Unlike many bands claiming to be brothers, Greg and Thom Moore actually are siblings, growing up together in Altadena, CA. And although they had both been playing in various projects for years, it wasn't until 2001 that the two finally established the Moore Brothers. Beginning in the late '80s, Thom Moore formed several bands, including Colorful Calliope with R&B singer Jon B. Greg released a solo record before joining Thom for the folk-punk band Thumb of the Maid. After its other members departed, Thom and Greg formed Moore Brothers and released their debut, Colossal Small, on Amazing Grease (founded by Pavement's Scott Kannberg).

The Czech-born Eduard Nápravník (1839–1916) became one of the pivotal figures in the musical life of nineteenth-century Russia: as conductor of the Imperial Mariinsky Opera in St Petersburg, he gave the premieres of some of the most important Russian operas, among them Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, six by Tchaikovsky and nine by Rimsky-Korsakov. But his own music has largely been lost from sight – a fate it emphatically does not deserve, as these three works for violin and piano prove: big-hearted and big-boned, replete with passionate Tchaikovskian melody, they reveal a composer ripe for rediscovery.