Although it's slightly uneven, Sense and Sensuality is a rather enchanting collection of sweeping, orchestral pop. Strings and keyboards are inerlaced throughout the record, providing the perfect instrumental bed for Nicky Holland's wispy voice. Considering that she has written hits for a variety of artists, including Celine Dion, Tears for Fears and Cyndi Lauper, it isn't surprising that the songs on Sense and Sensuality are sturdy and well-constructed. What is surprising is that the songs don't sound manufactured, but intimate and personal, and that's what gives the album its edge.

Peter Donohoe is a pianist known for Liszt, Prokofiev, and other virtuoso repertory, but with this 2024 release, he attempts something of a different kind and with considerable success. The program is devoted to the shades the waltz took on in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and none of it is particularly daunting technically. All the music is relatively well known, although Schumann's Abegg Variations, Op. 1, one of his very few encounters with the waltz form, is not played terribly often. Donohoe nicely captures the explosive quality of the young Schumann's talent.

rguably the first consistently strong album Fleetwood Mac ever recorded – all the way back into the Peter Green/Jeremy Spencer era, the Mac's albums had previously consisted of individual moments of brilliance in a sea of uninspired filler – 1972's Bare Trees is also the album where the band finally defines its post-blues musical personality. Low-key but less narcoleptically mellow than 1971's sleepy Future Games, Bare Trees is a singer/songwriter album in the traditional early-'70s style, backed up with just enough musical muscle to keep from sounding like weedy soft rock in the manner of Bread or Cat Stevens. This is the one Fleetwood Mac album on which singer/guitarist Danny Kirwan is the dominant figure, writing five songs to Christine McVie and Bob Welch's two apiece.

Sixteen years may have gone by since Isaac Hayes' untimely passing at the age of just 65, but he remains one of the most popular and iconic singer-songwriter-arrangers in the history of Soul music. The albums Hayes made for Stax's Enterprise label remain the benchmark in 'symphonic soul', and sound as breathtakingly brilliant as they did when they were new releases. As well as being one of a small group of artists who expanded the growth of the soul albums market, Ike was a consistently successful singles artist, who placed 16 consecutive 45s on the R&B chart between 1969 and 1976 - most of which also crossed over to pop. The biggest hits have been anthologised on previous occasions - but "Hot Buttered Singles" is the first series to present the A and B sides of all of Hayes' 'Yellow Stax'-era 45s in chronological order, and in their original singles versions - several of which have not appeared on CD before. Many of these tracks are among his best loved recordings. Here you will hear them as you would have heard them on soul and pop radio over half a century ago. Extensively annotated, handsomely illustrated and coming to you - on CD AND double vinyl - in a package that an artist of Ike's stature thoroughly deserves

Procol's Ninth is the eighth studio album (ninth including Live) by Procol Harum, and was released in August 1975. Produced by songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Procol's Ninth featured a slightly different direction from the previous album, with a much starker sound than Chris Thomas's more elaborate productions. According to an interview with guitarist Mick Grabham, conducted by Roland Clare for the 2009 reissue, Leiber and Stoller focused less on the production sound and more on "the structure of the songs". The band appeared on the cover of the album in a straightforward unassuming photograph, mirroring the sound of the album itself. The cover featured simulations of each band member's signature.

Night Music for John Lennon was composed by Lukas Foss between 1980-1981. It is a concertante work for a large or small orchestra and a brass quintet. The composition is structured in three movements: "Prelude," "Fugue," and "Chorale." The Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) has released a new album featuring this work. The album also includes Foss's Cello Concert and Concerto for Solo Percussion and Large or Small Orchestra.

Um álbum para celebrar a genialidade de Waldir Azevedo (1923-1980) e provar que música instrumental pode ser, ao mesmo tempo: elaborada, popular e comunicativa!

this 5 CD box marks the complete re-release of the complete recordings. Apart from the 5 CDs with in all ca 6 hours of material, the CD box contains a 60 page booklet with essays by Teddy Hultberg and Sten Hanson, as well as historical photographs taken by Lütfi Özkök during the festivals. The term text-sound composition was coined in 1967 in Sweden by the composers/writers Lars-Gunnar Bodin and Bengt Emil Johnsson, and was meant to serve to name a genre that was a vital art form in the no man's land between sound, poetry, and music. Text-sound compositions had influences from previous modernistic waves such as futurism, dadaism, lettrism, etc., but perhaps the most important influence was the Swedish poet and visual artist Öyvind Fahlström, who had just over a decade earlier coined the term "concrete poetry". The term concrete poetry related to Pierre Schaeffer's concrete music, and it is somewhere between concrete poetry and concrete music that text-sound compositions appear. The birth of the electronic music studio and concrete music's idea that every sound can be freed from its original context and given a new meaning when it is reworked and put together with other sounds in the electronic music studio became the catharsis for text-sound composition. The CD box contains works by the following text-sound composers and sound poets: Charles Amirkhanian, Lars-Gunnar Bodin, Svante Bodin, Henri Chopin, Bob Cobbing, François Dufrêne, Gust Gils, Jarl och Sonja Hammarberg-Åkesson, Sten Hanson, Bernard Heidsieck, C. Christer Hennix, Åke Hodell, Bengt Emil Johnsson, Sandro Key-Åberg, Bengt af Klintberg, Ilmar Laaban, Annea Lockwood & Harvey Matusow, Arrigo Lora-Totino, Ghérasim Luca, Arne Mellnäs, Franz Mon, Ladislav Novák, Diter Rot & Emmet Williams, Erik Thygesen, Paul de Vree.

