Three Friends is the third studio album by British progressive rock band Gentle Giant, released in 1972. It was the band's first release to chart in America, peaking at #197 on the Billboard 200. It is the only album by Gentle Giant to feature drummer Malcolm Mortimore following the departure of Martin Smith. A concept album, Three Friends deals with three childhood friends whose lives take them very different places. However, each of the three friends are unsatisfied with their new lives. The closing song ends the story on a cliffhanger; whether or not the three friends ever reunite is never revealed. The album is predominantly instrumental, with some tracks having only brief vocal interludes.

The 2005 released "The Inconsolable Secret" wasn't the best, but it was the most ambitious album of the two US-Retroproggers Steve Babb and Fred Schendel. The double CD was a monumental concept album, on which for the first time Fiauch used a real drummer. In the past, the two multi-instrumentalists had "drummed" or programmed corresponding machines themselves. They also put no less than fifteen guest musicians at the service of this epic work, including a four-piece "Girls Choir", a soprano and a tenor as well as various strings. The album was sold out for a long time - and is now coming back on the market in a deluxe edition. But what's special is probably CD 3, which contains "The Morning She Woke" as well as the four longest tracks of the original work in remix versions…

An audio biography of Grace Jones, produced by Trevor Horn, it's a sonic treat along the lines of Yes's 90125 or Frankie Goes to Hollywood's first album (both produced by Horn). The music ranges from slick R&B runaway grooves to striking audio montages, interrupted occasionally by conversation about Jones's life. Serious ear candy.

For over two decades Trio con Brio Copenhagen have been performing globally at venues such as Carnegie Hall and Wigmore Hall, releasing award-winning recordings and remaining at the forefront of contemporary chamber music. The trio’s new album pairs two giants of the repertoire, Maurice Ravel’s Piano Trio in A Minor and Franz Schubert’s Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat Major, two iconic works which showcase the ensemble’s commitment to the highest standards of performance. Ravel’s trio is a vivid blend of shimmering colours and rhythmic complexity, while Schubert’s trio in B-flat Major, with its lyrical beauty and buoyant spirit, contrasts beautifully, offering moments of tenderness and exuberance in equal measure. This new release reflects Trio con Brio Copenhagen’s reputation for balancing technical brilliance with emotional insight, and is a compelling addition to the ensemble’s acclaimed discography.

Recorded live in San Francisco, Fillmore West 3/27/69 Only 1000 Discs printed incl. a ltd. numbered edition of 50 for the Four Symbols Led Zeppelin Club

This 80-minute collection is taken from a selection of radio and television appearances by Bob Dylan spanning the years 1961 to 1965. Features songs and interviews from the 1961 folk Hootenanny at the Riverside Church in New York, two TV appearances on The Steve Allen Show and more. Among the songs performed are Handsome Molly; Omie Wise; Sally Gal; and many others. Sixteen tracks.

Polly Paulusma bares all amidst a collection of textured acoustic guitars and rich, layered melodic flourishes. 'Wildfires' is mellow and cozy in its production, but its honesty is bittersweet - an intimate and reflective rumination on love's many guises, the easy parts as well as the hard. As always, Paulusma's articulate and emotive lyrics, and her ability to convey the deepest vulnerability with vivid, sometimes nostalgic, imagery is astounding here. The album, as filled with delicate earworms as it is with expressive poetry, burns slowly but no less fiercely, and like love, it can be gentle, it can envelope one completely, and occasionally it can be heart-wrenching.

Swiss vocal phenomenon Andreas Schaerer is celebrated for his unparalleled artistry—a singer, instrumentalist, and storyteller in one. Described as “the Germanic Bobby McFerrin with the flow of a Shakespearean actor” (L’Alsace), his performances are electrifying, his voice an instrument of limitless possibility. In early 2024, the French Académie du Jazz named him European Artist of the Year, a testament to his groundbreaking contributions to music.

Ferdinand Ries (1784-1838) is still best known for the early period in his career when he studied with Beethoven and then became his secretary; copying scores and handling correspondence for a composer whose relationship with the outside world only became more unpredictable with the onset of deafness. However, Ries (like his master, born in Bonn) fled Vienna in 1807 and thereafter embarked on a well-travelled career – in Paris, then Vienna again, venturing as far as St Petersburg and London, before settling in Frankfurt. Within a prolific output, he wrote 30 separate works scored for a solo flute, almost all of which date from his period in London (1813-24), where he won a reputation as a piano teacher to the well-to-do while producing his own music for London’s vibrant concert life.

