Formed in Portland, Oregon in the mid-seventies, Harlequin Mass was part of a brief and modest wave of bands coming from American Northwest in that decade (Heart, Nu Shooz, Quarterflash, the Wipers). Unlike most of their contemporaries though, Harlequin Mass were largely influenced by progressive bands such as the Moody Blues, Yes, and Genesis. The band has pointed to the release of 'Close to the Edge' as the pivotal moment in the maturation of their sound, and their sound has been compared to a folk-influenced version of Yes and ELP.
Touring mostly in the upper Northwest, the band failed to gain much of a following, but did manage to release a single album, which unfortunately was released in late 1978 just in time to be swept under the carpet in light of the burgeoning punk and new-wave movements of the late seventies…

Featuring some of Schiller’s most restrained, stripped-down production output, the largely dreamlike "Sehnsucht" is formatted like his other studio albums, with vocal and instrumental tracks both part of the makeup. However, several tracks are ambient in the truest sense, consisting strictly of atmospheric wash and no beats. The album features collaboration with several established artists like Xavier Naidoo, Jaël, Kim Sanders, and Klaus Schulze among others.

Blind musician Nobuyuki Tsujii was the first Japanese pianist signed to the Deutsche Grammophon label. He received a gold medal at the 2009 Van Cliburn Competition. Tsujii is also a composer of both concert music and film music. He has recorded for various labels and released his Deutsche Grammophon debut, a recording of Beethoven's difficult Piano Sonata No. 29 in B flat major, Op. 106 ("Hammerklavier"), in 2024.Tsujii, sometimes known simply as Nobu, was born in Tokyo on September 13, 1986. He was blind from birth due to eye deformations, but at age two, he picked out the notes do, re, mi on a toy piano and went on to show exceptional talent, beginning formal lessons at four. When Tsujii was seven, he took first prize in an all-Japan competition for music-making by blind students sponsored by the Tokyo Helen Keller Association.

From the album opener, 'Move On', a song from 1974, to 'I Like the Things You Do', written as recently as 2023, 'The Vault' offers a comprehensive look at Felder's rich musical history. The album's title reflects this expansive journey through time, blending timeless rock anthems with heartfelt ballads in a way that only Felder can. What sets The Vault apart is the incredible roster of musical giants that have come together to lend their talents to the project. Felder is joined by true rock royalties including David Paich, Steve Lukather, Joseph 'Joe' Williams, and Greg Phillinganes of Toto, renowned drummers such as Greg Bissonette, Brian Tichy, Todd Sucherman, plus Timothy Drury, Nathan East, Nina Winter and Lenny Castro, among others.

With seven top 40 singles, six top 40 albums and over a million record sales worldwide, Turin Brakes return with a brand-new record - Spacehopper out 23rd May via Cooking Vinyl. Produced by the band alongside Grammy-winning Guy Massey (with credits such as Kylie Minogue, Ed Sheeran and Spiritualized), Spacehopper is their first new music in over three years and marks the 10th studio album from Turin Brakes, a big milestone for a band who released their debut album over 24 years ago - The Mercury Prize nominated The Optimist LP which catapulted them into the mainstream and achieved Gold status in the UK. They are a band that understands the art of longevity and Spacehopper promises to be a worthy edition to a rich and sonically diverse catalogue of albums, finding the South London 4-piece in a reflective mood…

Issued in 1969, California Bloodlines is regarded by many to be singer/songwriter John Stewart's finest work. That's debatable, but it is a hell of an album. Stewart, who had finally left behind the Kingston Trio to pursue a solo career, solidified it here. Well known as the guy who wrote "Daydream Believer" for the Monkees, Stewart proved to be a credible, sometimes even enigmatic performer in his own right. Nick Venet produced California Bloodlines. He took Stewart to Nash Vegas and enlisted a host of studio cats who existed largely outside of Chet Atkins' countrypolitan mafia: drummer Kenneth A. Buttrey, bassist Norbert Putnam, harmonicat Charlie McCoy, Lloyd Green on pedal steel, and others, including the most sought-after upright pianist in country music history: Hargus "Pig" Robbins. Incidentally, many of these same musicians played on Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline session…

This LP comprises one of altoist Lee Konitz's greatest sessions. In 1967 he recorded a series of very diverse duets, all of which succeed on their own terms. Konitz is matched with valve trombonist Marshall Brown on a delightful version of "Struttin' with Some Barbecue" and matches wits with the tenor of Joe Henderson on "You Don't Know What Love Is." He plays "Checkerboard" with pianist Dick Katz, "Erb" with guitarist Jim Hall, "Tickle Toe" with the tenor of Richie Kamuca (Konitz switches to tenor on that cut), and an adventurous and fairly free "Duplexity" with violinist Ray Nance. Konitz also has three different duets in five versions of "Alone Together" and, on "Alphanumeric," welcomes practically everyone back for a final blowout. The music ranges from Dixieland to bop and free, and is consistently fascinating.

