‘The senses reign, and Reason now is dead’ (Petrarch). Giovanni Antonini, flautist and founder of the legendary Italian ensemble Il Giardino Armonico, enjoys musical voyages, the discursiveness of music. He begins with an anonymous 16th century pavane, La Morte della Ragione (The Death of Reason), which he believes refers to In Praise of Folly, in which its author Erasmus distinguishes between two forms of madness: ‘a sweet illusion of the spirit,’ and a negative form, ‘one that the vengeful Furies conjure up from hell…’

Could you ever imagine that one of the most popular saints in the Christian calendar of the Middle Ages was - Buddha? After ten years of research in a multitude of libraries worldwide, Katarina Livljanić and the ensemble Dialogos, faithful to their exploratory and fearless spirit, bring yet another surprise from the less known medieval lands, after its award-winning albums such as Dalmatica: Chants of the Adriatic (A395), Lombards & Barbares (A319), La vision de Tondal (A329), Judith: A Biblical Story from Renaissance Croatia (ALPHA702).

Iberia is a musical journey through time across the Iberian peninsula. From the medieval Spain of Alfonso the Wise to that of the Renaissance with Guerrero and Victoria, we are led to the Portugal of Lôbo and Cardoso, masters of the golden age of Portuguese polyphony. The voyage ends with two contemporary creations that continue this tradition, by the Portuguese António Chagas Rosa and the Spaniard Iván Solano.

The Quiet & The Storm, the shiny new album from Munich-based quartet Young Chinese Dogs.

Third Coast Percussion s Paddle to the Sea transports listeners into a realm of imaginative sounds and world-premiere recordings evoking the aquatic world. Anchoring the album is the Grammy Award-winning ensemble s original new collaborative composition Paddle to the Sea. The fearsomely talented foursome conceived it as a live soundtrack to the charming, Oscar-nominated 1966 film of the same name, based on a classic children s story about a Native Canadian boy who carves a wooden figure called Paddle-to-the-Sea and launches him on a solo canoe voyage to the ocean. The Dallas Morning News called Third Coast s concert performance arresting and enjoyable. TheaterJones called it unforgettable and said, There was something magical about the performance, but it is almost impossible to describe the experience in mere words.