First time available on CD, Cold Sun from Austin, Texas was recorded in 1970 in the legendary Sonobeat studios, where the Mariani and Johnny Winter first LPs were produced. The Cold Sun band are considered contemporaries of Velvet Underground and The Fugs, often listed as being in a similar vein but inspirations for this unique piece actually go back to the desperated, haunted Joe Meek. All songs lyrically express dark, mystic poetry with the true 60s psychedelic floating/distorted fuzz spirit presented in short compact mini-epics along with several mind blowing long tunes, such as "Ra-Ma", "Here In The Year" and "Fall".

The group is still called Blues Incorporated, but without Cyril Davies or Long John Baldry, who were present on the first record. Recording at Liverpool's Cavern Club was more a gimmick than anything else, and the music is not as well made or exciting as the group's first album. This record shows Alexis Korner's more big-band type blues work, favoring horns. At the Cavern was a good album, but not one that was going to make much noise amid the work of the Rolling Stones, the Animals, or the Yardbirds. Originally released in 1964, At the Cavern was reissued on CD in 2006 and includes bonus tracks.

Most of the musicians heard on this fourth installment in the Classics Mary Lou Williams chronology are women. During the second half of the 1940s, this was considered unusual and innovative. Female musicians, with the exception of carefully coiffed vocalists and the occasional pianist, were generally regarded by the public, by the entertainment industry, and by most male musicians as curious anomalies and were not taken very seriously. Mary Lou Williams always preferred to surround herself with musical minds possessing artistic acumen commensurate with her own highly developed musical intellect. The first four tracks were recorded for the Continental label in 1945 with guitarist Mary Osborne, bassist Bea Taylor, and percussionists Margie Hyams and Bridget O'Flynn, a fascinating duo who took turns either handling the vibraphone or the drums…

Known primarily as a hard rock/blues rock group, the Groundhogs have become a legend in the world of rock, they never set out to become a Prog rock band though during 1970-1972 created some imaginative experimental music born from the pen of Tony McPhee, and made much of the band's work interesting material for followers of Prog - social, mindwarp, ecological and psyche/space rock themes and unusual instruments found their way into the band's albums made during this their most progressive and arguably most fruitful period, featuring many regard as the classic Groundhogs line-up of Tony (T.S.) McPhee guitar/vocals, Pete Cruikshank on bass guitar and Ken Pustelnik on drums.

An Opera for Four Fusion Works is a unique project by Vidna Obmana and Hypnos - a four-CD album, released one CD at a time. In each of the four chapters or "Acts," Belgian ambient/experimental artist Vidna Obmana (Dirk Serries) will rework or "recycle" the sound sources of a different musician or group. The four acts will be linked in a thematic sense, but will use completely different and distinct sound sources as raw material for Vidna Obmana's manipulation. Act I used guitar pieces from Dreams in Exile, Act II used Bill Fox's saxophone recordings, Act III worked from the foundation of Kenneth Kirschner's piano works, and this last installment utilizes the voice of Steven Wilson (No-Man, Porcupine Tree, and the artist behind Bass Communion).

After years of refusing to sing anything but gospel, Green decided the time had finally come to fuse the godly and the secular elements of his soul. Love Is Reality made an overt play for the mainstream R&B market. Unfortunately, Christian dance-pop producer Tim Miner works from formulas, while Green runs on inspiration. Green sounded great, but the final result paled in comparison to the rest of his catalog.

A few years into the British folk-rock boom, came along a band called the Trees, that got slagged off by the mindless British weekly press as Fairport Convention sound-alike. If those so-called journalist had actually listened, they might have seen their mistake as the Trees were a lot more like the fantastically fabulous The Pentangle but only even more progressive. True the dual guitarist and female singer was a sort of blueprint (almost cliché) for bands of those days into folk-rock, but here the musical interplay got uncommon space to develop and the numbers frequently grew longer in time, something rare in the genre and only followed by Comus. But that SMBWMP (stupid mindless British weekly music press) would keep on deriding this band that folded after two excellent but unsuccessful albums…

