East is one of the most beloved prog acts from Hungary (if not the most). While the rest of the world was into New Wave, Marillion carried the prog torch for Great Britain and points west. Guitarist János Varga, keyboardist Géza Pálvölgyi, singer Miklós Zareczky, bassist Péter Móczán and percussionist István Király decided to pick up the prog banner for Eastern Europe. In 1981, they released their debut album "Játékok (Games). It was a well-received debut, and is still highly regarded. However, it is the sophomore effort, 1982's "Hüség" (Faith), that seems to capture more hearts. The first two albums were more symphonic inspired, but they felt the need (or perhaps pressure) to pursue a more mainstream approach. This led to replacing lead singer Miklós Zareczky, with József Tisla on "Rések a Falon" (Cracks in the Wall). While the third album is not the darling of prog fans, it was a great commercial success.

Today, Axxis stands as one of the most enduring and influential hard rock bands in Germany. Their sixteenth studio album once again solidifies the band's exceptional status. And with Coming Home, the Axxis circle is closing. The two masterminds, Bernhard WeiSS and Harry Oellers, have led Axxis through highs and lows since the 90s, allowing them to look back on a solid 35 years of band career, especially with their loyal fans. With the release of the new album on July 12, 2024, on their own label, this chapter comes to a close. Axxis will release their final album and embark on a tour in the fall of 2024, including two major anniversary shows - returning home, indeed. On the new album, the band returns to its roots without neglecting the evolution of recent years…

Two emerging talents, at the forefront of the country-folk movement took to the air on WPLJ-FM from RCA's Recording Studio in NYC on the 25th of April, 1972. Red Dirt brings you this intimate and unforgettable live radio broadcast from Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge. The recording features Kristofferson's signature country-folk originals and Coolidge's soulful, bluesy vocals. Kristofferson performs cuts from his early albums. Rita Coolidge joins him for the final numbers, delivering solo performances and unforgettable duets, including Kristofferson's iconic "Help Me Make It Through the Night."

"Beauty in Complexity is the highly anticipated new release on Boomslang Records by drummer/composer Ilia Rayskin’s trio ‘Mn3mosyne’, which features pianist Chaerin Im and tenor saxophonist Hristo Goleminov. In this adventurous project, music by 20th century contemporary composers such as Sofia Gubaidulina & Witold Lutosławski is directly used as a basis for composition, blending live electronics with sophisticated through-composed material. Beauty in Complexity is an homage to many great atonal works, establishing room for improvisation and forging unexpected connections to electronic music by the likes of Squarepusher, JPEGMAFIA & James Blake.

Canadian pianist, composer and experienced musician Stewart Goodyear breaks new ground with this album by combining masterful piano works by Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn with his own works. He is accompanied by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Andrew Constantine. The album features two world premiere recordings of Goodyear's original works, exploring two very different themes. The Rhapsody deals with love and loss and is described by

Baroque giants La Serenissima return VIVALDI 8 – VOLUME 1: their new recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, among other concerti for ensemble by Vivaldi. Recognised for ‘whipping up a storm with Vivaldi’, La Serenissima is ‘one of Britain’s best-loved chamber orchestras’ (The Telegraph) known for championing a host of neglected Italian baroque composers and its outstanding performances. Uniquely, the group’s entire repertoire is edited from source material by founder and violinist, Adrian Chandler OSI.

Love is the common thread running through this first recorded recital by soprano Vannina Santoni; it's also an opportunity to look back over her fifteen-year career, through her leading roles, alongside her favourite musicians. With the help of the Orchestre National de Lille and Quebecois conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni, she places her sensual voice at the service of famous operatic arias featuring the amorous heroines of Gounod, Massenet, Puccini (‘O mio babbino caro’), Catalini (‘Ne andrò’ from La Wally) and Verdi (Desdemona’s poignant ‘Ave Maria’ from Otello). The programme also includes a rare but sublime aria from Franco Alfano’s Tolstoy-inspired opera Risurrezione (1904), as well as the magnificent ‘Saint-Sulpice’ duet from Massenet’s Manon, with tenor Julien Dran. Finally, Vannina Santoni pays homage to her Corsican roots with a new orchestration of the lullaby ‘O Ciucciarella’ that Corsican mothers have sung to their children for generations.

