Accidental Records is re-issuing Matthew Herbert’s The Horse album (originally published last year via Modern Recordings /BMG) as a Special Edition with unreleased remixes and versions. The album in its original version has been awarded Best Large Ensemble Composition at The Ivors Classical Awards this November 12th. Based around a full-size horse skeleton and working alongside the London Contemporary Orchestra and an expansive cast of special collaborators, Herbert is here in full flight, restlessly curious and culminating in starkly original, ritualistic music loaded with intent.

In that enticing, enthralling school of 1960s “girls with guitars”, Goldie & the Gingerbreads are top of the class. Self-contained and accomplished as instrumentalists, with an eminently soulful vocal prowess, the Gingerbreads remain true pioneers of women in rock’n’roll, and with a fascinating history to boot. Born in the discotheques of Gotham, Goldie & the Gingerbreads were a popular club act with a handful of recordings under their belt when an admiring Animals caught them on a NYC visit in late 1964. “Imported” into the UK, the group scored a hit with ‘Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat’ and went on to tour with the Rolling Stones, Kinks and others, as well as maintaining a high visibility in the UK on their own. They made several more worthy if unsuccessful discs with producer Shel Talmy before splitting in 1967.

It's a tragedy of pop culture in the new millennium that starlets don't rush willy-nilly into the recording studio anywhere near as much as they used to. Goldie Hawn's sole foray into pop music – originally released in 1972 on Warner Bros. after Laugh-In but before Steven Spielberg's Sugarland Express revealed her dramatic range as an actress – isn't Golden Throats-level bad, surely to the disappointment of hipsters everywhere. Although Hawn's helium-pitched voice is a trifle thin and limited, the selection of material wisely plays to her strengths, with Dolly Parton's "My Blue Tears" and – believe it or not – Joni Mitchell's "Carey" both well-suited to her soprano vocals. In fact, the only really egregious errors aren't really her fault: the Frenchified "Butterfly," with its absurdly cheesy choral backing, wouldn't have sounded good sung by anybody, and the countrified take on Van Morrison's "I Wanna Roo You" has a botched arrangement that slaps on a vaguely oompah-style waltz-time arrangement that suits neither singer nor song. Other than that, though, Goldie is a sweetly endearing country-tinged middle of the road pop record of a style that just isn't being made anymore.

The occasionally Japanese Singles Collection releases, which have included Wham!, a-ha, Paul Young and others, continues next month with a focus on Janet Jackson. These sets combine a ‘greatest hits’ on CD and a DVD of videos on the second disc. The CDs are pressed on the Japanese SHM-CD format (compatible with all CD players) and these often boast unique masterings and sometimes offer some rarities, for example, the debut of a seven-inch edit on CD.

The Original Album Series box set is a reissue of albums by French DJ and producer David Pierre Guetta. The edition includes 5 original albums: "Just A Little More Love" (2002), "Guetta Blaster" (2004), "Pop Life" (2007), "One Love" (2009) and "One More Love" (2010) …

Telemann published his Sonates sans Basse à deux Flutes traverses, ou à deux Violons, ou à deux Flutes à bec (Sonatas without Bass for Two Transverse Flutes, or Two Violins, or Two Recorders) in Hamburg in 1727 and they were published again in Amsterdam around the year l730 by Le Cène, in Paris in 1736-37 by Le Clerc and in London in 1746 as opera seconda by Walsh. Telemann, in his own autobiographical notice published by Handel's Hamburg rival Mattheson in 1740 in his Grundlage einer Ehren-Pforte, writes of his ability to play the keyboard, violin, recorder, oboe, flute, chalumeau and viola da gamba, as well as the double bass and trombone, skills that at that time were not unique to him.

Handel's Utrecht Te Deum HWV 278 was already enthusiastically received at its first performance in 1713 in St. Paul's in London. To celebrate peace after twelve years of Spanish War of Succession, Handel composed a captivating Te Deum and Jubilate. A British national composer was born!

The most comprehensive edition devoted to Gioachino Rossini marking his 150th anniversary.
Born in 1792, Rossini was the most popular opera composer of his time. Although he retired from the Opera scene in 1829, he continued to compose in other genres, including sacred music, piano and chamber works. He did gather his late works under the ironic title Péchés de vieillesse (Sins of Old Age), which veils a true collection of masterworks.

