After the breakup of her band Sugarcubes, Icelandic singer Björk released her first solo album with the fitting, yet misnamed, name, as this musical genius made her debut in 1977 at the tender age of eleven.

If this is blues, it's blues in the Billie Holiday sense, not the Muddy Waters one. This is one of Nina Simone's more subdued mid-'60s LPs, putting the emphasis on her piano rather than band arrangements. It's rather slanted toward torch-blues ballads like "Strange Fruit," "Trouble in Mind," Billie Holiday's own composition "Tell Me More and More and Then Some," and "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out." Simone's then-husband, Andy Stroud, wrote "Be My Husband," an effective adaptation of a traditional blues chant. By far the most impressive track is her frantic ten-minute rendition of the traditional "Sinnerman," an explosive tour de force that dwarfs everything else on the album.

Paul McCartney retreated from the spotlight of the Beatles by recording his first solo album at his home studio, performing nearly all of the instruments himself. Appropriately, McCartney has an endearingly ragged, homemade quality that makes even its filler - and there is quite a bit of filler - rather ingratiating. Only a handful of songs rank as full-fledged McCartney classics, but those songs - the light folk-pop of "That Would Be Something," the sweet, gentle "Every Night," the ramshackle Beatles leftover "Teddy Boy," and the staggering "Maybe I'm Amazed" (not coincidentally the only rocker on the album) - are full of all the easy melodic charm that is McCartney's trademark. The rest of the album is charmingly slight, especially if it is read as a way to bring Paul back to earth after the heights of the Beatles. At the time the throwaway nature of much of the material was a shock, but it has become charming in retrospect.

Beauty & Crime is the seventh studio album by singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega. It is her first album of new material since 2001's Songs in Red and Gray and her first for Blue Note Records. It was released on July 17, 2007. Beauty & Crime won the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, on February 11, 2008. On Beauty & Crime, Suzanne Vega's Blue Note Records debut, the Manhattan native uses New York City as the backdrop for a collection of eleven new songs that juxtapose acoustic guitar-driven melodies with coolly synthesized beats; intensely personal lyrics with compelling, short story-like narratives; images of today's scarred cityscape with memories of Vega's old Upper West Side 'hood and Lower East Side haunts. The past commingles with the present, the public with the private, familiar sounds with the utterly new, just like the city itself. Making her first new studio album in six years, Vega says, "I feel like I really stretched my limits. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone–to sing in keys I wouldn't have sung in before, to work with different textures, to be unafraid of doing what ever sounded good to me. I wanted to make a modern classic."

Maria João Pires “shapes and colours every phrase, and with immaculate taste, and she makes sure the phrases end as eloquently as they begin,” wrote Gramophone in 1974. “She conveys not just the details but the relevance of every note to the whole … Best of all, she communicates everything she has discovered about the music, and it is worth having.” This Portuguese pupil of Wilhelm Kempff, Pires was one of the artists who defined the Erato label in the 1970s and 1980s. This 5-CD box gathers together the recordings she made over the period from 1976 to 1985 and it reflects the consistent focus of her repertoire, with its special emphasis on Austro-German composers of the Classical and early-Romantic periods. Embracing solo works, piano duets and concertos, it contains works by Mozart, Schumann, Beethoven, but also by Bach and Chopin.

American singer/guitarist Eric Bibb and West African singer/guitarist Habib Koité have come together for Brothers in Bamako. It is an exciting gumbo of the two artists’ influences of blues, folk, gospel and world music.
The 13 tracks on Brothers in Bamako showcase songs penned by each artist, as well as several written together, plus a fascinating cover of Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” and the traditional blues, “Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad.” The CD represents a musical crossroads of Bibb’s blues, folk and gospel influences, blended with Koité’s contemporary West African folk/world roots into a unique mixture of voices and guitars that is both passionate and ebullient.

