With their debut album, Runnin' Wild, Melbourne, Australia's Airbourne add their name to a long list of Aussie and non-Aussie bands earnestly beholden to hard rock godfathers AC/DC. Although good timing may be on their side because, inevitable charges of cloning notwithstanding, there's arguably never been a greater need for fresh blood like Airbourne to come along and revive this hallowed form of basic, pub-born, boogie rock & roll.

R.E.M. mark the point when post-punk turned into alternative rock. When their first single, "Radio Free Europe", was released in 1981, it sparked a back-to-the-garage movement in the American underground. While there were a number of hardcore and punk bands in the U.S. during the early '80s, R.E.M. brought guitar pop back into the underground lexicon. Combining ringing guitar hooks with mumbled, cryptic lyrics and a D.I.Y. aesthetic borrowed from post-punk, the band simultaneously sounded traditional and modern. Throughout the '80s, they worked relentlessly, releasing records every year and touring constantly, playing both theaters and backwoods dives. Along the way, they inspired countless bands, from the legions of jangle pop groups in the mid-'80s to scores of alternative pop groups in the '90s, who admired their slow climb to stardom.

Stephen Lawrence "Steve" Winwood is an English musician whose genres include rock, blue-eyed soul, rhythm and blues, blues rock, pop rock, and jazz. A multi-instrumentalist, he can play keyboards, bass guitar, drums, guitar, mandolin, violin, and other strings. Winwood was a key member of The Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, Blind Faith and Go. Arc of a Diver is his second solo studio release. The album was included in the book #1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".

Drummer Tony Williams died suddenly, and tragically, in early 1997. His death struck hard, eliminating one of jazz rhythm's sharpest innovators since the 1950s. Williams first made his brilliance clear in the second great Miles Davis Quintet of the early 1960s. He whirled like mad later, especially with his own jazz-rock fusion trio Lifetime. In between, he created rhythmic vapor trails behind Miles and increased the wobbly rhythmic ratio with artists like Eric Dolphy. Sadly, in Young at Heart, we have his final recording.

Separated by the Pyrenees, the musical milieus of Spain and France have sometimes been like oil and water – or maybe like oil and wine. It took Bizet's opera Carmen to open the ears of the French to the Spanish rhythms and inflections which were to become so important to so many composers after him, from Debussy to Ibert. Soloist Sharon Bezaly will hardly need a closer presentation after her highly praised recordings of the past couple of years. The present recording was made with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and conductor John Neschling, whose performances of the music of Brazilian composers Guarnieri, Mignone, Braga and Santoro have been praised for their vitality, rhythmic vigour and wide range of colours – all qualities that should be just the thing for building a bridge across the Pyrenees.

Sticky Wicked is a Dutch electric jazz fusion group initiated by bassist and composer Peter van Breukelen. He formed an ensemble with Peter Lieberom (sax), Remco van der Sluis (drums), Glenn Black/Guy Nikkels (guitar) and Steven Hupkes/Matthijs Geerts (keys), musicians who individually have played with many of today's great names in jazz and pop. Peter’s own compositions are considered original, fresh, and contemporary. And they are clearly the result of being inspired by decades of the finest in jazz, think Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters, John Scofield and Weather Report.

Recorded at British Grove and Abbey Road studios, Daphne Guinness's fourth album, Sleep, is unlike anything Guinness has produced before. Contemplative, self-reflective, and personal, it represents her most beguiling body of work to date; a sleek sophisticated experience enhanced by an array of esoteric creative touches, complementing its dance floor rush.

O felici occhi miei marks a welcome first solo outing for lutenist Eduardo Eguez on Glossa, adding to the label's long succession of releases devoted to Italian Renaissance music. The poem behind this album's title refers to happiness and cruelty, harmony and discord, contrasts evoked by Eguez's programme which focuses on music by five leading Italian lutenists from the first half of the sixteenth century, Francesco Canova da Milano, Alberto da Ripa, Pietro Paolo Borrono, Giovanni Paolo Paladino and Perino Fiorentino. The work and lives of these composers were all mixed up in the Italian Wars (1494-1559) which will have overshadowed their compositional activities as much as their playing at those various courts embroiled in the conflict.

