Babel

Track Listings

1. Judgement

2. Babel

3. Now Is the Time

4. Gimme Some Liquor

5. Aria

6. Mandarin and the Courtesan

7. Rain

8. Bronx Bull

9. Fiddler

10. Omni

11. More I See

12. Pharoah

13. Message

14. Lydia

15. Scheme of Things

16. Death of Ntela Njonjo

17. D*Votion

18. God Bless Your South Africa

Babel,D*Note,Tvt,Club/Dance,Gangsta Rap,Hip-Hop,Pop,Popular Music,Rap,Rap & Hip-Hop,Urban

Babel

Babel

Babel
Average customer rating:

Soundtracks make a difference

babel or babble?

burn it...

Worlds collide--harmoniously

Excellent Score!

Babel
Gustavo Santaolalla
Manufacturer: Concord Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Release Date: 2006-11-21

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Bibo No Aozora/Endless Flight/Babel
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Babel
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Amazon.com

As its title suggests, Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu's film revolves around the transcultural difficulties of human communication. But the linguistic dysfunction that drives the film's characters towards causal connection and inevitable tragedy has paradoxically inspired just the opposite on this adventurous musical mélange of a soundtrack. The meditative, often hypnotic fretboard inventions of Iñárritu's previous soundtrack collaborator, Argentine composer Gustavo Santaolalla (a 2005 Oscar winner for Brokeback Mountain), serve as the restless soul of interlocking plots in the film, the final chapter of a fatalistic trilogy that also includes the Santaolalla-scored Amores Perros and 21 Grams.

But on this expanded, double-disc collection, the South American composer's culture-bending film cues (including mastery of indigenous Arab stringed instruments and incorporating field recordings of Moroccan tribal music) also serve as artistic axes, reflective anchor points for a pop collection that's as ambitious and far-ranging as the film itself. While the "music from and inspired by" tag often indicates cynical record company marketing schemes, here it's an invitation to transcultural musical adventure that links Santaolalla's North African musical conjuring with the contemporary styles of Japan (the atmospherics of Ryuichi Sakamoto and Susumu Yolota, Shinichi Osawa's sly Earth, Wind & Fire/Fatboy Slim mashup, the teen pop of Takashi Fujii's "Oh My Juliet") and Tijuana (a generous sampling of effusive Norteño that includes Los Incomparables, Daniel Luna, and Agua Caliente). --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews:

Soundtracks make a difference.......2007-05-15

I can strongly say that music caught me more than the film and theme itself. When the movie was over I couldn't wait to buy it :)
Gustavo Santaoallo is a great great artist, also known from Motorcycle Diaries and Brokeback Mountain.
I really love this guy's work.

babel or babble?.......2007-05-03

the descriptive of this cd says the director made a movie of the attempt to communicate. I just want to know: is babel Spanish for babble English?

burn it..........2007-04-24

If you liked the movie Babel chances are your only going to like some songs from the soundtrack. The soundtrack sounds incredibly foreign for a foreign movie. Its a massive collaboration of Spanish, Arabic/Indian/whatever they are tunes. It contains Really crappy American songs tossed in with two main themes, i basically looked at it as slopped together, if you speak 3 different languages than get it, but the whole album was to focused an cultural music, to much of a melting pot for me and a waste of money. for my last note Gustavo Santalolla is talented but has no idea what goes into a soundtrack. Burn it!

