This 2CD set contains more than two dozen tracks, totaling over 2 1/2 hours of music, on two diverse, brilliant, career-spanning discs.

Do you realize that all these Meade Lux Lewis records almost didn't happen? After making his one three-minute side for the Paramount label in December of 1927, Lewis went back to driving a cab in Chicago. And his record didn't sell. So that could have been the end of the story. But in November of 1935 John Hammond looked him up and begged him to get back on the scene. And so began a remarkable career. This chronological survey of Meade's earliest work is delightful. Each successive version of the "Honky Tonk Train Blues" is sharper, more polished. There's always something bubbling away under the surface of the Meade. Everything he played came out slightly wicked. This man played a lot of piano in bars. Nobody could play like this who hadn't come up in an environment like Chicago during the 1920s…

With more than 50 years of experience as film director, Peter Greenaway (Nightwatching, Eisenstein in Guanajuato, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover) combines the worlds of film and opera at the Festival Verdi in Parma with an all new approach to Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco, staged and edited by himself and Saskia Boddeke. Turning the auditorium into part of the set, Greenaway includes the unique architecture of the Teatro Farnese into his staging. With the help of spectacular video and light installations, he creates a completely new opera experience, using a striking imagery that includes depictions of the Madonna, modern manga girls and the real faces of refugee children.

Fashion Pink were actually the ancestor band to Brainstorm,which recordings saw no light until 2000.They were formed in Baden-Baden in 1968 by multi-instrumentalist Roland Schaeffer along with Eddy von Overheidt on keyboards,Jürgen Argast on bass,Helmut Rusch on guitars and Joachim Koinzer on drums,all coming from local pop groups…

This cd is a passionate plea on behalf of this brilliant composer, whose virtuosity is never empty but always inspired, glowing with dramatic tension. particularly in slow movements there is a menacing depth to his tonal colours and atmospheres, whose originality and sheer joy in experimentation still fascinates us today. Weber knew and loved the clarinet like no other, excepting only Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. the works gathered together on this cd are all declarations of love to the clarinet. and so i join in, unisono, with berlioz’s enthusiastic cry from the heart:o Weber!!!

Composers Craig Armstrong and Calum Martin have embarked upon a new collaboration, which began as a meeting of ideas with a mutual, long-held belief that there was a special project to be written, looking at the unique spiritual tradition of Gaelic Psalm singing. This has been achieved in a most spectacular way on the brand new album, ‘The Edge of the Sea’, featuring two new works: ‘The Martyrdom Variations’, and ‘Ballantyne’; with the concept being realised by bringing together a curated congregation by Calum’s from the Isles of Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, along with the outstanding talent and enthusiasm of the Scottish Ensemble. It was agreed at the outset by them both that any music based on the Gaelic Psalms would have to be respectful of the tradition and that the composition written to accompany the singing would allow complete freedom of expression for the singing style.

John Petrucci’s Terminal Velocity marks the first solo album by the world-renowned Dream Theater guitarist to be released since 2005’s Suspended Animation. Written and produced by John Petrucci, the album sees the return of bassist Dave LaRue, who played on John’s debut solo album and subsequent G3 tours, as well as, an eagerly anticipated reunion with former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy. The 9 songs on Terminal Velocity showcase John’s affinity for writing tightly-weaved guitar instrumental powerhouses that feature everything from monster riff breaks to passion-filled melodic themes and all-out shred extravaganzas. The album was recorded by James ‘Jimmy T’ Meslin and mixed and mastered by Andy Sneap.

Estrellas is the seventh studio album by the Gipsy Kings released in 1995 in Europe and a year later in the United States, under the title Tierra Gitana…

This is a compilation of Nina Hagen's earliest steps in the pop business, when she was still in the former GDR with the Bands "Automobil" and "Fritzens Dampferband". She sounds relatively tame here, but her madness shines through now and then…

Not exactly a staple in the progressive world, Italy's Fancyfluid attempted to make their mark by being a hybrid of 80's style neo with Italian symph prog from the 70's bands like Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso and PFM. In 1990 the band debuted with Weak Waving. Attempts to sound fresh fell flat despite the use of violin, flute and sax. Fancyfluid failed to capture an international audience, but maybe that was due to the heavily accented vocals of singer Fabrizio Goria. Fancyfluid's 1992 sophomore conceptual effort, King's Journey, actually showed some promise and they even recruited Banco's Rodolfo Maltese to play guitar and trumpet. 1995 gave us The Sheltering Sea, which by all accounts was a cohesive effort that proved that the band had finally gelled. The album features lively, complex and sophisticated music with delicate touches of acoustic guitar, holding true the 70's Italian symphonic prog tradition…

First recognized as the dance duo behind the club hits "Stakker" (as Humanoid) and "Papua New Guinea," Future Sound of London later became one of the most acclaimed and respected international experimental ambient groups, incorporating elements of techno, classical, jazz, hip-hop, electro, industrial, and dub into expansive, sample-heavy tracks, often exquisitely produced and usually without easy precursor.
Notoriously enigmatic and often disdainful of the press, the group's Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans worked their future-is-now aesthetic into a variety of different fields, including film and video, 2- and 3-D computer graphics and animation, the Internet, radio broadcast, and, of course, recorded music…

A collection of lush, atmospheric songs with a wide lyrical scope, Late Night Laments is the most intimate yet universal of Tim Bowness’s solo releases. Mixed by his long-term No-Man partner Steven Wilson and mastered by Calum Malcolm (The Blue Nile, Prefab Sprout), exceptional performances come from an impressive cast of supporting musicians including Richard Barbieri, Colin Edwin, Kavus Torabi, Melanie Woods, Tom Atherton and Evan Carson. Combining electronic soundscapes, acoustic instrumentation and unexpected rhythms, Late Night Laments is a tightly focused and emotionally charged entry in Bowness’s increasingly impressive solo catalogue. Contrasting with the sensuous beauty of the music, the frequently dark lyrical themes include meditations on generational divides, ideologically motivated violence, social exclusion, and a much-loved children’s author’s mental breakdown.

Jarman, most widely known as an essential member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, recorded numerous projects under his own name, including this relatively mainstream effort for the small Four Star label, featuring an early recorded appearance by the fine pianist Geri Allen. With the late, great bassist Fred Hopkins on hand, several of the pieces take on an Air-ish quality, especially the dreamy "Love Song for a Rainy Monday" with Jarman on bass flute, which is very reminiscent of some of Henry Threadgill's beautiful dirges. Two standards are included, Sidney Bechet's charmingly raffish "Petite Fleur" and Charlie Parker's "Blues for Alice," both performed in a straightforward and heartfelt manner…