Socrates - initially known by the more unwieldy moniker Socrates Drank the Conium - were one of the best-known Greek rock bands of the early to mid-‘70s, and one of the few to earn a reputation in the rest of the world. On their first three albums they pursued a tough but technically proficient brand of post-psychedelic hard rock that occasionally revealed a touch of prog influence, but on their 1976 release, Phos, the band underwent a major stylistic shift, and embraced those prog leanings with open arms. The main facilitator for this change was famed keyboardist Vangelis, whose prog ensemble Aphrodite's Child preceded Socrates as Greece's rock ambassadors to the wider world. Vangelis came on board as producer and keyboardist for Phos (also contributing a little of his compositional talent), enabling Socrates to make the leap from thinking man's hard rock to artier, more complex song structures and arrangements. …

In 1991 the soundtrack music of the film The Park Is Mine, starring Tommy Lee Jones, was released for the first time on CD. It had been composed back in 1985 by TD with the line-up Edgar Froese, Chris Franke and Johannes Schmoelling. As stated on the CD insert, the recording was prepared for release without the cooperation of TD. Thus it could not be mastered using the original master tapes by TD but two-track stereo tapes used for the film. This resulted in a sound quality not as excellent as TD listeners are used to.

From the Mars Hotel is the seventh studio album (eleventh overall) by rock band the Grateful Dead. It was mainly recorded in April 1974, and released on June 27, 1974. It was the second album by the band on their own Grateful Dead Records label. From the Mars Hotel came less than one year after their previous album, Wake of the Flood, and was the last before the band's then-indefinite hiatus from live touring which began in October 1974. It was voted number 556 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000).

Fergus McCreadie releases the new EP ‘Stream (Revisited)’. Featuring reimagined tracks from his acclaimed albums 'Stream' (2024), and 'Turas' (2018), this collection of recordings offers fans an opportunity to look back across Fergus' body of work whilst showcasing the trio's malleability and improvisational prowess honed through countless live performances.

While New York may have eventually emerged as the city in which to both hear, and perform jazz, Chicago continues to be influential, not only for its many fine clubs but for the excellent musicians that the “Windy City” continues to produce. For Eric Alexander, Chicago quite clearly remains a site of inspiration, import, and impact. He found and formed a community early in his career in Chicago, where he lived for two years partly through a fruitful association with the great organist, Charles Earland during which Alexander, had become steeped in the Chicago tenor tradition of such natives as Gene Ammons, Eddie Harris, Johnny Griffin, and Von Freeman. Such attributes as how to dynamically shape a solo, create long ornamented bebop lines, and the cultivation of an improvisatory style that never forgets the importance of the blues were developed early, and continue to be a hallmark of Alexander’s unique style today. Another equally meaningful connection to Chicago for Alexander came in the form of a productive musical and personal relationship that the young saxophonist made with pianist Harold Mabern (with whom Alexander studied at William Patterson).

Brown Horse are excited to announce their second album, ‘All The Right Weaknesses’, out April 4th 2025 on Loose Music. The group returned to Sickroom Studios in Norfolk following a multi-month European tour. Road tested and road worn, the band tracked these eleven songs in a whirlwind week of live takes. Building on the stark twang of their debut album, ‘Reservoir’ (9/10 Uncut, **** The Times, **** Mojo), ‘All The Right Weaknesses’ sees an energised Brown Horse meld slacker-rock, folk, and alt-country – equal parts Lucinda Williams, Jason Molina, The Breeders and Silver Jews. Weary, wry and disarmingly honest, these songs flash a smile at the dark and strange. With contributions from the band’s multiple songwriters, the record is a patchwork far greater than the sum of its parts.

Lineup-wise, the Miki Berenyi Trio is just a pared-down version of the last, touring edition of Piroshka, a group that included Berenyi, her partner KJ "Moose" McKillop, and bassist Oliver Cherer (who stepped in when original Piroshka bassist Mick Conroy broke his arm during the band's tour for its second album). However, the approach this group has taken on Tripla is dramatically different from Piroshka's, and it's more than appropriate that they've given themselves a new moniker. While Piroshka seemed intentionally designed to blur Berenyi's role into that of an equal contributor to a four-piece rock band whose sound style was quite distinct from that of Lush's poppy shoegaze, the MB3 both front-faces the singer/guitarist and explicitly calls back to the dreampop she made in the ‘90s.