Worlds collide--harmoniously.......2007-04-16

I was busy and distracted the first time I listened to this music, and my first impression was Gee, I wish they'd done a better job of editing. (I confess I still feel that way about the bonus CD, but it doesn't matter. Read on.) Three days later, however, I listened again--mindfully--and GOT IT. Disc one perfectly encapsulates Babel's theme: the Global Village's seemingly diverse tribes (be they North African Tuareg or Japanese haute bourgeoisie) are, just under the surface, inextricably linked and what's more--startlingly related. As I paid attention I was captivated by the duh-obvious connections between desert tablas, Tokyo House, and Cumbia. Then fell in love with all three of those arts, none of which I'd been exposed to before seeing the movie (mainly because I'm probably old enough to be your grandmother). Now I want MORE. This CD sent me running to the 'net in search of more Celso Peña (an "overnight" hit at 48, after decades of tune crafting), more Shinichi Osawa remixes, and more Rip Slyme. The latter is a hard-to-describe but way cool Japanese DJ/tech/mod group whose name is a play on Japlish for "lips rhyme." Apart from all that, I'm also cherishing details like the perfect audio portrait of upperclass ennui ("Bibo no Aozora" by Ryuichi Sakamoto; think Phillip Glass in Japanese, but don't let that put you off), and the utterly stark beauty of Moroccan scenery ("Desert Bus Ride" by Gustavo Santaolalla, who wrote Babel's Academy Award-nominated score and whose plaintive oud may haunt you for the rest of your life. FYI, Santaolalla learned to play that traditional instrument specifically for this commission. Wow.) But the last word belongs to Babel's creator and soundtrack producer, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu: "I conceive a film as a symphony: the structure and textures are determined by the silences and spaces between them. During the entire process, I keep listening to and researching music that could be of great inspiration during the development of the script. That way, I can go forward triggering images in my mind, assimilating and filming my scenes by beats and internal rythms... I only hope that when you listen to these CDs that combine the songs of this great internal and external journey, you can also feel the distant winds and the planet caressing your skin as it spins around."
Amen.

Excellent Score! .......2007-04-10

A great mix of tunes indeed. I have listened to this album over and over. It's emotional, haunting, and relaxing. Its truly a an international mix of lovely songs and artistic expressions. Enjoy it....

Average customer rating:

Stravinsky the Composer, not Stravinsky the Conductor
Staggering! All the Stravinsky I'll ever need!
Magnificent!
Where's my Petrushka?
legendary

Stravinsky Conducts Stravinsky

Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000031X11
Release Date: 1999-12-07

Customer Reviews:

Stravinsky the Composer, not Stravinsky the Conductor.......2006-09-18

It is a pretty good collection, lots of music from Stravinsky's entire carreer, but one must keep in mind that Stravinsky was a brilliant composer, and not a commanding maestro. You will not necessarily be getting the best recordings of these works. For example, something like the Boulez/Cleveland Rite of Spring is far superior to those in this collection. He is a vastly better conductor, and is much more capable of making the orchestra perform Stravinsky's intentions than Stravinsky is. All in all, however, I am more than glad I own this set.

Staggering! All the Stravinsky I'll ever need!.......2006-05-20

While I had heard some Stravinsky compositions prior to my purchase, this was the first (and only) Stravinsky material I have ever owned. As a young music enthusiast, the draw to me was to hear these pieces as Stravinsky conducted them and to get so many of them at such a great price, not to have the original jackets for the purpose of reminiscing. So, as someone who needed a good jump start into the works of Stravinsky (by Stravinsky), this set has proven totally invaluable. And while more information could have been packed onto these cds, I do appreciate how closely these discs have stuck to the original releases. I don't know about the portion of Petroushka which some reviewers claim is missing (as I don't know any other version), but I was totally blown away at hearing this version of Petroushka anyhow. In all, for whatever faults some sticklers may find here or there with this set, the value of this material collected in such a way (and at such a price) by far outweighs any possible faults.

Magnificent!.......2006-03-02

A great collection. There is simply no substitute for hearing Stravinsky as the great composer wanted to have his music played. Here is so much and also so varied a collection. I have been enjoying this set a great deal. One of the 20th century's greatest composers conducting his own compositions.

