Road trip: In the thirty-two movements that make up the Goldberg Variations, Bach offers us a perfect equilibrium between structure, proportion, counterpoint and melody. Diego Ares, for whom this remarkable work has been a lifelong inspiration, sees the key to it in the notion of travel: a moving trip to different environments, enriched by new experiences in the course of the variations, the last of which (the Quodlibet) marks the composer's salutary return home. A profound and humanistic message and an angle from which the Variations have rarely been approached before.

Thumbscrew demonstrates their unique collective musical vision in contrasting but complementary ways on two exciting new CDs. Ours and Theirs are the first to be released on a newly revamped Cuneiform Records, just returning from a hiatus. Comprised of longtime collaborators Michael Formanek, Tomas Fujiwara, and Mary Halvorson, Thumbscrew is a true collaborative effort with all three members contributing at an equal rate both in terms of composition and improvisation.

“Made up of three highly distinctive voices in the world of jazz and avant-garde music, Thumbscrew should probably collapse under the weight of its own star power but Tomas Fujiwara (drums), Mary Halvorson (electric guitar) and Michael Formanek (acoustic bass) are just too aware of the potential of this supertrio to let that happen.” – S. Victor Aaron, Something Else!

After two earlier Dvořák releases, the Trios nos.3 and 4 (Dumky) and the two Piano Quartets, Omri Epstein, Mathieu van Bellen and Ori Epstein are joined by one of their teachers at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, the violist Miguel da Silva (founder member of the famous Quatuor Ysaÿe) and the violinist Maria Milstein, who was also an artist in residence at the Music Chapel from 2011 to 2014.

One of today’s most charismatic young violinists, Ray Chen, reveals his early-awaited new album The Golden Age – a thrilling collection of chamber and orchestral works. The album, set to release on June 8 via Decca Records/Universal Music Canada, the country’s leading music company, arrives as his first from Decca Classics since signing to the label last year.

The year 2017 was a vintage one for Giovanni Antonini: he was awarded an Echo Klassik, two Gramophone Awards and a Diapason d’Or of the Year for his recent releases. Two of these prizes distinguished Il Distratto, volume 4 of the complete recording of the Haydn symphonies on which he embarked for Alpha in 2014. For the sixth volume, released in 2018, the Milanese conductor is again joined by the Kammerorchester Basel, which shares the project with Il Giardino Armonico and which he knows very well, since he conducts it regularly and they have made many recordings together, including volume 5 of the Haydn series.

Debut album by the next young and talented violinist on Deutsche Grammophon, following the successful footsteps of Anne-Sophie Mutter and David Garrett who both joined the label as youngsters.

Second disc of the tent the Roaring, Of human and animal crosses the question of the border between the man and the animal: from the jungle to the city, rhythms and sounds of the nature to the instrumental melody, of the wild trance with intimate nostalgia. Mixing orchestral compositions inspired by ancient Greek music, black Africa or Bali, and songs on texts by contemporary authors (Didier-Georges Gabily, Romain Maron)

Telarc Records recently put out a compilation disc honoring the Brazilian songwriter Ivan Lins. Titled A Love Affair, it features some of America’s biggest pop and jazz names, including Sting, Dianne Reeves, Vanessa Williams, and Chaka Khan. Producing and directing the affair is keyboardist Jason Miles, the brains behind Telarc’s recent Weather Report tribute. While the record, and Lins’s music generally, tends toward "smooth jazz" at times, many of the tracks grab you with their irresistible melodic lilt and harmonic movement. Vanessa Williams’s version of "Love Dance" is a knockout, and Dianne Reeves’s delectable "Sweet Presence" is also a keeper. Lins has a gift; that much is undeniable.

Yr is yet another fascinating peek into the Steve Tibbetts sound-verse. The feeling of open plains that so characterized his previous efforts remains, only now the production is more immediate, such that the 12-string intimations unlocking the doors of “Ur” set us adrift in our own mysteries. Percussionist Marc Anderson soars, seeming to grow out of Tibbetts’s hollow-bodied heart before the heavy thrum of the latter’s electric curls itself into a ball and rolls down a hill of unrelenting melody.

“I don’t want to put a name on my music. Other people can put a name on what I do. It’s just the union of what I’ve been listening to and what I’ve been learning. It has some elements of classical music, it has some rock, it has some jazz, but I don’t want to give it a name.” —Hiromi Uehara

With Nuances, pianist Jeremy Hababou gives us an album of stripped-down, sometimes minimalist, pieces, the reflection of an aesthetic profoundly rooted in his personality. As he likes to say, " technical mastery of an instrument does not suffice for becoming an artist. Being an artist precedes artistic discipline. Above all, it is a necessity, a sensibility, another way of looking at the world, a quest."

From tragedy to triumph, YOB’s incredible 8th full-length recording was conceived amidst dire circumstances that nearly left frontman Mike Scheidt dead. Suffering from an extremely painful and potentially fatal intestinal disease, Scheidt miraculously recovered and reinvigorated the Oregon trio with a new sense of purpose for Our Raw Heart, an album informed by the will to survive. More exposed than ever both physically and emotionally, YOB bleed out seven riveting tracks of enormous volume and pensive, transcendental beauty across 75 minutes of ultimate doom. A brilliant musical progression in the YOB continuum, Our Raw Heart is the band at their most aggressive, impassioned and eclectic. The riffs are massive, the vocals captivating and the songwriting sublime. Existing in its own organic universe, Our Raw Heart is truly the band’s finest work to date and the apex achievement of what heavy music can accomplish.

Sunstorm is the solo project of hard rock veteran Joe Lynn Turner. Twelve years ago it was the charismatic singer and Frontiers Music president Serafino Perugino that explored options for such an endeavor. Things turned out well with a self-titled debut hitting the shelves in 2006. What started as a project found a continuation over more than a decade with three more records that have been added to the discography of Sunstorm.

Is it any wonder that it has taken vocalist Amanda Somerville seven years to return to her Trillium project? She's been busy contributing her voice to ninety percent of European symphonic melodic metal bands, from After Forever to Xandria. But now she returns to her three-petaled flower musical project with Tectonic, with her husband, guitarist Sander Gommans, by her side.