This album, which originally appeared on LP in several slightly different versions and song lineups in different countries, came out at an unlikely moment. The group's first best-of album had coincided with the trio's split in mid-1969, a point when they had more than enough hits worldwide (a couple of which had never been on album) to justify and fill such an album. Best of Bee Gees, Vol. 2, by contrast, was released amid the collapse of the group's commercial fortunes that had begun in late 1972.

From 1981, this was J.J. Cale's sixth album (following the succinctly titled NUMBER 5, and returning to his tradition of single-word album titles). Though Cale didn't use one constant band throughout the album, it's got a remarkably unified feeling. This is in part due to the great musicians on hand (pianist Bill Payne, drummers Jim Keltner and Russ Kunkel, and guitarist James Burton among others), but primarily to Cale himself. His songs and his overal approach to music are all-encompassing; the seductive and laid-back grooves his rhythm sections empower are written into the very fabric of the songs. "Carry On," "Pack My Jack"–these are songs of simple, sturdy strengths, succinctly written and concisely rendered. There are never any stray notes or decorative filigrees. Friendly and inviting, SHADES sounds good in any season and at any time of day (and may be some of the best hangover cure music around).

With its endless, droning minor-key riff and mumbled vocals, "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is arguably the most notorious song of the acid rock era. According to legend, the group was so stoned when they recorded the track that they could neither pronounce the title "In the Garden of Eden" or end the track, so it rambles on for a full 17 minutes, which to some listeners sounds like eternity. But that's the essence of its appeal – it's the epitome of heavy psychedelic excess, encapsulating the most indulgent tendencies of the era.

Blues legend John Mayall And The Bluesbreakers (Buddy Whittington/Guitar, John Paulus/Bass, Joe Yuele/Drums) perform live in Houston, TX! Recorded in 1998 at Billy Blues and Rockeferrs, the set includes "White Line Fever," "A Hard Road," "Voodoo Music" and other classics from this legendary Blues frontman!

This recording presents a magnificent opportunity to hear for the first time an 81-minute orchestral score by Vaughan Williams in good sound. Not to be missed.

A native of Buenos Aires but of Italian origin and living in Italy, Evangelina Mascardi regularly collaborates as a continuo-player with pre-eminent ensembles: Il Giardino Armonico dir. Giovanni Antonini, Zefiro, dir. Alfredo Bernardini, Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, dir. Sir John Eliot Gardiner… A former pupil of Hopkinson Smith at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, she has two solo albums to her credit (ORF Austria), the first of which, devoted to Johann Sebastian Bach and Sylvius Leopold Weiss, won the Diapason d’or. Now she inaugurates her collaboration with Arcana with a programme of refined and original theorbo solos, theorbo and tiorbino duos, and songs by the Modena-born Bellerofonte Castaldi, one of his era’s finest theorbo virtuosos.

A great program featuring the largely neglected piano concertos from some famous composers active in France between 1890 and 1951. Debussy's "Fantaisie" was created in a period of change, exploring how the piano could become a voice in the orchestra.