Where's my Petrushka?.......2003-08-01

The main reason I bought this box is because I was introduced to Stravinsky's Petrushka in the spring of 2003, and I loved it.
Along with Rite of Spring I think it's the most brilliant music Mr. Stravinsky ever wrote...so, I've been listening to the 34-minute long 1960 CSO recording of it at least once a day since I first heard it, naturally sort of memorizing it, but it didn't fit when I made this CD spin. The recording of Petrushka in this box is the VERY SAME RECORDING (1960) that I'd listened to, but it's cut to a suite! It's only 24 minutes long. You can tell it's obviously cut at certain points if you're familiar with the uncut version. 10 WHOLE MINUTES ARE MISSING FROM "PETRUSHKA!" I was (and still am) very disappointed by this.
Familiarizing myself with the rest of the discs was very fulfilling, though; I love the Ebony Concerto with the Columbia Jazz Combo featuring Benny Goodman...but the "suite-cut" of Petrushka made me paranoid...I can't be sure if anything else is edited or not...
There are 75 pages of notes in the booklet about the recordings but only 1/3 is in English.
The special multimedia feature disc is nothing much. With awful graphics it features the same notes as in the booklet, and there are lyrics for those who want to use the box for karaoke.
These 400 minutes of music (an average of 45 minutes per disc) could fit on only 5 CD's instead of 9, but it seems that this collection is made for nostaligs who will love watching and touching these tiny LP-jackets - after all, it is called the "Original Jacket Collection."
Incidentally, all of Stravinsky's recorded work which he conducted himself is not in this box. It is not at all complete; aside from the missing part of "Petrushka," his own reading of "Symphony in Three Movements" is missing (but available on CBS.)
Hats off to the man himself anyway. The music is brilliant, and considering that these recordings are 40+ years old, the sound quality is very good. Excellent stereophony on Rite of Spring!
It's a good thing that his music is still available and that people are offering refurbished products thereof. But if you love Petrushka like I do...buy the real thing...this just might disappoint you...
The 3 stars is a compromise of the music and the package; (5 stars for the music & its quality - 1 star for the package, choice of discs and--considering the price--somewhat weak linear notes.)

legendary.......2002-06-30

This 9 cd set is an historical one...more than half of Stravinsky's works are collected in this set. i clearly can say that there isn't any better recording for Stravinsky's works. especcialy first released USA's national anthem and a 12 tone work "Fanfare for two Trumpets" are remarkable.and we can also mention that some noises during the recording procces (i.e: Stravinsky's turning the page of the partition) gives a different taste to the listener. This is a real golden box of music.

Average customer rating:

stunning

Light

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Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00005N85D
Release Date: 2001-07-24

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stunning.......2006-07-23

this is absolutely incredible - when I first heard this music the world around me ceased to exist for a time. I've heard the Misere before, but this arrangement is by far the best I've ever heard. absolutely incredible - beautiful, one cannot be too supperlative when describing this music.

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Romance and Revolution
Christine Tobin
Manufacturer: The Babel Label
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0006GVKCA
Release Date: 2004-11-09

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Horses
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Muse of Blues
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Brandy and Scars
Can't Help Lovin That Man
My Boat's Ready
Fragile Dance

Album Description

Christine's sixth critically acclaimed album. Christine Tobin's Romance & Revolution - was released in December 2004 and consists of seven of Christine's lyrically incisive trademark originals, including settings of poems by poets Paul Muldoon and Eva Salzman, as well as her own expressively unsentimental arrangements of material by Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, John Martyn and Bessie Smith. Babel. 2006

Average customer rating:

After TABULA RASA, the next stop for fans of Part's "holy minimalism"
An excellent recording of sacred music
Pärt on song, yet somehow neglected
An icy wind of delicious sadness
Some gems

Arvo Pärt: Arbos

Manufacturer: Ecm Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0000260TR
Release Date: 2000-01-25

Tracks:

Arbos
An den Wassern zu Babel
Pari Intervallo
De Profundis
Er sang vor langen Jahren
Summa
Arbos
Stabat Mater

Amazon.com essential recording

This CD features some great performances by Pärt specialists of a variety of shorter works. The clamorous Arbos for brass makes a startling opening for those who expect abstracted reverence; the lament, An den Wassern, has a startling ending that builds in intensity and volume only to break off midphrase. The static Pari Intervallo for organ leads into De Profundis, with its sense of slow but unstoppable movement (every note the same length, every measure the same rhythm). Es Sang has an unexpectedly lilting tune for solo alto, punctuated by string exclamations; Summa is a straightforward Pärt-style setting of the Credo. Arbos is repeated (this is oddly satisfying), and the disc closes with a masterpiece, the unbearably sad Stabat Mater for three voices and three strings. --Matthew Westphal

Customer Reviews:

After TABULA RASA, the next stop for fans of Part's "holy minimalism".......2007-06-22

This ECM disc is an important document of the work of Estonian composer Arvo Part, containing as it does a number of important early pieces from the composer's "tintinnabuli" phase. If the earlier TABULA RASA on the same label is the traditional entry point into this style, ARBOS is where one should head next. And as with all ECM discs, the performers are Part's hand-picked men, giving a definitive sheen to the recordings.

