The highly anticipated third studio album from the global touring artist and in-demand producer is a reconnection to his musical roots: this is a record dominated by warm lights, laid back choruses, Balearic sunsets, subtle hues, and an analogue aesthetic. An album engineered with the precision and expertise of a production master yet born from the creative passion of the genre’s biggest fan. Playing almost every instrument on the record, Roosevelt created ‘Polydans’ by swirling together the spirits of 80s synth, disco, analogue, Yacht rock and delirious dancefloor euphoria with amazing results. It is, quite simply, a feast for fans of the electronic genre, and a feat of expertly crafted pop that feels current yet nostalgic, club-ready yet heartachingly warm.

The best-known piano studies are the 27 by Chopin, most of them composed in the 1830s. But Chopin did not create the genre: a number of prominent pianist-composers had already established the piano study, or étude, in the decades before Chopin sat down to write his. Although this repertoire is as good as unknown today, it is a treasure-trove of miniature jewels, many of them announcing the dawn of Romanticism in their combination of Classical delicacy and a new harmonic warmth.

A compilation of 20 songs carefully selected from the 3 albums and singles left on the JUANA label under the production of FREDERICK KNIGHT by the southern vocal group Controllers from 1975 to 1981!

Hopelessly in Love is the debut album by English lovers rock singer Carroll Thompson, released in early 1981 by Carib Gems Records. The album followed, and includes, her two Leonard Chin-produced singles "I'm So Sorry" and "Simply in Love", which topped the British reggae charts. Thompson co-created C & B Productions, a first for a female reggae singer in Britain, and under this credit wrote and produced the album, working additionally with producer Anthony Richards. Backed by Thompson's C & B band, the album exemplifies the soul-infused mellow reggae style typical to lovers rock and Thompson's sweetly voice, with her songs discussing themes of romance and love.

There are multiple points of interest to this recording of Bach's sonatas BWV 1027-1029. There is the presence of the growing renown of Masato Suzuki, for instance, who, like his father Masaaki, is a formidable keyboard player as well as a choral conductor. There is the fact that these sonatas, plus a transcription of a melody from a church cantata, are top-notch Bach not terribly often played. The real news, however, is that they are played by France's Antoine Tamestit on a viola, not on the original viola da gamba.

MILLENIUM is a Polish five-piece neo-progressive band with Polish vocals on their 1st album and English vocals dominating after their 2nd production, generally in the PENDRAGON and early MARILLION styles but also with some spices of PINK FLOYD and classical GENESIS…

John Zorn - Dreamachines (2013) {Tzadik TZ 8308}
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© 2013 Tzadik | TZ 8308 | Tzadik Archival Series
Jazz / Modern Creative / Avant-Garde Jazz

Zorn’s work has been deeply influenced by the work of Gysin and Burroughs, beginning in the late ’60s when he first became aware of their art, writing and revolutionary techniques of third mind collaboration. Dreamachines celebrates this connection with nine compositions combining the quirky atonality of Zorn’s classical music, the cut-up techniques of Naked City and the soulful lyricism of the Masada songbook. A companion piece to Nova Express (2011), the music is incredibly varied and jumps from tonality to atonality with dramatic surprise. Another complex and intense program of modern chamber music performed by an all-star quartet of virtuosos from Zorn’s inner circle.

Various Artists - El Barrio Latin Funk: Nuyorican Funk 1968-1976 (2012) {Fania Records}
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© 1968-76, 2012 Fania Records / Codigo Music | 8 46395 07134 4
Latin / Funk / Boogaloo / Latin Soul / Salsa / Tropical

Latin funk neither begins nor ends with War, as good as they were. Latin artists from East L.A. to Spanish Harlem – and Puerto Rico to Colombia, for that matter – were getting groovier and earthier throughout the '60s, and the results were wide-ranging and usually just as sparkling as any developments within commercial R&B. The Fania label, as the home to most of the best Latin artists of the '60s and '70s, pumped out much more than its fair share of funky Latin tracks, and although most of them were never in-the-pocket like James Brown, the instrumentalists were just as good.

An opera about a company who are staging an opera? Donizetti is at the height of his comic powers and provides an abrasively disenchanted take on a world he knew all too well, with it tantrum-throwing primadonnas and narcissistic tenors, its spite and envy, its mean and noble sides… a world which is still very much with us.

This new release which is the third of a 5 volume series covering the complete Piano Works of Karol Szymanowski includes Four Studies for Piano Op. 4 & Piano Sonata No. 2 in A major Op. 21, and eight pieces from the Twenty Mazurkas for Piano Op. 50.

The Binelli-Ferman Duo and oboist Leanne Nicholls join City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong conducted by Germán Augusto Gutiérrez in this exhilarating compilation of tango arrangements by Daniel Binelli. Each work on this album holds a chapter in the evolution of the tango, from its waterfront roots in the night-time taverns of the Río de la Plata (Buenos Aires and Montevideo) to the concert halls of today.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - The Original Bootleg Series from The Manticore Vaults Vol. 4 Set 3 (2006) {2CD Castle Music rec 1992}
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© 1992, 2006 Castle Music / Sanctuary Record | CMXBX1374 / 5~6
Rock / Art Rock / Progressive Rock

Set 3: Pennsylvania - July 22nd, 1992. 2008 repressing of this deluxe eight CD box set, subtitled From The Manticore Vaults. Four epic concerts make up this suitably extravagant box set by the unchallenged kings of Pomp-Rock, whose majestic three-way instrumental interplay laid down the blueprint for the Progressive '70s. Features shows from Hartford Civic Center (1977), Chicago (1978), Pennsylvania and Jones Beach (both from 1992), 61 tracks. Volume #4 seemed to have completely caught me by suprise. Out Of The blue[excuse the unintended pun]. I was indeed unprepared; Since I own volumes I-III; I had no choice but to buy this ELP set. Volume IV contrasts dodgy to somewhat good -great audio performances of ELP specifically comparing/contrasting the ELP years of 1977/1978/1992. It is a true sucessor to volumes I-III.

These five pieces – all written by Luxembourgeois composers within the past decade – draw on the flexible forces of Kammerata Luxembourg to generate a kaleidoscopic range of colours and textures. Though the music is unapologetically modernist in style, it is presented in instrumental combinations remarkable for their delicacy and gentle contours – in the aural equivalent of a walk through autumn woods.

Carl Maria von Weber wrote music that has been admired by composers as diverse as Schumann, Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky. But in his lifetime he was also recognised as one of the finest pianists of the period, with an exceptional technique and a brilliant gift for improvisation.

Horace Silver is not only important because of his contributions as a pianist/composer; he's also been a first-rate talent scout (much like Miles Davis, Chick Corea, and Art Blakey). From Donald Byrd to Joe Henderson to Tom Harrell, so many of Silver's sidemen have come to be recognized as serious jazz heavyweights. The hard bopper led his share of five-star groups - especially in the '50s and '60s - but if any one Silver combo went down in history as his most important, it was the 1959-1964 quintet with trumpeter Blue Mitchell, tenor saxman Junior Cook, bassist Gene Taylor, and drummer Roy Brooks. And that cohesive group is the one that Silver leads on Paris Blues, which contains previously unreleased performances from an October 6, 1962, appearance at the Olympia Theater in Paris…