1974 live-recordings of US - Jazz and World Fusion artists Oregon documenting the band at their mesmerizing best.

Oregon, formed in 1970, comprised Ralph Towner (classical and 12-string guitars), Paul McCandless (oboe and English horn), Glen Moore (double bass) and Collin Walcott (sitar and tabla).

The band's music has always been almost totally acoustic. ''Acoustic instruments sound more expressive to me,'' Towner explained to Jazzwise magazine (UK) in September 1997. He further explained his guitar style: ''With classical guitar [you're] using all the fingers of your right hand to pluck which means you can be sounding anything from two to five notes in exact unison, rather than a strum.'' As well as their core instruments, Towner has played trumpet, synths and piano with the band, McCandless bass clarinet and flute, Moore flute and violin and Walcott clarinet and dulcimer. To name but some. ''At one time we were carrying eighty instruments on the road!'' McCandless has said.

The combining of instruments from disparate musical traditions and the musicians' range of influences meant that 'jazz' was always an inadequate label for the band. ''Live In Bremen 1974'' documents Oregon at their mesmerizing best. The interplay between the four players is stunning and on each piece mood and texture are ever-changing, yet always following an aesthetic logic that seems irrefutable. ''Live In Bremen 1974'', however, is a reminder of a band that made music that had never been heard before, that had never been imagined before. One track is titled ''Brujo'', Spanish for ''sorcerer.'' Truly, Towner, McCandless, Moore and Walcott were musical sorcerers whose playing retains its power to enchant not only the band's original fans but even, surely, anyone lucky enough to be hearing the band for the very first time.

Gyorgy Sebok (1922-1999) was a Hungarian-born American pianist who was also renowned as a teacher and giver of masterclasses. He made more than 16 recordings for the Erato label as a soloist early on in his career. He has received countless honors and awards throughout his career in recognition of musical life. His fellow Hungarian pianist Livia Rev said of him: “one of the greatest pianists in the second half of the century, if not the greatest.” Cellist Janos Starker, with whom Sebok played for more than six decades, pulled even fewer punches: “First hand, second hand, or in recordings, Gyorgy Sebok is the greatest pianist who ever lived,” and also “one of the greatest teachers of all time.” This live recording was made at the 1991 Grange de Meslay Recital, Parcay-Meslay, France.

Although little known, the literature for two violins has an ancient history, that on one hand refers to the educational purpose of playing together and reciprocally listening to each other, and on the other hand refers to folk tradition. The compositions featured on this album truly move within all these different perspectives: they are in part folk music pieces, in part pieces with a didactic aim, but above all they are dialogs with a high chamber music value. Bartók and Prokofiev, with the Forty-four duets and the Sonata for two violins gifted us with two cornerstones of the literature for these instruments in the narrow space of two years, 1931 and 1932, opening this repertoire to new textures and new languages.