With the help of frequent collaborators (and ambient pioneers) Steve Roach and Robert Rich, as well as percussionist/programmer Djen Ajakan Shean, Vidna Obmana piles layers upon layers of diverse sonic textures to create a seamless, flowing record perfectly suited for meditation or simple relaxation. By incorporating various ethnic instruments (including flutes, didgeridoo, and percussion) with abstract synth textures, natural ambient sounds and effects-layered vocals and chanting, Obmama creates mesmerizing, otherworldly soundscapes unlike anything you've heard before. A nice chill-out disc after a night of overstimulation, The Spiritual Bonding is a soothing, natural remedy for 21st century digital burnout.

Darwin! will remain Banco del Mutuo Soccorso's masterpiece. This album, the band's second, is the proud equal of Premiata Forneria Marconi's Per Un Amico and Le Orme's Felona e Sorona in the Italian progressive rock hall of fame. In Darwin!, every promise made by Banco's eponymous debut was realized. Vittorio Nocenzi's writing has flourished into complex songs blending Italian songwriting, bel canto, and progressive rock. The arrival of guitarist Rodolfo Maltese crystallized the band's luxurious sound, all topped by Francesco Di Giacomo's operatic vocals. The majestic "L'Evoluzione" opens the album, providing some of the best moments ever recorded by this band (along with "Canto Nomade per un Prigioniero Politico"). "La Conquista Della Posizione Eretta" ("The Conquest of the Wrong Position") reproduces the same pattern as "Metamorphosi" from the first album…

18 Essential Songs is a one-disc distillation of the triple-disc Janis box set. Running 70 minutes, it is a more extensive best-of than the ten-track 1973 Janis Joplin's Greatest Hits album.

For many listeners, the keyboard works of Gabriel Fauré epitomize French music of the fin de siècle, typically because its languorous melodies and subtle harmonies are at times evocative of late Romantic parlor music. Yet Angela Hewitt defends Fauré's piano music from such a superficial judgment, demonstrating that it is much more substantial in content than the conventional piano pieces of the time, and that the difficulties one encounters in his music are akin to the complexities in Bach. Hewitt's polished performances of the Thème et variations, two Valses-caprices, three Nocturnes, and the Ballade are proof of her longtime commitment to this music, and her penetrating insights into Fauré's expressions and technical artistry reveal levels of inventiveness that are often missed in less competent performances. Of course, having played Fauré for most of her life, Hewitt has intimate knowledge of the music, and her sensitivity and control communicate precisely the effects she wishes, so the music never seems sloppily sentimental or vaguely sketched.

Come a Little Closer is a surprisingly effective mating of a distinctive singer with seemingly incongruous material and production. Helmed by Gabriel Mekler, who'd produced Steppenwolf and Three Dog Night, the record features Etta James supported by a slew of hotshot L.A. session men (including Little Feat's Lowell George). The song selection ranges from "St. Louis Blues" to Randy Newman's perverse "Let's Burn Down the Cornfield" to the dramatic, melismatic "Feeling Uneasy," in which the junk-hungry James improvised wordlessly over an otherwise blues progression. Here's more evidence that Etta is one of the most versatile vocalists of her era.

After dispensing with his services in December 1967, the remaining members of Traffic reinstated Dave Mason in the group in the spring of 1968 as they struggled to write enough material for their impending second album. The result was a disc evenly divided between Mason's catchy folk-rock compositions and Steve Winwood's compelling rock jams. Mason's material was the most appealing both initially and eventually: the lead-off track, a jaunty effort called "You Can All Join In," became a European hit, and "Feelin' Alright?" turned out to be the only real standard to emerge from the album after it started earning cover versions from Joe Cocker and others in the 1970s.

Charlie Musselwhite released the acoustic Mississippi Son in 2022; it was a towering achievement in a career full of them. It took home a Blues Music Award for Best Acoustic Blues Album. In 2023, he and Dynatones released the rowdy, undernoted Curtain Call. That year Musselwhite also played the role of Alvin Reynolds in Martin Scorsese's epic Killers of the Flower Moon. Musselwhite's Look Out Highway marks the very first time in his long career that he's used his touring band in the studio. He, guitarist Matt Stubbs, drummer June Core, bassist Randy Burmudes, and Kid Andersen on piano and Hammond B-3 recorded the set at Andersen's Greaseland Studio in San Jose, California as well as in Musselwhite's new home in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Andersen engineered the set and assisted co-producers Henrietta "Henri" Musselwhite – Charlie's spouse, manager, and constant companion – and Gary Vincent.

The complete organ works by Walther! Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748, a near contemporary of Bach) spent the major part of his life as the organist of the Church of St. Peter and Paul in Weimar, where he also was teacher of the Duke of Weimar. He formed a close friendship with Johann Sebastian Bach, of whom he was a second cousin. Walthers organ music may be divided into a large corpus of Chorale settings, in which he followed the tradition of Bach, and the transcriptions of fashionable concertos by composers like Telemann, Albinoni, Torelli, Vivaldi, Gentili and many others.

Der Tod Jesu of Carl Heinrich Graun (1704–59), completed in 1755, was for decades the musical mainstay of Passiontide services (a position now held by Bach’s and St. John Passions), being performed by the Berlin Singakademie virtually every Good Friday until 1884. Unlike the passions of Bach, Schütz, and other predecessors, Graun’s work does not set any texts of Scripture. Instead, in line with burgeoning Enlightenment sensibilities, the entire libretto by Carl Wilhelm Ramler (1725–98) is written in the exalted style of impassioned poetic declamation common to opera libretti of the era, in supposed imitation of Greek tragedy. At less than half the length of the Bach passions, and musically far less complex, with dignified and attractive arias composed in a style somewhat akin to those of Handel’s Messiah , it remains winsome even today, and its enduring popularity is readily comprehended.

Tālivaldis Ķeniņš (1919–2008) is a name that is not known to most classical listeners despite of his long international career as a composer. This album presents three orchestral works by one of Latvia’s greatest 20th century composers performed by the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Andris Poga and Guntis Kuzma.