A beautiful and unabashedly epic ambient concept album. In an album where the concept is specific and, dare I say, just a little esoteric, an artist must never doubt their angle, and Tony King pulls it off with grandiose flair. Superb
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If there is anything as appealing to the ear as Tony King's Wine Music, then it is the story of its composition. Wine Music is an aural feast, with a beautiful collection of sounds, melodic, harmonic and rhythmic, all made from sampling wine bottles, glasses, barrels and corks. The sheer technical implications of this would be enough to make most musicians either give up, or just drain the damn bottle and pass out! This, however, was not to be the path for Tony King.


Technical brilliance aside, the music itself, devoid from its creation stands alone as a wonderful, immersive experience. Indeed, many composers do not acheive the sort of complexity and beauty with a wide array of instruments and musicians playing their music. From the dreamy "Toast to Old Friends" to the classical sounding "A fugue good wines" the incredible does not cease to amaze. While listening to the bouncy "Scarecrow Jig" you could be forigven for thinking that you are listening to a skillful panflute or tin whistle player, but the occasional percussive use of a cork popping open brings you back to the unbelievable reality of the Music - that is made from  various wine related implements.


The only things that aren't made of wine are the CD and cover themselves - but I'm sure Tony King, being as resourceful as he has thus far proven, will eventually overcome even this barrier!!!
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TONY KING "Wine Music"

Two years in the making. For two years Tony sampled individual sounds from wine bottles, wine corks, wine glasses, wine barrels, anything connected with wine. Imagine the pains-taking reseach; "Damn, I just opened this bottle of red for the cork sound but, bugger me, I'm going to have to drink it to save it from waste." Ah, the suffering of the artist. Seriously, this is more than just a novelty idea, this is some creative and enjoyable music. Tony must be producer of the year for one thing; the fidelity on this is beautiful, this bloke knows how to tweak. Every single little sound crisp and level, sequenced and mixed together immaculately. What's great is that the sounds neither truly leave their origins to become something alien, but are exquisitely musical enough to carry the tunes. The music also expresses a duality between being laid back and relaxing, and involving and expressive at the same time. Just like a really good bottle of plonk. If I had to nit-pick, I'd say some of the tracks are a tad too short (although given how labour-intensive making them must be you can forgive that), and that the melodic sounds tended to remain static throughout the album; although they come into their own on the Bach-esque "Fugue Good Wines": the spirit of Walter/Wendy Carlos lives!. I love the percussive sounds best myself, their really rich and satisfying. But there's such a wealth of ingenuity poured into this, and it's succesful in it's mission to be played whilst dining and wining, or for my part relaxing after a meal with something a tad exotic in the glass. Now let's hear "Beer Music"! (On the other hand, mabey Australians at least have been for the last few decades or so...) 

for more info go to
http://www.winemusic.biz 


Review in Ezine Taped Crusaders 1/9/04
by IAM
http://wormfood1.tripod.com/thetapedcrusaders/id3.html
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This Album is amazing! It is as beautiful as it is interesting.It is as if Crystal Glasses and Bottles could sing! The Barrels sound like Irish drums.It is perfect for dinner music. None of my friends could guess what the instruments are and nobody can believe all the sounds come from Wine. It grows on you and is stuck in my CD stacker. Well done!! I would like to know more about how it was made. There is not much detail about this on the Website.
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