Those who have heard the TABULA RASA disc are familiar with "Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten" for bell and strings. That's a mensuration canon, where various instrumental parts play a descending scale in different speeds, but it is peaceful and contemplative. On this disc "Arbos" for 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, and percussion (1977) takes the same form, but with very different instrumentation, a faster tempo, and louder dynamics it obtains a very different sound. Those who think of Part only as a creator of calm moods will be surprised indeed by this piece which turns the basics of tintinnabuli writing towards a troubled, though fairly static, surface. The Staatsorchester Stuttgart conducted by Dennis Russell Davies gives a confident performance.

The other pieces here are performed by the Hilliard Ensemble. "Pari Intervallo" for organ (1976) does with that instrument what "Fur Alina" did with piano, display the sound of tinntinabuli in the simplest possible form. It's notable for being Part's calmest piece for organ; others are somewhat monsters.

The title of "An den Wassern zu Babel" for trombone and chamber orchestra (1986) refers to the well-known psalm, but instead of merely setting the text Part communicates the soul of the Israelites' lament though anguished vocalizations. The a capella "Summa" (1986), on the other hand, sets the Nicene Creed without any emotional edge whatsoever, letting the listener soberly listen to its theological truths, a good counter to, say, the Glagolitic Mass of Janacek.

"De Profundis" for male chorus, percussion & organ (1980) sets Psalm 130. While the chorus and percussion range everywhere through the seven-minute length of the piece, the organ maintains a slow ostinato much like in "Pari Intervallo".

Though Part usually sets Biblical or liturgical texts, "Es sang vor langen Jahren" for counter-tenor or alto with violin & viola (1984) is a setting of a poem by Clemens Brentano talking of a human lover and a nightingale. The music is fairly standard Part, though. Perhaps a little too standard, for I have a hard time enjoying this piece, which doesn't do much to stand out.

"Stabat Mater" (1987) is at 25 minutes the longest piece on the disc, and one of Part's greatest achievements. A setting of the well-known hymn, it consists of alternating sections focusing either on chorus or the violin, here performed by the great Gidon Kremer. The text telling of the Theotokos sorrowfully gazing at Christ on the Cross is, as one can expect, set solemnly indeed, but surprising are the joyful dance-like cadences led by the violin that break in.

While most of the music here is mainstream tintinnabuli, "An den Wassern zu Babel" (1976) is unusual, coming after Part's creative silence but not squaring with his new style. It displays the composer's interest in medieval music, and is closer to his Symphony No. 3 of several years previously than to "Fur Alina" written the same year and the tintinnabuli pieces that have followed.

One regrets that ECM places "Arbos" here twice--the label is infamous for rarely putting together enough material to nicely fill a disc. That and the presence of the frankly dull "Es sang for langen Jahren" causes me to subtract a star. Nonetheless, those who have heard TABULA RASA and want to head deeper into Part's singular soundworld are highly encouraged to check out this disc which, as a fellow reviewer noted, is strangely neglected.

An excellent recording of sacred music.......2007-03-22

This was the first Arvo Pärt recording I ever heard. I think that was around 1993? I heard the Stabat Mater on a long drive from Melbourne to Ballarat, where I was performing in a midday concert of Renaissance and Baroque music as a part of an Arts festival held in that great country city.
I was alone in the car, listening to ABC Classic FM, as always, and I heard all of the Statbat Mater. I was captivated by this poignant, sublime and beautiful music. The three soloists, soprano, countertenor and tenor, sing the music with great style and beauty. The melodic lines seem to be weightless and float through each other in a very graceful way. The work is accompanied by a small group of string instruments.

