Category: Reviews & Commentary

Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett Leaves the Planet

Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett leaves the planet although some would say he was never quite on it. He died this past weekend on July 7, of that most earthly disease, cancer. Syd Barrett was a founding member of Pink Floyd and the principal architect of it’s early sound on the album, Piper at the Gates…

Michael Brook Returns

Well, he never left. Although it’s been 14 years since he’s put out a proper album, Cobalt Blue, he’s been recording up a storm, producing and performing with people like the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Djivan Gasparyan, Hans Zimmmer and a host of others. But finally Brook has a new album of his own,…

An Assault of Guitarists

Who says you need banks of effects, racks of synthesizers or the complexities of a laptop computer to make incredible music. Certainly not the wave of guitarists who’ll be pouring through the Echoes Living Room in the next two weeks. These are musicians who create symphonies on 6 strings. On June 16, Tommy Emmanuel comes…

Gyorgy Ligeti Remembered

Let’s all take a moment to remember Gyorgy Ligeti, the influential Romanian composer who passed away at the age of 83. It’s hard to forget his composition, “Atmospheres” which Stanley Kubrick used in 2001: A Space Odyssey. He composed dramatic orchestral works full of blasts of color and sonic exuberance, but his main influence was…

Brian Eno in NY Times from John D.

I got this from the Space Music List spacemusic@yahoogroups.com An amusing article appears in the New York Times about unsuspecting patrons subjected to Brian Eno’s CD length opus, Thursday Afternoon This link might work as well. I also enjoyed this comment relayed by JC Shanahan on the same list: A friend of mine used to…