On this inventively programmed, deeply personal album, Charlotte Saluste-Bridoux and her duo partner Joseph Havlat interleave three major Schubert works for violin and piano with instrumental versions of his songs, in juxtapositions which bring out both connections and contrasts between them. The genial Sonata in A major sits alongside the dark, dejected yet lyrical 'Du liebst mich nicht' (in which Saluste-Bridoux tunes her violin's lowest string down to D sharp to bring out a raspy, viola-like quality). 'Sei mir gegrusst' is revealed as the melodic source for the late Fantasy in C major, whose 'Hungarian' stylistic features are also found in the Rondo in B minor. Deliberately avoiding an earnest approach focused on these works' proximity to the composer's early death, Saluste-Bridoux and Havlat have 'walked away from doom and gloom and tried to bring out Schubert's silliness and, at times, unnerving simplicity'. Saluste-Bridoux is grand prizewinner of the Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) 2021 International Auditions and a Classic FM 2022 'Rising Star', and the album continues Delphian's much admired series of recordings released in collaboration with YCAT, to showcasing nine leading young artists.

Pop superstar Louise announces that her new album 'Confessions' will be released on May 23rd.

Under Henry VIII, royal progresses were both journeys and sonic experiences. Solemn polyphony accompanied the king's devotions; jubilant songs rang out in great halls; charming miniatures were shared in the intimacy of the privy chamber.

Star cellist Pablo Ferrández has realized a twenty-year dream to record Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations on his latest album for Sony Classical, combining the spirited work with melancholy nocturnes to create Moonlight Variations - an album he describes as ‘night followed by day.’The night-time has long fascinated Ferrández. On his new album, he assembles eleven handpicked gems by composers from Antonín Dvořák to Manuel Ponce that speak of the heighted emotional intimacy of the dark hours. The cellist has arranged songs, piano nocturnes, violin works and an opera aria. ‘I feel more creative at night,’ says the cellist. ‘I’m not alone in that. So many composers have written special music connected to this time. They all felt a difference in the world once the sun had gone down.’

Schubert's three Sonatas for Violin and Fortepiano, Op 137, may nod to Mozart in their delicacy, but their spirit is firmly rooted in the early Romantic imagination. Written in 1816, they seem to inhabit the intimate world of Lieder, where song-like melodies and expressive dialogues between violin and piano take centre stage. Violinist Peter Hanson and fortepianist Andrew Arthur bring these works to life on period instruments, revealing the subtle textures and nuanced interplay that modern pianos often obscure. Hanson's phrasing echoes the expressive lyricism of Schubert's vocal writing, while Arthur's fortepiano– modelled on an early 19th-century Walther & Sohn– illuminates the sonatas' delicate, shifting colours . This recording invites us to experience Schubert's Sonatas as a cycle, as they may have been heard in a Viennese salon: a journey from charm to melancholy, from innocence to reflection, all shaped by the ephemeral beauty of song.

"Orlando Gibbons was a genius. We can probably all agree that this term is massively anachronistic. However, justified, I think, in order to establish his music on the same elevated niveau as Purcell or Beethoven or Schubert. While it is difficult to make such analogies when his music is still relatively rarely performed by comparison with these more illustrious names, but Gibbons’ fecundity of imagination, his masterly handling of his material, his emotional depth and maturity, the exquisite turns of phrase, his harmonic assurance, his contrapuntal ease and mastery - all this puts him in the first rank of composers" - Richard Boothby. "My Days is a ritualised memory piece about Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) written for two ensembles whose recordings informed so much of my musical development. I feel like I spend half of my life trying to trick string players to play like Fretwork, and vocalists to sing like the Hilliard Ensemble, so it was with enormous pleasure that I composed this piece." - Nico Muhly

Anybody who has followed Jack White's online screeds and offstage brawls knows that the White Stripes' mastermind can tend to get a little, well, defensive when he's challenged (and sometimes even when he's not), but this trait hasn't always surfaced on record – at least not in the way he and his merry band of Raconteurs do on their second album, Consolers of the Lonely. At the very least, this bubbling blend of bizarro blues, rustic progressive rock, fractured pop, and bludgeoning guitars is a finger in the eye to anyone who dared call the band a mere power pop trifle, proof that the Raconteurs are a rock & roll band, but it's not just the sound of the record that's defiant. There's the very nature of the album's release: how it was announced to the world a week before its release when it then appeared in all formats in all retail outfits simultaneously; there's the obstinately olde-fashioned look of the art work, how the group is decked out like minstrels at a turn-of-the century carnival, or at least out of Dylan's Masked and Anonymous.

Deuxième volet de l’exploration de l’œuvre pour clavier de J. S. Bach (1685-1750) par le luxembourgeois Francesco Tristano, cet enregistrement dédié à l’ensemble des six suites anglaises (bwv 806-811, composées dans les années 1710) célèbre la puissance dionysiaque de l’univers de Bach, au travers d’un jeu tournoyant parfois jusqu’au vertige.