Adolf Barjansky was born in Odessa into a wealthy Russian-Jewish family, and received his musical education in Vienna, Paris and Leipzig, studying piano with Carl Reinecke and Salomon Jadassohn. Barjansky’s compositions focus mainly on solo piano works couched in conventional forms, enhanced by his use of imagery, impressions and spatial sound. The two expansive sonatas in this volume display his fusion of lyricism and poignancy, as well as an adaptable sense of modern harmony. The Moderato in B major is at times suggestive of early Scriabin. Julia Severus continues her acclaimed discovery of this unique and visionary 19th-century composer.

The London harpist Rosanna Rolton, winner of the International Competition 'Suoni d'Arpa' in 2014, shows her skills in a repertoire completely dedicated to the Italian harpsichordists of the eighteenth century, rediscovering those ancient and solid bonds, which have united the repertoire for keyboard to that of the harp. In the wake of that connection that has constantly intersected various aspects of musical production, from solo concerts to teaching, from basso continuo to singing accompaniment, the anthology proposed by Rosanna Rolton proposes compositions drawn by the master harpsichordists of the Neapolitan school and Venetian, who created that musical substratum making, from the second half of the eighteenth century the Italian 'gallant style', whose roots were greatly re-evaluated during the chamber and symphonic renaissance of the early twentieth century.

Makar Grigori Ekmalian, a student of Rimsky-Korsakov, played a significant role in the development of Armenian music in the 19th and 20th centuries, expanding its genre boundaries and contributing to the formation of a new national musical language. The folk-song arrangements represent Ekmalian’s skill in blending Armenian lyrical expressiveness with European stylistic colours. His magnum opus, the Patarag (Divine Liturgy) was canonised in 1895, and is still in use by the Armenian Church today. This album of world première recordings by the acclaimed Armenian pianist Mikael Ayrapetyan are performed from the composer’s unpublished manuscripts.

The production of the award-winning composer Carlo Alessandro Landini is enriched with this publication of a sacred page - not common for the maestro - of rare difficulty. Difficulty due not only to the essence of a text like that of a mass, so full of substance and meaning that it makes your wrists tremble at the idea of ?translating them into music, but also to the inevitable confrontation with the greatest geniuses in history who, from the Middle Ages to the present days, have tried their hand at this genre. Landini uses for his work an acappella vocal group (the Ensemble Fleur-de-Lys, directed by maestro Giorgio Ubaldi), in a sort of return to the purest essence of musical expression, the ancestral and at the same time always modern that comes from the human voice alone. A look therefore to the past great polyphonic traditions that finds it's reason in a modernity that has now overcome the 'sterility' of many avant-gardes that, through pure research, however, have not reached the completing of the art form.

On "PraeBachtorius", works by Praetorius and Bach based on the same Lutheran chorales are ingeniously combined, so that the respective verses of Bach and Praetorius are heard immediately after each other. It is impressive how well Praetorius' music of the late Renaissance combines with Bach's baroque music to form a harmonious whole on this CD.

Killer new solo studio disc by long-standing guitar rock riffmaster Mike Onesko, the leader & frontman of the mighty Blindside Blues Band. Includes 10 tracks of awesome, powerful, hard-hitting, hi-energy, blues-based, retro-70s, heavy guitar rock riffage/mojo that is all about the R.O.C.K. and destroys everything in it's path. A full frontal heavy guitar rock assault that is on a Mission to Keep the Rock alive. From the intense, powerful opening heavy rocker The Destroyer to the dynamic thought provoking final track Child Of The Sky (an excellent musical tribute that is dedicated to the late, great Ronnie Montrose), every track hits hard with kick ass, brain-damaging, face-melting, storm troopin', six string weapons of mass destruction.

Ace of Base's strong point is not versatility – all of their hit singles have exactly the same beat. But that doesn't matter. On their debut album, The Sign, they managed to create a piece of melodic Euro-disco that was a huge hit all over the world, appealing to both dance clubs and pop radio….

Kingdom Come's third studio recording, Hands of Time, is essentially a Lenny Wolf solo effort. Released in 1991 by Polygram Records, the disc starts strong with a pair of gripping cuts, the emotional "I've Been Trying", and the Led Zep inspired (big surprise) five-minute "Should I"…

The musical life in the late 18th centurys Russian metropolises still needs to be researched more extensively: With this recording, the musicians of the Altera Pars ensemble impressively demonstrate what masterpieces are waiting for their discovery. The international ensemble Altera Pars (in English: Other Side) specializes in the performance of baroque and classical music. The musicians are leading soloists of European orchestras on period instruments. This allows for a variation of the line-up from 3 to 9 people and opens up a rich chamber repertoire from the 18th to the early 19th century. In the last four years, the ensemble initiated a much-praised series of concerts in the Oldenburg Palace.