"At its core we always wanted it to be head music (music for the ‘heads’, not headphone music), listened to as an album, not as individual songs. This is why we are releasing this album with no singles or promo tracks."
The band continues, "the recording and writing initially began in a house called Pen Y Bryn in Talsarnau, Wales in the fall out from the weirdness of the Covid days. Remote and with only ourselves and the view of Portmeirion in the distance we got to work." "With the opening track, "Strawberry Line" (our tribute to our dear furry friend Alfie Barrow, who appears on the albums cover) as the metronomic guide for the album, we then resumed recording, as before, at Invada Studios in Bristol, whilst still touring around Europe and North/South America." "After playing hundreds of gigs and festivals over the years we felt that touring had started to influence our writing to the point we weren’t sure who we were anymore. So we decided to go back to the origins of where we were at on our first album. With zero expectations and just playing together in a room."

Handel, a child of his time, was fascinated by the poignant human dramas and emotions exemplified by Greek and Roman classical myths, dramas and poetry. A theatre composer to his very bones, he was remarkably skilled in the portrayal of human psychology. The oboe was an instrument especially beloved by Handel and it is the unifying element in this fascinating anthology of arias and cantatas focusing on themes of love and madness sung by soprano Johannette Zomer. Zomer is accompanied by oboist Bart Schneemann and the ensemble Musica Amphion under direction of Jan-Pieter Belder.

Cardboard sleeve reissue from Herbert von Karajan features SHM-SACD format for the first time. Japanese original release. Recorded in August 1964 in St. Moritz.

At the age of 71, Johnny Frigo finally had his debut as a leader on record, with the exception of an obscure effort in 1957. Although he had spent much of his career as a studio bassist, Frigo successfully switched full-time to his first love, the violin, and was immediately considered one of the top swing-based violinists. Joined by both Bucky and John Pizzarelli on guitars, either Ron Carter or Michael Moore on bass, and drummer Butch Miles, Frigo is in wonderful form on 14 standards, including "Pick Yourself Up," "Detour Ahead" (which he had co-written while with the Soft Winds in the late '40s), "Stompin' at the Savoy" and "The Song Is You". This recommended album launched the Chesky label.

Billy Squier's 1982 follow-up to his breakthrough album "Don't Say No" was his second consecutive top five album and was produced, like its predecessor, by Queen producer Mack. Another huge success for Squier, it sold a million copies in the US in its first three months and has gone on to surpass US sales of two million copies. The single "Everybody Wants You" spent six weeks at number one on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor of Queen make a guest appearance on background vocals on the title track.

Grete Skarpeid has always had a close association with music. She spent her childhood days in Stavanger, Norway constantly singing, playing the piano or listening to records. Joining a choir led her further on to singing solo. Musically she has been inspired by Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Maria Joan and many others, as well as the great classical composers whose music she has enjoyed extensively over the years.

Ernie Hecks has been playing some lilting dance music at San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel but it's only been within the past year that the disk-buyinq crowd has caught up with him. Here again art the smooth Heckscher sounds on pops and show tunes for more dancing and listening pleasure.

Even in scholarly explorations of French-Baroque harpsichord repertoire, the name of Jean-Jacques Beauvarlet-Charpentier (1734-1794) is mentioned only in passing. Previous albums of his music have been dedicated to his organ output; this new album will attract any collectors of French Baroque music, who will be rewarded by memorable and colourful portrait pieces every bit as vivid as the likes of d’Anglebert and Couperin.

Giovanni Maria da Crema remains to this day a mysterious figure in the history of the lute, with very little information known about his life. However his oeuvre is crucial to understanding the lute’s place in 16th-century Italy. His Libro primo, published in Venice by Antonio Gardane in 1546, is presented as an edition “newly reprinted and corrected by the author himself”, indicating the existence of a rival prior edition, namely that published by Girolamo Scotto, with the same contents and minimal differences. Two years later, also in Venice, Scotto would publish Francesco da Milano’s Libro settimo which also includes keyboard pieces by Giulio Segni da Modena intabulated for the lute by Giovanni Maria da Crema. Some of these intabulations had already appeared in Giovanni Maria da Crema’s Libro primo without mention of Giulio Segni’s authorship of the keyboard original.

John Williams, classical guitar virtuoso, is known for his wide-ranging approach to repertory, which includes appearances playing electric rock guitar and international music.

Momoe Yamaguchi (山口 百恵) is a Japanese former singer, actress, and idol whose career lasted from 1972 to 1980. Often simply referred to by her given name "Momoe", Yamaguchi is one of the most successful singers in Japanese music, releasing 32 singles, including three number one hits, and 21 studio albums. "L.A. Blue" is her 18th album, recorded in Los Angeles using local musicians and production staff. It features mostly Japanese-language songs in light disco-funk arrangements and couple AOR-ballads as well.

Melanie Adami has discovered the Lieder of Willy Heinz Muller, her great-grandfather. These charming Lieder have been combined with vocal works by composers, who were closely related to Willy Heinz Muller.

Lucius have signed with Fantasy Records for future album releases, including the first, an all-new re-recording of the group’s seminal Wildewoman album. Wildewoman (The New Recording) includes 12-13 freshly recorded tracks, including songs with featured appearances by Brandi Carlile, Marcus Mumford and Devon Gilfillian. Though the original album had a dozen tracks, Carlile — who produced the band’s previous album — is on a 13th track, “Housewarming,” that was not part of the original album back in 2013, but is considered a fan favorite.

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra launch their new label with a powerful pairing of Debussy and Strauss led by Chief Conductor Jaime Martín. The Orchestra’s new label will share the incredible ecosystem of classical music across Australia, and their first album showcases two of their nation’s top talents – rising star soprano Siobhan Stagg and noted composer Brett Dean.

This album takes us to the Turkish town of Hasankeyf: once one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, home of empires and civilisations, now deep underwater as part of a project to dam the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. How do you articulate the heartbreak of erasing 12,000 years of history and the drowning the homes of tens of thousands of people?