Chrysalis Orchestra: Rock Re-imagined

Rock like you’ve never heard it before.
An orchestra like you’ve never seen before.
An event like you’ve never experienced before.

Introducing Chrysalis Orchestra- a brand new concept in entertainment brought to you by the legendary Terry Ellis, music visionary and co-founder of Chrysalis Records.

Imagine the greatest rock anthems of all time performed with all the power and magnificence of a complete symphony orchestra. But this is not a typical orchestra with musicians sitting pinned behind their music stands. Instead, it’s a forty piece “rock band” with young musicians, each one a virtuoso on his or her instrument, and each one a great performer, on their feet, interacting with the audience.

In its look, its sound, and in every other way, Chrysalis Orchestra is a big show, with dynamic and powerful performances that will get the audience out of their seats. There are no vocalists or electric guitars – it’s an orchestra playing reinterpretations of the rock songs we all know and love, in tribute to the great composers of the rock era. Rather than the music of Mozart and Beethoven, it presents the familiar compositions of Page and Plant, Cobain, Springsteen and the other outstanding writers of their time, with all the rock and roll energy of the original versions.

This is rock in its full glory, celebrated by a generation that grew up with it, and a new generation experiencing it for the first time. The music is timeless; Rock Re-imagined.

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Recommended Albums #75

Steven Wilson: To the Bone (2017)

Prog god Steven Wilson (some of you want to stop reading right there but I implore you for your own sake to resist the urge) has created, on his fifth solo record, an homage to progressive pop records that captivated  him in his youth.

Echoes of ambitious works such as Peter Gabriel’s So, Tears for Fears’ Seeds of Love and works by Talk Talk and Kate Bush permeate a diverse collection that is more about songs than the album. It’s almost like ABBA meets David Bowie–and how awesome would that have been?

Wilson eschews complex time signatures and paints with brighter colors than on much of his past work. The possible risk? Losing a few of the hardcore proggers from his Porcupine Tree days. The probable reward? Growing his newly multi-gendered audience by throwing them more sonic thrills than challenges. Steven Wilson can make any kind of album he wants. He wanted to go pop-rock. And it’s glorious.

The slow-building “Nowhere Now” hearkens to Wilson’s work with Aviv Geffen in Blackfield, with its dark ruminations on ruination colliding with an uplifting harmony chorus.

“Pariah”, featuring guest vocals by Israeli singer Ninet Tayeb, ricochets between hope and hopelessness, determination and despair:

I’m tired of Facebook
Tired of my failing health
I’m tired of everyone
And that includes myself
Well being alone now
It doesn’t bother me
But not knowing if you are
That’s been hell you see

“The Same Asylum as Before” is simply a thrill ride and the best rock song I’ve heard this year, period. Falsetto vocals. An anthemic and cathartic chorus that may inspire you to explore your car’s volume dial limits. A searing, channel-panning metalesque solo that drops off a cliff into a quiet, almost jazz section…there’s a hell of a lot going on here. But this kind of ambition and dynamic interplay are the particular forte of the many-hatted Wilson. Guitar god, producer extraordinaire, songwriter par excellence…it’s amazing to think prog rock’s current leading light is actually getting better.

“Permanating” puts the exclamation point on Wilson’s foray from dark introspection to buoyant populism. It’s unapologetically joyful–a description I can’t believe I’m applying to Steven Wilson.

But hey, if Steven Wilson wants to make pop prog, or pop rock, or whatever you call this, he will. And he’ll do it better than virtually anyone else can.

 

Listen to: “Nowhere Now”

 

Listen to: “Pariah”

 

Don’t miss: “The Same Asylum as Before”

 

Listen to: “Permanating”

 

See also:

Songs You May Have Missed #574

Songs You May Have Missed #513

Songs You May Have Missed #483

Songs You May Have Missed #329

Songs You May Have Missed #236

Recommended Albums #24

Songs You May Have Missed #614

Take a trip through music history with the Great 78 Project

By digitizing songs recorded on 78 rpm records from the 1890s to the 1950s, project preserves old music for future generations.

