variouos artists - Into the Sixties: Towards a Cosmic Music / 3CD set

In the 1960's the monumental success of The Beatles re-wrote the language of pop, drove a revolution in social mobility and prompted a new creative confidence in the arts. They re-defined what it was to be British. By 1966 The Beatles were untouchable and in expansive mood - 'Revolver' found them drawing on an eclectic, wholly unprecedented palette of musical colours.

George Martin's passion for the impressionism of Debussy and Ravel and his knowledge of the inner workings of the orchestra facilitated the group's ambitions which culminated in ‘Sgt. Pepper’; a stunning synthesis of Modern and Indian classical music, electronic and avant-garde procedures, progressive jazz and surrealist poetry. In Britain, The Beatles' fearless pioneering prepared an enlightened audience for such indelible cultural landmarks as Lindsay Anderson's highly subversive if .... and Patrick McGoohan's dark fairytale, The Prisoner; radical productions which, like The Beatles in their pomp, struck at the very heart of the Establishment.

‘Into the Sixties’ is a panorama of the visionary musical forces that inspired The Beatles and such contemporaries as The Pink Floyd and The Mothers of Invention in their explosion of the decade. From Ornette Coleman to Coltrane to Cage, from Sun Ra to Stockhausen, from Berio to Varese; musical prophets, spiritual adventurers. What jazz critic John Fordham wrote of Coltrane might apply to each: "He always sounded as if he was striving for what still lay out of reach. It wasn't just the search for more music, or a different music. It sounded like the search for another world, and another life".

    - Disc 1 -
    1 Daphne Oram -Ursa Major (Sun Mix)
    2 2Ornette Coleman- Monk and the Nun
    3 Gustav Holst- Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity, from the Planets
    4 BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus / Sir Malcolm Sargent
    5 Olivier Messiaen -L'alouette Lulu from Catalogue D'oiseaux (Yvonne Piano)
    6 John Coltrane -Spiritual
    7 Jimmy Giuffre 3- Flight
    8 Morton Feldman- Piece for Four Pianos
    9 Ravi Shankar- Dhun Kāfi (Spring Season)
    10 Aldous Huxley- on Drugs, Dictators and Writing
    11 Charles Mingus- Self-Portrait in Three Colors
    12 Allen Ginsberg- the Sunflower Sutra
    13 Jean Sibelius- Allegro Molto Moderato, from Symphony 6
    14 Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Sir Thomas Beecham
    15 Edith Sitwell -The Wind's Bastinado
    16 Julian Bream Consort -Mounsiers Almaine
    - Disc 2 -
    1 Jimmy Smith- Flamingo (With Kenny Burrell & Lee Morgan)
    2 Maurice Ravel- Introduction and Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet and String Quartet (The Melos Ensemble)
    3 Bill Evans Trio- Nardis
    4 Pierre Boulez- Après "L'artisanat Furieux", from Le Marteau Sans Maître. Conductor: Robert Craft
    5 Luciano Berio O- King from Sinfonia, for Eight Voices and Orchestra (The Swingle Singers: Voices) Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra / Ernest Bour
    6 Karlheinz Stockhausen- Zeitmasse, for Flute, Oboe, English Horn, Clarinet and Bassoon, Op. 5. Conductor: Robert Craft
    7 Arnold Schoenberg- Andante, from Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 42 (Glenn Gould: Piano). CBC Symphony Orchestra / Robert Craft
    8 Dmitri Shostakovich- Largo, from Symphony No. 5 in D Minor, Op. 47. Minnesota Orchestra / Stanislaw Skrowaczewski
    9 Claude Debussy Sarabande from Pour Le Piano (Samson François: Piano)
    10 Lili Boulanger- Psalm 129 for Baritone, Chorus and Orchestra (Orchestra Lamoureux / Igor Markevitch)
    11 Satyajit Ray- on Style and Influences
    12 Eric Dolphy- Left Alone
    - Disc 3 -
    1 Erik - Gymnopédies NR. 2 (Manfred Reinelt: Piano)
    2 John Cage- Quodlibet from String Quartet in Four Parts (New Music String Quartet)
    3 Sun Ra and His - Sun Song
    4 Edgard - Hyperprism, for Small Orchestra and Percussion
    5 Orchestre Du Domaine Musical / Pierre Boulez
    6 Gustav Mahler- Andante Moderato, from Symphony No. 6 in a Minor 'Tragic'. Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra / Eduard Flipse
    7 Igor Stravinsky -Symphonies for Wind Instruments. Eastman Wind Ensemble / Frederick Fennell
    8 Claude Debussy- Danses Sacrée Et Profane - Danse Sacrée
    9 Danse Profane (Susanne Cotelle: Harp). Orchestre Lamoureux / Igor Markevitch
    10 Django Reinhardt- Manoir de Mes Rêves
    11 Gustav Holst- Second Dance from Beni Mora. BBC Symphony Orchestra / Sir Malcolm Sargent
    12 Constant Lambert- Valse for the Gemini (The Twins), from Horoscope Ballet. Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra / Constant Lambert
    13 Edith Sitwell- When Sir Beelzebub, from Façade. Chamber Orchestra / Frederik Prausnitz
    14 Alexander Scriabin- the Poem of Ecstasy. Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra / Nikolai Golovanov
    15 Maurice Ravel- Le Gibet, from Gaspard de la Nuit (Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli: Piano)