A composer who led a dissolute life and ended up stabbed to death in Genoa, Stradella nevertheless left a distinctive stamp on the history of music. He is situated at the intersection of several stylistic paths and periods, at the crossroads between opera and sacred drama, since his output, and especially San Giovanni Battista (St John the Baptist), marks the encounter of the great Roman oratorio inherited from Carissimi with the Venetian opera of Cavalli. Stradella is also close to the next generation, that of Scarlatti and Handel. His music is characterised by liveliness, expressiveness and profound humanity. Although San Giovanni Battista enjoyed genuine success when it was premiered in 1675, it was only in 1949 that the work was exhumed from the libraries where its score lay slumbering. That event took place in Perugia, and the role of Salome was sung by Maria Callas.

Having dazzled us with her coloratura ability in arias by Mozart, Gluck, and her fellow Czech, Myslivecek, this luscious young mezzo-soprano now offers us a generous program of French arias–15 of them, widely varied in tone, weight, dramatic intent, and style–and conquers and convinces in them all. Beginning again in coloratura territory, an aria from Auber's rare Le domino noir catches our attention with the heroine's opening words, "Je suis sauvée enfin!" ("I am safe at last!"), in which she paints the picture of our out-of-breath heroine immediately.

At the ripe old age of 19 Mozart wrote five violin concertos, and they represent his coming of age as a composer of orchestral music. From here on, it's basically one masterpiece after another. Though not difficult works, technically speaking, they partake in full measure of Mozart's uniquely sensual brand of melody. That means that successful performances must know how to spin out a singing musical line, while at the same time making the most of the rare opportunities for soloistic display. Taste and musicianship are more important qualities than virtuosity, and that makes these pieces ideal vehicles for Arthur Grumiaux's aristocratic temperament and technical polish.

THE FIRST LIVE RENDITION OF THE NOW WORLD FAMOUS TUBULAR BELLS Mike Oldfield s pre- Tubular Bells career had been somewhat chequered. Kicking off, on leaving school, as part of a folk-duo with his sister Sally, Mike suffered a nervous breakdown upon its demise. He later auditioned as bass player for Family in 1969, was a member of rock-band Barefoot for a while, and then became bass player for Kevin Ayers backing group The Whole World. He also played on an album by the Edgar Broughton Band, worked as reserve guitarist in the London production of Hair, and gigged with Alex Harvey. Then he met Richard Branson. Working at Branson s recently acquired Manor studios as a backing guitarist for one-no-hoper-or-another, Oldfield played some of his own tapes to Branson s engineer Simon Draper, who played them to Branson Branson then offered Oldfield a six-album deal with his new label Virgin Records. Tubular Bells was released on 25 May 1973 as the first album on the Virgin label.

Meanwhile is the twenty-second solo studio album by Eric Clapton. It was released on 4 October 2024 through Bushbranch Records/Surfdog Records. Along with six new tracks, the album also features eight songs Clapton has previously released as singles beginning from 2020, including collaborations with Van Morrison and Jeff Beck. This record marks Clapton's first studio album since Happy Xmas in 2018, and his first non-holiday studio album since I Still Do in 2016. Meanwhile was released on 4 October 2024. Physical vinyl and CD versions of the album released on 24 January 2025.

Entrance (1970). Edgar Winter came out of the chute kicking with this remarkable record filled with jazz, blues, and a little old-fashioned rock & roll. The record follows an established theme throughout its first side, stringing the songs together without breaks, highlighted by dreamy keyboard and sax work, plus Winter's smooth vocalizations. But jazz isn't the only thing Winter brings to the party. His first recorded version of the old J.D. Loudermilk tune "Tobacco Road" throws a few nice punches (although the live version with White Trash a few years later would prove the definitive one). "Jimmy's Gospel" plays on his early church influences, while "Jump Right Out" is the predecessor of half-a-dozen "jump up and dance" numbers Winter would pepper his records with in the years to come…

Recorded in 1973, Fuller's Blues was Johnny Fuller's much-belated full-length debut, and it also turned out to be his last record. That's too bad, because it certainly illustrates what he was capable of achieving. He runs the gauntlet here, pulling out jumping R&B numbers and acoustic blues with equal aplomb. It's an exhilarating listen - it's just too bad there weren't more like it.