him to the world of rock music, and suddenly he was playing keyboards for Kevin Ayers.

A young member of that group, Mike Oldfield, invented a new form with his Tubular Bells, and Bedford decided to follow his example with Star's End (Virgin, 1974), a suite performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The main differences between him and Oldfield were that Bedford was educated at using orchestras and choirs, was more familiar with minimalism and other modern compositional techniques, and was more interested in cosmic themes than in folk themes.

Tracklist:

Star's End (Part One) – 23’48’’
Star's End (Part Two) – 22’54’’

Cómpralo aquí / Buy it here:

- Amazon.co.uk
- Amazon.com
- Tesco
- 7-Digital UK
- 7-Digital ES
- MP3 Mixx