In This issue #18 we highlight 4 artists and some significant works

Rio seamlessly blended synth-pop, post-punk, and funk-driven basslines. It catapulted the band to global superstardom. The 9-track record includes timeless 1980s anthems like “Hungry Like the Wolf”, “Save a Prayer”, and “The Chauffeur”. The famous pop-art cover was painted by Patrick Nagel. In 2024, the mysterious “cherry ice cream smile” model was finally identified as former fashion model Marcie Hunt-Dinkel. The title track “Rio” is famous for its fast-paced synthesizer line, a signature saxophone solo by Andy Hamilton, and John Taylor’s intricate bassline. According to the band, the lyrics used “Rio” as a metaphor for their intense ambition to succeed in America. The song’s legendary music video, directed by Russell Mulcahy, featured the band wearing sharp, pastel Anthony Price silk suits while sailing on a yacht in Antigua, defined the high-glamour, escapist aesthetic of the 1980s. Rio is as representative of the ’80s at its best as it gets. The original Duran Duran’s high point, and just as likely the band’s as a whole, its fusion of style and substance ensures that even decades after its release it remains as listenable and danceable as ever. The quintet integrates its sound near-perfectly throughout, the John and Roger Taylor rhythm section providing both driving propulsion and subtle pacing. For the latter, consider the lush, semi-tropical sway of “Save a Prayer,” or the closing paranoid creep of “The Chauffeur,” “The Bogus Man.” Andy Taylor’s muscular riffs provide fine rock crunch throughout, Rhodes’ synth wash adds perfect sheen, and Le Bon tops it off with sometimes overly cryptic lyrics that still always sound just fine in context, courtesy of his strong delivery.

Rio’s two biggest smashes burst open the door in America for the New Romantic/synth rock crossover. “Hungry Like the Wolf” blended a tight, guitar-heavy groove with electronic production and a series of instant hooks, while the title track was even more anthemic, with a great sax break from guest Andy Hamilton adding to the soaring atmosphere. Lesser-known cuts like “Lonely in Your Nightmare” and “Last Chance on the Stairway” still have pop thrills a-plenty, from start to finish, a great album that has outlasted its era

Ravedeath 1972 is the sixth studio album released in February, 2011, by Kranky. In the preceding years Hecker has established himself as a master of atmosphere. Creating his drone-based tempests with a mixture of laptop, keyboard, tape and effects-drenched guitar, his music often fundamentally serene despite the chill winds whipping across its surface. In this album lingering piano chords slip over the droning throb of the buried pipe organ, permeating the unsettled atmosphere This album was written by Hecker during late 2010 in Montreal and Banff, Canada. Widely considered Hecker’s masterpiece, the record blends ambient, drone, and noise music into an immersive exploration of sonic decay, technological obsolescence, and memory. The album was recorded primarily in Frikirkjan Church, Reykjavík. It makes prominent use of pipe organ, and was described by Hecker as “a hybrid of a studio and a live record.” The album’s striking artwork is a photograph of a real 1972 ritual “piano drop” executed by MIT students pushing an instrument off the roof of a campus building. The title references a three-fold dynamic:  the violent degradation of acoustic instruments, our cultural relationship to fading technologies, and the ghost-like echoes of dance music culture. The 52-minute album is structured to be listened to as a continuous, sweeping piece of music across 12 tracks.

Released in 1980 on ECM Records, Jack DeJohnette’s Special Edition is a landmark avant-garde jazz album. It features a formidable frontline of saxophonists Arthur Blythe and David Murray alongside Peter Warren on bass and DeJohnette on drums, piano, and melodica. The record masterfully merges outside free jazz with traditional roots and blues. High-energy, raw, and bluesy. The interplay between Blythe’s sweet tone and Murray’s roaring, Eric Dolphy-inspired playing provides a rich, energetic contrast. DeJohnette’s drumming is explosive yet tasteful, and he also adds vibrant colour on acoustic piano and melodica. Revered by critics and fans as one of the most innovative contemporary jazz records of its era, balancing complex written arrangements with uninhibited solo flights

Spiegel im Spiegel (1978): His most widely recognized and popular work. It features a famously slow, meditative violin melody gliding over gentle, repeating piano arpeggios that mimic “mirrors reflecting mirrors”

Fratres (1977): A mesmerizing, highly adaptable piece written in a variation structure. It transitions beautifully between intense, virtuosic bursts and profoundly still, rhythmic, and atmospheric sequences.

Tabula Rasa (1977): A landmark double concerto composed for two violins, string orchestra, and a prepared piano. It is divided into two contrasting movements: the energetic Ludus and the slow, deeply quiet Silentium.

Festina lente (Latin for “make haste slowly”) is a mesmerising 1986 composition, scored for a string orchestra and harp. It is one of the most prominent examples of his signature tintinnabuli style, mimicking the mathematical, meditative resonance of bells. Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten (1977): A short, devastatingly emotional elegy written for string orchestra and a solitary mourning bell. It utilizes a slowly cascading, descending canon that builds into a powerful wall of sound. Summa (1992)Originally written as a choral work back in 1977, Pärt’s Summa in its string quartet form is absolutely hypnotising, allowing us listening to float as if swimming in the ocean. The spine-tingling piece

Symphony No. 1, Op. 9 “Polyphonic” (1963): Composed upon graduating from the Tallinn Conservatory, this two-movement piece balances traditional Baroque counterpoint (Canons and a Prelude and Fugue) with strict 12-tone serialism. Symphony No. 2 (1966): A complex three-movement avant-garde experiment mixing aggressive serialism with chaotic textures influenced by Krzysztof Penderecki and the Polish school. Symphony No. 3 (1971): A critical turning point marking Pärt’s break from modernism, deeply inspired by his intense study of medieval plainsong and early Renaissance polyphony. After composing his Credo in 1968, he embarked on a transitional period where he stopped composing. The reason for this creative hiatus was Pärt’s realization that his musical compositional method had been fully developed. The only major piece he decided to work on was the third symphony, which came about right before the creation of his unique tintinnabular style. During the years between 1968 and the creation of both Fratres and Tabula Rasa, Pärt delved into Gregorian chant, early polyphonic music and polyphony from the Renaissance period, from which he found much inspiration for this symphony. By doing this, he rejected the serialist musical style he pioneered and advocated in Estonia and turned to a much denser, minimalistic musical language. Pärt finally completed the symphony in 1971.Pärt described this symphony later as a “joyous work” and stated that it was not “the end of my despair and search” Symphony No. 4 “Los Angeles” (2008): Pärt’s previous symphonies are scored for full orchestra but this was scored uniquely for strings, harp, timpani, and percussion. It is the first of his pieces that focuses on larger scale, instrumental tintinnabulation. Symphony No. 4 was written 37 years after Pärt’s third symphony. In the previous decade, he had written mostly mystical works for chorus and small vocal ensembles. The piece earns its nickname from its commission by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association who had long desired to commission a new work by Pӓrt. A distinguishing feature of Pӓrt’s music is the way he has used it throughout his career in protest against different Russian governments. He composed serialist works when it was an aesthetic criticized by soviets, and composed religious music when the Soviet Union suppressed and persecuted Christianity. The symphony is dedicated to Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a Russian oil executive and Russia’s most politically active oligarch who was accused of and imprisoned for fraud. The piece is a protest against Vladimir Putin in its dedication.