German multi-instrumentalist Stephan Micus was making his own rather idiosyncratic version of world music years before it became fashionable to do so. Micus specializes in taking ethnic instruments from all over the planet and using them, in ways that transcend their traditional contexts, to play his own moody and somewhat austere compositions. On Darkness and Light Micus makes extensive use of the dilruba, a four-stringed bowed Indian instrument that sounds somewhat like a nasal cello which has 24 sympathetic strings that set up a hypnotic drone effect behind the haunting melodies. Also featured are the classical Spanish guitar, the Balinese suling flute, an Irish tin whistle, the sho (a Japanese bamboo mouth-organ), the kortholt (a German renaissance reed instrument), various gongs, and the remarkable ki un ki, a six-foot-long Siberian cane trumpet (pictured on the cover)…

It was with the release of Now & Then that the Carpenters lost any pretense of being even dorky cool. The album jacket was a giveaway, depicting them in a car in front of a suburban home. The problem also laid in the relentlessly cheerful children's chorus on "Sing," which seemed to come out of every public music outlet that spring and summer; the silly version of "Jambalaya" on side one; and the oldies medley on the second side, which at least predated Happy Days going on the air but still botched its job, mixing Karen Carpenter's haunting rendition of "Johnny Angel" and her spirited version of "One Fine Day" (anticipating her white-bread but effective version of "Beechwood 4-5789") with filler like "Fun, Fun, Fun" and "Dead Man's Curve," all interspersed with Tony Peluso doing his best (i.e., worst) imitation of an obnoxious disc jockey…

101 is a live album and documentary by Depeche Mode released in 1989 chronicling the final leg of the band's Music for the Masses Tour and the final show at the Pasadena Rose Bowl. Group member Alan Wilder is credited with coming up with the name; the performance was the 101st and final performance of the tour (and coincidentally also a famous highway in the area).

Jimi Hendrix left behind more unreleased material than just about any other rock artist. Some tracks have rated as all-time classics ("Angel," "Izabella," "Drifting," etc.), while others should have remained in the vaults (such as the full-length albums Crash Landing and Voodoo Soup, two collections that were near-criminally touched up by then-Hendrix keeper Alan Douglas). The out of print War Heroes is one of the few consistent compilations of unreleased Hendrix, and has since been replaced by First Rays of the New Rising Sun and South Saturn Delta. Highlights include "Beginning" (which contains a riff almost identical to the Stones' "Bitch"), "Highway Chile," and "Izabella," a track premiered on a Dick Cavett TV show a year before Hendrix's death…

Alan Simon is a French folk-rock musician and composer, best known for his rock operas performed with noted rock musicians guesting. Simon is associated with Breton Celticism, and his most ambitious works are typically on themes linked to Celtic myth and history. Simon achieved fame with his rock opera Excalibur, La Légende des Celtes (Excalibur, The Legend of the Celts) (Sony) in 1999, of which he was both songwriter and producer. The first part of an intended trilogy, Excalibur blended musical styles and was performed by Roger Hodgson (ex-Supertramp), Fairport Convention, Dan Ar Braz, Tri Yann, Angelo Branduardi, Didier Lockwood and Gabriel Yacoub.

Band on the Run is the third studio album by Paul McCartney and Wings, released in December 1973. It marked the fifth album by Paul McCartney since his departure from the Beatles in April 1970. Although sales were modest initially, its commercial performance was aided by two hit singles - "Jet" and "Band on the Run" - such that it became the top-selling studio album of 1974 in the United Kingdom and Australia, in addition to revitalising McCartney's critical standing. It remains McCartney's most successful album and the most celebrated of his post-Beatles works. In 2000, Q magazine placed it at number 75 in its list of the "100 Greatest British Albums Ever". In 2012, Band on the Run was voted 418th on Rolling Stone's revised list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

Krzystof Komeda (1931-1969) was famous in Poland for writing over 40 film scores and for being one of the first modern jazz musicians, working as a pianist and composer. In his tribute to Komeda, trumpeter Tomasz Stanko and his sextet (which includes Bernt Rosengren and Joakim Milder on tenors; pianist Bobo Stenson; bassist Palle Danielsson; drummer Jon Christensen; and guest guitarist Terje Rypdal, who adds fire to two of the ten performances) interpret three of his film melodies (all from Roman Polanski films) and a few of his jazz compositions. The music is mostly episodic (particularly "Night-time, Daytime Requiem," which clocks in at 21:47), dark, and introspective. The emphasis is on the themes, and the variations stick mostly to the original mood. Nothing is really jammed, and the musicians' personalities are secondary to Komeda's compositions…

"Flower Power" is a 2 CD set of epic proportions. CD 1 basically runs as 1 long track which contains some of The Flower Kings' most diverse and powerful pieces ever recorded! Epic track, "Garden Of Dreams" runs 59 mins in length and builds in emotion and intensity until the most beautiful, symphonic climax in unleashed upon the listener. This long track moves so cleverly in atmospheres, moods and emotions that the listener will not be tired throughout at all (a real trick to pull off for such a long track!). "Flower Power" contains lots of real The Flower Kings classic progressive rock moments which will please all prog heads out there in prog land.