Harmonies of Devotion is both an exploration of the Italian motet repertory of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries and a celebration of the devotion to this sacred repertory displayed by English antiquarian collectors of the eighteenth century. Among the works recorded here for the first time are Giovanni Legrenzi’s six-voice masterpiece Intret in conspectu tuo, which survives thanks to a copy made in London by Handel, a five-voice Crucifixus by Legrenzi’s pupil Antonio Lotti, sent to London’s newly formed Academy of Ancient Music, a grand Marian motet written for the Academy by Agostino Steffani, and music by Steffani’s teacher Ercole Bernabei, again collected by members of London’s antiquarian music clubs.

CHRISTMAS IN EARLY AMERICA Eighteenth century church musk in New England The American 'primitive' tradition of church music in the late eighteenth century blossomed from the transplanted customs of contemporary English gallery music. As unison congregational singing gained in popularity in the rural churches of seventeenth and eighteenth century Britain and its American colonies, hands of gallery musicians, both singers and instrumentalists, were eventually formed in the mid 1800's to lead and embellish community performance of psalms, hymns and anthems.

Born in the fall of 2000 in Rouen (France), Ataraxie take their main inspiration from the early 90s doom/death metal scene and slowest 80s/90s death metal bands. Thus, their genre mainly includes old school death metal parts and classic doom metal ones slowed down in the most extreme way but also various influences from the bleakest metal genres. Their music plays a lot with contrasts in general: ultra slow crushing parts alternate with furious blast beats, mournful parts with more epic ones, and vocals also varies from really deep grunts to tormented screams. Topped by a triple (!) guitar attack, Ataraxie is a must for fans of diSEMBOWELMENT, Evoken, early My Dying Bride, Morgion, Cathedral, Esoteric, Asunder, Mournful Congregation, Spectral Voice or Incantation…

The trio Arabesque was created by two Frankfurt-based German producers at the height of the disco era in 1977. After one album and a few singles that found surprising success in Japan, the producers changed the lineup, keeping Michaela Rose and replacing the two other members with Jasmin Vetter and Sandra Lauer. Vetter, a former gymnast, also became the trio's choreographer and Lauer, soon to be billed simply as Sandra, assumed the position of a lead vocalist. The first single of the updated Arabesque, "Hello, Mr. Monkey," went to number one in Japan. The Far East remained the band's biggest market, with numerous albums and compilations released over the years. However, Arabesque's success in their homeland was very modest, with only one single, "Marigot Bay," entering the German charts at number eight in 1981. In 1984, they disbanded and Sandra embarked on a successful solo career with the songs written by future husband Michael Cretu (of Enigma fame). Jasmin Vetter and Michaela Rose formed a duo, Rouge, but after a few obscure singles it ceased to exist.

Firma Melodiya presents a recording of two-piano transcriptions by Franz Liszt and Camille Saint-Saëns performed by the piano duet of Ludmila Berlinskaya and Arthur Ancelle. Representatives of famous artistic dynasties and alumni of different music performing traditions, they began to jointly perform in 2011 and have won the listeners’ hearts in Russia, France and Switzerland.

If it seems as though the familiar ABBA sound isn't present on this album, that's because there was no entity known as ABBA at the time that the earliest sides here were recorded. Growing out of an attempt by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus to record together with their respective companions, Agnetha Faltskog and Frida "Anni-Frid" Lyngstad, the first side cut here, "People Need Love," featured the two men singing just as prominently as the women, and was credited to "Bjorn and Benny, Agnetha and Anni-Frid." It was only after its release and the cutting of a further single, "Ring, Ring," that the more familiar sound of the quartet began to coalesce along with the idea of a permanent professional association. Unreleased in the United States until 1995, this album is more of a generic European pop release than an ABBA release; the music has several unusual attributes…

While it's true that Luiz Bonfá is a forgotten name among many bossa nova lovers - past and present - a forgotten name rarely associated with his younger peers he influenced (Jobim, Gilberto, de Moraes) who took the music to international popularity. Bonfá is a ghost whose shadow looms large over the music, whether he is well known or not. He composed both main themes for Black Orpheus, which ended up on the hit soundtrack. Here Bonfá does what he does best: play an amazing guitar, arrange a series of uncredited session players, sing, and dig deep into the roots of bossa nova as it comes out of samba, but then return it changed but folded into the tradition. Tracks like "Samba de Duas Notas" ("Two Note Samba"), with its beautiful guitar/flute front line slipping around and through one another in the bridge, are typical of this man's artistry and innovative…