Lights in the Dark

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Zazou specializes in ambient soundtracks for nonexistent movies that take their cues from various world music genres. This time out it's Irish sacred music, and Zazou, with the help of a small army of international stars including Egyptian percussionist Hossam Ramzy, trumpet wiz Mark Isham, and French picker extraordinaire Thierry Robin, has fashioned 13 moody settings for ancient and modern texts that feature mournful vocals by Brede Mayock and Lasairfhiona ni Chonaola. The result is new agey, but the passion of the singers and some disturbing instrumental touches keep the music from getting too predictable. The misleading ads for this album say that it features Brendan Perry from Dead Can Dance, and Katie McMahon from "Riverdance." Perry does play percussion on two tracks, and McMahon sings lead on three, but if you're looking for the Gothic pop of DCD or the exuberant Irish jigs of "Riverdance," you're going to be disappointed. --j. poet

Tracks:

April in Paris
Soft Lights and Sweet Music
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
Time on My Hands
Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
Ruby
Snowfall
Where or When
Emily
Embraceable You
I Didn't Know What Time It Was
Lonely Town
Bad and The Beautiful
My Ship
Nobody Else But Me
With a Song in My Heart

Average customer rating:

ASTLEYAN AS ANYTHING
Sheer brilliance in the dark
Music to make moss grow, whisky flow and tired skin prickle.
Distinto ? Un regreso a casa.
Hypnotically beautiful

Lights in the Dark
Hector Zazou , Traditional , Breda Mayock , and Katie McMahon
Manufacturer: Elektra / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Post-Punk | New Wave & Post-Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | International | Styles | Music

General | Celtic | International | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

General | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Experimental Music | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000009PT5
Release Date: 1998-08-18

Tracks:

Ralt (The Star)
Seacht Sauilcena Maighdine Muire (Seven...
Dn Nar Marbh (Song of the Dead)
Caoineadh Na Dtr Muire (Keening Joys of...
Seacht Sauilcena Maighdine Muire (Seven...
Gol Na Dtr Muire (Lament of the Three...
Amhrn Na Pise (Song of the Passion)
In Ainm an Athar le Bua (In the Name of...
Seacht Ndlas Na Maighdine Muire (Seven... -
Duan Chro osa (Little Song to the Heart...
Caoine Mhuire (Mary's Lament)
Achain an Ghra (Requests of Love)
Amergin (Tomb of Every Hope)

Amazon.com

Zazou specializes in ambient soundtracks for nonexistent movies that take their cues from various world music genres. This time out it's Irish sacred music, and Zazou, with the help of a small army of international stars including Egyptian percussionist Hossam Ramzy, trumpet wiz Mark Isham, and French picker extraordinaire Thierry Robin, has fashioned 13 moody settings for ancient and modern texts that feature mournful vocals by Brede Mayock and Lasairfhiona ni Chonaola. The result is new agey, but the passion of the singers and some disturbing instrumental touches keep the music from getting too predictable. The misleading ads for this album say that it features Brendan Perry from Dead Can Dance, and Katie McMahon from "Riverdance." Perry does play percussion on two tracks, and McMahon sings lead on three, but if you're looking for the Gothic pop of DCD or the exuberant Irish jigs of "Riverdance," you're going to be disappointed. --j. poet

Customer Reviews:

ASTLEYAN AS ANYTHING.......2002-01-10

If you like Virginia Astley you are bound to love this album as its possibly the greatest one she never made.Theres a link of sorts with Virginia as the entire album is dedicated to Caroline Lavelle who takes part.
This is an album I play a lot.I've had it on a Walkman,ringing through my ears.I've LIVED with it.
Maybe at some future stage this Algerian expatraite will coax Virginia out of retirement to put in an appearance on some future album,the ame way he apparantly did with the ex Passion Barbara Gogan.
Zazou is a Cult Artiste who will never find commercial fame yet will continue to make great music. You just have to be grateful for stuff like this,for record companies who will spend a fortune and know there will be little return
This is Forever Music that makes you feel good and I would say this is the Zazou you should hear first before exploring the other albums

Sheer brilliance in the dark.......1999-06-29

Hector and the ladies go way beyond the traditional ethereal old and modern Irish religious Sean Nos of the likes of Noirin Ni Riain, who is justly thanked on this album "for paving the way". Nowhere the same, nowhere boring, nowhere conventional, but refreshing, surprising and renewing a very old tradition. Like a genuine Celtic tradition to mould an amalgam of the very best of foreign elements (Japanese!) with the strong potential of indigenous traditions to create a unique and succesful blend. A perfect album as such, in its sheer musical brilliancy but even with consideration to the tradition of numerical esoterism when putting its strongest track Amhran na Paise on position seven (!) out of a total of thirteen (!) Columcille himself would have approved! He who has ears, may he hear...

