Enchante (The Great French Stars 1927-1947) - Various Artists

Advantages: beautiful, haunting, lighthearted, relaxing
Disadvantages: none

...After seeing the delightful film on DVD, I knew I simply must purchase the soundtrack, which is worth every penny! This soundtrack, with music written by the film's director and another composer and performed by a real French boy choir, is great fun to listen to. Though the music is slightly repetitive, nontheless enjoyable to listen to. I found the cues to be addictive with the highlight being "LA NUIT", english translation "Night", "O night, come and bring to the earth the calm enchantment of your mystery, the darkness that escorts you is so gentle, so sweet is the concert of your voices singing of hope, so great is your power transforming all into a happy dream"...Jean-Baptiste Maunier, the lead singer, has such a pure and beautiful voice. Anyone would want to listen to it over and over again.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: The voice of an Angel ; Title track being one of the best folk rock songs
Disadvantages: Some weak tracks ; Not on the same par as Fairport Convention or Fotheringay

...lived, she produced some very fine material and the three albums she did with them including 'Unhalfbricking' and of course 'Liege and Leif' were phenomenal. Before the release of Liege and Leif she left to form her own band 'Fotheringay'. After one album Sandy Denny decided to embark on a bold voyage of discovery as a solo artist. 'North star grassman and the ravens' was astonishingly superb as a debut performance as far as Sandy's voice input was concerned. Although she went on to produce a fine backlog of solo albums I feel as if she worked much better within the confound of The Fairport Convention, who had a number of fine talents to co-work with Sandy's. North star grassman and the ravens was a stunning accomplishment what with her stunning, angelic alto voice. The title track remains the best out of the bunch for me although a couple... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: The experience of getting inside an artistic head
Disadvantages: French not quite idiomatic

...This 1995 CD was the Bulgarian mezzo soprano opera singer Vesselina Kasarova's first solo album. She was only 30 years old then, but age is not necessarily the arbitor of thoughtfulness. It is telling that despite of the French's tendency to be very picky of how their language is sung, this CD won the Prix Maurice Ravel despite of some pretty iffy French intonations. This singer is just so expressive and so mesmerizing in her singing of the emotionally loaded French song cycles (all quite over-recorded by all the prominent artists already, especially for the Berlioz 'Summer Nights' Cycle), that imperfect French diction is really an insignificant flaw. There is a detached quality to this recital. As if she is lost in her own thoughts, not quite aware of the presence of an audience (or the recording microphone, in this case). Listening... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful