Following a brilliant outing in Firewind’s 2020 eponymous LP that was sadly hamstrung promotionally due to the lockdowns, six-string sorcerer Gus G. switches gears for more varied and abstract territory, culminating in a solid display of technical flair and melodic ingenuity within the instrumental medium…

William Frederick Gibbons is an American rock musician who is the guitarist and primary vocalist of ZZ Top. He began his career in the Moving Sidewalks, who recorded Flash (1968) and opened four dates for the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Gibbons formed ZZ Top in late 1969 and released ZZ Top's First Album in early 1971. Gibbons possesses a gravelly bass-baritone singing voice and is known for his bluesy, groove based guitar style. He is also noted, along with ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill, for his chest-length beard. Gibbons has made appearances with other artists and acted on television shows, most notably Bones. In 2001, Rolling Stone named him the 32nd greatest guitarist of all time.

Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943), known professionally as Mick Jagger, is an English singer-songwriter, musician, composer and actor who gained fame as the lead singer and one of the founder members of the Rolling Stones. Jagger's career has spanned over five decades, and he has been described as "one of the most popular and influential frontmen in the history of rock & roll". His distinctive voice and performances, along with Keith Richards' guitar style have been the trademark of the Rolling Stones throughout the band's career. Jagger gained press notoriety for his admitted drug use and romantic involvements, and was often portrayed as a countercultural figure…

Jeff Lynne revived Electric Light Orchestra in 2015 – due to legal reasons, they were now called Jeff Lynne's ELO – releasing a comeback album called Alone in the Universe and steadily mounting a return to the road. Several dates happened in 2016, but the tour reached its apex in June 2017, when the group played in front of 60,000 people at London's Wembley Stadium. Released five months after that June 24 gig, Wembley or Bust – which was accompanied by a concert film – features the entirety of the gig, and if it's not heard too closely, it could sometimes be mistaken for an ELO greatest-hits album. Lynne re-creates the arrangements of his studio work throughout the concert; even when the Traveling Wilburys' "Handle with Care" is hauled out, it sounds like it did on record. The vocals are where the seams show, as Lynne is a little rougher and lower than he was at his peak. Although this is a noticeable difference, it's hardly enough to mar what amounts to a thoroughly enjoyable – and perhaps a tad triumphant – return to live performance for Jeff Lynne.

The Greatest features the very best tunes, picked from Ian Brown’s four solo albums since leaving the Stone Roses. Highlights include "My Star", "Love Like a Fountain", "F.E.A.R." and the new single, "All Ablaze". Ltd Collector’s Edition with 48 page hardback book, extensive sleeve notes, rare photos & bonus disc.

18 Essential Songs is a one-disc distillation of the triple-disc Janis box set. Running 70 minutes, it is a more extensive best-of than the ten-track 1973 Janis Joplin's Greatest Hits album.

Grammy® Award winners Ian Bostridge and Sir Antonio Pappano have been working together on the stage and in the recording studio for over 20 years. Together they have produced award-winning recordings and played sold out concert halls all over the world to huge critical acclaim. Now they embark on a project marking the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare with a new album out in September. Shakespeare Songs celebrates the four centuries of music and performance that his plays and sonnets have inspired. Shakespeare’s peerless feeling for the music of the English language has inspired countless composers, from those who set the Bard’s verse during his lifetime to musicians as diverse as Britten, Finzi, Korngold and Stravinsky.

There are a multitude of options open to the modern rock star wishing to announce to the world that they have embarked on a new album. You can give interviews, allow webcams into your studio, offer a free download as a taster. Or you can appear on Andrew Marr's Sunday morning politics show in a feathered headdress, playing the autoharp over an incessant, off-key sample of the Four Lads' 1953 hit Istanbul (Not Constantinople), while a nonplussed Gordon Brown looks on….

The Jeremy Ledbetter Trio’s debut album, Got a Light?, is a controlled explosion of big musical ideas, stylistic variety, vivid colours and compelling musical storytelling. The new project features three Canadian virtuosos – pianist and bandleader Jeremy Ledbetter, drummer Larnell Lewis of Snarky Puppy fame, and bassist Rich Brown (Steve Coleman, Dapp Theory) – at the top of their game.

