More than any other artist to emerge from the fertile black metal scene of the early ‘90s, Ihsahn has firmly established himself as an unpredictable maverick. Frontman and chief composer with the legendary Emperor, he re-wrote the rulebook on epic extreme music across a series of albums that are still widely regarded as classics. Ihsahn’s unique approach and liberated musical ethos ensured that when he embarked on a solo career, fans were primed to expect the unexpected. Full conceptual album, presented in two versions: Metal and Orchestral. Ihsahn has created his best and most unique and powerful album to date. In line with the cinematic inspirations, music and lyrics follow two parallel narratives with recurring themes throughout. The main story is presented in the metal version, whereas the secondary story is rooted in the orchestral version, although bleeding into the main story.

Inspired by his Highland heritage, the young tenor Glen Cunningham presents a personal and heartfelt journey through music connected to Scotland, both native and international, old and new. The focus of the new is a commission by fellow Highlander Stuart MacRae, setting five poems of Robert Louis Stevenson.At the album’s core, meanwhile, are Schumann’s settings of Robert Burns, showcasing the poet’s influence on the world of lieder, alongside arrangements of Burns’ songs by Scottish composers. Joined by pianist, friend and regular duo partner Anna Tilbrook, Cunningham offers a rich, evocative programme that reflects his deep connection to the landscapes and stories of his homeland.

It is the year 1900: the new century has just started when two young composers independently from each other publish new additions to the string octet literature. The Romanian George Enescu at the tender age of eighteen already has gathered more musical experience than most musicians twice his age. As a composer he sets himself a complex and daunting task: his octet is in four movements, yet played together they reveal a sonata form (a structure applied to the first movements of some famous symphonies), consisting of an exposition, a development and a recapitulation. The sonata form with its statements and contrasting statements is like a dramatic monologue with arguments and counter-arguments: the young Enescu, with his formal experiment, brings fragments of his Romanian background and Viennese and French musical upbringing together into a unity and thus draws us into his inner world.In contrast, the twenty-one year old Ottorino Respighi rather goes the other way: he becomes the observer, the filmmaker with the dramatic flair of capturing beautiful images in music, just as he would later do with equal conviction in works like Pini di Roma or Feste romane.

The MPS label scored a coup when they were able to set up a recording date with the Basie orchestra. It took place on October 20th, 1969 at Universal Studios in Chicago. As agreed upon, the band brought along standards from the Basie book, and the Count fulfilled MPS head Hans Georg Brunner-Schwers wish that Basie play longer piano passages than usual; normally Basie limited himself to a short riff here and there. The way Basie and his orchestra played reminded me of a top long distance runner, producer Sonny Lester commented in the liner notes to the album. He went on to say that the bands playing was, disciplined, clean, with such a feel for timing and teamwork that you had the feeling that every band member was guided by the same brain. The best-known names in that particular group were tenor saxophonist Eddie Lockjaw Davis and guitarist Freddie Green, a Basie mainstay over the decades.

What makes Ysaye’s solo sonatas so extraordinary is the richness of their harmonies, offering endless possibilities to explore a vast spectrum of contrasts in sound projection and violinistic effects each time you engage with them. To me, these works are like a boundless ocean, where every dive reveals something new, enveloping you in an infinite palette of colours and emotions. The experience of both playing and listening to them is nothing short of breathtaking, as they invite you into a world of perpetual discovery, where the music seems to breathe and transform with every interpretation. Elvin Hoxha Ganiyev is a solo concert violinist with a broad and diverse repertoire who is currently pursuing his Konzertexamen degree at Folkwang Universitat der Kunste in Essen with Prof. Aleksey Semenenko and his second Master’s degree in Instrumental soloist program of UdK Berlin with Mark Gothoni simultaneously. He holds a Master’s Degree from Hochschule fur Musik Theater und Medien Hannover in Germany, where he studied with Professor Krzysztof Wegrzyn, and also a Bachelor’s Degree from Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Spain, from the class of Professor Zakhar Bron.

Jean-Jacques Kravetz is a french multi-instrumentalist (piano, keyboard, sax) and fruitful composer who released his whole career in Germany. He is mostly known for being the keyboardist of Frumpy, Kin Ping Meh and Atlantis. Today he is recognised as one the great pionniers of German rock.
In a relative discretion he published a solo effort simply called Kravetz (1972). In this solo excursion he was accompanied by the famous Udo Lindenberg on drums. Musically, the album is a pleasant combination between heavy fuzzy organs and krauty improvs.

Five CD box set containing a quintet of original albums from this Classic Rock outfit. This set contains the digitally remastered and expanded editions of Foreigner (1977), Double Vision (1978), Head Games (1979), 4 (1981) and Agent Provocateur (1984). Led by vocalist Lou Gramm and guitarist Mick Jones, Foreigner, alongside Journey, were one of the most successful Melodic Rock/AOR bands of all time, Their music is still in heavy rotation on radio stations all over the world.

