Essential is the second best-of collection from French new age music project
Era, founded by composer and performer
Eric Levi. Issued in 2010, just five years after the similarly constructed The Very Best of Era, it collected tracks from all of
Era's studio albums, including the two-part project "Classics," which found
Levi adapting works by classical composers like Verdi,
Mahler, and
Handel to his signature new age sound. Some of
Era's best-known tracks, like "Ameno," are also here in newly remixed forms. ~ Sergey Mesenov