By Jon Longhi

Brian Eno: Music For Installations (CD & LP Box Set):
One of the things I've always loved about Brian Eno is that he seems to have an almost limitless output of new music. His body of work is gigantic. I've been buying his cds for decades and it's nice to know that he'll always come up with something new to charm, beguile, or soothe me. His ambient pieces tend to be my favorite ones. In these works, he tries to create a kind of music that sounds like it is going on forever and you are just hearing a tiny excerpt of it. In the book that accompanies this new box set, Eno reveals that he has been obsessed with creating music that doesn't just sound like it goes on forever but actually DOES go on forever. To aid him in this quest, he created what he refers to as "generative systems." These are either tape loops or computer programs that take simple harmonious tones and fragments of melody, and then randomly recombines them in patterns of music that will not repeat themselves for sometimes years or even decades. He even developed a computer program called 77 Million Paintings that creates an endless output of ambient music that NEVER repeats itself and is a truly infinite piece of music. This box set is a retrospective of some of the best of these sonic experiments. The title Music For Installations is quite literal because most of these works were composed to accompany art installations and Eno went to great lengths to make sure that every person who visited the art exhibits heard a different and unique piece of music. Some of these art installations were open for six months but had soundtracks that could play for over two centuries! This is a transcendentally beautiful set of music and it goes on for hours and hours. Like the best ambient music, it can either be in the background or the foreground of your life. The soothing sonic textures are guaranteed to heal your soul and move your troubled mind to tranquil peaceful places. The set is a little expensive, but since you get six CDs and roughly as many hours of music, you're only paying about ten bucks per CD/hour, which in the long run is a real bargain.

There were lots of soundtrack releases to choose from this year, with many limited edition color vinyl versions creating excitement and selling out extremely fast. Two members of Radiohead make appearances on this list, and we also have two soundtracks for the same film franchise -- the original film and its later update. Music for television is becoming popular too, and we have 2 such soundtracks on our list.

Read on to see our 20 best selling soundtracks of 2018 and find out what made each release so special.

	20. Alexandre Desplat - The Shape of Water [OST] Release Date: CD on 12/8/17, LP on 10/5/18 Guillermo del Toro's lush fantasy romanceThe Shape of Water won big at the 2018 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Original Score for Alexandre Desplat. It's no surprise that this soundtrack made our top 20 best selling soundtacks of the year.
	19. John Carpenter - Halloween (1978) [40th Anniversary Transparent Orange Vinyl] [Score] Release Date: LP on 10/26/18 Continue reading...

Yesterday, December 13th, beloved prolific jazz-pop vocalist Nancy Wilson died at age 81 in her Pioneertown, CA home following a prolonged illness, according to the artist's management company. Celebrated for her commanding versatile vocal style Nancy Wilson enjoyed a rich five decade long career, recording dozens of albums, performing jazz ballads, American standards, Broadway show tunes, and easy listening vocals as well as such other genres as disco. In addition to her music career, the African American artist was also a noted civil rights activist during her lifetime. Back in 1965 she was among those to march on Selma, Alabama. As Wilson repeatedly stated over the years, one of her lifelong missions was to continually break down prevalent racial stereotypes. This she accomplished via such things as her appearances on The Carol Burnett Show.

While her music is generally found filed under “jazz” or “soul” or "pop" in interviews Wilson insisted on not been associated with any one modern musical genre, rather describing herself as a “song stylist” who tells stories in an intimate engaging fashion. That description is certainly true of some of her best known songs that tackled topics of failed relationships and heartache in an open honest and empowered manner, now seen as ahead of its time. In an artist tribute the NYT described Wilson as a, “forerunner of the modern female empowerment singer, with the brassy inflections and biting inflections to fuel it.” This apt description applies to her best known songs including such definitive Nancy Wilson hit singles as “Face It Girl, It’s Over” from 1968 and “Guess Who I Saw Today” from 1960.