Akikaze, Japanese for autumn wind, is the electronic exploration of Pepijn Courant.
In High Places (1993). The title refers to Hoogoord, the name of the building in south-east Amsterdam were Pepijn Courant then lived. This CD, as all music by Akikaze, was recorded at home and was mainly inspired by mankind’s great achievements such as the conquest of the moon and the climb of the Mount Everest. The guitar parts were performed by guitarist Dirk Zeeman, a blues musician, who appeared on a CD for the first time.
Fantasmagora (1996). The prestigious project “Fantasmagora”, using many of his oldest compositions. The music had a classical, symphonic rather than cosmic touch. Musical inspirers were, among others, Pink Floyd and Mike Oldfield and the music was based on acoustic instrument samples with a leading part for Pepijn’s first instrument, the piano…

Katie Melua released her first album when she was only 19, and quickly became the highest selling female musician in the UK with over 1.8 Million sales in the first five months. Over the past 15 years, Katie has released 7 top 10 studio albums – Call Off The Search, Piece By Piece, Pictures, The House, Secret Symphony, Ketevan and In Winter. The Ultimate Collection has been compiled by Katie and features 30 tracks from her 7 studio albums as well as her cover of ‘Fields of Gold’ and two brand new recordings of Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ and Shirley Bassey’s ‘Diamonds Are Forever’. Singles on the album include her worldwide hit ‘Nine Million Bicycles’, ‘The Closest Thing to Crazy’, ‘If You Were A Sailboat’ amongst many other hits. The album will also include liner notes written by Katie.

By the late '60s, even Sinatra had trouble resisting the succeeding waves of youth-oriented rock music that topped the charts. But Frank Sinatra's Greatest Hits!, a compilation of his '60s singles successes released in August 1968, was a million-seller, and Cycles, an album of songs by contemporary writers like Joni Mitchell and Jimmy Webb, released that fall, went gold. In March 1969, Sinatra released "My Way," with a lyric specially crafted for him by Paul Anka. It quickly became a signature song for him.

Many albums have scaled to the top of the American charts, many of them not so good, but few have been as widely forgotten and spurned as REO Speedwagon's Hi Infidelity. In a way, the group deserved this kind of success. They had been slogging it out in the arenas of the U.S., building up a sizeable audience because they could deliver live. And then, in 1980, they delivered a record that not just summarized their strengths, but captured everything that was good about arena rock. This is the sound of the stadiums in that netherworld between giants like Zeppelin and MTV's slick, video-ready anthems.

Collection includes: Private Dancer (1984); Break Every Rule (1986); Foreign Affair (1989); Wildest Dreams (1996); Twenty Four Seven (1999); Tina! (2008).

Grand Piano is a series devoted to the art of the Reproducing Piano. It presents major performances by the legendary pianists who recorded for the Aeolian Company between 1915 and 1930. The acoustic gramophone rarely attempted major keyboard works. The 78s' restricted sound and duration was acceptable for short virtuoso pieces but little else. In contrast, by 1915, the Aeolian Company's "Duo-Art" was already a highly sophisticated digital recording process. Pianists, well aware of the gramophone's limitations, turned enthusiastically to the reproducing piano. Hofmann, Bauer, Paderewski and Grainger were especially committed, not alone in believing that they had achieved the ultimate recording process. Great pianists joined them in recording their concert repertoire, including much that was never repeated on disc.

Sinatra insisted that Styne and Cahn be hired to write the songs for his first MGM musical, Anchors Aweigh, and over the course of his career, the singer recorded more songs by Cahn (a lyricist who worked with several composers) than by any other songwriter. Anchors Aweigh, in which Sinatra was paired with Gene Kelly, was released in July 1945 and went on to become the most successful film of the year. Sinatra returned to radio in September with a new show bearing an old name, Songs by Sinatra. It ran weekly for the next two seasons, concluding in June 1947. Among his eight Top Ten hits in 1946 were two that hit number one ("Oh! What It Seemed to Be" and Styne and Cahn's "Five Minutes More"), as well as "They Say It's Wonderful" and "The Girl That I Marry" from Irving Berlin's musical Annie Get Your Gun, Jerome Kern's "All Through the Day," and Kurt Weill's "September Song." He also topped the album charts with the collection The Voice of Frank Sinatra.

The Samurai Of Prog, featuring Italian composer Marco Grieco, announces their new concept album, “The Time Machine.” This progressive rock release blends symphonic arrangements with Moog synthesizers, electric guitars, and orchestral instruments like flutes and violins. The bumper guests include Roine Stolt, Clive Nolan and Tina Booth.
The album offers an immersive journey through time, starting from the dawn of humanity and spanning to the present day. Each track explores significant historical moments and reflects on humanity’s choices. Highlights include encounters with historical figures like Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein, and a tribute to Nelson Mandela through a poignant piano solo. The album concludes with a hopeful reflection on the future.

