A Lark Ascending

Woken at 1.00 a.m. to find the bed vibrating like billy-o (no rude comments, please!). 15 seconds or so. Assumed someone was trying to get in by hammering the downstairs door. Turned out to be the biggest UK earthquake for 25 years. Please send aid immediately - unwanted Mosaics etc. I don't know. Floods last year, earthquakes this. Fully expecting the Vikings to sack Lindisfarne (or, more likely, the Metro Centre) in the near future.

I had these two records (which I've not heard) written off as 'wispy minimalism', something that doesn't do it for me - but your Hatfield and Sinclair references have me curious. Are their girl singers with perfect diction (the Roninettes?)?

I'd assumed she was a very popular singer with hit records in the 70s/80s - which is all I meant by prime. Certainly, the artistic control is producing some magical recordings.

I'll have to track that earlier version down. I just know odd tracks on compilations. Texturally similar, though not as dark and mysterious, is this great record: I've not warmed to what I've heard of Bethania in her prime - but there are a sequence of recent releases that are beautiful. Largely acoustic, 'traditional' instruments, subtle percussion and a nicely weathered voice. Good songs too. I don't understand the poems that turn up on the discs but they are short. Beautifully packaged too - also available from e-music if you can skip the wrapping.

Not the quartet? I hear Motion won't go to Europe anymore - he's an old man feeling more comfortable staying at home, and he has plenty of work round NY. No, these are duo performances.

Yes...I also have a ticket for a Nottingham performance in April. Could end up seeing them twice within a month!

Seeline's Joyce recommendations are spot on! She tipped me the wink a couple of years back and I've become quite the obsessive! Quite a few of her more recent records are available at e-music. Incidentally, buy this: Possibly the best record I bought last year! It's a re-recording of songs he'd put down earlier. I've not heard that earlier record - but this one is heart-stopping. Oh, and get Seeline to tell you about Monica Salmaso!

I bought three from this series available from DG last year: ...as a way of finding my bearings. A mixture of the very well known and rare tracks, the cheesy and the sublime. The three I have are 2CDs - I think there are 5 volumes in all, one of football songs! I think they're German issues. This one has been played a lot too: ...though it seems to be out of stock. Related to the Ruy Castro book, one of my most enjoyable reads of 2007. Best to check what you have for overlaps.

My two ponds are the scene of a veritable orgy during March each year. Woken up ever morning by very noisy splashing! Gone all grey and miserable over the last week.

Dervish are a marvellous traditional band. I'm not quite sure what they cooked up for 2007 Eurovision to suffer such ignominy! It's a long time since the early 80s when Planxty did the interval spot at Eurovision! And I don't suppose it helps Martin Carthy's chances of representing England. Maybe Basil Brush!

I've had a laptop with Vista since September - haven't had any problems apart from a printer being incompatible. I have no technical knowledge so probably don't need it to do what the more computer minded require. It does all I need.

I like the fact that they offer the consumer a choice. Very nice web site. Chandos do the same: Chandos They've had their entire OOP catalogue available for a few years. Imagine Blue Note doing that!!!!!!

Another aspect of the 'golden age' is price. When I first started earning an LP took up a fair whack of my pay packet (OK, I had a smaller pay packet, but...). When CDs came in there was a jump in price. But now you can dig around on the net and find things very cheap. Runs the risk of making music so easy to get hold of it loses its mystery. But I can live with that - I like the idea of reading about an actual recording and not finding it too hard to get a copy. The future is already here on some of the classical labels: Gimmell They have the advantage of owning all their own copyrights, I suspect. A model of how to do it, to my mind.

Very true! When I look back I'm amazed by how limited my horizons were by what happened to appear in the shops. I alays felt as if I was being unreasonable trying to order something out of the way (if I knew about it via a magazine). I often met 'sorry, can't be found' responses. We may be at the end of the hard disc bounty - but if the download world is handled imaginatively the next era could be even more plentiful. Well, financial constraints will still be there. And time to listen will be even more at a premium. MG Plenty doesn't mean you have to purchase or listen to everything.

Very true! When I look back I'm amazed by how limited my horizons were by what happened to appear in the shops. I alays felt as if I was being unreasonable trying to order something out of the way (if I knew about it via a magazine). I often met 'sorry, can't be found' responses. We may be at the end of the hard disc bounty - but if the download world is handled imaginatively the next era could be even more plentiful.

