Movies, Music and Books for Christmas… and Beyond

So it's December again. For quite a few years now I've posted recommendations for recent BluRay/DVD releases, CDs and books that might prove useful for anyone wondering what to buy as gifts for Christmas; they appear to have been popular, so here we go again. (I myself find choosing presents enormously difficult, so I’m always … Continue reading Movies, Music and Books for Christmas… and Beyond

Crime, Conspiracy and the Prospect of Chaos: Four Filmic Triumphs from Louis Feuillade

For me at least, there could be few BluRay releases more welcome than a new boxed set of four classic crime serials by Louis Feuillade. ‘Louis who?’ you may be wondering, and not without reason, even if the French filmmaker was enormously successful back in the 1910s, i.e. in the years when the cinema was … Continue reading Crime, Conspiracy and the Prospect of Chaos: Four Filmic Triumphs from Louis Feuillade

Back to ‘Jazz’? Back to Ornette!

What with Arve Henriksen and Harmen Fraanje soon to appear at the London Jazz Festival, I’ve been revisiting their album Touch of Time, together with a more recent release featuring the great Norwegian trumpeter performing alongside Danish drummer Daniel Sommer and Swedish bassist Johannes Lundberg. Sounds and Sequences is apparently the second album in a … Continue reading Back to ‘Jazz’? Back to Ornette!