CCMusic.com

Digitally remastered and expanded two CD edition of the most popular of Manual records - the 2005 shoegaze classic Azure Vista. Jonas Munk aka Manual remastered the original six tracks himself and has added seven live recordings performed on Manual's 2007 US tour. Longtime friend and partner in music Jakob Skott redesigned the artwork for this edition, which comes in a six panel Eco-wallet. Azure Vista was Darla Records' 2005 best seller. Azure Vista's foundation is built on Jonas' trademark songwriting that, while being highly complex and always moving in surprising and unpredictable ways, still maintains a refreshing pop feel and an undeniable flow that makes it seem like the most natural thing in the world. But whereas Jonas' music has always been epic this album is epic in a way that almost completely redefines the word. Jonas' songwriting has been taken to the extreme - but so has every other aspect of his music. The sound on Azure Vista is BIG. Not just big like Cocteau Twins or Slowdive, but occasionally BIG like Van Halen, in scale, not sound, or Simple Minds, very much in both scale and sound. Numerous layers of dreamy guitars blaze back and forth in the mix like shimmering waves rolling in on Californian shores, and countless other sounds, both deriving from electronic and organic sources, saturates the enormous sonic picture: bells, female vocals, old school drum machine sounds, field recordings and majestic synths all play a part in the sonic palette Jonas used in constructing these six sonic tales of summer ambrosia.