Another day of limited listening – I’ve only had a few things on today, as I’ve been immersed in reading Dashiell Hammett’s The Red Harvest and Walpole’s very silly gothic romance The Castle of Otranto. So, the only sounds to enter my lug-holes today have been:

• Cecilia Bartoli – The Salieri Album
• Tom Johnson – An Hour For Piano (from the Brilliant Classics “Minimal Piano Collection” box, Jeroen Van Veen)
• Public Image Ltd. – The Flowers of Romance – twice. It’s a mysterious and troubling record, this. Very Krautrock-y, but also with an unmistakable Eastern influence on the opening track, in which John Lydon impersonates an Islamic call to prayer accompanied by heavily gated drums and a ticking watch. All very odd, and perhaps not as consistent as it’s predecessor, Metal Box, but an LP I’m tremendously fond of, nevertheless.
• Shostakovich, 24 Preludes & Fugues op.87 (Tatiana Nikolayeva – better than Ashkenazy by a country mile)