What are you listening to right now?

Confluence - John Williams, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman

The hum of my office's crappy HVAC.

Sorrow - Tom Odell

TV ..background noise

One of the world's greatest classical guitarists, John Williams.

Johann Sebastian Bach - Prelude from Lute Suite No. 4 in E Major

Amaranthe. Their new album drops Friday and I've realized that I have never actually listened to an actual album by them.

From the The Catalyst, the upcoming album:

There are not many choral works that draw me in, but I do love this one.

From the Verdi opera, Nabucco, this is the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves.

Quote by AnnaMayZing

There are not many choral works that draw me in, but I do love this one.

From the Verdi opera, Nabucco, this is the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves.

I love choral music and in terms of operatic choruses, that's a great one. A favourite of mine actually debuted in the computer game Civilization IV before going on to win the composer a Grammy. This performance has composer Christopher Tin on the podium. The text is the Lord's Prayer in Swahili.

I wanted something peaceful and relaxing tonight. What could be more so than the beautiful Clair De Lune by Claude Debussy?

Rockin' out to The Catalyst by Amaranthe. It came out yesterday and is my favourite album so far in 2024 (but that could change given some that I know are coming later). This is the title track and opens the album with a nice, guttural roar.

A blast from the past.

Radar Love from Golden Earring.

I've been listening to Laufey quite a bit since her Grammy win. She's got a new single looming on Wednesday. This a collaboration from last Fall, with her joining in on a song by Filipino artist beabadoobee. The video is gorgeous, reminiscent of an old movie musical.

From the incredible Faroese singer Eivør Pálsdóttir, this is Í Tokuni.

From the soundtrack of the 2005 film, Joyride, this is Trois Vierges by Epica, featuring the voice of Simone Simons.

swoons at the mention of Simone Simons

Crownshift is a new Finnish metal supergroup who just started up and have an album coming in May. This is their second single. I got into them through bassist Jukka Koskinen, who is the current bassist for Nightwish, but it's the vocalist Tommy Tuovinen who has caught my attention. Good harsh vocalist and screamer. Will be checking out his "day job" in the band MYGRAIN at some point.

And for those not into metal, here's Moroccan-Canadian singer-songwriter Faouzia with a live performance of her new single, based on and around Beethoven's Fur Elise.

Celtic music compilation.

One thing I don't think I saw coming a year ago was a reunion of Marko Hietala and Tarja Turunen, who performed together in Nightwish from 2001 until Tarja's parting of ways with the band in 2005. In 2023, the duo came together at a festival for one song. Now they are touring Latin America together and not only have they revisited material from their time together in Nightwish but they are debuting a new song. Apparently the studio version is coming later this week but this is fan video of them performing it in Brazil.

And in a recent interview, Marko even mused about them forming a band.

With new Nightwish due in the Fall and these two ex-members back together, Nightwish fans have plenty to enjoy and celebrate this year.

My favourite young percussionist, Sina Döring, covering a track that was out more than twenty years before she was born. The Sweet's, Ballroom Blitz.

The rain on the roof.

Lucassen & Soeterboek's Plan Nine began decades ago with guitarist/songwriter Arjen Lucassen and singer Robert Soeterboek recording demos on an old 8-track. They finally put together a band recently, mostly of regular members of Lucassen's other projects, and started recording them properly with an album due in May. This is the second release from Plan Nine.

Tolkein: The Lord of the Rings. BBC Radio 1981.

Several nice new metal releases this week and hard to pick a favourite, but this one was not expected (at least by me). Symphonic pirate metal seems to be the stock in trade of Visions of Atlantis now after the success of their 2022 album Pirates. The sequel is coming in July under the title Pirates II Armada and the first single/video is the title track.

From their new Album released on Friday, Myths of Fate, here are Leaves Eyes with In Eternity

Quote by AnnaMayZing

From their new Album released on Friday, Myths of Fate, here are Leaves Eyes with In Eternity

Good album. I listened to it on the weekend. The one review I saw trashed it and I am not sure why. It's not likely to be my favourite album of the year or anything, but I enjoyed it.

Quote by Mendalla

Good album. I listened to it on the weekend. The one review I saw trashed it and I am not sure why. It's not likely to be my favourite album of the year or anything, but I enjoyed it.

I was the same. As one commenter mentioned on YouTube, they are improving with age. I like it more than their earlier offerings.

So many have covered this song, some incredibly well, but... None have yet improved on the original. Jennifer Rush, The Power of Love.