Oh! Pleasant Hope is the sixth album by American rock group Blue Cheer, and their final album until 1984's The Beast Is Back. It features less psychedelia and hard rock and includes more folk rock elements. This is an unusual Blue Cheer album in that Dickie Peterson only sings lead on three songs. Another unusual aspect is that the song "I'm the Light" features extensive use of the sitar and synthesizer, although on the previous album The Original Human Being the song "Babaji (Twilight Raga)" also featured extensive use of the aforementioned instruments.

Giacomo Carissimi (1605-1674) celebrated his 400th birthday in 2005. Reason enough to pay tribute to this most important composer of the 17th century with a recording of some of his oratorios. Thanks to a very lively live recording of a concert with Jérome Correas and Les Paladins on Pan Classics, we now get to know five of his much admired oratorios.

ANDERS CHYDENIUS was collecting music at a time when public concerts and interest in classical music were just taking their first steps in Finland. His collection occupies an important position in Finnish musical history. Similar, much bigger private collections had long before been made in Central Europe and Sweden, but the musical vision in the spirit of the Enlightenment of the vicar of a small, remote parish was quite exceptional. This new release is an homage to his work and features the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra performing compositions that held a place in Chydenius’s collection- works by Gaetano Pugnani, Christian Ernst Graf, Giuseppe Maria Giacchino Cambini, Antonio Sacchini, and Lebrecht Julius Schulz.

Shostakovich's film music, and before that his incidental music for the stage, has gotten a bad rap as unadventurous music he wrote when he needed to ingratiate himself with the Communist regime. For some of it, the characterization rings true, but not for all of it, and these early works – one a set of stage incidental music and one a film score of 1935 – are delightful. Both are world premieres, although a suite from The Bedbug, Op. 19 was performed by Gennady Rozhdestvensky and the USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra many years ago. It's a biting, bumptious, satirical work straight out of the highly creative early Soviet scene that Stalin brutally stamped out.

MAJESTICA, the symphonic and power metal band from Sweden, is set to embark on an exciting new journey with their upcoming album Power Train, scheduled for release in February 2025. This spellbinding experience awakens sleeping dreams with powerful riffs and epic choruses in singles such as "Power Train," "Battle Cry," and "A Story in the Night." The enchantment rises like a breath of stars, propelling listeners into the heart of a fairytale world.

As adjuncts to our highly popular “America’s Greatest Hits” series of collections for each calendar year in the 50s and early ‘60s, we have already produced collections based on landmark moments in the Billboard charts – “The First Top 100 Nov. 1955” (ACQCD7062), “The First Hot 100 Aug. 1958” (ACQCD7083), “The First Hot 100 of the '60s” (ACQCD7097), “The 'Heartbreak Hotel' Top 100” (ACQCD7122)and “The Day The Music Died - Feb 3rd 1959 Hot 100” (ACQCD7134), “The 'Telstar' Hot 100 December 22nd 1962” (ACQCD7144), “The Twist” Hot 100 Jan. 25th 1962”, “The 1000th Billboard Chart 7th September 1959”(ACQCD7164), “The American Bandstand Us Top 100 5th Aug. 1957” and “The JFK Inauguration Hot 100 20th January 1961” (ACQCD781). This collection homes in on another anniversary in the history of the Billboard chart, the 20th anniversary of the first chart, which was published in July 1940. This collection features just about every record from the Hot 100 of 18th July 1960, apart from a few titles which are unfortunately unavailable for copyright reasons. It provides a fascinating and evocative snapshot of the music scene at what was a dynamic and exciting time as the rock ‘n’ roll and teen era gave way to emerging new sounds at the beginning of the 1960s, and features an entertaining range of styles and genres. As always with these chart collections, it includes a number of unfamiliar names and recordings towards the bottom of the chart, of which even seasoned pop enthusiasts may not be too aware, and which will be welcome additions to their collections. It contains a 12,000+ word booklet featuring background notes on every record as well as full discographical and chart information.

Double Trouble is the fifth album by the British rock band Gillan, released in 1981. It was released as a double album, the first disc containing studio material, and the second containing live recordings. It reached No. 12 in the UK charts. In 1989, Virgin re-released the album, with the same track listing, in CD format. It is the first album to feature Janick Gers, since Bernie Tormé left the group during the tour of Germany in 1981. In fact Tormé was fired because he did not want to participate in the playback TV performance of "No Laughing in Heaven" at "Top of the Pops" on 24 June 1981. Janick Gers came in for the rest of the tour on 25 June 1981.

