Like politicians, pop superstars staging a comeback need to be on message, devising a story line and sticking to it from conception to completion. Celine Dion's message is a simple one – one that would be evident to anybody paying the slightest bit of attention. After a ballyhooed semi-retirement following 1999's semi-collection All the Way – a retirement where she gave birth and tended to her manager/husband's recovery from cancer – it was time to begin a new chapter in her life, something made explicit in the title of the comeback, A New Day Has Come. Of course, the new day is the new chapter of Celine's life – she's still a caring, loving wife and mother, but she's ready to return to music with a vigor, including a three-year stint as the main attraction at Caesars in Las Vegas.

S1gns Of L1fe (Chris Bryant) is an ambient producer and sound designer from the Bay Area in California. Combining hypnotic drones and pulsing ambient rhythms, he has already captured the attention of both fellow music producers and fans worldwide. His passion for ambient music is undeniable. He is co-founder of Synphaera Records, exosphere, and is one half of the group Ascendant.

The Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Mikko Franck continue their collaboration with Alpha and here invite one of the label’s flagship pianists, Nelson Goerner. The programme is devoted to Richard Strauss, coupling several of the German composer’s early works. The Burleske for piano and orchestra, written at the age of twenty, is brimming with lyricism and Romantic ardour; its tone colours herald Strauss’s operas, while the orchestration anticipates his symphonic poems. The piano part is exceptionally virtuosic: Hans von Bülow, for whom Strauss wrote it, called it unplayable! The Serenade for thirteen wind instruments harks back to Mozart’s Gran Partita K361 for similar forces.

The Habsburg Imperial Court was a melting pot of many different cultures in which the zest for living of southerners, the Slav melancholy, French formalism, Spanish courtliness and the original German-speaking Alpine cultural region intermingled. Together with his Ars Antiqua Austria ensemble, Gunar Letzbor occupied himself over a ten year period to produce this 10CD "Klang der Kulturen" box, a musical tour of the individual countries that formed the roots of and influences on the music of baroque Vienna, documenting them in live recordings, with each CD representing one country.

Trombonist Ray Anderson is in top form throughout this well-rounded set. Assisted by pianist Simon Nabatov, bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Ed Blackwell, Anderson gets lowdown on "Funkalific," comes up with fresh renditions of Wayne Shorter's "Lady Day" (during which he emulates Tricky Sam Nanton a bit) and John Coltrane's "Dear Lord," contributes four diverse originals, takes a typically odd vocal on "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime" and adds plenty of humor and high-note acrobatics to the spirited date.

A 17th-century manuscript that was compiled by Albert Bobowski, a Polish musician and orientalist, contains songs of the Italian Renaissance and the Ottoman court. Bobowski, alias Ali Ufki, was born around 1610 in Poland and worked in Constantinople at the Ottoman court, where he related to many European diplomats, clerics and travellers as translator, language teacher, mediator and advisor. Thanks to his diverse skills and profound knowledge of the Islamic-Ottoman and Christian-European cultures, he became a valued mediator between the two worlds during his lifetime. In this collection of European and Ottoman vocal and instrumental, sacred and secular, court and popular music, Ali Ufki switches between languages and music genres with a fantastic ease and naturalness.

Acclaimed songwriter and guitarist Steve Gunn returns this summer with his stunning new album Other You. Recorded in Los Angeles with Grammy Award winning producer and engineer Rob Schnapf, Gunn sought to create an album that would push his melodic and compositional sensibilities to thrilling new heights. The resulting tracks find Gunn pushing his cosmic Americana to exciting new dimensions encompassing elements of prog, jazz, and contemporary classical music. The album also features contributions from Mary Lattimore, Juliana Barwick, Bridget St. John and Jeff Parker.

He did not thrust himself into the limelight but put himself, with economical, clear gestures, entirely at the service of the music: amongst the conductors of his time, Karl Böhm epitomized the anti-star. In the summer of 1964 he delighted the Lucerne audience with a compellingly flowing and cantabile reading of Bruckner’s Seventh – of course at the helm of “his” Vienna Philharmonic, with whom he was also to perform a buoyant Hindemith concerto six years later.

Not only is The Nightmare Before Christmas one of the best musicals of the past two decades; it may well be Danny Elfman's masterpiece, successfully integrating his main influences (from Cab Calloway to Nino Rota) into a fantastic whole. The first disc of this reissue features the original soundtrack, its songs still teetering between dark humor and poetic flights of fancy; this so-called kids' music is at least as sophisticated and skilled as anything you're likely to hear on Broadway. The second disc includes demo versions of four songs on which Elfman plays and sings everything, and five new covers of some of Nightmare's best-loved songs. Marilyn Manson successfully applies his spooky Weimar-circus style on "This Is Halloween" while Panic! At the Disco's lushly orchestrated take on the same tune is closer to the original. Fiona Apple's poignant "Sally's Song" is enhanced by very nice string charts, and She Wants Revenge does a disco take on "Kidnap the Sandy Claws." Best perhaps is Fall Out Boy's cover of "What's This?" which sounds like an unexpected cross between the Beach Boys and Queen. A highly recommended set.

Skeem played a rich, melodic and often bombastic Neo-Prog akin to Clepsydra, IQ and Jadis, where emotions meet grandieur, music that passes through angular keyboard acrobatics to laid-back atmospheres and from expressive singing to powerful grooves.Most of the tracks feature accesible structures, big symphonic keyboards and a style drawing inspirations from the 80's British Prog movement.The marching bass lines is very close to IQ's Tim Esau, but the music is certainly less keyboard-driven despite the presence of three keyboard players.As Serge Barbaro was primarly a guitar player and all compositions are credited to him, the album appears to be nicely balanced between his interesting guitar work (sharp lead parts, strong soloing and heavier riffs) and the sometimes pompous keyboard themes, including monster solo fanfares and even huge, orchestral washes.