The difference between Blood, Sweat & Tears and the group's preceding long-player, Child Is Father to the Man, is the difference between a monumental seller and a record that was "merely" a huge critical success. Arguably, the Blood, Sweat & Tears that made this self-titled second album - consisting of five of the eight original members and four newcomers, including singer David Clayton-Thomas - was really a different group from the one that made Child Is Father to the Man, which was done largely under the direction of singer/songwriter/keyboard player/arranger Al Kooper. They had certain similarities to the original: the musical mixture of classical, jazz, and rock elements was still apparent, and the interplay between the horns and the keyboards was still occurring, even if those instruments were being played by different people…

When Opeth released Heritage in 2011 - the wonderfully indulgent, somewhat unfocused exercise in prog rock aesthetics - some longstanding fans were offended because the band had abandoned death metal. Truthfully, they had been exploring prog in fits and starts since 2005's Ghost Reveries. Pale Communion completes the transition, proving that Heritage was not only a next step, but a new beginning altogether. Vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt has obviously been listening to loads of prog in the interim - ELP's debut, Deep Purple's In Rock, early King Crimson and Eloy, National Health, U.K., Bill Bruford's early solo work, Pär Lindh, and even jazz fusion. Produced by the singer and mixed by Steven Wilson, Pale Communion states its ambitions outright…

This is a Debut Album from up-and-coming Japanese violinist Yu Kurokawa. He is a violinist who has won numerous awards, including the 1st prize at the Music Competition of Japan, the Idemitsu Music Award, and the Audience Award at the Sendai International Music Competition.

Wondrous Machine is the title of an air from Purcell's Odes for St. Cecilia's Day, a hymn of praise to the music of which Cecilia is considered the patron saint, and to the instruments from the flute to the organ, of which she is considered the inventor. Not as an inventor, but as an innovative rediscoverer and ambassador of an equally "wondrous" instrument, namely the historical harp and its "entourage", is Margret Koell. She programmatically places the title "Wondrous Machine" above a project that focuses on the tonal mutability of the triple harp. The programme focuses on George Frideric Handel: the Concerto Op. 7 No. 1 for harp, lute and orchestra is Koell's arrangement of the original concerto for organ and orchestra. The Concerto Op. 4 No. 6 is presented here for the first time in the extremely rarely heard version of 1736 for harp and lyrichord (viola organista) - the latter, a bowed keyboard instrument, is based on sketches by Leonardo da Vinci.

Spanish/Dutch horn player José Sogorb, 3rd Horn at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, releases Mélodies Volées, a multifaceted hommage to melody. ‘Voler’ means ‘stolen’ in French. Stealing a melody or (better) using its ‘DNA’, is a phenomenon which is from all times. To whom does a melody actually belong? On this sublimely versatile album José investigates this question. He does this in close relation with the splendid pianist Éadaoin Copeland on the majority of the program and featuring José’s RCO colleagues Miriam Pastor Burgos, Mark Braafhart and Rob Dirksen. On Mélodies Volées, you’ll be treated with impeccable horn playing with repertoire ranging from J.S. Bach, Schubert, Brahms, De Falla, Pärt, semi-improvised music, finalised by a freshly made arrangement of a Björk song that flows back again to Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (who was a contemporary of Bach).

We know Gabriel Fauré the composer well but little the pedagogue. This recording aims to highlight the influence of the composer in France and even in Europe when, in 1896, he became professor at the Paris conservatory taking over from Massenet. The program of this disc wishes to bring together one of the work of his last périod and compositions by his illustrious students: Ravel, Boulanger et Enesco.

The violin sonatas of Sergei Prokofiev were written during the tumultuous years of 1938-1946. Prokofiev’s musical language in both sonatas was already fully developed.

Kitaro's first several years of solo albums starting with 1978's "Ten Kai" are mostly full-blown space-music discs, very much comparable in parts to Klaus Schulze, Vangelis and even moments of Eloy and Pink Floyd. But it all started with this superb and eclectic instrumental debut, loaded with deep-space electronic soundscapes with light Eastern flavours and drifting ambience, but it's also frequently experimental and maybe even a little trippy!

Robert Conti is a talented bebop-oriented guitarist who is fond of playing high-powered solos at fast tempos. On this obscure CD from the defunct Time Is label, Conti (44 at the time and making his debut recording as a leader) teams up with pianist Pete Jolly, bassist Andy Simpkins, and drummer Carl Burnett on four standards (highlighted by "I'll Remember April" and "Bluesette") and five of his originals including songs titled "The Rookie Bookie," "The Shylock," and "Death by Chops: Dis'll Do It." The results are quite enjoyable, making this a CD worth searching for by straight-ahead jazz collectors.

Tomorrow’s Gift started out in the late 60’s as more of a conventionally-styled heavy progressive band with a late psychedelic hangover, though by no means ordinary or forgettable. On "Goodbye Future" the band has been reduced to a trio (drums, keys and bass) and also opted for a more improvised progressive sound with harder edged keyboard and bass interplay. Of course the engineering and production were handled by Konrad Plank. "Goodbye Future" is indeed a very varied album and contains a certain strange Zappa-esque wierdness throughout. This album contains some simply mind numbing space explorations carrying a certain improvised Canterbury-influenced jazz-rock feel throughout.