Music to make moss grow, whisky flow and tired skin prickle........1999-02-06

This should surprise nobody. The man needed to set straight the dangerous Riverdance tendency which should not be the world's window on Irish culture. Lights in the Dark follows naturally the even more ethereal -- but perhaps more feral -- Les Nouvelles Polyphonies Corse (Philips 848515-2), a set of Corsican choral works with a little touch of John Cale. How can I find out what's happening next? Do I wait 'til Cale comes to Australia again, and ask him? Hector, talk to me!

Distinto ? Un regreso a casa........1998-11-17

Después de leer algunos de los comentarios de otros oyentes de la más reciente producción de Hector Zazou no es dificil inferir que las obras "Sahara Blue" y "Songs form the cold seas" son las más seguidas (compradas) de este autor. Sin embargo, esas obras representan una excepción en la "corriente" de Zazou donde por más de 10 trabajos su -al parecer- búsqueda ha sido la interdisciplinariedad. Claro está que esa más-que-esdrújula palabra le queda corta por que Zazou traduce una intención de unir en la música las etnias. Desde 1983 con sus trabajos al lado de Bony Bikaye o aún antes Zazou transcribe si se quiere el deseo de encontrar un lenguaje primario. Y por lo visto su brújula apunta ahora a las culturas gaélicas. Si llega a este texto para encontrar un reducto de ánimo que lo conduzca a comprar, no lo dude. Hágalo. Descubra así una mente inquieta que nos habla de una época donde la aparente velocidad nos reduce las distancias para descubrir que el camino hacia el interior apenas comienza.

Hypnotically beautiful.......1998-10-13

An ethereal, dreamy collection of sacred Irish hymns - very different from Hector Zazou's other CDs, but equally mesmerising. The vocalists and arrangements are haunting. Not to be missed!

Average customer rating:

"early beginnings from the vaults ~ Percy Faith"

Delicado

Manufacturer: Asv Living Era
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | New Age | Styles | Music

Meditation | New Age | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Movie Scores | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

Movie Soundtracks | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

General | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

General | Easy Listening | Pop | Styles | Music

Orchestral Pop | Easy Listening | Pop | Styles | Music

General | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music

Traditional Pop | Oldies | Pop | Styles | Music

Traditional Vocal Pop | Broadway & Vocalists | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Koga Melodies/Ryoichi Hatori Melodies

ASIN: B0001EMM2Y
Release Date: 2004-06-29

Tracks:

Amor [From Broadway Rhythm]
Negra Consentida
Embraceable You
Baia (Ne Baixe de Sapateiro) [from The Three Caballeros)
If There Is Someone Lovelier Than You
Tico-Tico [From Bathing Beauty]
Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year [From Christmas Holiday]
Bem Te VI Atrevido
I Love You
Capullito de Aleli
Long Ago (And Far Away) [From Cover Girl]
Cumparsita
Stardust
Stars in Your Eyes
Bim Bam Boom
I'll Close My Eyes - Percy Faith & His Orchestra, Hildegarde
There's No Holding Me - Percy Faith & His Orchestra, Hildegarde
Dancing in the Dark
That Old Black Magic [from Star-Spangled Rhythm)
All Through the Night
Begin the Beguine
Touch of Your Hand
Tia Juana
Temptation [From Going Hollywood]
Noche Caribe (Caribbean Night) [From Starlift]

Tracks:

Swedish Rhapsody No. 1, Op. 19: Midsummer Vigil
Body and Soul
Du - Ray Charles Singers, Percy Faith & His Orchestra
Deep Purple
Fiddle Derby
My Dream Concerto - Ray Charles, , Percy Faith & His Orchestra, Chorus
Dizzy Fingers - Percy Faith & His Orchestra, Magic Voices
I Got Rhythm
Flight 33 1/3
Solitude
Nervous Gavotte - Percy Faith & His Orchestra, Lou Stein
Mosquitoes' Parade - Percy Faith & His Orchestra, Chorus
Mer (Beyond the Sea)
Kitten on the Keys - Percy Faith & His Orchestra, Stan Freeman, Bernie Leighton, Chorus
Whirlwind
Cumbanchero [From Cuban Pete]
Goodbye John - Ray Charles Singers, Percy Faith & His Orchestra
Perpetual Notion
They Can't Take That Away from Me [From Shall We Dance?] - Percy Faith & His Orchestra, Chorus
Soft Lights and Sweet Music
Oodles of Noodles
Would You?
Cumana
Delicado
Song from Moulin Rouge (Where Is Your Heart?)

