Fenton Robinson is among the second-line blues musicians who have come close but never made it over the hump. He has certainly got the guitar goods, and his vocals are often memorable and anguished. Unfortunately, the 13 songs he did on this 1989 date were mostly good but nowhere as intense as he has delivered on other occasions. Neither is the instrumental work on this Evidence CD; his solos are firmly articulated, often elaborately constructed and paced, but they lack impact. Too many times Robinson falls just short of turning in a triumphant or exciting number, either through a less than emphatic vocal or a mundane solo.

Javier Vargas is a Spanish blues guitarist. Born in Madrid to Argentine parents who had emigrated to Spain from Buenos Aires, he founded the Vargas Blues Band in 1991, the year they released their first recording, All Around Blues. In 1992, “Madrid-Memphis”, Javier’s second album, was released in collaboration with bluesmen “Carey Bell” and “Lousiana Red”, flamenco guitarist “Rafael Riqueni” and the vocalists “Philip Guttman” and “Jeff Espinoza”.

A legendary artist at a legendary location: Tripping with Nils Frahm captures one of the world’s most sought-after live acts performing at one of Berlin’s most iconic buildings.

Genius, icon, and trailblazer Brian Wilson revolutionized music as head of the Beach Boys. Now, he retraces his steps and reimagines the most iconic songs from his back catalog into their purest form, with him alone at the piano. Featuring "God Only Knows," "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "California Girls," "Good Vibrations," and many more on solo piano.

Naurora is undoubtedly Dewa Budjanas' most ambitious work yet. It is progressive, fresh, engaging and technically brilliant. It is an album that has a rare ability to convey a range of feelings, whilst at the same time; it has the added advantage of being able to transcend anything that might be remotely classified as 'artistically mundane'. Budjana's tunes consistently clasp his listeners in a drape of gorgeous melodies, showpiece guitar parts and astounding ensemble passages that have a spacious air. Naurora, has is an exhilarating mix of styles, it delivers a succession of memorable motifs. It melds East Asian music with progressive jazz fusion and some occasional elements of rock, but most of all it delivers an idiosyncratic sound that is instantaneously identifiable as Dewa Budjana's own.

Raum is Tangerine Dream's second studio full-length since founder Edgar Froese died in 2015, though the group has additionally released several live albums and EPs. For this recording, Thorsten Quaeschning, Hoshiko Yamane, and recent addition Paul Frick (of Brandt Brauer Frick) were given access to Froese's archive of Cubase arrangements and tape recordings dating back to the 1970s, so like their previous studio album, 2017's Quantum Gate, he's still present in spirit. Notably absent is Ulrich Schnauss, who joined the band in 2014, yet curiously enough, the album often sounds more like his own work than Tangerine Dream's – glimmering opener "Continuum" and the downtempo crawl "You're Always on Time" are both easy to mistake for Schnauss, or contemporaries such as Tycho.

The main title, “Silent Woods”, and a soft-focus portrait through twigs of the glamorous soloist alerts us to the fact that this is no ordinary version of the Dvorak Cello Concerto. To demote the principal work on the disc like this in favour of an incidental fill-up may seem odd, but this is a version surely aimed less at the regular collector than at the many admirers of Ofra Harnoy. Greatly helped by having a Czech orchestra under such a distinguished Czech specialist as Sir Charles Mackerras.

After appearing on a quartet of very different BIS releases, ranging from early baroque arias to orchestral songs by Alban Berg and Mahler’s ‘Resurrection Symphony’, the British soprano Ruby Hughes has devised a song recital, together with her regular Lieder partner Joseph Middleton. The process began in 2018 when the two gave the world première of Helen Grime’s Bright Travellers, a set of five poems charting the interior and exterior worlds of pregnancy and motherhood. Ruby Hughes soon set about planning a programme which would converge with Grime’s music and the themes of new life and of love in all its aspects.

Despite all the praise heaped on this late work by England's greatest 20th-century composer, it remains a very difficult nut to crack. The best adjective to describe it would have to be "gnarly." The music is dark, dissonant, and only elusively melodic until the transfiguring finale, when sunlight finally bursts through the clouds in the form of a lyrical trumpet tune. It takes real concentration on the listener's part, and although the experience is worth the effort, it's something you have to understand from the beginning. Walton's Concerto is easier on the ear, but also of lighter musical substance. Andrew Lloyd Webber plays both pieces with total conviction and considerable tonal beauty.

SOMM Recordings’ acclaimed survey of Mozart’s Piano Sonatas by Peter Donohoe nears its end with Volume 5 featuring three works from very different periods of the composer’s life. The earliest Sonata, No.3 in B-flat major, K281, from 1775, shows the 18-yearold composer in effervescent mood, nimbly drawing on French and Italian influences, with a cadenza composed by Donohoe for its Rondo finale.