In celebration of their recent induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Dave Matthews Band are releasing Where Are You Going: The Singles, a brand-new, career-spanning collection highlighting the band’s iconic discography. Pulling together 22 singles from 1994 to today, Where Are You Going features hits such as “Satellite,” “Crash Into Me,” “Ants Marching,” and more. Including tracks from all ten studio albums, seven of which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Albums Chart, this newest compilation showcases the incredible musical journey of Dave Matthews Band.

Derek Scott, born in Birmingham in 1950, has a long history of engagement with the British music hall and other forms of light entertainment, as both historian and performer. Many of his own compositions attest to this interest in popular styles, with his craftsmanship and natural feeling for a good tune producing music of immediate appeal. One of his two recent Dance Suites takes its cue from ska, the twist and other enthusiasms from the early 1960s, and the other from older dance favourites. Time was when works like Arthur Benjamin’s Jamaican Rumba and Percy Faith’s arrangement of Alfvén’s Swedish RhapsodyNo. 1 could be heard on every domestic radio and record-player; these good-natured Dance Suites recapture some of that lost innocence and its relaxed energy – but his Serenade, another recent composition, touches gently on deeper feelings.

Obscura are a death metal band from Germany and this is their seventh album.

2018’s Diluvium was a feast of modern technicality, while 2021’s A Valediction offered a melodic refresh of the Obscura sound that so many had come to love. So what does A Sonication bring us in 2025?

Hurry up tomorrow pharrell williams edition cover digital album. Exclusive cover artwork designed in collaboration with xo and pharrell williams. Includes hurry up tomorrow 22 track album plus unreleased hurryuptomorrow.Club exclusive bonus song "Closing night."

The flute instrument is closely associated with the Prussian King Frederick the Great and his residence Sanssouci, as the Prussian king was a passionate flautist and numerous works were composed for him.For the recorder player Isaac Makhdoomi, it is a special challenge to transfer these works, which were actually composed for a transverse flute, to his instrument. The idea behind this was to bring new aspects and facets to the works originally composed for the transverse flute, which he actually succeeds in doing brilliantly.A Swiss recorder player with Indian roots, Isaac Makhdoomi presents this new recording with the Piccante Baroque Orchestra, skilfully introducing us to the works from Sanssouci.

The largest part of the output of the Hamburg-born composer and writer Walter Niemann (1876–1973), a student of both Humperdinck and Reinecke, is piano music: an astonishing 1,000 or so pieces, divided into 189 opus numbers. Most of them are lyrical miniatures in a warm and approachable late-Romantic style, some evoking the music of the past – often with a touching degree of dignity and restraint, but also with an occasional flash of good humour.

Renowned Spanish guitarist Ricardo Gallén has embarked on a fascinating musical journey with his album, dedicated to the works of the legendary composer Heitor Villa-Lobos and to the Grammy-Award winner Sérgio Assad. Both Brazilian, this recording represents a hommage and a celebration to the country’s folklore and rich cultural heritage. Villa-lobos’ iconic Préludes and the Suite populaire brésilienne are preceded by the first recording of Assad’s captivating Colloquial Preludes, composed for Ricardo Gallén. Recorded in the gorgeous acoustics of the 13th Century Convent of San Francisco, in Ávila, Spain, Gallén’s performance is a testament to his exceptional talent and profound musicality and to his love for this music.

Russian-born Vladimir Ashkenazy has been a towering figure both as a pianist and as a conductor, with interpretations cutting a wide swath across Beethoven, the Romantics, and Russian music. His repertoire extends back to Bach and occasionally forward to contemporary pieces. Ashkenazy was born July 6, 1937, in Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod) in the Soviet Union. His father was a pianist, but it was his mother who encouraged his pianistic gifts. Ashkenazy made his debut at eight in Moscow and enrolled at the Moscow Conservatory in 1955, becoming a student of Lev Oborin. An early breakthrough was a gold medal at the Brussels Queen Elizabeth International piano competition in 1956. Ashkenazy toured the U.S. in 1958 as the so-called Thaw under Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev opened opportunities in the West. Back in Moscow, Ashkenazy married Icelandic pianist Dody Johannsdottir.