Customer Reviews:

"early beginnings from the vaults ~ Percy Faith".......2005-02-15

Living Era presents "Delicado", fifty original mono recordings from 1944 to 1955 featuring Maestro Percy Faith who was churning out some of the best releases with top notch arrangements...each song had an upbeat and faraway tone to it...beautiful ballads from composers Harold Arlen, Waldir Azevedo, Irving Berlin, Nacio Herb Brown, Hoagy Carmichael, Zez Confrey, Peter De Rose, Jimmy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Rafael Hernandez, Johnny Green, Jerome Kern, Frank Loesser, Cole Porter, Arthur Schwartz ...beautifully recorded representing Faith's limitless talent at crafting musical arrangements to fit an evolving music scene.

Now for the real treat...songs composed by Percy Faith with his unmistakable arranging "NOCHE CARIBE " (Caribbean Night), recorded in New York 1947..."DA DU", with Ray Charles Singers recorded 3/04/1952..."FIDDLE DERBY", recorded in New York 1951..."FLIGHT 33 1/3", after Rimsky-Korsakov: Flight of the Bumble-Bee, recorded New York 5/11/1950..."NERVOUS GAVOTTE", with Lou Stein on piano recorded New York 5/22/1951..."PERPETUAL NOTION", recorded New York 6/02/1949...Percy's arrangements comes from the heart and weaving a magic spell over the listener...compilation goodies on two compact discs for all the Faith Fans!

Sweeping and gliding strings, beautiful renditions of all time favorite Faith arrangements, such a statement of string counter melodies within the orchestration...many were favorites of my parents when they were dating...these songs represent some of the best arrangements in my Faith collection...when you put this collection on, you're in for a magic carpet ride sprinkled with the "Percy Faith Touch"...every arrangement has the signature of his pen and baton, two totally different tempos and rhythms surface within the boundaries of his genius...no doubt he was a master at his craft, they'll never be another like 'em, they only pass this way once...thank you Living Era for sharing these rare gems with the fans that encountered Maestro Percy Faith!

Total Time: 2-CD-Set ~ Living Era 278 ~ (6/29/2004)

(Cd) Hard N Heavy Rock: Hollywood so Far so Good, Motor City Madhouse, Immigrant Song Live, Fear of the Dark, 17 Crash, Rumors in the Air Live, Fool for Your Loving, Shake Me Live, Rock of Ages, Spell Im Under, Lights Out, October Morning Wind Live

Average customer rating:

(Cd) Hard N Heavy Rock: Hollywood so Far so Good, Motor City Madhouse, Immigrant Song Live, Fear of the Dark, 17 Crash, Rumors in the Air Live, Fool for Your Loving, Shake Me Live, Rock of Ages, Spell Im Under, Lights Out, October Morning Wind Live

ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000HDMS0K

Product Description

(Cd) Hard N Heavy Rock: Hollywood / so Far so Good By Warrant, Moter City Madhouse By Jake E. Lee with Randy Castillo, Immigrant Song / Live By Great White, Fear of the Dark By Bernie Shaw, 17 Crash By L.a. Guns, Rumors in the Air / Live By Night Ranger, Fool for Your Loving By Don Airey with Steve Grimmett, Shake Me / Live By Cinderella, Rock of Ages By Tracii Guns & Randy Castillo, Spell Im Under By Kip Winger, Lights Out By Bernie Torme with Paul Dianno, October Morning Wind / Live By Union

Average customer rating:

Arias, Duets, Songs

Manufacturer: Guild
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Romantic (c.1820-1910) | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

General | Arias | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

French | Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Italian | Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Russian | Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Operettas | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

General | Soundtracks | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000TWAE0
Release Date: 2005-01-17

