Album of the month : Passion - Peter Gabriel

Music for The Last Temptation Of Christ, a film by Martin Scorsese is what it says underneath the title on the CD back cover.
This was my first introduction to Peter Gabriel's own Realworld label. It was the first release on that label, and it contains some of the most beautiful instrumental music I have ever heard made by a pop artist. Influenced by a lot of "world music" he had heard, Peter Gabriel composed a variety of songs which are all, to some extent, a stunning mix of the influences he absorbed and his own musical idiom.
This album is best listened to as a whole, of course, as the musical journey tells, in its own language, the story of the movie, and it contains such a rich palet of music that is like a multi-course dinner, of which each plate is delicious in itself, but the whole dinner has a surplus by the ideal combination of the dishes...
However, I have chosen some dishes for your enjoyment, to have a little taste to hunger for more :

• The feeling begins (mp3)
• Of these, hope (mp3)
• Troubled (mp3)
• It is accomplished (mp3)

You can buy the album here

Album of the month (Feb 08) : Polynya - Polynya

This album was released in July of last year. North Carolinan band Polynya reminds me very much of Lush and Curve, two bands from the beginning of the nineties that had the same guitar-keyboards-drums sound which is so richly spread all over this debut album.

Opener Old West (mp3) is the ideal opener for this record, as it gets us fully acquainted with the sound we'll be hearing throughout the rest of it. Without a trace is as dreamy as the title suggests and Tarantula offers us more prominent drums to start a song that settles quite nicely in one's head. Paper planes (mp3), with angelic voices of Amelia, Andrea and Luke crawling over the sharp edges of bells and guitars, offers a new taste of what this band is capable of. And we are treated with even more surprising (and yet recognisable) songs : Black cherry and two songs that are like resting places on a walk, Cubicle and Essy Persson.
If you liked bands like Belly, Lush, Curve and The Breeders, you're definitely gonna like this band. Check it out !

You can buy their album by mailing them or at Amazon

Album of the month March : Eldorado - Stephan Eicher