GRAMMY WINNER for Best New Age Album of 2012! The music of Omar Akram is a marriage of passion and grace, of adventure and relaxation, of beauty and raw earthiness. He crafts soundscapes that capture the peaceful nature of relaxing in the backyard on a lazy afternoon. Yet, within those compositions is the spark of a daydream; a fantasy of traveling along the Mediterranean coast, exploring its towns and countryside treasures. With this new album for Real Music, newlywed Akram contemplates the nature of love with a collection of twelve songs set in his characteristic style. Piano and strings join with Spanish guitar, while rumba-tinged rhythms and lush new age textures create a sound that is pleasant and exotic. Guest musicians include Charlie Bisharat on violin, Gregg Karukas on keyboards and Brian Kilgore on ethnic percussion. The kiss of romance burns bright in each of the songs, with their tender melodies and clear warmth. Listeners with a love for grand instrumental music will certainly enjoy this release.

Their names were Laura, Livia, and Anna. Together, they were known in the late 1500's as the Tre Donne di Ferrara - the three ladies of Ferrara. Their ensemble was praised by contemporary poets and won highest renown throughout Italy and Germany.

Charles V was certainly the most powerful and charismatic of the Renaissance rulers. Exhausted and worn down by the challenges of imperial rule, he abdicated towards the end of his life and led a secluded existence in the monastery of Cuacos de Yuste in Castile under the motto 'Ecce elongavi fugiens et mansi in solitudine' ('I fled and remained in solitude'). The Utopia Ensemble seeks out the man behind the monarch and examines the duality of power and greatness as well as solitude. Pierre de Manchicourt - court composer to Charles's son and director of the famous Capilla Flamenca - could well have written his Requiem for one of the countless commemorations of Charles V. It radiates serenity and splendour and is juxtaposed here with chansons that moved the heart beneath Charles's imperial armour.

Moss Side Story is an album by Barry Adamson released in 1989. The album is a concept album, a soundtrack album to a non-existent crime film. The music is almost completely instrumental except for occasional screams, vocal samples and a choir. To achieve the soundtrack effect the song titles are descriptive of a film noir plot outline. The inner sleeve came with a short story written by Dave Graney which added to the concept. This complemented outer sleeve which displays the tag line: "In a black and white world, murder brings a touch of colour…". The overall style is reminiscent of the work of Angelo Badalamenti who often collaborates with the film director David Lynch. Adamson would go on to contribute music to Lynch's film Lost Highway (1997). Moss Side is a neighborhood in the city of Manchester, Great Britain, where Adamson was born. The album title is a play on words and a reference to Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story. The title of "The Swinging Detective" plays on Dennis Potter's series of television plays The Singing Detective, while "Round Up The Usual Suspects" is a line made famous by Claude Rains in Casablanca. The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

The Very Best of Level 42 is a compilation released by the UK band Level 42. It features a chronological track listing of the band's hit single releases from 1981 to 1994.

Kim Waters ninth album, Love's Melody was released in 1998 by Shanachie and dedicated to his twin girls. Self-produced with Chuck Loeb, Dino Esposito, Scot Rammer, and David Mann, the CD offers 11 sensitive and enchanting tracks with special guest performances by Chuck Loeb and James Lloyd. In a deviation from Waters' R&B-flavored background, Waters asserts his mastery of the soprano saxophone on this smooth collection of well-crafted tunes. Each composition adds a different dimension to his musical catalog. Lush, poetic rhythms combined with mid-tempo grooves and fresh melodies on songs such as "Nightfall" and "Possession," and assure his success in the contemporary jazz style. Waters' saxophone caters to the senses with the grace of a romantic on the beautiful title track "Love's Melody." His soprano saxophone speaks volumes with the mastery of tone and musicianship that defines the sensual nature of the saxophone.

While soprano Fatma Said’s previous Warner Classics releases crossed cultures and musical genres, this album focuses entirely on German-language songs of the Romantic era: lieder by Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms.At the age of 18, Fatma left her native Cairo to study at the Hanns Eisler Conservatory in Berlin and “Ever since then, the joy of singing this genre has been central to my musical life … I am very passionate about lieder … This wonderful combination of great German poetry and genius composers like Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Brahms.”

A genuine masterpiece inspires musicians to adopt, adapt, or transcribe it without losing any of its greatness. Nevermind's four baroque aces, Anna Besson, Louis Creac'h, Robin Pharo and Jean Rondeau, have taken a creative look at Bach's famous Goldberg Variations and have made their own stylishly insightful 'variations' on the work. As they themselves explain: 'We needed only an informal rehearsal to grasp the incredible potential of a transcription for our ensemble. There have been other arrangements, but nobody has ever attempted this one before now, even though our instruments are among those most typically used in J.S. Bach's chamber music, in his many solo sonatas for flute, violin or gamba with bass continuo and obbligato harpsichord - and they also frequently feature in the arias of his cantatas and Passions.'