GRAMMY-award nominated Jordan Rakei is a renowned multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, producer, and songwriter who, over soon-to-be-five studio albums, has been on a wide-ranging journey that explores the outer reaches of his inner psyche, traversing themes of emotional evolution, personal growth and family with unwavering sincerity. Always positioning himself in and amongst the bigger questions in life, he has navigated his musical journey with passion and precision, unveiling something new about himself through his songwriting at every turn.

Hard-core Steely Dan fans will find hints of the band in these pre-Dan demos recorded between late 1968 and 1971: there's an early version of "Brooklyn (Owes The Charmer)," and one song even uses the phrase "steely dan." Nevertheless, this is no more than promising juvenilia, not in the same league with the Dan masterpieces, and should be approached as a historical curiosity. This material has been reissued by various record companies in various countries under various titles.

The Orlando Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Orlando, Florida that specializes in playing classical and film score music.

Frontiers Music Srl is pleased to announce the release of legendary rock vocalist Robin McAuley's new solo album, "Soulbound". This new album sees McAuley's voice continuing to defy time and sounding as inspired and powerful as ever. The new album is definitively more guitars driven compared to the previous albums and the music itself is more straight hard rock than his previous effort, but still wonderfully melodic, infectious, and fist-in-the-air uplifting.

15 August 2025 would have been the 100th birthday of Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson. Celebrate this 100th Anniversary of his birth with the "Easter Suite", it has remained one of the least known compositions by Oscar Peterson, even though virtually all sources mention it as one of his major works. It was commissioned by the South Bank Show, London Weekend Television's flagship arts program, and broadcast nation-wide on Good Friday, April 24th, 1984. Its eight movements follow the events related in the gospel story. This recording of the world premiere performance also features an interview with Peterson, explaining how he went about composing the suite, his initial skepticism about interpreting such a topic in the medium of jazz and his relation to spiritual music. He also describes in detail the various motifs of the work. If the passion and resurrection seem surprising as topics for a longer jazz work, Oscar Peterson with his "Easter Suite" appears in a long line of other jazz greats, who at least in their later works created religiously inspired works.

If3 continues in the same jazz-rock vein as its predecessors, with strong solo work from reedmen Dave Quincy and Dick Morrissey, and the unique fretwork of fleet-fingered guitarist Terry Smith. The material is more pop-oriented than on the band's previous releases, but it's the jazz chops of the players that place this album a notch or two above those of the other bands working this genre in the early 1970s.

SOMM RECORDINGS announces the release of Kathleen Ferrier in New York, historic performances of Mahler and Bach by the much-loved contralto during her triumphant visits to the United States in 1948 and 1950. Recorded live on Ferriers only appearances in Carnegie Hall in January 1948, four months after her acclaimed performance at the inaugural Edinburgh International Festival, Mahlers Das Lied von der Erde reunited her with the conductor Bruno Walter and saw her making first appearances with tenor Set Svanholm and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Re-mastered by Norman White and Adrian Tuddenham, this remarkable account pre-dates Ferriers often-reissued 1952 recording by four years and finds her in exhilarating fresh voice a vivid, vital display of a great artist at her peak.

This album presents a sequel for the award-winning album (ICMA Choral disc of the year) of Tchaikovskys sacred choral works by the Latvian Radio Choir and conductor Sigvards Klava. These two albums together form the composers complete sacred works for the choir. The All-Night Vigil Op. 52 for mixed choir, also known as the Vesper Service, was written between May 1881 and March 1882. It was first performed by the Chudovsky Chorus conducted by Pyotr Sakharov in Moscow at the concert hall of the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition on 27 June 1882. Tchaikovsky described the work as An essay in harmonization of liturgical chants. For this work the composer carefully studied the tradition of musical practice in the Russian Orthodox Church, which could vary considerably from one region to another.