I bought the recording when I got back to Melbourne and it has been a favourite of mine ever since. I also bought the Hilliard Ensemble's recording of the Pärt St. John Passion, commonly known as the Passio.

Lovers of the music of John Tavener and Henryk Gorecki, who haven't heard any of Pärt's music will be in for a very pleasant surprise.

Pärt on song, yet somehow neglected.......2006-06-09

This disc, one of many ECM recordings of the music of Arvo Pärt, has often seemed to be rather neglected compared to the higher profile Tabula Rasa or Alina (just compare the number of reader reviews of those discs to this one). Yet it's a disc that contains one of the composer's finest works (Stabat Mater) and a collection of shorter pieces that show him to great advantage.

The brass-and-percussion fanfare Arbos is a brief, rapid series of descending scalic melodies overlaid in a canonic structure similar to that of Pärt's justly famous Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten (the sound of bells is also prominent in both works). Though much more active on the surface--and louder--than the more famous work, Arbos has the same static overall feel. It is succeeded by An den Wassern zu Babel, a setting for organ and four voices of the Waters of Babylon passage from Psalm 137. Probably the most stylistically complex work on this disc (dating from 1976, it forms a transitional work between the Third Symphony and Pärt's mature minimalism), it is unusually dissonant for the composer, and bears the influence of Sibelus and the liturgical Stravinsky as well as Pärt's love of early music. Though dating from the same year, the organ elegy Pari Intervallo is a much simpler work, slowly rocking between consonances on its serene path.

The next three works all date from the early maturity of Pärt's minimalist style. The gently ritualistic De Profundis layers triadic harmonies in the upper voices over the organ and bass voice, Es sang von langen Jahren restricts development mostly to the alto range (alto singing with the accompaniment of violin and viola), and the four-voice Summa is perhaps one of the most characteristic examples of Pärt's tintinnabular harmonies and slow-moving minimalism.

After a second performance of Arbos, the disc closes with the main focus of the disc, the Stabat Mater for three voices and string trio. This work, written for the 50th anniversary of Alban Berg's death (like another late 20th century masterpiece, Alfred Schnittke's string trio), extends the procedures of the previous works over 25 minutes--adding passages of great dramatic intensity to contrast the more minimalist sections.

Though I am far from an uncritical admirer of Pärt's work, I think this disc is an excellent selection of his music. If ultimately I have returned to the Stabat Mater much more often than the shorter works which precede it, this is as much as tribute to its qualities as to any failings on the part of the other works on the disc.

An icy wind of delicious sadness .......2004-08-17

Arvo Part creates a world where bleakness becomes almost an indulgence, and upon the first hearing of Stabat Mater you'll feel an icy wind of delicious sadness blow over your eager and expectant frown. The solo organ piece Pari Intervallo (which can also be found on the purely organ album Trivium), is a study in restrained and sterile beauty, meaning that the piece (and most of the tintinnabuli pieces) doesn't crash and bellow and forcefully announce its intent, but whispers it in cold hintings. As for myself, I will not hint: buy this album now.

Some gems.......2002-02-10

All of this music was new to me before listening to this disc. I assume the performances are definitive, so the issue is, how attractive is the music itself? To me the winner on this CD is track 4, De Profundis, almost 7 minutes of austere beauty for organ, small choir and remarkably effective percussion (bell and gong). Track 6, the Summa (Credo) is nice, but the music seems to be content to create a somewhat mystical mood, and does not reflect the text (like many mass Credos do). The major work on the disc is track 8, the Stabat Mater, a very austere piece. It has not won me over yet.

Average customer rating:

Arbos
One CD; one Work
Hilliard and Kremer - superb!
Evocative, Spiritual (but somewhat minimal) music.