The second disc from the great accordionist, Philippe Thuriot. Following the arrangements of Scarlatti Sonatas (CC72994), Philippe plunges in a more daring project: improvisations on Bach's music. The result is amazing for the imagination, inventiveness and inspiration - whilst always remaining respectful to Bach's music.

Jeff Beck found a kindred spirit in Johnny Depp when the two met in 2016. They bonded quickly over cars and guitars and spent most of their time together trying to make each other laugh. At the same time, Beck’s appreciation grew for Depp’s serious songwriting skills and his ear for music. That talent and their chemistry convinced Beck they should make an album together. -Depp agreed and they started in 2019. Over the next three years, they recorded a mix of Depp originals along with a wide range of covers that touches on everything from Celtic and Motown, to the Beach Boys and Killing Joke. In 2020, during the pandemic, they previewed their collaboration with their well-timed cover of John Lennon’s “Isolation.” The duo’s 13-track album, dubbed 18, will arrive on July 15.

Zito's 16th album is descriptively titled Rock N Roll: A Tribute to Chuck Berry. This release finds him broadening his boundaries still further even as it marks a return to his roots. The album consists of 20 Chuck Berry classics performed by Zito and an impressive array of 21 guest guitarists, among them Joe Bonamassa, Walter Trout, Eric Gales, Robben Ford, Richard Fortus, Sonny Landreth, Luther Dickinson, Albert Castiglia, Anders Osborne, and, significantly, Chuck's grandson, Charlie Berry III.

If glam-era rockers Geordie are remembered for much these days, it is for handing on vocalist Brian Johnson to AC/DC at a time when most observers reckoned both he (and they) were long past their sell-by date. Geordie, in particular, had scarcely been heard of in seven years, failing even to impact on the one recent movement that seemed custom-built for them, the so-called New Wave of British Heavy Metal. But AC/DC knew what they were getting, and anyone casting their ears back to Geordie's prime will realize they weren't kidding themselves.

Saucy songs of sex, love and life in the Spanish Golden Age, revived and performed with relish by a native early-music ensemble.

Roland Kaiser prägt die deutsche Musikszene wie kaum ein anderer Solokünstler. Unzählige Lieder von ihm haben sich im Laufe seiner Karriere zu unsterblichen Kulthits entwickelt, die ganze Generationen von Musikfans durch gute, wie durch schlechte Zeiten begleiten, und die längst nicht mehr aus der deutschen Musik-Historie wegzudenken sind. Sein letztes Studioalbum „Perspektiven“ stellt den ersten Top 1-Longplayer seit vierzig Jahren dar und wurde unlängst mit einem Platin-Award ausgezeichnet. Gleichzeitig brach der 72-Jährige einen absoluten Rekord, als er auf seiner vergangenen Tournee zum 50-jährigen Bühnenjubiläum während über zwanzig ausverkauften Konzerten insgesamt vor mehr als 400.000 euphorischen Zuschauerinnen und Zuschauern zu erleben war. Mit der Veröffentlichung seiner neuen Single „Ich werde da sein“ startet Roland Kaiser am 4. Oktober 2024 auch den Vorverkauf für seines Anfang Februar 2025 folgenden, neuen Studioalbums mit dem Titel „Marathon“, auf dem er seinen ganz persönlichen musikalischen „Dauerlauf“ fortsetzt. Nachdem er seine triumphale „50 Jahre - 50 Hits“-Jubiläumstournee erfolgreich abgeschlossen hat, blickt der Sänger nun wieder nach vorne und auf das, was auf seinem Weg noch vor ihm liegt: Ein von diversen Höhen und Tiefen, aber auch von Ausdauer, unbändiger Spielfreude und Lebenslust geprägter Pfad, auf dem er nun gemeinsam mit seinen Fans den nächsten Schritt macht.

Trio Gaspard continues it's acclaimed series of Haydn Trios with this programme of middle and later quartets, designed to be played (and enjoyed) as a standalone programme. As with the previous volumes, the trio include the world premier recording of a piece commissioned to compliment the Haydn's work - in this instance, Trance, by Sally Beamish. The performers note: we should like to highlight just a few examples of the ways in which the inventiveness of his musical materials continues to astound us. The Trio in B flat major for example, opens with a striking combination of opposites: a legato falling scale beginning from what was the highest note on Haydn's piano (F) and a rising arpeggio in short staccato notes climbing up from the bass. After two bars the elements swap places, the staccato arpeggio rising up in the right hand of the piano, while the legato elements continue in the bass. Together, these four bars form a perfectly balanced opening phrase. The character of this beginning feels completely natural and beguilingly elegant, yet it already contains all the main elements out of which Haydn goes on expertly to craft the rest of the movement. In the second movement of this trio, the song-like theme at the beginning is presented with an accompanying bass line. However, Haydn instructs the pianist to play both lines with 'the left hand alone' - a seeming finger-twister which actually lies surprisingly comfortably in the hand. It is an audacious idea and pianistically unique in Haydn's keyboard music.