The Spanish violinist Lina Tur Bonet loves big challenges: Bach, Biber, Corelli, Vivaldi. She has already dedicated two albums to the "prete rosso", which have enraptured audiences and critics alike: "devil's violinist", "rock star attitude", "Jimi Hendrix of the baroque violin" are just some of the descriptions one could read about her.

Saskia Giorgini presents Images, containing some of Claude Debussy’s most colourful piano works. Starting with tuneful early works such as the Danse (Tarantelle styrienne) and Deux arabesques, Giorgini gradually works towards later, more ambitious pieces such as the Estampes and the two sets of Images, from which the album derives its name. Debussy’s music has always held an enormous attraction to Giorgini, and this album is the result of a years-long search to bring these mesmerising musical pictures to life. With her solo Liszt recordings, Giorgini has demonstrated a masterful touché and unique sense of colour, which makes Debussy’s music an obvious next step.

John W. Duarte was not only one of the most prolific composers for the solo classic guitar in the 20th century; he was also concerned with the instrument in an ensemble context. He made a lasting contribution to the concept and musical chemistry of the guitar quartet, a much-neglected feature until his innovations. This area of his creative work proved something of a goldmine for both professional quartets and educational settings where the guitar was taught as a serious instrument, worthy of deep study, and indeed for Summer Schools worldwide. In this the composer offered arrangements and original works of taste and delicacy, a hitherto unprecedented development in the expanding repertoire of the guitar.

Born in Sussex in 1877, Roger Quilter was a fellow-student of Percy Grainger, Cyril Scott, and H. Balfour Gardiner at the Hoch Conservatory, in Frankfurt, where he studied for almost five years under the guidance of the German professor of composition Iwan Knorr. He is best known for his contribution to English art song, having composed around 150 songs, many of which remain regular recital favourites.

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra has long been known for championing British contemporary music and, following two albums entirely dedicated to Thomas Wilson, the orchestra now turns to other leading composers of the contemporary scene. Devised by conductor Rory Macdonald, the programme includes works that share the themes of loss, love and life: Jay Capperauld’s Our Gilded Veins takes centre-stage, alongside Within Her Arms , Anna Clyne’s ‘fragile elegy’ ( The New Yorker ), James MacMillan’s legend-based The Death of Oscar and the commemorative For Zoe , Martin Suckling’s Meditation (after Donne) – which features church bells from across Scotland – and Peter Maxwell Davies’s Farewell to Stromness (in an arrangement for strings by Rosemary Furniss), which arguably features the composer’s most recognisable tune.

"No one has surpassed Marais: only one has equalled him, and that is the famous Forqueray": with these words,in 1752, a contemporary praised one of the last great virtuosos of the viola da gamba. Known for his formidably difficult and technical musical style, Forqueray's world is nonetheless immensely rich: through the works of thefather Antoine, his son Jean-Baptiste and his nephew Nicolas-Gilles, an august lineage emerges whose grace andgenius never ceased to inspire. At times proud, even bellicose, at other times deeply tender, the viol pieces by this Forqueray family plunge us into a flight of expressions of passions whose vivacity is equalled only by their intensity. Myriam Rignol, as a distant granddaughter, accompanied by her exquisite Timbres, delivers in this complete worka powerful homage to these 18th-century chamber music icons who, in their image, could never be anything otherthan virtuoso.

LOM, the second album by the Taranczewski trio featuring pianist Olaf Taranczewski, bassist Jean-Philippe Wadle, and drummer Benedikt Stehle, stands in immediate relation to its remarkable predecessor "When I Was." Because in every aspect, LOM is the antithesis of "When I Was," conceptually, in terms of playfulness, mood, and sound. Yet, the trio does not diminish its debut in any way, but rather – on the contrary – remains unmistakably recognizable with its signature and impressively rounds off its spectrum.