As reported on SDE back in April, The Cardigans will release a B-sides/rarities compilation – in two volumes – called The Rest of the Best. These covers some of the bands recordings released as B-sides on singles, soundtracks and as bonus tracks on Japanese, French and UK versions of their albums between 1994 – 2006.

Born in 1968, Arve Henriksen studied at the Trondheim Conservatory from 1987-1991, and has worked as a freelance musician since 1989.

Born in 1968, Arve Henriksen studied at the Trondheim Conservatory from 1987-1991, and has worked as a freelance musician since 1989.

With Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, the French ensemble Links presents a classic of the 20th century. Music for 18 Musicians is approximately 55 min utes long. The first sketches were made for it in May 1974 and it was completed in March 1976. Although its steady pulse and rhythmic energy re- late to many of my earlier works, its instrumentation, structure and harmony are new.

From the five-hundred-year old musical history of the Sufi Fakirs of Bengal to the virtuoso musicianship of Calcutta’s guitar master Debashsish Bhattacharya and Carnatic violinist Jyotsna Srikanth, this Rough Guide explores India’s spiritual connections with its ancient musical traditions.

2026 marks both the 60th anniversary of Gaspar Cassadó’s death and the 150th anniversary of Pablo Casals’s birth.

Emilie Mayer - her works bear witness to an indomitable personality, despite having languished for so long in the shadow of her male peers. The musicians of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin have resolved to do her justice with this revelatory symphonic triptych of recordings. They begin with two of her most remarkable works played on period instruments, including a wondrous Blüthner piano handpicked by the soloist here, Alexander Melnikov.

Emilie Mayer - her works bear witness to an indomitable personality, despite having languished for so long in the shadow of her male peers. The musicians of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin have resolved to do her justice with this revelatory symphonic triptych of recordings. They begin with two of her most remarkable works played on period instruments, including a wondrous Blüthner piano handpicked by the soloist here, Alexander Melnikov.

2026 marks both the 60th anniversary of Gaspar Cassadó’s death and the 150th anniversary of Pablo Casals’s birth.

The 1610 Vespers, composed at a pivotal moment in Claudio Monteverdi’s life when he sought not only to establish his new musical language but also to obtain high-placed employment, take on new significance here. Based on a renewed philological approach and the most recent musicological research, this version recreates the Vespers in accordance with the Mantuan customs of the time, featuring an order of service and plainchant drawn from local sources. Recorded in the Palatine Basilica of Santa Barbara in Mantua and using only the instruments mentioned in the score, this interpretation favours a chamber aesthetic, as suggested by Monteverdi’s remark ad Sacella sive Principum Cubicula accomodata — a work conceived for chapels and the princes’ chambers — and reveals the Vespers in their original intimacy and far removed from monumental display.

The music on this album grew from the idea for a new song cycle in which women - so often silent in history and mythology – were to speak for themselves and in which all material would be created and performed by women. The Ragazze Quartet found a true kindred spirit in soprano Katharine Dain. A remarkable group of female composers and librettists also joined the project entitled “They Have Waited Long Enough”, each contributing in their own unique and personal way. The result is a rich and diverse collage of songs by Aftab Darvishi, Annelies van Parys, Calliope Tsoupaki, Aida Shirazi and Saskia Venegas Aernouts. What unites them is the urgency that resonates throughout: it is important - if not essential - that these stories are recorded and heard.

Inspired by the idea of performing in a musical in Japan for the first time, the album brings together newly recorded songs and beautifully reimagined favourites, including pieces that many Japanese audiences will recognise from films and commercials. Sunset Over Broadway is currently available exclusively in Japan through Amazon Japan, Tower Records, and at Sarah’s performances of Sunset Boulevard at Tokyu Theatre Orb.

It is impossible to imagine the modern bassoon without him: almost 200 years ago, Carl Almenrader, together with Johann Adam Heckel, founded the instrument-making workshop that continues to dominate the global bassoon market unchallenged to this day. Almenrader's skill on the instrument, his refined sense of tone, and Heckel's precision craftsmanship laid the foundations for the success that Almenrader carried out into the world as a travelling virtuoso with his own compositions. Michael Kaulartz and Carl Sonje Montag present Almenrader's duets in an impressively agile, virtuosic and yet surprisingly rich and varied manner.

Face to Face - Live is a live album by the Scottish funk and R&B group Average White Band (AWB), originally released in 1999 through EMI-Capitol Special Markets. The performance was recorded live at the historic Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco while the band was touring with Tower of Power in support of their 1997 studio album, Soul Tattoo. The live record serves as a showcase for the band's revised late-90s lineup, bridging classic 1970s funk and soul sounds with a fresh production aesthetic.

This inaugural album, recorded live at the 2023 Festival PAAX GNP in Mexico’s Mayan Riviera, brings together three landmark concertos under the baton of conductor Alondra de la Parra, Artistic Director and Founder of the festival. Works by Paquito D’Rivera, Omar Massa, Yamandu Costa and Sérgio Assad trace a vibrant sonic journey from the Caribbean to Buenos Aires and Brazil, where African, Chinese, and Latin American traditions meet the symphonic stage.