“I’ve wanted to record Elgar’s violin concerto for a long time,” says Vilde Frang. “It really is a journey … Such a vast piece of music with such an original structure and so many impulses and ideas … You need to take the time to savour all these moments … That is part of the magic of the piece.” She has now recorded the epic concerto with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and its music director, Robin Ticciati. The album is completed with a delightful short piece by Elgar, Carissima, in a version for violin and piano (played by Thomas Hoppe). “There are some hidden messages in the concerto,” continues Frang. “It actually starts with the answer, and then after it comes all the questions … Playing it is almost a meditative experience.” When she performed the work in the UK in 2023, the Guardian wrote: ““Not only did Frang deal with its virtuoso demands as though they barely existed, but her extraordinarily beautiful tone … seemed to honour the source of Elgar’s inspiration with a startling immediacy.”

This midline-priced compilation attempts to survey Barry White's recording career from 1973-1999, giving equal weight to different periods of that time as if they were equally successful. That's what can happen when the artist is involved in the selection of a compilation; White is credited as compilation producer along with Universal's Harry Weinger in what may be his final contemporary album credit (he died while the disc was in production).

The most popular and successful lineup of Return to Forever – Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Lenny White, and Al Di Meola – was coming off the Grammy-winning No Mystery when it recorded its third and final album, Romantic Warrior. It has been suggested that in employing a medieval album cover (drawn by Wilson McLean), using titles like "Medieval Overture" and "Duel of the Jester and the Tyrant," and occasionally playing in a baroque style, particularly in Clarke's "The Magician," Corea was responding to Rick Wakeman's successful string of albums on similar themes. Certainly, the music suggests that the musicians have been listening to Wakeman's band, Yes, among other progressive rock groups.

Terry Callier's first album - recorded in 1964 when he was a wee teen hanging around Chicago's folk scene! As the title indicates, the album's definitely got a folk-styled sound - but also as the "new" implies, it's got a sound all it's own, fresh and free - and that sound is the genius that is Terry Callier! This is very stripped down material, very dark and brooding - a good chance to hear Terry before he hit the Chess studios and they backed him up with a lot of orchestrations (although we love the orchestrations, too.) The material has a soulful spiritual feel, and is sung with a lot of passion over acoustic guitar. Think of Nina Simone's folksier stuff from the same time, if you need a reference.

All credit to Gary Moore for having the courage to leap into the relative unknown with A Different Beat. It is indeed greatly removed from anything he had released prior to 1999. Perhaps it was the new-found freedom from the guitarist's contract with Virgin that fuelled the change of direction–that and Moore's obvious affinity with outfits along the lines of Apollo 440 and Fatboy Slim (to whom "Fatboy" is a tribute).

Eric Clapton’s lifelong passion for the blues burns brightly inNothing But The Blues. The CD of the soundtrack features 17 previously unreleased live performances recorded in 1994 during the legendary guitarist’s tour supportingFrom The Cradle, his GrammyÒ-winning, multi-platinum blues album. Clapton’s longtime co-producer, Simon Climie, has remixed the audio from those performances from the original multi-tracking recordings. -The previously unreleased live performances onNothing But the Bluesserve as a vital counterpart toFrom The Cradle, which was recorded in the studio.

Compiled in conjunction with Clannad band members, In A Lifetime includes all the hits and two new songs ‘A Celtic Dream’ and ‘Who Knows (Where The Time Goes)’ both produced by Trevor Horn.

In 1983 when this performance was taped in Cannes, France during the Midem Festival, B.B. King was carrying one of the best bands of his entire career. Under the leadership of trumpeter Calvin Owens the band were tight and concise supporting B.B's stinging guitar and vocals to exceptional effect. These workouts on many of his greatest hits are the perfect introduction to the King of the Blues.

With a voice as powerful as Crystal Shawanda's, it's hard to imagine she would wind up performing anything other than Blues. From deeply soulful ballads to knock-you-on-your-butt R&B, Crystal's energy and love of blues and soul comes out in every performance. As a songwriter Crystal and her creative partner, producer Dewayne Strobel understand how to build a great song around her ability to wring an immersive emotional experience out of each lyric.Following her 2021 JUNO win for Best Blues Album, Crystal Shawanda returns with Midnight Blues coming out on True North Records on Sept 30. Featuring the song of the summer "How Bad Do You Want It" with 6 new original songs and 4 covers, Crystal's take on Willie Dixon's "Evil" and Buddy Guy's "What Kind of Man" twists each into a woman's point of view.

Gruesome return with Silent Echoes, a ferocious Death Metal onslaught, fueled by progressive, razor sharp musicianship. Celebrating over a decade as the finest purveyors of old-school Death Metal inspired by the legendary Chuck Schuldiner and the many iterations of Death, the new album sees Gruesome transition away from the no-frills riff-fests heard on their Savage Land and Twisted Prayers LPs, and shift towards a more nuanced form of terror. Silent Echoes is the quartet’strue put up or shut-up moment for one simple reason: It was written and recorded in the spirit of Death’s 1991 progressive death metal masterpiece, Human.

The fourth studio album from the Ventures, 1961's Colorful Ventures was the first in a long line of releases the band built around album title themes. Here the theme is colors, and so listeners get such songs as "Blue Moon," "Yellow Jacket," "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White," and so on. Conceptual themes aside, the album featured more of the group's recognizable instrumental rock & roll, surf rock, and country twang.