Black Light District: A Thousand Lights in a Darkened Room

Average customer rating:

Possibly Coils finest work.
wonderful wonderful wonderful
Coil's transition
Uncomfortable Deja Vu
World without warning

Black Light District: A Thousand Lights in a Darkened Room
Coil
Manufacturer: World
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | American Alternative | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Indie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Ambient | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

General | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

Electronica | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

IDM | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

General | New Age | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Experimental Music | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

Alternative Rock | Imports | Stores | Music

Dance & DJ | Imports | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Spring Equinox: Moon's Milk

ASIN: B000006ZD5
Release Date: 1996-11-21

Tracks:

Unprepared Piano
Red Skeletons
Die Wolfe Kommen Zuruck
Refusal to Leave to Land
Stoned Circular I
Stoned Circular II
Green Water
Cold Dream of an Earth Star
Blue Rats
Scratches and Dust
Chalice

Album Description

1996 release on Eskaton Records, the first half of theband's then new project & compared to their 'Protection'release. 11 tracks, including 'Unprepared Piano', 'RedSkeletons' and 'Green Water'. The full title is 'Black LightDistrict - A Thousand Lights In

Customer Reviews:

Possibly Coils finest work........2005-09-01

If you like calm, downbeat, downtempo ambience with a more machine than electro sound, this will make you very, very happy. I LOVE this album. The atmosphere and ambience is astonishing, and the sound is truly one of a kind. It's a shame this album is so hard to come by, as it should be widely available in any store that has a music section. Unfortunately, mine is scratched beyond repair, so I need to order a new one. >_ <

wonderful wonderful wonderful.......2005-08-05

The great thing about Coil is that they're all over the place, genre-wise, doing everything from industrial to ambient to glitchcore. BLD is another typically atypical Coil release, unique and hard to classify. I read somewhere that they described it as "a soundtrack to a drowning", and it's easy to see why. It's slow and droning, yet too active to be called ambient, and more menacing than relaxing. Very hypnotic, very unsettling, very good.

Coil's transition.......2002-09-27

This album falls somewhere between Coil's early, drugged decadence, which reached its apex with the acid house inspired "Love's Secret Domain", and the recent works dealing with alchemical sound sculpting and magickal lunar energies. The urban grit, most evident in the '80s albums, is still present to an extent, albeit more as an inseperable quality of a total reality being rapidly molecularized than the patina of Thatcher-era postcolonial decay that was an undercurrent of the work of so many great British artists of that decade. "LSD" signaled a shift to a more electronic Coil, and that process begins its refinement toward a more subtle approach with this project. Crunchy, reverb-laden loops are the backbone of many of the tracks here. For the most part, they are multi-textured, despite their repetitiveness. Clanking, damp stretches of industrial(sorry!) atmosphere are interrupted by the occasional more straightforward song. However, most of this album relies on mood and texture to carry it. It has its dull stretches, but it's creepy and trippy in that unmistakable Coil way. I can see how some people might not get into this album, especially those more into coherent tunes than abstract electronics, but "Black Light District" is an intriguing byway in the continuum that is Coil. It lies on a more obscure part of the map than the major works, somewhere amongst "Horse Rotorvator"'s demented Gothic manor, "LSD"'s warehouse party delirium, and the rural midnight conjurings of "Musick to Play in the Dark".

Uncomfortable Deja Vu.......2002-08-22

Coil is just one of those bands that is next to impossible to describe. Every album they've done sounds very different from the last. Here is my best to describe Black Light District. After you've just finished a very long and strenuous exercise, while your heart is still pounding, lay down flat on your back in a very quit place. Then just listen. You can hear your heart, but you can also hear a very soft rushing sound. The blood surging through your veins. That's the sound of this album. This picks up from where Transparent left off. But its far less minimalistic, and much better thought out. If you're into long, dark, rhythmic atmospheres, then BLD is for you. Like a lot of Coil's previous work, most of the tension that you feel isn't from what you hear, but what you think you're about to hear. BLD brings that to the ultimate extreme. Some of this album is closely reminiscent to Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume 2. It also works on many different levels. Besides being damn creepy, the sounds that are used in this album are nothing short of mind-boggling. It will inflict fear, hope and uncomfortable Déjà vu from a childhood memory you forgot years ago.

