Luca Marenzio was the most brilliant representative of the sublime art of the madrigal during the last twenty years of the sixteenth century. Whereas the style of his early works is light, fluid and transparent, in his maturity Marenzio’s language turned towards a more complex, introspective attitude that made him the most emblematic musical exponent of Late Renaissance melancholy. L’amoroso & crudo stile brings together some of Marenzio’s finest madrigals, aiming to reproduce the most intimate expressive facets of a music of extraordinary beauty and profound humanity. With the emotional intensity and deep respect for the poetic text that distinguishes the ensemble, RossoPorpora begins in this debut recording its personal exploration and celebration of the madrigal, the earliest and still unsurpassed representation of Italian musical identity.

It was in 1774 that Joseph Haydn had his first set of solo keyboard sonatas published and that Mozart first tackled the genre. The five sonatas presented here all date from 1773-1783, a decade that saw the fortepiano swiftly become the preferred medium for a new style of keyboard writing, to the detriment of the harpsichord. All that remained was to find the instrument to speak this new language. The late Eighteenth Century German piano on which Jérôme Hantaï performs offers us a chance to hear a unique, expressive, cantabile voice.

Violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte and harpsichordist Justin Taylor, two of the most promising virtuosos of the new generation and founder members of the ensemble Le Consort, now present a duo album that pays tribute to a great eighteenth-century dynasty of musicians, the violinists and composers of the Francoeur family. The sonatas of Louis Francoeur (c.1692-1745), known as Francoeur the Elder, and those of his brother François (1698-1787) are dance suites featuring polyphonic effects produced by the use of double stopping. Justin and Théotime bring these varied treasures back to life with the energy and grace for which they are already well known.

This was to be the end of the line for Italian word-setting by Viennese composers: once the confident sentiments that belonged to the poet Metastasio's opera seria felt the chill and threatening wind of Enlightenment and Revolution, their time was up. Even we, for the most part, prefer to remember the German-speaking Beethoven, Schubert and Haydn. So it is good to be reminded of their responses to the Italian muse (usually as part of their craft-learning student work) in this particularly well-cast recital. Central Europe, in the person of Andras Schiff meets Italy, in Cecilia Bartoli, to delightful, often revelatory effect.

Among the best-selling composers of our time, Ludovico Einaudi has won a following of millions through his distinctively calm, smoothly unfolding works, which spin unbroken songs from the simplest material and cast a spell of relaxed enchantment over their audience.

Over the course of the mid 70s through the 80’s Little River Band were one of the biggest artists in the world, delivering an enviable string of perfectly constructed pop-rock hits, performed by a band of accomplished songwriters and musicians – achieving global sales of over 30 million records.

The terrifyingly entertaining new studio album from God of Hellfire and theatrical rock icon, Arthur Brown! This macabre-themed masterpiece finds Brown joined by a murderer's row of talented collaboraters including The Stooges' James Williamson, Gong's Steve Hillage, Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice, Vanilla Fudge's Mark Stein, Hawkwind co-founder Nik Turner, R&B superstar Shuggie Otis, and so much more! Includes original tracks co-written with producer Alan Davey as well as superb cover versions and a fantastic update of Brown's signature hit "Fire!"

20 track Greatest Hits collection including Beautiful Sunday, his big hit from 1972, plus Sunshine Lover, Skydiver & more. Daniel Boone is an English pop musician who became a one-hit wonder in the US with the single "Beautiful Sunday" in 1972. The song was written by Boone and Rod McQueen and sold over two million copies worldwide. It peaked at number 15 on The Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the summer of 1972, having already reached number 21 on the UK Singles Chart earlier that same year. In 1972, Boone was the recipient of the "Most Likeable Singer" award from Rolling Stone magazine.

Ayreonauts Only is the first compilation album by Dutch progressive metal/rock project Ayreon by Arjen Anthony Lucassen, released in 2000. Although categorized as a compilation album, it consists only of previously unreleased material, with alternate versions of Ayreon songs with different singers, demos, and of the song "Cold Metal" from Lucassen's then-upcoming project Ambeon. The album's name comes from the fact that, according to Lucassen, it is "intended primarily for die-hard Ayreon fans".

Gary Lucas – charmingly oddball pop songwriter, musical world traveler, utterly hellacious guitarist – is perhaps at his most hellaciously, charmingly cosmopolitan on this frankly amazing album, which finds him adapting popular Chinese songs that were originally recorded in the 1960s and which he heard and fell in love with during a sojourn in Taiwan in the mid-'70s. His girlfriend at the time had a cassette tape of such local superstars as Chow Hsuan and Bai Kwong, and it was, he says in his liner notes, "like almost no other music I had ever heard before." Twenty-five years later he put together this quirkily gorgeous tribute, which includes jaw-droppingly virtuosic fingerstyle guitar arrangements ("Mad World," "Wall") and song settings using guest vocalists. Among the best of the latter are the limpidly beautiful "Night in Shanghai" (again, note the guitar playing) and the country-flavored "I Wait for Your Return," which is simply a hoot. He's not playing this stuff for laughs, though; his genuine affection for the music comes through loud and clear, and even when he has fun with it he is obviously trying to do so in a way that brings its haunting loveliness to the fore. Very highly recommended.