Saturday 17 December 2011

Lawrence Welk - The Christmas Song (Pickwick SPC 1019, LP, US, 197-)




A01 The Christmas Song
A02 Jingle Bells
A03 Let's Have An Old-Fashioned Christmas
A04 Sleigh Ride
A05 The Christmas Waltz
A06 Santa From Santa Fe
A07 Ring Those Santa Bells
B01 Santa Clause Is Here Again
B02 Silver Bells
B03 Christmas Carols
B04 Merry Christmas From Our House To Your House

Purchased (yes I did even pay money for it) from a store in Oxford Street in Lyttelton a few days before the Feb 2011 earthquake.  None of these buildings survive.  But the music lives on!  Lawrence Welk appears to have been quote a popular guy.

Discogs (3 For Sale from €1.53 Bargain!!)

The Living Planet - A Portrait Of The Earth [Elizabeth Parker] (BBC Records 823 338-1, LP, UK, 1984)




A01 The Living Earth (Theme)
A02 The Building Of The Earth
A03 The Frozen World
A04 The Northern Forests
A05 Jungle
A06 Seas Of Grass
B01 The Baking Deserts
B02 The Sky Above
B03 Sweet Fresh Water
B04 The Margins Of The Land
B05 Worlds Apart
B06 The Open Ocean
B07 New Worlds (Closing Theme)

I realise now this has been available from the Spiral 2 blog for some months, but for those of you (like me) who find cryptic download trails too difficult to process on a Sunday afternoon, a simple link follows.

[UDPATE: I believe this file has been frozen and is no longer available]

Saturday 10 December 2011

VA - Music from South India (Not On Label, LP, 2004)



I didn't encode this with the intention of putting here because it's still available, but I've played it now on three successive nights, and enjoyed it so much I felt the need to share.  The images aren't mine either, so there you go, two rules broken in one post.  Too bad.

This is a magical collection of recordings by the mysterious sounding 'Dr. Temiz' in India during 2004.

The discogs entry notes it isn't on a label.  My hazy recollection from the description when I purchased was that it was released via an independent European label - could have been Sub Rosa (not to be incriminating), but certainly one of those 'grey area' releases, stick on cover art and the like.

Wonderful recordings that capture the intimacy of the performances with hearty impromptu clapping!

Snap up the last very reasonably priced copies while you can.  

[From the cover notes:]

Music from South India

From the land of a thousand Gods and Godesses
From the land of raga and talas...
ancient mystical music, 
to jump start the spirit, to hot wire the soul [heh, moving on..]

Side 1

1. Varnum - Raga Intha
 A varnum is an opening piece in praise of the half human half elephant god, Ganesh, asking him to remove all obstacles.
Peformed by Mandolin viruoso, U Srinivas.


2. Thyagaranja Kriti Kalavati.   
A piece composed by 17th century Saint Thyagaraja. performed by the brother/sister duo of Krishnan and Vijaylakshmi Lagudi.

3. Jaya Jaya - Padmabha Nabha
Performed by one [of] the great vocalists, Sanjay Subramanium

Side 2

1. Vapati - Hamsa Dhvani (Song of the Swan)
Performed by the elder statesman of flute Dr. Ramani

2. Saraswati Namasthuthe composed by G.N. Balasubramaniam.
A song in praise of the Goddess Saraswati (goddess of learning and music) Nadaswaram is a large oboe like instrument used in wedding celebrations.

recorded in India 2004 by Dr. Temiz