Celebrate this magical decade with 60 of the biggest and best hits from the world of 90s pop, rock, RnB, dance and reggae. This hit-packed 3CD set features a host of chart-topping pop stars that took the world by storm in the decade including George Michael, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Wet Wet Wet and Robbie Williams. The 90s were famous for spawning some of the coolest guitar music ever produced and it's represented here by the likes of Lenny Kravitz, Paul Weller, Manic Street Preachers, The Cranberries and Suede. Adamski, Olive, N-Trance and Robert Miles remind us of some of the biggest dancefloor smashes while Usher, Soul II Soul, Jamiroquai, P.M. Dawn, Salt-N-Pepa and Run D.M.C. highlight the strength and eclecticism that urban music went though in this great decade.

Mark Whitfield has long had an attractive tone, and his melodic style is in the forefront throughout this fairly varied date. Accompanied by a 21-piece string orchestra arranged by Dale Oehler, Whitfield and his quartet mostly stick to standards. Fortunately, tempos are varied (although there are a few sleepy ballads) and Diana Krall has guest vocals on "Some Other Time" and "Early Autumn." The strings generally do not add much, but Whitfield's inventive playing makes this a recommended set anyway. Highlights include "You Don't Know What Love Is," "My One And Only Love," an accompanied guitar feature on "I Want To Talk About You" and Whitfield's "Forever."

Rubicon Classics is proud to present the third album on the label from award-winning pianist, conductor, and composer Karim Said. Karim first came to the attention of the UK audience through Christopher Nupen’s film Karim’s Journey, which followed the then 14-year-old from his family home in Jordan to the Purcell School in London.

Milestones was an Austrian rock band from Vienna. They are historically important as the debut of the much travelled top Austrian producer Christian Kolonovits.
In 1972, Milestones were selected internally by broadcaster ORF as the Austrian representatives for the 17th Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Falter im Wind" ("Butterfly In the Wind"), which was a very contemporary and atypical song for Eurovision at the time. At the contest, held in Edinburgh on 25 March, "Falter im Wind" proved unexpectedly popular with the jurors, finishing in fifth place of 18 entries. It remains one of Austria's most successful Eurovision entries, as only four songs have placed higher.
The band's second album, Emigration, was released in 1973. They split up in 1975.

Continuing the research the his last release “Dantesca”, virtuoso saxophonist and brilliant composer Luigi Grasso presents “La Dimora Dell’Altrove”, a captivating musical journey that explores the profound themes of belonging and identity through the lens of duality—Heimweh (the nostalgia for one’s homeland) and Fernweh (the desire for exploration).
Commissioned by the NDR (Norddeutscher Rundfunk) this opus features the unique characters of each soloists of the Bigband along a variety of aesthetic from jazz, rock, latin and contemporary music. The melding of these themes symbolizes the intertwining of cultural identities, emphasizing a rich tapestry of experiences that defines our sense of home.

Impersonator I was originally released in 1981 when Carlos Perón was still a member of the band Yello. Remastered, with two bonus tracks. His first solo album represents the extreme desire to conduct daring experiments, to achieve stylistic variety and musical intensity while at the same time it is an example of Monsieur Perón's bizarre sense of humour. Impersonator I was the foundation for the constantly expanding Impersonator series. Long since out of print, this album is once again available completely remastered for the first time.

Life Through Loss is an album for anyone who has experienced grief, composed and performed by a musician with a deep insight into the grieving process.

Daniel Stelter is a guitarist who is unrivalled in his artistic diversity, brilliance and activity. With his inimitable, unagitated yet memorable style, Daniel Stelter has long since made a name for himself on the German jazz scene. His EP “Common Ground” will be released on 25 April 2025. On 26 September 2025, his new album ‘Wooden Songs’ will be released, which tunes up sounds that feel very close to nature. Fifteen tracks, all one-takes, inspired by sound, scent, feel and the almost infinite nuances of colour, Stelter dedicates his seventh album to the organic material wood.

Ian Page and The Mozarists bring us a new album of Arias by the celebrated composer Christoph Willibald Gluck including works from operas such as Il trionfo di Clelia, Wq. 31, Orfeo ed Euridice, Wq.30 and Il Parnaso confuso, Wq.33. The soloist is the Swedish mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg, with Ian Page once again conducting his award-winning period-instrument ensemble.