When a composer’s decades long aesthetic is defined by intriguing, perfectly pegged phrases like “speed demon music” and “the aural equivalent of a pinball machine,” listeners fresh to the experience know they’re in for a surreal, genre-defying and sensory kaleidoscopic experience. So while Zack Browning’s latest soulfully epic whirlwind aural immersion is titled Rock Galaxy, it’s way beyond rock and far out into the universe, incorporating everything from prog rock and jazz

Henry David Thoreau’s time at Walden Pond (1845-47) was a deliberate social experiment in simple living that resulted in his masterwork Walden; or Life in the Woods. Living in a self-built cabin on land owned by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thoreau sought to “front only the essential facts of life.” The transcendental writer’s text is a reflection upon living in natural surroundings – part declaration of independence, part voyage of spiritual discovery and to some degree a manual for

People often criticize AI in music because, in addition to the fear of displacing work for musicians, many say it can’t equal the emotional depth of works created by human beings. Another point is that it’s focused on formulaic content that lacks real world experience and the soul that makes genuine music so compelling. Those making that argument may just rethink these generalities – and understand the value of AI in specific contexts – when they wrap their intensely curious

Listeners reveling in the fascinating, chaotic revelry and glorious, imaginative insanity of Sean Noonan’s epic work The Drummer of Tedworth will glean a bit of his conceptual intention for the project in the opening choral section of the final (and 21st) piece “Give the Drummer a Chance,” before the London Symphony Orchestra goes to town with its boisterious, emphatic swells leading to a whimsical, somehow satisfying narrative conclusion. The chorus sings, “Let the drummer c

Currently celebrating an empowering decade as a multi-faceted, wildly creative force in contemporary instrumental music, multiple Global Music and Zone Music Reporter (ZMR) award winner Todd Mosby is a modern master of conceptual albums. From his Will Ackerman and Tom Eaton produced new age oriented “elements” trilogy (starting with Eagle Mountain  in 2016) through the Jeff Weber-helmed Land of Enchantment  (2023), which captured the magic, strength and beauty of New Mexico a

Anyone who heard veteran country great Michael Peterson’s lush, soul-stirring re-imagining of the Hollies’ 1969 classic “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” would have felt it – that it would hit the perfect chord at the right time, offering transcendent hope via a reminder that despite our differences, we are all human and should be loving and compassionate and discover a sense of brotherhood. When I wrote that Peterson “brings his passionate vocal flair to an epic, soaring and