World premiere of the complete performance of the baroque oratorio Il Giardino del Rose by Alessandro Scarlatti, performed by the ensemble La Ritirata under the direction of Josetxu Obregón.
This pastoral work premiered on Easter Sunday, April 24, 1707, in the grand Sala dell’Accademia of the Palazzo Bonelli, as part of the Easter celebrations. At that time, opera performances were prohibited in Rome by papal decree, so the oratorio was used as an alternative.

Noé Codjia trumpet, Neil Saidi tenor sax, Noé Huchard piano, Luca Fattorini double bass, Malte Arndal drums.

For a long time, maybe 15 years or so, Robert Smith rumbled about the Cure's imminent retirement whenever the band had a new album ready for release. Invariably, Smith said the particular album served as a fitting epitaph, and it was now time for him to bring the Cure to an end and pursue something else, maybe a solo career, maybe a new band, maybe nothing else. This claim carried some weight when it was supporting a monumental exercise in dread, like Disintegration or Bloodflowers, but when applied to Wild Mood Swings, it seemed like no more than an empty threat, so fans played along with the game until Smith grew tired of it, abandoning it upon the 2004 release of his band's eponymous 13th album. Instead of being a minor shift in marketing, scrapping his promise to disband the Cure is a fairly significant development since it signals that Smith is comfortable being in the band, perhaps for the first time in his life…

Benjamin Appl met Hungarian composer Gyorgy Kurtag in 2019 and has worked with him ever since. 'He has shaped me both as a musician and as a human being, perhaps more than anyone else,' says Appl.

Symphonic in scale and with great dramatic power, Rachmaninov’s Piano Sonata No. 1 in D minor is an underappreciated masterpiece, depicting a tremendous range of human emotions. The turbulent and brilliant Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor is heard in the 1931 revised version which clarifies textures and streamlines the work, heightening its emotional impact. The Isle of the Dead employs Georgy Kirkor’s 1957 transcription which Boris Giltburg has revised significantly.
Giltburg’s authority in Rachmaninov has been universally acknowledged, with his performances termed ‘characterful, sensitive and technically dazzling’ by BBC Music Magazine (Naxos 8.574528).

The title of Sebastian Fagerlund's Octet 'Autumn Equinox' derives from it's links with his opera Autumn Sonata, based on the Ingmar Bergman film. Some of the moods and musical material of the opera appear in the octet, as a kind of reflection. With the instrumentation of Schubert's famous octet in mind, Fagerlund has created an intense, sometimes almost explosive work.For Arcantio, a double bass concerto in variation form composed for and dedicated to Niek de Groot, Fagerlund imagined a musical atmosphere from some distant, archaic time. Throughout the concerto the soloist constantly guides the orchestra in new directions - at times a virtuoso, at times meditative, as if in a trance.

John Wilson’s series of orchestral works by his mentor and friend Sir Richard Rodney Bennett reaches Vol. 5, featuring three works composed between 1973 1989. The Concerto for Orchestra was commissioned at the instigation of Brian Priestman, the British chief conductor of the Denver SO. Its 3-mvt structure, closing with a dazzling set of variations, displays the modern orchestra as a virtuoso body of players.

Anna Gréta goes gentle…into her second album on ACT, “Star of Spring”. The Reykjavik-born pianist, singer and a songwriter, who has lived in Stockholm since 2014, has her own refreshing way of approaching the art of quiet, artful, deeply personal songs, often drawing inspiration from the beauty and power of Iceland’s natural landscape. Her 2021 ACT debut "Nightjar in the Northern Sky" was named after a bird, and this follow-up album lands gracefully on a flower, the “glory of the snow”, also known as the "star of spring", which symbolises the ending of winter and the arrival of spring. But look closer, and there are always other levels of meaning. Her "Nightjar”, the rare bird she once saw in front of the northern sky, was a metaphor for the search for the things which are special and essential. In fact, almost all of Anna Gréta's lyrics have more than one significance, and her storytelling has now taken a leap forward on "Star Of Spring". She says of the little flower on the title track: "I wasn't just inspired by the way it takes over the meadows in spring and turns them from green to blue, but also by the fact that it blooms because it is compelled to so. It cannot do anything else."