(via opensource.com) by Chris Hermanson

A few weeks ago, a friend sent me a link to the Great 78 Project, “a community project for the preservation, research, and discovery of 78 rpm records.” The project is supported by the Internet Archive, George Blood, and the Archive of Contemporary Music. Its purpose, first and foremost, is to convert old recordings into digital audio to preserve those historic performances for future listeners. Currently it’s working to digitize the 200,000 or so 78 rpm records it has collected, and it’s actively looking for contributions to add to its collection.

I think this is an exciting project that should be of interest to anyone who enjoys exploring music—and especially those involved in the open community. In this article, I’ll look at a few things you may want to know about the project…

Read more:

https://opensource.com/article/17/9/great-78-project

Video of the Week: Yusuf/Cat Stevens–NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

 

Boston: Two Tributes to the Classic First Album

Rock N’ Roll Band: What We Can Learn from Boston’s Debut Album

by S.P. Burke

http://www.magazine.tonereport.com/mag/0935566001502385839

Boston’s Debut Album isn’t a Guilty Pleasure–It’s One of the Best Records Ever

by Tim Sommer

Boston’s Debut Album Isn’t a Guilty Pleasure—It’s One of the Best Records Ever

 

24/192 Music Downloads …and why they make no sense

(via xiph.org) 

Articles last month revealed that musician Neil Young and Apple’s Steve Jobs discussed offering digital music downloads of ‘uncompromised studio quality’. Much of the press and user commentary was particularly enthusiastic about the prospect of uncompressed 24 bit 192kHz downloads. 24/192 featured prominently in my own conversations with Mr. Young’s group several months ago.
Unfortunately, there is no point to distributing music in 24-bit/192kHz format. Its playback fidelity is slightly inferior to 16/44.1 or 16/48, and it takes up 6 times the space.
There are a few real problems with the audio quality and ‘experience’ of digitally distributed music today. 24/192 solves none of them. While everyone fixates on 24/192 as a magic bullet, we’re not going to see any actual improvement…

Read more:

https://xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html

Video of the Week: Why More Pop Songs Should End with a Fade Out

The Unlikely Return of Cat Stevens

Photograph by Matt Writtle / eyevine / Redux

(via The New Yorker) By

n a Cat Stevens, a.k.a. Yusuf Islam, a.k.a. Yusuf/Cat Stevens, concert in Boston a couple of years ago, there was a hushed pause in the room as the then sixty-six-year-old performer waited for a stagehand to bring him a guitar in between songs. “I’m really happy to be here!” the singer suddenly exclaimed. It did not sound like ersatz show-biz banter; it sounded humble, childlike even, as if he himself were surprised by the emotion. It sounded like capitulation. The crowd, in response, rose to its feet en masse, producing a sound that was more than just a cheer. It was an embrace. It was an acknowledgment by artist and audience alike: Cat Stevens, a figure who, for all intents and purposes, had ceased to exist more than three decades ago, had come back…

Read more:

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-unlikely-return-of-cat-stevens

Billy Joel’s 5 Stages of Grief

by Kevin McElvaney

Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance.

Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross introduced these Five Stages of Grief in her 1969 book, On Death and Dying. And though the theory was never fully embraced by the scientific community, it did take hold in the popular imagination. In the nearly five decades since its conception, the Kübler-Ross model has been applied not just to death, but to loss of all kinds — ultimately becoming a familiar trope in countless movies and TV shows.

Contrary to popular belief, the author herself never claimed that these five stages happen to everyone, nor that each person experiences them in a predictable order. Still, there’s something comforting about the notion that loss can be overcome, if only we’re patient enough to wait for that elusive fifth step.

At the risk of further watering down an already misunderstood concept, here again are the Five Stages of Grief: this time, told through the songs of the “Piano Man” himself, Mr. Billy Joel…

Read more:

http://www.articulateshow.org/articulate/billy-joels-5-stages-of-grief

Video of the Week: How a Recording Studio Mishap Shaped 80’s Music

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