Ocean to Ocean is the sixteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Tori Amos, released on October 29, 2021. Amos wrote and recorded the album while in lockdown in Cornwall, where she lives, with her writing inspired by her fascination with "the county's landscapes and ancient myths". Part of her writing was also explained to be in reaction to the US Capitol riots in January 2021. In a press release, Amos described the album as "a record about your losses, and how you cope with them". She elaborated that she realized she had to "write" to "shift" her perception of herself, saying: "I was in my own private hell, so I told myself, then that's where you write from—you've done it before." Amos also explained that the album is intended to "sit" with listeners, particularly if they are "in a place of loss. When somebody is actually at that place, thinking 'I'm done,' how do you reach that person? It's about sitting in the muck together."

The critical reception of Schumann's violin sonatas, like that of much of the composer's late output, has vacillated over the course of the intervening centuries. Written for and first performed by some of the leading violinists of the day, all three are now recognized for the masterpieces they undoubtedly are, needing no apology: and we are fortunate indeed to be in a position to enjoy such dedicated performances as these.

Santana is the primary exponent of Latin-tinged rock, particularly due to its combination of Latin percussion with bandleader Carlos Santana's distinctive, high-pitched lead guitar playing. The group was the last major act to emerge from the psychedelic San Francisco music scene of the 1960s and it enjoyed massive success at the end of the decade and into the early '70s. In 1998, Santana was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The band has earned nine Grammy Awards and three Latin Grammy Awards, the latter all in 2000. Carlos also won a Grammy Award as a solo artist in 1988. Santana has sold more than 90 million records worldwide, making them one of the world's best-selling groups of all time.

Once Upon A Time is the fourth studio album by Liverpool Express, released digitally and on CD via their official website. This is the first studio album since 1979, and features Roger Scott Craig, Billy Kinsley, Dave Goldberg and Kenny Parry. Eleven new songs are included, as well as a new version of "John George Ringo & Paul" - the band's creative tribute to The Beatles. The title song "Once Upon A Time" harks back to the beautiful hit "Every Man Must Have A Dream". "Sailin' Down to Rio" is the band's ode to Rio de Janeiro, a city they fell in love with during their South American tour in the late 70s. Ian Bairnson, the guitarist with The Alan Parsons Project and Pilot, makes a guest appearance, playing guitar on two tracks, "Once Upon a Time" and "Find My Way Back Home".

With Forgotten arias countertenor Phillippe Jaroussky pays tribute to composers of the late Baroque era and to the great librettist of the age, Pietro Metastasio. All ten arias on the album, written between 1748 and 1770 by nine composers, are heard in world premiere recordings. Metastasio's librettos were set by multiple composers - Vivaldi, Handel, Gluck and Mozart among them - resulting in hundreds of operas. The more familiar names on the multi-faceted programme of Forgotten Arias are Gluck, Johann Christian Bach, Jommelli, Hasse and Piccinni. Less well-known are Bernasconi, Ferrandini, Traetta and Valentini. Jaroussky's partners on the album are the conductor Julien Chauvin and his orchestra Le Concert de la Loge. All in all, Forgotten Arias looks set to be highly memorable.

If you're an air guitarist, Al di Meola has likely been your man since his days as an unknown 21-year-old addition to Chick Corea's Return to Forever in the mid-'70s. Over the years since leaving RTF, he has been afforded the opportunity to record regularly, and this CD represents a good overview of his discography, primarily for the Columbia family of labels. His early dates Land of the Midnight Sun, Elegant Gypsy, and Casino are well represented, in addition to his collaborations with Jan Hammer on Tour de Force: Live. His middle-period efforts are not all that vital, as repeat ideas and predictable flash lost their original value even to the staunchest fans, therefore making this collection less than essential.

Philip on Film: Filmworks by Philip Glass Review by Richard S. Ginell
In conjunction with a fall 2001 touring film festival, in which the Philip Glass Ensemble played the composer's scores live in sync with the films, Nonesuch released this handy, compact five-disc retrospective of Glass' prolific output for the cinema. Perhaps subliminally aware that Glass' large film catalog is wildly uneven in quality, producers and longtime associates Kurt Munkacsi and Michael Riesman have chosen wisely and well, generally giving the best scores complete or nearly complete attention on the first four discs and saving the fifth disc for excerpts from others, as well as a few unreleased new works for the faithful. Of all of Glass' cinematic collaborators, director Godfrey Reggio seems to have brought out the best in this composer.

Tracks 1 to 11 recorded 4/29/94 at The Palladium, London, England. Tracks 12 to 15 recorded 7/29/94 at Raleigh Auditorium, Raleigh, NC, USA.

