News: Esoteric's 2011 June-Aug schedule

I'm a little late on the June announcements, but some pretty cool stuff in this batch.

Some of what caught my eye: Earth and Fire's "To the World of the Future" is a good choice and hasn't been on the market for years. This is really the first proper reissue of the album.

Socrates "Phos" is an interesting choice. Reissued a couple of times by Vertigo in Greece, I'll be curious what Esoteric will add beyond the usual excellent liner notes of course.

It's good to see Esoteric diving in the Italian reissue market a bit deeper. There's almost no classic Italian progressive album that hasn't been reissued (and our list has a few scattered about - but the great ones have already been done - in multiple formats). However, many of the Italian greats are still limping along with poor mastering. BTF has gone back and done a nice job with a lot of the old Vinyl Magic CDs - and added some liner notes as well. Acqua Fragile is a good band to tackle and I've been looking for a nice reissue of "Mass Media Stars" myself. Hopefully they don't stop at just the English language Italian groups.

Even more exciting for me is to see Aardvark's sole album get the royal treatment. There's been a "common" copy reissued many times - and I own the Japan mini that is taken from this source. I'll keep the mini for the cover, but it would be nice to know more about the band and to hear a properly done reissue. I personally love this curious organ freakout album, with quaint, almost Canterbury-ish psych tunes thrown in.

And finally the two CD set of Tangerine Dream's "Atem" looks most promising, as that second disc is: "This Esoteric reactive edition is expanded to include a bonus CD of a previously unreleased forty minute live performance given by Tangerine Dream at the Deutschlandhalle in Berlin on November 29th 1973 and features a lavishly illustrated deluxe booklet with new essay."

Here's the announcement from Vicky at Esoteric:

"June
Lol Coxhill-Ear of the Beholder-with contributions from kevin Ayers, Mike Oldfield and David Bedford
David Bedford-Nurses Song with Elephants (featuring Kevin Ayres and Mike Oldfield)
CCLR--s/t (new studio album with Bernardo Lanzetti of PFMs band with Steve Hackett as guest.)
Bill Nelson-Northern Dream (Bills 1st ever album)
Dave Brock and the Agents of Chaos-Agents of Chaos
Earth and Fire-To the World of the Future
Acqua Fragile-s/t (Italian prog with bernard Lanzetti)
Acqua Fragile-Mass media Stars

July
Aardvark--s/t Excellent Deram Nova album.
Tudor Lodge-s/t--lovely classic folk rock album with great new artwork
Richard Wahnfried and Arthur Brown-Time actor(Richard Wahnfried is Klaus Schulze)
Arthur Brown and Vincent Crane-Faster than the Speed of Light
Speedy keen-Y' Know Wot I mean (voice of Thunderclap Newman)
Soft Machine-Tales of Taliesin (lovingly packaged anthology of the Harvest Years)

August
Tangerine Dream-Atem (2Cd)
Tangerine Dream-Underwater Sunlight
Socrates-Phos
Jack Bruce-Out of the Storm
Speedy keen -Previous Convictions"

News: Esoteric Mar-May 2011 releases

As usual, Esoteric has a fine batch of releases coming up. Most of these have been done prior, but as most of you already know, the Esoteric reissue is almost always an upgrade and is considered the definitive version. I've slowly been upgrading my own collection as needed.

The one thing that caught my eye is the unreleased Cologne concert by Tangerine Dream (on the Zeit reissue). I'm going to guess it's the 1972 concert known in the bootleg world as "Cologne WDR-Sendesaal". Does anyone know for sure? All live Tangerine Dream concerts before 1976 interest me, since they were entirely improvised and each features unique material.

Also worth noting that their version of "Poland" is the original full 2 LP set (and hopefully more), not the truncated one CD version (the Castle version chops off about 5-7 minutes from the original). I believe this is the first time it's been released as a double CD. This is the album that I began to lose interest with T Dream, but nostalgia is pulling me in, and I'll probably get this version myself. I sold the 2 LP set 20 years ago.

I'm also looking at their version of the German Armaggedon that came out on CD from Kuckuck a long time ago.

Here's the announcement in full (I did a small amount of editing):

"March:

VDGG-A grounding in Numbers(new studio album)
Tony Williams Lifetime-Emergency
Tony Williams Lifetime-Turn it Over
Crazy World of Arthur Brown - Strangelands (the lost album)
Illusion-Illusion
Illusion-Out of the Mist
Ray Thomas-Hopes and Fears (single edition)
Ray Thomas-From Mighty Oaks (single edition)
Armaggedon-s/t (Krautrock) --not to be confused with the English Armageddon which we also have on Esoteric
Tangerine Dream--Ride on the Ray 2CD slipcased (1980-1987)
Tangerine Dream-Sunrise in The Third system--2Cd slipcased (1970-1973)

April is as follows

Vangelis---L'apocalypse des Animaux (digipack , remastered by Vangelis)
Vangelis--Opera Suvage (digipack, remastered by Vangelis)
Jack Bruce-A question of Time (one of Jacks personal favourites and featuring GUEST MUSICIANS GINGER BAKER, TONY WILLIAMS, ALLAN HOLDSWORTH, BERNIE WORRELL, VERNON REID & ALBERT COLLINS
Tempest --Tempest
Tempest--Living in Fear (rather excellent quite heavy jazz rock with Jon Hiseman and crew)
Home--Home
Home-Pause for a Hoarse Horse
(I rather like the early Home albums--different from the Alchemist they are more comparable to an early Man around 1970/1971)
Dave Brock--Earthed to the Ground--1st solo album from 1984 for the HAWKs front man.

We had originally announced La Fete Sauvage alongside the other 2 Vangelis albums but this has been put on hold temporarily whilst some issues are sorted out on this particular title.

May is as follows

Tangerine Dream--Zeit, deluxe 2 CD of this classic with a bonus unreleased live concert from Cologne and restores the double album in full. (please note there will also be a huge expanded edition of this in early June with the deluxe 2CD a vinyl album with the resoted insert, postcards and a large book) This will retail around the £50 mark , so if you are a huge TD fan, you may want to wait till full details of this are announced.

Tangerine Dream-Poland, deluxe 2CD of this classic from 1984. Full unedited version.

Manticore Anthology set--Envelopes of Yesterday. 2Cd set This will include tracks from ELP and Greg Lake and other acts we have not reissued such as Thee Image and Hanson as well as PFM, Banco, pete Sinfield etc.

Hawkwind_Distant Horizons

Isotope-Isotope
Isotope-Illusion (getting confusing with all the releases we have named Illsion)
Isotope--Deep End
(again classic strong jazz rock) with Gary Boyle

Gary Brooker - Lead Me to the Water----- Fine second solo album from the Procol Harum front man , the record was a fine effort which featured a host of Brookerâs friends as guests including Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Phil Collins, Albert Lee. 2 bonus tracks. "