Music

The Special Focus for December is Fanger and Schonwalder.  Mario Schonwalder runs Manikin Records and is a member of BK&S (Broekhuis, Keller, and Schonwalder).  Thomas Fanger runs Starflux Records and is a member of Mind-Flux and Fanger & Kersten.  Together, Thomas and Mario combine their passion for Berlin School music and the classic sound of analog synthesizers and step sequencers to create the Analog Overdose

In the mid-1980s, a record executive and former DJ named Joe Smith saw that a lot of the big-band greats were disappearing: Count Basie, Harry James and others.

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

And now to a classical takedown.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

BLOCK: That's Pachelbel's "Canon in D," and it appears on one of the hottest releases of the year, "Fifty Shades of Grey: The Classical Album."

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Yes, the classical album. It's composed of works that inspired author E.L. James while she was writing her steamy best-selling trilogy. And it has spent 11 weeks on Billboard's Classical Traditional Albums chart, 10 of those in the top slot.

Freelance Whales' members make huge tiny music. Their instruments tend to produce delicate sounds: banjos, violins, xylophones, drums played delicately with brushes. But their songs are arranged in such a way that these small sounds form grand, swelling passages that start out softly, then build to something majestic.