The Gitanes label has taken it upon itself to reissue on CD some of the late work of gypsy jazz giant Django Reinhardt. The tracks that make up Nuits de Saint-Germain des-Prés come from three Decca sessions dating from May of 1951 to January 1953, the final year of his life. The title comes from the reopening of the infamous club Saint-Germain des-Prés, whose reopening coincided with Reinhardt showing off his bop chops to a host of notable American jazzmen, including Benny Carter, Roy Eldridge, Charlie Parker, Don Byas, and others. The bands on all of these sessions are comprised of Young Turks, most notably a youthful Pierre Michelot on bass. The other constants are drummer Pierre Lemarchand and Hubert Fol on clarinets and saxophone; the latter's brother Raymond is the pianist on two of these sessions…

As far as krautrock super-groups go, it's hard to beat Harmonia's composition, a trio formed by members of Kraftwerk, Neu! and Cluster. With two albums released between 1973 and 1976, though, their legacy has been somewhat sparse. This live recording, from a show in Griessem in March of 1974, is thus a rather special thing. The sound quality is actually rather stunning, with a perfect balance between the band’s chugging electronic percussion, hypnotic guitar, and droning keyboards. The photo on the back cover illustrates perfectly what to expect, with Michael Rother, guitar in hand, standing between Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius…

This album documents drummer Buddy Rich's bout with what were contemporary trends in jazz and pop music during the year 1980. Operating in a groove similar to that of Maynard Ferguson's high-voltage big band, Rich and Co. churned out exciting music that went over well with the crowd at Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London, England. The leader of the reeds, and this band's featured soloist, was tenor and soprano saxophonist Steve Marcus. Don Menza's ultra-funky "Beulah Witch" and Bob Kaye's "Grand Concourse" have that beefed-up, big city big-band feel that was so prevalent during the '70s and '80s. The rest of the tunes on this album were composed by baritone saxophonist Bob Mintzer. His "Blues a la 88" is finely wrought and superbly executed…

The Worm Ouroboros is a Belarusian progressive rock band formed in Minsk in 2006. Their eclectic music style combines elements from the Canterbury scene, Folk, Symphonic Prog and Zehul, everything that's in between Caravan, Camel and Magma. Their efforts led to their debut album "Of Thing That Never Were" is one of the best and most mature albums to come out recently. Combining intricate arrangements and a beautiful interplay between all musicians.

Ansgar Üffink, an internationally successful chillout artist, stands with the name Vargo for relaxed well-being sounds of the extra class. He usually produces in the studio, plays live with Vargo or DJs. In addition, the joy of creating particularly beautiful compilations developed.

This session, recorded by GHB on April 6, 1990, was the final recording session of the great New Orleans bass player Chester Zardis. He was one of the most important bass players and rhythm men in the entire history of New Orleans jazz.
The Sammy Rimington Band performed at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival at the Fair Grounds in April, 1990. Sammy of course, Fredrik John (trombone), Jon Marks (piano) and Sven Stahlberg (drums). As Karl Kronqvist, the regular bass player of the band could not make this trip, we were very proud and happy to have the veteran bassist Chester Zardis in his place…

Israel presents a very interesting and varied progressive rock scene specially during the 70's and 80's and a remarkable classic rock and folk variety of very talented artists (including Matti Caspi, Yehudith Ravitz, Arik Einstein, etc). One of the major exponents of these musical tendencies (yes, all of them +jazz) is Shem-Tov Levi with his characteristic flute and skilled piano playing accompanied by his very competent singing. Prog-wise Levi is one of the epicenters of the Israeli branch being part of projects such as Ktzat Acheret, Tzlil Mechuvan, The Family Album (with Schlomo Gronich) and in 1976 decided to form a new group: Sheshet. For this he teamed with one of the most beautiful voices in music (specifically israeli folk and pop), Yehudith Ravitz…

Nightsessions (1998). Three tracks lasting over sixty six minutes in total, more vintage kit on the cover, analogue sounds, mellotron for fans of Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream. ‘Apocalypsis ll’ and most of this CD in fact is very much Tangerine Dream in ‘Encore’ and ‘Sorcerer’ mode. Spooky atmospherics and strange alien animal noises lurch from the speakers. Calm descends and electricity arcs across the atmosphere to be joined by sonic booms then a beefy sequence jerks into life. The lead lines could have been taken from ‘Encore’, ‘Force Majeure’ or even ‘Romance 76’ by Peter Baumann. After about ten minutes there is a welcome return to the spookyness so that we can get our breath back though the heart keeps pounding…