Ian Boddy has been at the forefront of the UK electronic music scene since 1983 when he both performed at the very first UK Electronica Festival in Milton Keynes and released his first vinyl album "The Climb". Ian Boddy provides the listener with a rich atmosphere of original timbres and floating soundscapes. He is one of the few of his generation to have successfully integrated electronic music styles as diverse as seventies-style sequencer structures, melodic neo-classicism and the post-rave Modern Ambient style.
Next to Boddy's impressive solo career stands his collaborative live performance and studio efforts with several of Electronic Music's most innovative and interesting personalities including: Ron Boots, Chris Carter, Andy Pickford, Robert Rich, Markus Reuter, Erik Wollo, David Wright and the ongoing project ARC with Mark Shreeve…

‘If you want to know who, for me, is the greatest living composer, I’ll tell you without hesitation – it’s Elgar, whom I place on the same level as my idols Beethoven and Brahms!’ So said the great virtuoso Kreisler.’ Nicolas Dautricourt continues: ‘This Concerto, with its unbridled lyricism and unique proportions, is an Everest for any violinist.’ In this, his first recording for Channel Classics, the French violinist brings together three works by two English composers. In 1888, in the same year Elgar wrote the famous Salut d’amour for his fiancée Caroline Alice Roberts, Frederick Delius composed his Suite for Violin and Orchestra, one of his very first works. The Suite, which only received its premiere in 1984, is heard here in this insightful arrangement by Frédéric Chaslin for violin, piano and string quartet.

In 2020, the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra and the Kaunas State Choir, under the direction of Modestas Pitrėnas, came together at the National Philharmonic Hall in Vilnius for a remarkable recording of Amilcare Ponchielli's opera I Lituani. This project marks the first professional recording of this work, highlighting Ponchielli's significant contribution to 19th-century Italian opera and connecting deeply with Lithuanian heritage. Drawing inspiration from Adam Mickiewicz's poem Konrad Wallenrod, the opera tells the story of medieval Lithuania's resistance against the Teutonic Knights, exploring themes of freedom, national identity, and sacrifice. Ponchielli's rich orchestration and Ghislanzoni's powerful libretto create a dramatic musical experience that has now been captured with vibrant vocal performances and exquisite orchestration in this new recording. I Lituani, which premiered at La Scala in 1874, has long been recognized for its beautiful melodies and emotional depth. This recording revives a significant yet often overlooked masterpiece of Italian opera, offering a fresh perspective on Ponchielli's profound musical and dramatic vision.

Handel’s success with Italian-style opera in London had passed its initial peak by 1729. Lotario – a tale of revenge and heroism based on events in the life of Holy Roman Empress Adelaide of Italy – was the first of a new series of works intended to revive interest and challenge society’s new ‘vile taste’ for satire and light entertainment. Despite being one of Handel’s least-known operas, it displays his renowned talent for writing convincing drama with melodically rich and emotionally charged arias. This live recording is performed on period instruments by the Händelfestspielorchester Halle.

This Horace Parlan session is a bit different from most of his albums for Steeplechase. First, he utilizes a drummerless trio with guitarist Doug Raney and bassist Wilbur Little. Second, it was recorded initially via direct-to-disc, which meant no editing was possible and an entire album side had to be recorded in one take without stopping. The short-lived revival of this process produced albums of exquisite sound, but they had to be limited edition due to the limited wear the few disc masters could endure in the manufacturing process. Fortunately, the masters were either in great condition or the session was also taped on reels as well, because the identical six songs (played in the same order) are heard in alternate versions on this expanded CD reissue…

Philwit & Pegasus is an epic in search of a narrative or gripping theme, not to mention decent pop songs. The quite detailed and lengthy historical liner notes on the CD reissue of this rarity give the impression that principal creator Mark Wirtz thought he was devising an arty song cycle of sorts, or a movie on record. What it sounds like, however, is a collection of fairly unrelated unexceptional pop songs, decorated by occasionally ambitious grandiose instrumentation that sometimes puts it as close to easy listening as to pop/rock. The influence of the most Baroque elements of the Beach Boys and late-'60s California sunshine pop can be felt at times (particularly on "My What a Lovely Day It's Been"), as can (on "Yoyo Thoughts") early mellow laid-back L.A. country-folk-rock. The 2003 CD reissue on RPM adds four bonus tracks.

With Bo Diddley's various hits and anthology packages all out of print and the multi-disc deluxe box set out of pocketbook reach for most casual consumers, MCA finally comes up with a 20-track compilation that hits the bull's-eye and makes this rock pioneer's best and most influential work available to everyone. The song list reads like a primer for '60s British R&B and '90s blues bands: "Bo Diddley," "I'm a Man," "Diddley Daddy," "Pretty Thing," "Before You Accuse Me," "Hey! Bo Diddley," "Who Do You Love," "Mona," and "Roadrunner" are the tracks that made the legend and put his sound on the map worldwide. The transfers used on this set are exemplary, the majority of them utilizing masters that have a few extra seconds (or more) appended to the fades, which will cause even hardliners to hear these old standards with fresh ears; especially revelatory are the "long versions" of "I Can Tell" and "You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover."

Often overlooked, the Hooters' Nervous Night was a defining record not only for the band, but for 1985 itself. Filled to the brim with fun, danceable new wave-ish rock, the album is a wonderful representation of a lighthearted era. The peppy vocals of keyboardist Rob Hyman and guitarist Eric Bazilian give the band an assured, happy energy, while the sporadic use of the mandolin and melodica (a combination harmonica/keyboard) gives the group its distinctive sound. "And We Danced" and "Day by Day" became instant pop hits, but the remainder of Nervous Night is almost as strong. "All You Zombies," which refers to stories in the Bible, is the band's most powerful moment; along with "Where Do the Children Go," the track showed that the Hooters could be serious and dramatic as well as upbeat. Although the band wasn't able to maintain its momentum with subsequent records, Nervous Night remains a noteworthy contribution to mid-'80s rock and doesn't sound quite as dated as the work of some of the band's contemporaries.