King Crimson, one of the few first-generation progressive rock bands to remain nearly consistent in the quality of their output throughout their career, fall flat with The ConstruKction of Light, the band's 12th studio album. Unable to shed the weight of their oft-brilliant history, the most promising moments of ConstruKction are crushed underneath the bulk.

The piano trio with bass and drums is one of the paramount forms of jazz. It permeates history and is a sort of “banner” for the standard measure of this music and a reference point by which one may appreciate the evolution of a century-old form of jazz. And ORBIT is a new chapter in that story. A pun on the initials Oliva-Rainey-Boisseau International Trio, ORBIT is a theme that drives the music of the group, perfectly illustrating what today’s trio can be: a universe of individual paths, instruments, personalities in orbit around each other. Three spheres of attraction and freedom, influence and feed into the two others. This theme naturally lends itself to the tracks that make up the album - Circles, The Tourniquet, Spirals, Wavin - but the music itself draws its energy, kinetics and interactions from it.

Sans doute parce qu’il l’a appris à New York auprès de musiciens pour qui le jazz était une manière de vivre la musique bien plus qu’une manière de la faire, Vincent Bourgeyx garde dans sa manière de concevoir un disque une forme de spontanéité et un esprit de fraternité qui échappent, malheureusement, à trop de productions contemporaines.

The accordion virtuoso Teodoro Anzellotti, a pioneering interpreter of contemporary music, meet one of the most extraordinary composers of the musical world of the 18th century, an era when the 'Roi Soleil’ („Sun King’) resided in France and high-ranking men wore grey curly wigs. Anzellotti dedicated himself to harpsichord pieces that he selected personally, and he inspired some of today's composers to deal with Rameau.

A rare gift,” is how the Daily Telegraph describes the artistry that Gwilym Simcock brings to playing solo piano. “I have always enjoyed the challenge to make sure that a piece of music has a nice arc to it,” says Simcock. “It should take you on a journey whether it is composed or improvised.” The outstanding individuality of his playing is what led to him to become a member of the great Pat Metheny’s quartet and to tour extensively with it. It is no coincidence that "Near and Now" seems so close up and personal: “Many albums are written at home and then recorded out ‘on the road’, but I decided to do it the other way round,” explains Simcock. And so he creates music that is current, fresh, and brings a sense of real intimacy.

Journey's Greatest Hits contains 16 track including the hits, "Don t Stop Believin'" and "Lights". The Late '70s saw Journey become one of the most successful recording and touring acts in the U.S. Evolution and Departure were instant classics,each going instantly Platinum and yielding hits like "Lovin', Touchin',Squeezin" and "Any Way You Want it". The group also recorded it s classic Escape, which has sold over 9 million copies. The '80s were dominated by Journey albums Frontiers, Raised On Radio, and today Greatest Hits is constantly in the top of catalog album charts.

The group's definitive album, and one of the most daring debut albums ever recorded by anybody. At the time, it blew all of the progressive/psychedelic competition (the Moody Blues, the Nice, etc.) out of the running, although it was almost too good for the band's own good – it took King Crimson nearly four years to come up with a record as strong or concise. Ian McDonald's Mellotron is the dominant instrument, along with his saxes and Fripp's guitar, making this a somewhat different-sounding record from everything else they ever did.

King Crimson fell apart once more, seemingly for the last time, as David Cross walked away during the making of this album. It became Robert Fripp's last thoughts on this version of the band, a bit noiser overall but with some surprising sounds featured, mostly out of the group's past – Mel Collins' and Ian McDonald's saxes, Marc Charig's cornet, and Robin Miller's oboe, thus providing a glimpse of what the 1972-era King Crimson might've sounded like handling the later group's repertory (which nearly happened). Indeed, Charig's cornet gets just about the best showcase it ever had on a King Crimson album, and the truth is that few intact groups could have gotten an album as good as Red together.

The modern-day appreciation of Francesco Bartolomeo Conti takes a decisive turn in the direction of his church music with this early eighteenth-century composers Missa Sancti Pauli given an ideal recording on Glossa by György Vashegyi, the Purcell Choir and Orfeo Orchestra. Conti was a Florentine who worked for much of his career in the Imperial Court in Vienna, generating much attention there the ever-observant JS Bach and Zelenka were both known to have been attracted by his music.

King Crimson reborn yet again – the then-newly configured band makes its debut with a violin (courtesy of David Cross) sharing center stage with Robert Fripp's guitars and his Mellotron, which is pushed into the background. The music is the most experimental of Fripp's career up to this time – though some of it actually dated (in embryonic form) back to the tail-end of the Boz Burrell-Ian Wallace-Mel Collins lineup.

Released in December 1970, King Crimson's third studio album, Lizard, is often viewed as an outlier in the pioneering British prog outfit's nearly half-century discography. It's not easily grouped with 1969's stunning In the Court of the Crimson King debut and 1970 follow-up In the Wake of Poseidon, and along with 1971's Islands it's considered a transitional release on the band's path toward the relative stability of the Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973), Starless and Bible Black (1974), and Red (1974) trilogy. Plus, the Lizard sessions were difficult and the core group lineup acrimoniously collapsed immediately afterward, as bandleader/guitarist Robert Fripp, with lyricist Peter Sinfield, continued brave efforts to save King Crimson from disintegrating as the group's lengthy history was just getting underway.

Jonathan Cilia Faro has overcome every obstacle life has thrown at him to follow his dream of becoming an opera star. From his troubled childhood which saw him finding solace in classical music thanks to a nun at his school, to his battle with cancer, to such unlikely spells as: A minister, Solider, Freemason, Busker and a Restaurateur

Starless and Bible Black is even more powerful and daring than its predecessor, Larks' Tongues in Aspic, with jarring tempo shifts, explosive guitar riffs, and soaring, elegant, and delicate violin and Mellotron parts scattered throughout its 41 minutes, often all in the same songs. The album was on the outer fringes of accessible progressive rock, with enough musical ideas explored to make Starless and Bible Black more than background for tripping the way Emerson, Lake & Palmer's albums were.

The weakest Crimson studio album from their first era is only a real disappointment in relation to the extraordinarily high quality of the group's earlier efforts. The songs are somewhat uneven and draw from three years of inspiration. "The Letter" is an adaptation of "Drop In," a group composition that was featured in the early set of the original Crimson lineup from 1969, while "Song of the Gulls" goes back to the pre-King Crimson trio of Giles, Giles & Fripp for its source ("Suite No. 1").

King Crimson opened 1970 scarcely in existence as a band, having lost two key members (Ian McDonald and Michael Giles), with a third (Greg Lake) about to leave. Their second album – largely composed of Robert Fripp's songwriting and material salvaged from their stage repertory ("Pictures of a City" and "The Devil's Triangle") – is actually better produced and better sounding than their first. Surprisingly, Fripp's guitar is not the dominant instrument here: The Mellotron, taken over by Fripp after McDonald's departure – and played even better than before – still remains the band's signature.