Arbos

Manufacturer: Ecm Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Litany

ASIN: B0000031TT
Release Date: 1994-02-15

Tracks:

Arbos
An den Wassern zu Babel
Pari Intervallo
De Profundis
Er sang vor langen Jahren
Summa
Arbos
Stabat Mater

Amazon.com essential recording

This CD features some great performances by Pärt specialists of a variety of shorter works. The clamorous Arbos for brass makes a startling opening for those who expect abstracted reverence; the lament, An den Wassern, has a startling ending that builds in intensity and volume only to break off mid-phrase. The static Pari Intervallo for organ leads into De Profundis, with its sense of slow but unstoppable movement (every note the same length, every measure the same rhythm). Es Sang has an unexpectedly lilting tune for solo alto, puncutated by string exclamations; Summa is a straightforward Pärt-style setting of the Credo. Arbos is repeated (this is oddly satisfying), and the disc closes with a masterpiece, the unbearably sad Stabat Mater for three voices and three strings. -- Matthew Westphal

Customer Reviews:

Arbos.......2001-02-12

I was introduced to this music by a Catholic girl; tragicaly romantic, teenage, and often desperate. This is music that can touch within you a place that only surfaces at the lowest points of your life. It has the effect of being uplifting, crushing, and sobering at various times and often times, all at once.

Arvo Part seems to have looked past the mind candy of Western culture and brutaly felt the numbing destruction that characterizes our times. Yet 'Arbos' does not mirror negativity for its own sake. For as much pain as these works communicate, there is also a rare peacefulness to them. A peace stripped of its naivety, tested and refined by its acknowledgement and subsequent struggles with this world's vicious nature.

One CD; one Work.......2000-07-03

OK. So he didn't write these all to be one piece of music, but the thing that makes Arbos the sine qua non of Arvo Part's commercial recordings music is that, taken and a whole, it is a primer on his composotional craft.

The full expression of his technique is found in the Stabat Mater, which you'll have to go back 200+ years to Bach before finding an equal example of religious strum und drang subordinated (or elevated) to musical kunst.

The elements of this master stroke are laid bare, pedagogiaclly if not dramatically, in the short works before it.

The "Arbos", acting as sentry between the challenge and the contest, is a pure mensural canon (like the Cantus in Memory of Britten), a fundametal technique in the Stabat Mater.

And, contrary to the "amazon.com essential recording" review above, the De Profundis is not "every measure the same rhythm", but one melodic phrase unit per word (listen to it:

De pro-fun-dis cla-ma-vi ad te Do-mi-ne: Do-mi-ne ex-au-di vo-cem me-am.

1-3-3-1-1-3: 3-3-2-2.

First phrase up, next phrase down; first ascending from the tonic, then descending to the tonic). Simple. Brilliant.

Even simpler, Part's technique of melodic elements moving stepping along a scale while harmonic elements skip through a chord are presented in their purest expression in the Pari Intervallo.

And the other three pieces exercise similar expressions of these basic elements, all preparing the listener for the Stadat Mater.

Or, just sit back and let it all wash over you.

Hilliard and Kremer - superb!.......1999-12-05

Some of the work on this CD is minimalist. That is, not much variation in the space of five or six minutes. However, the Hillaird Ensemble produce chorale music. So that's understandible.

Almost as important for me was the apearance of Gidon Kremer. Being a fan of his work, this collaboration between Hilliard, Kremer and the music of Arvo Part is an exciting listen.

Kremer does a fine job on two of the tracks. The final track on the album includes Kremer and is some 23:53 long - so it's not a minor work.

If I had to put forth one criticsm it's the inclusion of the title track "Arbos" which is annoyingly upbeat - if searching. It appears twice on the CD. It's not bad music, just not at all in keeping with the rest of the CD. It only lasts 2:25 so isn't too bad. But if you only heard that one track you would have no idea of what the rest of this musci sounds like.

Overall - a solid CD.

Evocative, Spiritual (but somewhat minimal) music........1998-09-28

This CD is an unique combination of vocal and instrumental pieces. Minimalist musical elements as well as a superb performance by the Hilliard Ensemble, help to focus the listener on the importance of the text.

The music can be difficult to listen to, however, because it requires a lot of concentration. It is not a CD to play in the background while making dinner, for example. You have to allow the music to penetrate your soul, or the CD will sound "boring."