The ultimate St Patrick's Day soundtrack, from the world's favourite traditional Irish music band. Includes the number one hit "The Irish Rover" (featuring vocals from Shane McGowan of The Pogues) plus over an hour of Irish music favourites - "The Wild Rover", "Molly Malone", "Whiskey In The Jar", "Seven Drunken Nights" and many more. Still on tour in 2009, some 45 years after they first got together, The Dubliners are the genuine voice of Irish music.

Scott Hamilton's Ballad Essentials collects interpretations of standards like "Skylark", "Body and Soul", "In a Sentimental Mood", "'Round Midnight", and "My Romance". A solid collection from one of mainstream jazz's most consistent tenor sax players.

This Mexican composer can't play any instruments but loves music and knows how to create adventurous music. He only needs a first riff, and the rest comes by itself. All this with the help of 25 musicians! The music is dark and heavy, with some strong bass, fuzzy guitars, busy drums, and different keyboard sounds. There is too much instrumentation to describe here. Let's say that it provides a rich sound, showing a big influence from the avant-garde music of bands like Univers Zero, Present, and Magma. The songs are complex, and it is impossible to predict how they will evolve. The song "Cosmetology" is an amazing song that has an Anglagard influence. The music can be played at a slow pace or at a more frenetic pace, like a rollercoaster. If you enjoy the great bands of the avant-garde scene and adventurous prog rock with plenty of instruments, including xylophones, saxophones, and more, you will find this album one of the most original albums of this year.

The Most Wonderful Tim Of The Year is a collection of Christmas standards performed by Scott Weiland, front man for Stone Temple Pilots. In the spirit of the greatest holiday crooners, The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year covers a variety of styles including big band swing, orchestrated ballads, reggae, bossa nova and more, all delivered with surprising ease by Scott Weiland.

One of the most time-honored blues legends is that of how Robert Johnson gained his mastery of the guitar: he sold his soul to the Devil for it. Los Angeles native and now Springfield IL resident, James Armstrong, however, communes with a different source for musical inspiration – four “Guitar Angels,” namely his father James Armstrong, Sr., Coco Montoya, Joe Louis Walker, and Mike Ross. On this second release through Catfood Records (his fifth CD overall), the incredible Armstrong pulls out all the stops when it comes to contemporary electric and soul-influenced blues. Armstrong’s veteran guitar work is consistently lively, creative, and interesting. He has crafted along with his fellow artists ten stellar original songs and two covers (The Eagles’ “Take It to the Limit” and a stellar and Soulful take on Johnny Copeland’s “Blues Ain’t Nothin’”), their upbeat and crowd-pleasing energy never fails to uplift listeners. At Armstrong’s side are seventeen remarkable musicians, including producer Michael Ross on guitar and percussion, Dan Ferguson on keyboards, and drummers Richy Puga, Rick King, and Warren Grant.

Frank Sinatra was arguably the most important musical figure of the 20th century, his only real rivals for the title being Elvis Presley and the Beatles. In a professional career lasting 60 years, he demonstrated a remarkable ability to maintain his appeal and pursue his musical goals despite countervailing trends. He came to the fore during the swing era of the 1930s and '40s, helped to define the "sing era" of the '40s and '50s, and continued to attract listeners during the rock era that began in the mid-'50s. He scored his first number one hit in 1940 and was still making million-selling recordings in 1994. This popularity was a mark of his success at singing and promoting the American popular song as it was written, particularly in the 1920s, '30s, and '40s. He was able to take the work of great theater composers of that period, such as Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers, and reinterpret their songs for later audiences in a way that led to their rediscovery and their permanent enshrinement as classics. On records and in live performances, on film, radio, and television, he consistently sang standards in a way that demonstrated their perennial appeal.

Deluxe 13 CD box set from the veteran Greek composer and instrumental/electronic music pioneer. Delectus gathers together digitally remastered and expanded editions of Vangelis' seminal albums Earth, L'Apocalypse Des Animaux, China, See You Later, Antarctica, Mask, Opera Sauvage, Chariots of Fire, Soil Festivities and Invisible Connections, plus his collaborative recordings with Jon Anderson as Jon & Vangelis - Short Stories, The Friends of Mister Cairo and Private Collection. The mammoth collection includes all of his albums on Vertigo and Polydor, recently remastered for the first time ever under the legendary composer's own supervision. Presented in a lavish box with an essay and a plethora of rare photographs, the discs are housed in two die-cut, gatefold disc holders within a rigid 242mm square slipcase, and accompanied by a 64-page book illustrating a period of his prolific career of the iconic Maestro. "I always welcome remastering my old work for two basic reasons" - explains Vangelis - "firstly, I get the opportunity to bring the sounds to today's standards, secondly, it gives me the chance to go through the experiences and memories of the time."