Opus

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Opus (Schiller album)

Opus is the eighth studio album of the music project Schiller created by the German electronic musician Christopher Von Deylen. The album was announced on July 1, 2013 (2013-07-01) and was released on August 30, 2013 (2013-08-30). On this album Schiller has collaborated with Russian operatic soprano Anna Netrebko, French pianist Hélène Grimaud and German classical oboist Albrecht Mayer. Opus is the first release of the new label "Panorama" by Deutsche Grammophon. The album reached in its first week number 1 of the German albums chart and number 6 in Switzerland and number 10 in Austria. These are the highest entries of Schiller in Austria and Switzerland and the fourth number-1-album of Schiller in Germany. Schiller has received a Gold award in Germany in December 2013 for 100.000 sold albums of Opus. In 2014 there will be a reedition of the album: Opus - White Album.

Album

The album Opus combines electronic music with classical music such as Swan Lake. It's also inspired by and based on songs such as Gymnopédie no. 1 by Erik Satie, Edvard Grieg's Solveig's Song, Sergei Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini op. 43 and Claude Debussy's Reverie. After Schiller already released some singles with classical influences such as "Ein schöner Tag" (2000) with German singer Isgaard and "Time for Dreams" (2008) with Chinese pianist Lang Lang, it's the first completely classical inspired album of Schiller. Originally it was planned as a purely instrumental album, but then it was supplemented with vocals during the developing process. For the creation of the album Christopher von Deylen travelled to the Coachella Valley in California, USA. The performances of Anna Netrebko were recorded in the Dvorák Hall of the Rudolfinum in Prague, Hélène Grimaud's performances were recorded at the Kaufman Astoria Studios in New York City, Diana Tishchenko's and Albrecht Mayer's performances were recorded at the b-sharp Studios in Berlin.

Opus the Penguin

Opus the Penguin (Opus T. Penguin) is a fictional character created by artist Berkeley Breathed. Breathed has described him as an "existentialist penguin" and the favorite of his many characters.

Opus has appeared in several of Breathed's creations, most notably his 1980s comic strip Bloom County. Breathed also included Opus in the sequel strip to Bloom County, Outland, and later made him the star of his own self-titled strip.

Introduction and appearance

Opus was originally introduced in June, 1981, as a one-time gag about hapless Mike Binkley bringing home what he thought was a German Shepherd, which turned out to be a penguin, much to the disappointment of his father. After being featured in a few strips, the character was dropped for several months, before being gradually re-introduced in January, 1982, and eventually becoming a central character in Bloom County. Opus' popularity quickly grew until he became the signature character of Bloom County and of Breathed's subsequent comic strips.

Velvet

Velvet is a type of woven tufted fabric in which the cut threads are evenly distributed, with a short dense pile, giving it a distinctive feel. By extension, the word velvety means "smooth like velvet." Velvet can be made from either synthetic or natural fibers.

Construction & composition

Velvet is woven on a special loom that weaves two thicknesses of the material at the same time. The two pieces are then cut apart to create the pile effect, and the two lengths of fabric are wound on separate take-up rolls. This complicated process meant that velvet was expensive to make before industrial power looms became available, and well-made velvet remains a fairly costly fabric. Velvet is difficult to clean because of its pile, but modern dry cleaning methods make cleaning more feasible. Velvet pile is created by warp or vertical yarns and velveteen pile is created by weft or fill yarns.

Velvet can be made from several different kinds of fibers, traditionally, the most expensive of which is silk. Much of the velvet sold today as "silk velvet" is actually a mix of rayon and silk. Velvet made entirely from silk is rare and usually has market prices of several hundred US dollars per yard. Cotton is also used to make velvet, though this often results in a less luxurious fabric. Velvet can also be made from fibers such as linen, mohair, and wool. A cloth made by the Kuba people of the Democratic Republic of Congo from raffia is often referred to as "Kuba velvet". More recently, synthetic velvets have been developed, mostly from polyester, nylon, viscose, acetate, and from either mixtures of different synthetics or from combined synthetics and natural fibers (for example viscose mixed with silk produces a very soft, reflective fabric). A small percentage of spandex is sometimes added to give the final material a certain amount of stretch (hence "stretch velvet").

Velvet (dog)

Velvet is a black lab/shepherd cattle mixed-breed dog, owned by Matty Bryant of Milwaukie, Oregon, who helped save three climbers, including Bryant, when they became stranded on Mount Hood, Oregon on February 18, 2007.

The three climbers and Velvet toppled off a ledge while descending from a climb of Mount Hood. Due to low visibility, they stepped off a ledge at about 8,300 feet (2,500 m) elevation during a storm, separating them from five other members of the party. The five reported the accident and were themselves soon rescued. The three fallen climbers activated Mountain Locator Units to let searchers find their position which was at about 7,400 feet (2,300 m) elevation in White River Canyon. Due to worsening conditions, they were forced to spend the night on the mountain while 70 miles per hour (110 km/h) winds blew with temperatures in the 20s (-1 to -7 C). Velvet spent the night going from person to person to ensure they kept warm as they huddled under two sleeping bags and a tarp. The climbers were rescued the next morning.

Velvet (Savoy song)

"Velvet" is a song by Savoy, a band fronted by Paul Waaktaar-Savoy from their first album, Mary Is Coming. Savoy's version was released as a single in the US, but got very little airplay.

A-ha's Version

A-ha's version of "Velvet" replaced Savoy's guitars with sitars. Their version, the third single from Minor Earth Major Sky, was released to radio stations in Germany (and in other European countries such as Sweden, Switzerland and Holland) in September 2000 and was released to German record stores on 6 November (one week later in other parts of Europe). Originally, "The Sun Never Shone That Day" was to be released in Norway instead of "Velvet", but it was later decided that "Velvet" would also be released in Norway.

The backing vocals were performed by Simone Larsen of the Norwegian band D'Sound.

Track listing