Jethro Tull’s 1970 classic Benefit will be celebrated in a brand-new 4CD/2DVD set, featuring remixes by Steven Wilson, an abundance of previously unreleased material, packaged within a deluxe hardback book, containing 100 pages of commentary from numerous contributors alongside hordes of images of the band creating and performing their first million-selling album. Benefit (The 50th Anniversary Enhanced Edition) will be out on 5th November. Following the successes This Was (1968) and Stand Up (1969), Jethro Tull returned in 1970 with their third studio album in as many years. Benefit (The 50th Anniversary Enhanced Edition) contains a copious amount of expanded material, building upon the 2013 Steven Wilson remixes. CD3 contains a previously unreleased Steven Wilson remix of Jethro Tull performing at Tanglewood in 1970. Further to that, CD4 contains a newly remastered version of a concert at The Aragon Ballroom in 1970 in mono.

ZAZ has been a household name in French music since her breakout 2010 hit "Je veux", a jazz-swinging folk ditty about doing things her way. More than a decade later, the singer-songwriter’s style of pop has only become more multifaceted. ZAZ peels away the layers on this fifth album, the title of which is an abbreviated nod to her real name, Isabelle Geffroy. On the peppy “Imagine", she dreams of a gentler world, brighter days and the possibility of writing one's own future, her voice fluttering over strummed guitar with world-weary abandon. "Ce que tu es dans ma vie" is a heartfelt and hopeful ode to her young stepdaughter set against a backdrop of piano, lightly plucked guitars and a minimal electronic beat.

Good News from the Next World is the tenth studio album of original material by Scottish rock band Simple Minds, released in February 1995 by record label Virgin. The album garnered moderate commercial success; in the UK, it reached No. 2 and produced the two Top 20 hit singles "She's a River" (No. 9) and "Hypnotised" (No. 18).

Andris Nelsons is the Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and in fall 2015 he was announced as Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, commencing in the 2017/18 season. With both appointments, and in leading a pioneering alliance between these two esteemed institutions, Andris Nelsons is firmly underlined as one of the most renowned and innovative conductors on the international scene today. The goal is a complete Shostakovich cycle on Deutsche Grammophon with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. This recording provides a kaleidoscope of Shostakovichs struggle with historical events and political pressures. The pre-war eclectic but accessible and popular 5th, in which he would seem to bow to political pressure, ensured his temporary rehabilitation. The beautiful but dark and gloomy mid-war 8th provoked yet again his fall from favor and instead of providing the political authorities with a triumphant post-war 9th Symphony, Shostakovich wrote a light Haydnesque work which would not be performed until after Stalins death. Selections from the Hamlet Suite, possibly Shostakovichs best film score, rounds out this 2 CD set.

Britney Jean is Britney Spears' eighth studio album and was released in late fall 2013. The album has been described by Spears as the most personal record from her catalog yet, and features collaborations with numerous producers including Sia Furler, will.i.am, William Orbit, and Naughty Boy. Spears co-wrote each track on the album, which is a concept album about the loneliness of pop life. Two singles have been released thus far, "Work Bitch" and "Perfume".

Albedo 0.39 is a studio album by the Greek electronic composer Vangelis, released in 1976. It was the second album produced by Vangelis in Nemo Studios, London, which was his creative base until the late 1980s. It was his first Top 20 UK album. It is a concept album themed around space physics (the reflection of light i.e. physical truth). Its title is inspired by the idea of a planet's albedo, the proportion of the light it receives that is reflected back into space. The album title refers to the average albedo value of the planet Earth as it was in 1976. From the explanation on the back of the LP cover : "The reflecting power of a planet or other non-luminous body. A perfect reflector would have an Albedo of 100%. The Earth's Albedo is 39%, or 0.39". It was performed at the Royal Albert Hall in 1977. The album reached #18 on the UK Album Charts.

Scorpio Butterfly Kisses is essential for Kate Bush aficionados. This ten-year retrospective of live material spends most of its time covering The Kick Inside and Never For Ever periods, but does so quite successfully. Highlights on the disc include performances of non-album compositions: "Do Bears," "Under the Ivy," and two Beatles tunes, "The Long and Winding Road" and "She's Leaving Home." "Do Bears" is a humorous piece, noted for its chorus "Do bears sha la la la in the woods?". The Beatles covers are good, but too brief. And the lesser-known "Under the Ivy," a beautiful, minimal piece, is performed exquisitely here. Bush's voice and piano playing are quite good throughout Butterfly Kisses. The piano really stands out in these fairly spare performances, many of which feature Kate unaccompanied on the instrument. Unfortunately, the sound quality throughout the disc is only so-so, with minimal dynamics and occasional hiss. The instrumentation lacks clarity and is at times muffled and overwhelmed by Kate's voice.