Charles-Valentin Alkan (November 30, 1813 - March 29, 1888), and his four brothers, all musicians, adopted their father's first name as their surname. Alkan Morhange (1780-1855) was the proprietor of a music school in Paris, and he early recognized among the musical talents of his sons the singular ones of young Charles-Valentin. Consequently, at the age of five Alkan was enrolled in the Paris Conservatory of Music, the breeding ground of many outstanding musicians and composers in the Nineteenth Century. Alkan studied composition and piano, making his debut at 12 years of age performing his own compositions as well as those of others. He seemed a star ascendant. Before he was 20 he embarked on the first of two trips abroad (the second two years later), the only times he was ever to leave Paris in his lifetime.

Hot on the heels of the Gramophone Award-winning account of Schmidt’s Fourth Symphony (1/96) Franz Welser-Most has turned his attention to another undervalued late-romantic Austrian masterpiece. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find this disc on the nomination lists for next year’s Awards.

QUOTE UNQUOTE: 1991-1999. The 6LP boxset of Mr. Bungle's three legendary albums on Warner Records: Mr. Bungle, Disco Volante & California out July 19. Each album comes as a 2LP Gatefold, all packaged together in a metallic foil box. Mastered by Scott Hull exclusively for vinyl from the original mixes (some for the first time ever). Features two alternate takes of inter-program material from the Bungle archives.

Crystal clear vinyl. Picture labels. Housed in a top opening printed transparent sleeve. "Made in Germany" sticker applied directly.
Picture inner sleeve of top opening paper. The design layout allows the printed elements to be seen through the outer sleeve. Hype sticker applied to an outer wrap. Copies may come with a further two stickers applied to the wrap indicating colourway plus exclusive retailer, depending on territory.

Probably the greatest set in Baby Face Willette's all-too-slim discography, Stop and Listen matches the organist with the hugely sympathetic team of guitarist Grant Green and drummer Ben Dixon (the same trio lineup who recorded Green's debut LP, Grant's First Stand). With no saxophonist this second time around, it's just Willette and Green in the solo spotlight, and they play marvelously off of one another. As a soloist, Willette has a nimble, airy touch, and though he owes no debt to the modal style of Larry Young, he has a greater melodic imagination than many of his instrument's straight blues players…

Three CD collection. Notwithstanding one or two isolated exceptions, it wasn't until the mid-'60s that independent female voices really began to be heard within the music industry. Over the course of four hours and sixty tracks, Milk Of The Tree focuses on the music made in the late '60s and early '70s in both Britain and North America by either female solo artists or acts with featured female vocalists. Along the way, we encounter San Franciscan psychedelia, LA folk rock, Swinging London pop-folk, electric folk, progressive folk and even folk club folk as well as (of course) a plethora of singer- songwriters (including Various ladies of the Canyon) from the movement's golden age. As well as featuring most of the leading figures from both sides of the Atlantic, Milk Of The Tree includes many performers who received little attention at the time but who now have a cult reputation amongst collectors. A significant number of tracks were unreleased at the time, while the set also includes the first-ever appearance by pioneering female rock duo Emily Muff, two American girls who were based in England during the period in question but failed to land a recording contract. With a 44-page booklet crammed with rare photos and details of the Various acts featured, the clambox-housed Milk Of The Tree is not only a fascinating social document but, we hope, a hugely entertaining snapshot of a particular time, place and frame of mind that produced some enduring, spellbinding music.

The reissue of a great, classic, wonderful Spanish progressive album. Feliu is a guitarist who plays only Spanish guitar, while Joan Albert, the leader of the equally great Musica Urbana, performs on acoustic piano, Fender Rhodes piano, clavinet and Moog synthesizer. Recorded in 1977, released on Edigsa and always hard to find, it is reissued here from the master tapes for the very first time! Musically very active and intricate and filled with great melodic passages, yet also very stripped down and open, allowing the listener to really get inside and hear all the details. Then, on the last track, Murica Urbana and guests join them for a rocking finish!

The violent cover photo (which shows a man after he was shot dead) sets the stage for the rather passionate music on this John Zorn set. With guitarist Bill Frisell, keyboardist Wayne Horvitz, bassist Fred Frith, drummer Joey Baron, and guest vocalist Yamatsuka Eye making intense contributions, altoist Zorn performs his unpredictable originals, abstract versions of some movie themes (including "A Shot in the Dark," "I Want to Live," "Chinatown," and "The James Bond Theme"), plus Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman." The stimulating music rewards repeated listenings by more open-minded listeners.

This sparkling recording of CPE Bach concertos follows Rachel Brown's highly acclaimed recording of Quantz concertos for Hyperion, also with The Brandenburg Consort under Roy Goodman's direction. Of Bach's five extant flute concertos the D minor may have been composed as early as 1747, the A major in 1753 and the G major in 1755.

The first recording on Challenge Classics by the wonderful Dutch baroque orchestra, La Sfera Armoniosa. For its debut, La Sfera Armoniosa and its artistic director Mike Febtross have chosen orchestral music and arias from operas by Henry Purcell. Well-known baroque specialist, soprano Johannette Zomer joins the orchestra in this live recording.

“In conversations about Franz Schmidt the recurring theme emerging for many is that listening to a performance of his music at a young age became the turning point in their lives the realization of how powerful music can be,” says Jonathan Berman, whose longtime love of Franz Schmidt’s work has its origins in a performance preparation for his Fourth Symphony.

New Stock Aitken Waterman set • 3CDs • bonus disc of remixes
The Hit Factory: Ultimate Collection is a new three-CD various artists collection of songs produced by Stock Aitken Waterman.
This is a 50-track collection with the usual suspects all present and correct including Kylie Minogue, Rick Astley, Bananarama, Mel & Kim, Jason Donovan and Dead Or Alive. It was just over five years ago we had the previous compilation Pete Waterman Presents The Hit Factory. There was a single disc edition of that set, but the one to get was the triple disc edition with a bonus disc of remixes (which went out-of-print, quite quickly, I think).

What can we say? A classic album from John Dyson and Dave Ward-Hunt. The packaging has been completely revamped and has the sort of presence which an album of this calibre deserves. It quite simply contains pure 100% EM of the highest calibre and tackles styles across the spectrum, presenting epic Tangerine Dream style sequencing alongside stunning melodics.

This new recording marks the reformation of the legendary duo of Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Fazil Say. The Moldovan violinist says the Turkish pianist ‘is a volcano, with an indomitable strength and energy’, while he emphasises the ‘freedom’ that her ‘spontaneous playing’ exudes: ‘At each concert, she creates a different character and tells a new story.’ The explosive duo presents a programme devoted to Bartók’s Violin Sonata no.1 (‘a marvel from start to finish, one of his finest works’, says Patkop), Brahms’s D minor Sonata (‘I imagine a feather in flight at the opening of the sonata’) and Janáček’s Sonata, ‘an extreme work, wounded and heart-rending’.

Nation of Two is the second studio album by Australian singer-songwriter Vance Joy. The album was announced on 3 November 2017, with Vance Joy explaining: "Nation of Two describes a perfectly self-contained couple; their world beginning and ending at the bed they share, the car they ride in, or any other place where they're together… the idea that their love for each other gives them their bearings; a point of reference that makes sense of life."