I think you're spot on. I started listening to jazz in the mid-70s and a whole swathe of recordings just weren't available - either that or you had to know where to find them. I recall ordering 'A Love Supreme' in 1978 (here in the UK) and waiting about four weeks for it to arrive from some distant place! Most of the 60s Miles Davis catalogue could only be bought on import. Another interesting question is emerging here. How jazz sounds differently to those who were listening before rock and who never took to rock; and then to those of us (I'm on old 1955'er too) who heard rock first and then migrated. Like papsrus, with me most of jazz history prior to the 70s is a case of going back to something previous; it must sound quite different if you actually heard, say, the Blakey records of the 50s as they came out. To say nothing of hearing Basie or Ellington records!

Interesting observation. I think when you are young and you get keen on music you feel almost obliged to go to the edge and beyond. Part of it is natural curiosity, part of it is a result of being constantly told that the peculiar stuff is what really counts! And then there's the ghosts of those who ridiculed Tristan, Debussy's Prelude de l'Apres Midi or The Rite of Spring. You don't want to be one of those! I still want to hear new things and take chances quite often; but I no longer hang around if it's not clicking. I tried a lot of the more atonal 20thC classical music in the 1980s but just got no emotional payback. So I don't spend much time beyond the Berg/Messiaen zones. Similarly, the completely free in jazz rarely makes a big impact. So I only send out the odd foraging party in that direction. In the end I have to be moved by the music. If that doesn't happen (and I'd stress that it is more likely to be faulty radar on my part rather than anything deficient in the music) then it really doesn't matter how important, innovative etc it is. I'll leave it to others to enjoy.

Great pictures, 7/4. I don't remember snow like that for over a decade! Grey here - 11 degrees C. Five days ago it was -8 when I left for work!

Despite saying I was going to wait a while I've ended up hunting down the Private Collection discs. All but two have proved easy to get hold of inexpensively. Delightful music, mainly re-explorations of well known/earlier compositions. But this one (volume 5) is especially valuable: Two lengthy suites - 'The Degas Suite and 'The River'. I have a classical recording of the later and recall hearing a concert performance some years back at the Royal Festival Hall. Excellent. Thanks for the recommendations earlier in the thread.

Ooooh, look! It is the North. And they've already started stacking them: You can see the new owners trying to find disc 2 of Bitches Brew.

Hope it's the Republic. 1 million albums, 1.5 million singles and 300,000 CDs would leave room for nothing else in the North!

I can't recall - might have been 'The Lark Ascending'. I'll have a look tonight...got to dash now. Edit: Just had a look - it was 'The Lark'. They go on to get excited about 'Five Variants on Dives and Lazurus', 'Norfolk Rhapsody No.1', 'In the Fen Country', the symphonies and the 'Serenade to Music'.

Bev, a few months ago I was given a promo by ECM of a Scandinavian folksinger named Sinikka Langeland. The album is called Starflowers. I didn't review it because I didn't think anyone here would be interested. It's the only Scandinavian folk music I have ever heard, so I don't know how to compare it to others of that genre. I enjoy it because it is unique in my collection. I can't say that I understand it, or that it's up your alley, but you might like it too. Not a name I know, GA. But then, I've only scratched the surface. There are three very cheap compilations on Northside records (a US company that lisences Scandinavian folk and organises tours) that give a wonderful overview of this music. I had them recommended to me about five years ago on a board and was knocked sideways by them. Ended up changing my holiday plans and going to Sweden! They are called Nordic Roots 1, 2 and 3 and can be found at the foot of this page: http://www.noside.com/ At $5 each they are ideal for anyone wanting to try something quite different from their normal listening. Brilliant driving music! ************** I suspect having wide tastes is more the norm than the exception, once you get out of adolescence (where strict loyalty to a genre is part of securing an identity). I've rarely encountered hostility on the four boards I've known when rabbiting about music beyond jazz. The 'This is a jazz board, only talk jazz' comment is not all that common. Certainly, the people who programme music in UK arts centres realised this some time ago. I recall reading somewhere how in the 90s there was a realisation that the people turning up for a World concert were often there for a Jazz or Classical. Increasingly marketing is directed that way - if I go to a concert somewhere and end up on a mailing list I end up being sent details of music across the board.

We export all our potholes to the Republic of Ireland. I once lost three hubcaps on a two week holiday there!

I think this was my first Getz record and it's still a favourite. With Joanne Brackeen on both electric and acoustic piano. 4 sides of long, stretched out playing. Great versions of 'Lush Life' and 'Infant Eyes'. Edit: Sorry! Just noticed this got mentioned in the last couple of posts!