Here is a list of similar releases.
Aphex Twin: Selected Ambient Works Volume 2
Einsturzende Neubauten: Silence is Sexy
Nine Inch Nails: Further Down the Spiral (mostly Coil remixes)
Coil: Transparent
Kevin Key: Music for Cats
Skinny Puppy: To Dark Park

World without warning.......2002-06-05

After Coil's long lay-off during the first half of the '90s - where the band merely cleaned out their archives and reissued some older albums on compact disc - the musical climate had certainly changed in the avant-garde/ambient/dark wave genre, so some fans may have wondered how Coil would continue their musical journey into previously unknown territories. 1995's "Worship the glitch" (under the ELpH banner) tapped fully into the then-modern approach of cut-and-paste soundbits, mechanical ambience, and heavy digital distortion, but the real surprise came with their next offering - 1996's "Black light district", ominously subtitled "A thousand lights in a darkened room" and originally released by Coil's side-project of the same name. Although the band's line-up had changed since the late-'80s and since "Worship the glitch" (and perhaps the reason to ditch the ELpH name), the music is sometimes along the same lines as the ambient tracks on Coil's earlier albums, albeit with a much more refined, coherent quality. Considering that "BLD" is an astonishingly diverse and innovative album that includes everything from creepy atmospherics to quiet ambient waveforms to somewhat hyperactive glitch textures, it becomes clear that Coil have created a piece of music which often seems to be the opposite of those smooth-as-silk ambient ventures we came to expect from so many '90s electronica artists. No album by Coil is easy to start with, but in my eyes "BLD" is very accessible and listenable due to its diversity and Coil's ability to hold the listener's attention, if only to see what will happen from track to track. You know...things happen a lot! A short piece called "Unprepared piano" (and exactly sounding like that) gets the album underway, followed by "Red skeletons", which consists of shuffling, muffled layers of rhythm and lots of non-musical effects. The first real highlight, however, comes in the shape of the 10 ½-minute "Die Wolfe kommen zuruck", which is German for "The wolves are coming back". Although the title strongly suggests a sort of environmental feel, the soundscapes rather work in an industrial direction: A heavy, repetitive metallic pound (an alternative, more vivid description could be 'clanking graveyard rhythm') plays over dark, droning noise loops and siren-like tones - this will make your little puppy dog hide under your bed. The first few minutes of "Refusal..." will sound familiar to owners of "The Angelic Conversation" in that it uses various processed water noises before a shimmering melody works its way through the gloom, backed by John's fantastic, dreamy vocals. Unfortunately, a couple of slightly uneventful pieces lurk in the middle of the album, most notably "Green water" with its rather childish keyboard noodlings and the two-part "Stoned circular" with its deranged effects, but thankfully things quickly perk up again with the 9-minute, appropriately titled "Cold dream..." and the utterly stunning "Blue rats". The latter sneaks along on a bass-heavy, punchy sequencer arrangement and features another excellent vocal performance by John, this time much more paranoid and aggressive. The album-closing "Chalice" seems a bit similar to Autechre's and Black Dog's early material, especially due to the way the descending synth chords and melancholic undercurrents are presented, although the sound effects and choir-like voices are pure Coil. Despite the unquestionable quality of this release, there's one thing which really annoys me: The vinyl edition of "BLD" features the 8-minute bonus track "London's lost rivers", perhaps one of Coil's most disturbing songs because it displays the feelings and impressions of a suicidal before he drowns himself in the rivers of London. Quite why this excellent track was left off the CD edition remains unclear, but it can also be picked up on the Russian compilation "A guide for beginners: Silver voice". In sum, if you're looking for a more dance-oriented Coil album, like "Scatology", "LSD", or "Stolen and contaminated songs", then this isn't for you. If you like to explore the outer realms of ambient music, then "BLD" should impress.

Music Review:

Music Review

music review

Music Review

The Flamin' Groovies Now!

Bach: Fantasy and Fugue in G minor and Other Mature Works

Ariane Opera in 1 Act

Sophisticated Giant

Best of Dance 1985 [Import]

Away From The Water

A Bossa De Sempre: Serie 100 Anos De Musica [Import]

All Hits [Import]

3 Classic Albums [Import]

A Musical Hodge-Podge: English Song 1600-1750 / Evelyn Tubb

Ancient to the Future [Import]

12 Super Exitos

A Tribute to Tito Rodriguez [Import]

Capitol Sings Hoagy Carmichael: Stardust

The Marble Index