Considering that Rossini's opera buffa "La pietra del paragone" (The Touchstone) is hardly ever staged and that its title is not even known through its overture, like "La scala di seta" or "La gazza ladra," music lovers can be forgiven for being in the dark about this sparklingly luminous work. One of Rossini's first operas, it was written for Milan's La Scala and premiered there in 1812. It was a resounding success - in spite of its standard libretto filled with disguises, mistaken identities and trials of love and loyalty. But it boasts a splendidly varied orchestral writing, which includes dramatic hunt and storm scenes, and betrays a love of language and wordplay which presages Rossini's later works. For this alone, it deserves an above-average treatment.

"A Dramatic Tour Of Events - Select Board Mixes" is a carefully curated selection of tracks recorded during 2011/2012's "A Dramatic Tour of Events". Initially a holiday fan club release, now widely available in 2CD format for the first time, these Select Board Mixes feature fan favorites "As I Am", "Peruvian Skies", "The Great Debate", and much more! This is the second release as part of the "Lost Not Forgotten Archives", a fresh collaboration between the band and record label InsideOut Music that will see the virtuosic quintet’s long-standing Ytsejam Records catalogue reissued, alongside some brand-new additions to this special collector's series.

Inspired by such classic concept albums as Willie Nelson's Red-Headed Stranger, Sturgill Simpson's The Ballad of Dood & Juanita is the Grammy-winning singer/songwriter's third album in twelve months, and his most ambitious project to date. Written and recorded in less than a week, and featuring the same ace musicians who played on last year's Cuttin' Grass albums, the record tells a classic American story of a Civil War-era couple torn apart by violence and reunited by love—what Simpson calls "a simple tale of either redemption or revenge."

Recorded in the spring of 2010 and then mysteriously abandoned by Prince before its release, the statement album Welcome 2 America documents Prince’s concerns, hopes, and visions for a shifting society, presciently foreshadowing an era of political division, disinformation, and a renewed fight for racial justice. The album features some of Prince’s only studio collaborations with the bassist Tal Wilkenfeld, drummer Chris Coleman, and engineer Jason Agel, with additional contributions from New Power Generation singers Shelby J, Liv Warfield, and Elisa Fiorillo and keyboardist Morris Hayes, who Prince also recruited to co-produce the album.

When Mildlife’s debut album, Phase, was released in 2018 it didn’t so much explode on to the scene as ooze. Their mellifluous mix of jazz, krautrock and, perhaps more pertinently, demon grooves, was the word of mouth sensation of that year among open-minded DJs and diggers searching for the perfect beat.

Sharecropper’s Son is the career-defining new album from Robert Finley, “the greatest living soul singer” who in a bizarre twist, found overnight success after 67 years of hard work. Following Finley’s semi-finalist appearance on America’s Got Talent, he returned to the studio to follow-up his critically acclaimed record, Goin' Platinum! The resulting Dan Auerbach produced album is a soulful masterpiece, rooted in the vintage sounds of southern harmony, rhythm and blues. Recorded at Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville with legendary music studio veterans, Finley’s formidable vocals and lyrical stylings take center stage, sharing personal stories inspired by his Louisiana country childhood during the Jim Crow era south. His tales of pain and joy uplift as Finley reflects on his belief that you are never too young to dream and never too old to live.

Giovanni Battista Colonna (1637-95) spent most of his career in Bologna as maestro di cappella of the basilica of San Petronio. Since he had at his disposal this imposing building with its two choir organs, well known to lovers of the instrument, and its very generous acoustics, Colonna wrote a large number of sacred compositions for imposing vocal and instrumental forces. But, in a more intimate vein, he also devoted two collections to the repertory of ‘small motets’. The pieces recorded here come from the 1681 set of Motetti a due e tre voci (1681). They display a wide variety of formulas, combining traditional elements and innovative aspects that were to be further developed in the following generations.

There’s little if anything by this composer in the current CD catalog, and this recording makes a welcome addition. Among the few contemporary references to Alexander Fesca (1820-49) is one from Robert Schumann, who wrote a short article on some of the composer’s youthful piano pieces for his journal, Die Neue Zeitschrift für Musik in 1840. For what it’s worth, Schumann described these as “a glimpse into a rich if not yet controlled musical mind”, though a year later he despaired of Fesca’s capabilities and wrote, “if he continues to indulge his own aspirations, we must regard him as lost.” Fesca probably would have been lost, too, were it not for enterprising discs such as this, which includes direct and convincing performances of his two septets.

This is a delightfull performance of some of Vivaldi's best known concertos, but don't be put off if you already have most of them, baroque music is all about interpretation, much pleasure can be had from listening to different ones.