Tracks:

Prelude
Creation
Adam And Eve
Cain And Abel
The Flood
The Covenant (The Rainbow)
Babel

Amazon.com

This work might well have been the first "crossover," long before the term was invented. Seven composers living in America---all but one European emigrés, all but one Jewish---each contributed one movement to a composition for chorus, orchestra, and narrator, based on excerpts from several chapters of Genesis. The project was initiated and commissioned by the group's only American-born member, Nathaniel Shilkret, in response to a poll indicating that there was much public interest in the musical representation of the Bible. The result is a heady mixture of styles, further accentuated by the introduction of yet another participant, Patrick Russ, who was called in to reconstruct the orchestrations of three movements, the original material having been partially lost in a fire. To his great credit, his work melts indistinguishably into the style and quality of the music. The Suite's bookends are by two composers so diametrically opposed musically and personally that finding them collaborating on the same project is quite surprising. They are also the most famous and the only ones untouched by the influence of film music: Schoenberg, whose "Prelude" uses the 12-tone technique to set the mood of the primeval chaos, but ends in clear C major, and Stravinsky, who, determined to preserve the Bible's mystery, depicts the construction and destruction of the Tower of Babel in purely musical, highly contrapuntal terms, culminating in a return to chaos. The other composers, all active in Hollywood and surrounded by jazz and popular music, produce a kaleidoscope of soaring melodies, surging harmonies, and dynamic instrumental contrasts, colors and effects suitable to accompany a Biblical epic on screen. The music provides preludes, interludes, background and support for the narration, which, divided between two male and two female voices, weaves over, under and through it. The speaking, singing, and playing are excellent, but one of the female voices is seriously underbalanced. --Edith Eisler

Album Description

A MAJOR 20th-CENTURY WORK REDISCOVERED! The Genesis Suite depicts the earliest Bible stories, including the Creation, Adam and Eve, the Flood, and the Tower of Babel, narrated by distinguished actors accompanied by full orchestra and chorus. This unique collaboration of seven famous composers, most of them European exiles living in Hollywood during World War II, was performed only once, in 1945, before much of the music was lost in a fire. FULLY RESTORED from recently discovered original manuscripts, the Genesis Suite is now presented in its first modern recording.

Average customer rating:

New Age Babel

Manufacturer: Gruppo Futura
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Soundtracks | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0008IUJN2

Product Description

TRACK LISTING: 1) Gong: Into The Floating Gig; 2) Luca Spagnoletti: Ching; 3) XII Alfonso: Breathing Scarcely; 4) Daniela Bombelli: Studio Preliminare; 5) Christian Gerard: Chorus 2; 6) Anekdoten: Longing; 7) Solar Lodge: El Hombre Invisible; 8) Anthony Phillips: Last Goodbyes; 9) Soft Machine: Little Miss B; 10) In The Labyrinth: Karakoram Pass; 11) The Moor: Mines Of Moria; 12) Steve Hillman: Dawning Light; 13) Enrico Olivieri: Anticoli; 14) Raffaello Regoli: Potiemkin.

Average customer rating:

Sweet Scandinavian sounds
Talent Talent Talent

Babel Fish (+ Bonus Tracks)
Babel Fish
Manufacturer: Atlan
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B00000JOOW
Release Date: 1999-05-31

Album Details

Norway Based Foursome Huge Recently Touring with the Corrs, These Guys Already have a Worldwide Profile. Two Bonus Tracks.

Customer Reviews:

Sweet Scandinavian sounds.......2004-09-18

Although not released domestically, and therfore not cheap; well worth looking into. Fairly slow to mid-tempo pop/rock songs. Jan has a solid voice for these kind of tunes. 2nd half of the album is inferior to the first (although the 2 bonus tracks on Japanese version are winners). A more sophisticated sound than some of the "boy bands" going around, but not too dissimilar from some of them. If you like smooth, not bombastic pop, you'll like this.

Talent Talent Talent.......2000-04-20

I'm sorry but I've actually only heard a few songs from this cd but WOW. I see pure talent. Even though these guys havn't got thier fair share of air time ,they do deserve it.The music and the vocals are excellent.