CD-Charts Position 1
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Philip Glass: Animals in Love (les Animaux Amoureux)

from: Orange Mountain Music

Release Date February 26, 2008
One of the great strengths of this multi-talented composer is the creation of musical pictures. For this reason, the music Glass has written to films with no script are among his greatest achievements. These include the famous "Qatsi trio" (Koyannisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, Naqoyqatsi) and Anima Mundi made with Godfrey Reggio. In these films, the image and music blend seamlessly, due to intense collaboration between composer and director. But in addition, the music succeeds by itself as an orchestral suite in the way a soundtrack cannot do. Animals in Love is a worthy addition to that genre. Even without seeing the movie, the titles of the tracks are all one needs to let the music paint the picture.

CD-Charts Position 2
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Glass: Book of Longing

from: Orange Mountain Music

Release Date December 11, 2007
This is yet another release by Glass that is an utter loss. Ever since Philip Glass got popular, his music has become banal and redundant. He keeps recycling the same sounds from other recordings, and does not do anything different from the past ten years. This recording just leaves the listener longing for the older Glass recordings that were what originally stood out from other stuff. Glass should just retire if all he can do is rehash and recycle previous material.

CD-Charts Position 3
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Philip Glass - Monsters of Grace

from: Orange Mountain Music

Release Date October 09, 2007
I bought this CD on a whim when I bought David Byrne's Knee Plays. However, who could resist a Glass of Rumi? I would love to see the Robert Wilson it goes with, but I dearly love the music and the words.

"Don't go back to sleep..."

CD-Charts Position 4
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Terry Riley: The Cusp of Magic

by: Kronos Quartet

Release Date February 05, 2008
"This project by pipa player Wu Man and the untiringly eclectic string quartet Kronos continues a collaboration that began more than a decade ago, when they recorded Ghost Opera.."(The Guardian).
Once again the Kronos, the hippest string quartet on the planet, has teamed up with its favourite composer, Terry Riley, the man who brought '60s hippieness into classical music. The original minimalists are now old men.
Riley, turned 70 in 2005 and to mark the occasion the Kronos Quartet commissioned a new work from him.
In this six-movement "mid-summer rite", there's a prominent solo role for the jangling Chinese lute, or pipa, played by the wonderful Wu Man - who also sings Chinese lullabies - against the astringent, urgent ensemble sound ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 5
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Cassandra's Dream

from: Orange Mountain Music

Release Date December 25, 2007
I bought this because I love Glasses other soundtrack work, particularly "The Hours". This is typical of his sound I really like it. My only complaint is that the entire cd is very short.

CD-Charts Position 6
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Philip Glass: The Concerto Project Vol.III

from: Orange Mountain Music

Release Date April 29, 2008
I bought this because I love Glasses other soundtrack work, particularly "The Hours". This is typical of his sound I really like it. My only complaint is that the entire cd is very short.

CD-Charts Position 7
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Philip Glass: Waiting for the Barbarians

from: Orange Mountain Music

Release Date June 03, 2008
Philip Glass and librettist Christopher Hampton have adapted J. M. Coetzee's parable about power and inhumanity in an opera that staggers in both dramatic power and beauty. The story is set in a town on the fringes of a nameless Empire that is in the process of expanding over the lands of wandering peoples called The Barbarians. As settlers encroach on grazing lands, the Barbarians are led to raid a few cattle, the same solution that Native Americans were forced into as European settlers forged westward. The Empire's response is very contemporary, however, fabricating a threat and confirming it through "confessions" made under torture. As the army takes over and terrorizes the town, its inhabitants are fanned into a frenzy of fear that allows them to accept ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
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From the Philip Glass Recording Archive, Vol. III -JENIPAPO

by: Philip Glass

Release Date April 29, 2008
Orange Mountain Music's ongoing 'from the archive' series aims to release certain recordings that Philip Glass (b. 1937) has made over the last 30 years. Thus far, the series has been hit or miss with me. I thought the first volume was lackluster (Philip Glass: Theater Music from the Philip Glass Recording Archive, Vol. 1); however I thoroughly enjoyed the second volume (From the Philip Glass Recording Archive, Vol. II: Orchestral Music).

This release, the third volume in the series, contains the music from the 1995 film 'Jenipapo'. Glass is a highly effective film composer, so it is great to have this music available. Like much of Glass' music, this score is filled driving rhythmic motifs, and melancholy melodic fragments.

The orchestral ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
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From the Philip Glass Recording Archive, Vol. II: Orchestral Music

from: Orange Mountain Music

Release Date July 31, 2007
I had purchased this CD after hearing only 30 seconds, thinking that this would not contain major surprises, but I did not expect it to be so beautiful. The first piece, Days and Nights in Rocinha, is a nice relaxed orchestral work that reminds me of some of Philip's early symphonies. The Persephone tracks that follow are the ones that I really love. Lush choral arrangements. Just beautiful. If you loved the choral parts of the 5th symphony, I think you'll also love this. This CD quickly became one of my favorite Glass CDs. GREAT.

CD-Charts Position 10
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Solo Piano

from: Sony

Release Date August 07, 1989
Don't play this in an elevator; don't play this while you make dinner; don't play this on a Sunday afternoon while you read; don't play this while you watch tv; don't play this while you put away the clothes; don't play this in your car; don't play this while you're getting ready for work in the morning or going to bed at night; don't play this while you're having a conversation with a friend on the phone whom you haven't seen in three years. Play this when you are ready to stop and listen. Don't even think. If you are able to listen and lose thought, you'll enjoy this music.