Ars Antiqua Austria This renowned ensemble was founded in Linz in 1995 by Gunar Letzbor and Michael Oman with a core group of eight musicians dedicated to the task of authentically interpreting Austrian music of the Baroque era. To this end, the group performed on original instruments of the period and devoted much energy to researching and uncovering works that had been neglected until being performed by the group. The ensemble takes account of the wide diversity of cultures that have influenced and contributed to Austrian music during the centuries of the Baroque style when the physical and political boundaries of the country were more extensive. The ensemble infuses its performances with "the joie de vivre of the South, the Slav melancholy, French formality, Spanish pomp, and the Alpine character of the German-speaking regions" (Letzbor), typical constituents of the court, and folk and dance music of that time in Austria. The Ars Antiqua Austria has toured Austria, France, Germany, Slovakia, and the Ukraine, played several festivals of Baroque music, and toured the United States in 2001. The group won a Cannes Classical Award in 2002 for its recording of Viviani's Capricci armonici and continued to release albums, including Antonio Bertali: Promithia Suavissima, Parte Seconda (2005), and Benedikt Anton Aufschnaiter: Dulcia Fidium Harmonia (2009).

A new issue in the attractive and innovative series "Italian Romantics", featuring Italian composers from the turn of the 19/20th century in instrumental music. Francesco Cilea (1866-1950) is best known for his operas, particularly "Adriana Lecouvreur." However, his contributions to instrumental music are equally valuable. Though less renowned than his operatic output, Cilea's instrumental works exhibit a melodic richness and emotional depth characteristic of the Romantic era. The orchestral works show his mastery of lyrical themes and dramatic expression. His works are imbued with a sense of Italianate warmth and passion, reflecting the composer's deep connection to his native land. This collection presents orchestral, and concertante works, a cello sonata and piano trio, and the complete piano music. Artists include I Virtuosi della Scala (Filippo Arlia, conductor), Enrico Bronzi (cello) and Pier Paolo Vincenzi (piano).

Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770) was a virtuoso violinist, composer, theoretician and teacher, a spider in the international cultural web in a time when Italy was the centre of the musical world, his violin school, the "School of Nations", attracted musicians from all over Europe. Tartini wrote 125 concertos for his own instrument, the violin, attractive and melodious works full of bold harmonies and featuring brilliant solo parts that freely converse with individual voices within the orchestra. These violin concertos were so famous and popular at the time that the organist and composer Leonard Frischmuth (1721-1764) made organ transcriptions of six of them.

Elizabeth Turner's Six Lessons for the Harpsichord, published in 1756, the year of her death, is a significant contribution to 18th-century keyboard music, reflecting the stylistic characteristics of the time. Little is known about Turner herself, but her work stands as one of the few harpsichord collections by a female composer during that era, making it a valuable historical artifact. The Six Lessons are structured as suites, each consisting of multiple short movements, such as minuets, and gigues, which were popular dance forms in Baroque music.

If there is one group that embodies progressive rock, it is King Crimson. Led by guitar/Mellotron virtuoso Robert Fripp, during its first five years of existence the band stretched both the language and structure of rock into realms of jazz and classical music, all the while avoiding pop and psychedelic sensibilities. The absence of mainstream compromises and the lack of an overt sense of humor ultimately doomed the group to nothing more than a large cult following, but it made their albums some of the most enduring and respectable of the prog rock era.

Heavy Nova is the ninth studio album by English singer Robert Palmer, released in 1988. His first album for EMI Records after a 15-year association with Island Records, it followed Palmer's very successful album Riptide (1985). The name Heavy Nova derives from Palmer's love of both heavy metal and bossa nova rhythms. The album continued Palmer's popularity with the single "Simply Irresistible", which spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the United States. The album peaked at No. 13 in the US, No. 17 in the UK and No. 15 in The Netherlands. It remains Palmer's second most successful album worldwide, behind his 1985 album Riptide.