Patty Waters is a living legend and every record with her voice is, in consequence, a preciosity. Unanimously considered the main singer of the free jazz tendency since the release of her historical ESP-Disk albums “Sings” and ‘College Tour” in the Sixties, and widely known (Diamanda Galas and Patti Smith pointed her as their main reference) for her impressive interpretation of the traditional “Black is the Color (of My True Love’s Hair)”, her influence resisted to a 30 years disappearance from the stages and the studios. The return happened in 1996, but only to a couple more albums and a few concerts. “An Evening in Houston” marks Waters re-encounter with pianist Burton Greene in a 2018 special gig, along with the greats Mario Pavone and Barry Altschul.

The music of Michal Spisak was much more recognizable and available to a wide audience during the composers lifetime than nowadays. This album contains three compositions of this artist: the Piano Sui t e (a piece with a transparent texture in which Spisak clearly refers to the Baroque tradition), Sonata for violin and piano (for a change, very rich, diverse texture, full of violin dyad passages, varied in terms of harmony and sound colour) and Concerto for two pianos (very spectacular work, extremely diverse, as far as the sound is concerned; highly demanding for the pianists). The aforementioned pieces are a cross-section of the compositional techniques typical of Michl Spisaks musical language; they also introduce a whole range of neoclassical features confirming the composers stylistic affiliation.

2015 two CD collection. Reach For The Sky: The Change Anthology offers the very best of Change, the innovative studio group masterminded by Jacques Fred Petrus, and brought to life by producer/arranger Mauro Malavasi and bassist Davide Romani. Change launched Luther Vandross' solo career with the #1 dance classic 'The Glow of Love' and the Top 20 UK hit 'Searching'. This 28 track collection spans the group's six albums from 1980-1985 and includes every single that made the pop, R&B, and dance charts in the U.K. and U.S., plus an exclusive bonus new disco remix of 'It's A Girl's Affair' by Mike Maurro. Reach For The Sky features a 24-page booklet with rare photos, plus definitive liner notes with brand new interviews and a track-by-track commentary by some of those who helped define Change's biggest hits, including Jocelyn Brown ('A Lover's Holiday'), Diva Gray ('Paradise'), James "Crabbe" Robinson ('The Very Best In You'), and Deborah Cooper ('Change of Heart'). Newly remastered from the original tapes and housed in a deluxe digipak adorned with Greg Porto's iconic artwork throughout, including this release's front cover. Reach For The Sky will lead Change lovers to paradise.

A CD of the Bamberger Symphoniker, conducted by Ingo Metzmacher, was recently released, featuring works by Karl Amadeus Hartmann (1905-1963) and Luigi Dallapiccola (1904-1975). The pairing of these works will not be a coincidence, because both composers were not only friends, but they also shared a number of characteristics, such as the proclamation of humane ideals and the pursuit of expressiveness. Perhaps their only point of contention was the twelve-tone technique, which Hartmann didn't like, while Dallapiccola was intensively involved with it.

Ry Cooder has always believed in the "mutuality in music," and this may be no more evident in his career than with his fifth album, Chicken Skin Music (a Hawaiian colloquialism, synonymous with goosebumps). Even more than usual, Cooder refuses to recognize borders – geographical or musical – presenting "Stand By Me" as a gospel song with a norteño arrangement, or giving the Jim Reeves country-pop classic, "He'll Have to Go," a bolero rhythm, featuring the interplay of Flaco Jimenez's accordion and Pat Rizzo's alto sax. Elsewhere, he teams with a pair of Hawaiian greats – steel guitarist and singer Gabby Pahinui and slack key guitar master Atta Isaacs – on the Hank Snow hit "Yellow Roses" and the beautiful instrumental "Chloe." If Cooder's approach to the music is stylistically diverse, his choice of material certainly follows suit. Bookended by a couple of Leadbelly compositions, Chicken Skin Music sports a collection of songs ranging from the aforementioned tracks to the charming old minstrel/medicine show number "I Got Mine" and the syncopated R&B of "Smack Dab in the Middle".

Olivier Vernet was born in Vichy, France. His early passion for the organ leads him to become a student of Gaston Litaize at the National Regional Conservatory in St Maur des Fossés where he won 5 Gold Medals and the Concert Diploma with honors. Subsequently he spent a year studying with Marie Claire Alain at the National Regional Conservatory in Rueil Malmaison, where an unanimous jury awarded him First Prize for Virtuosity with the congratulations of the jury. In 1988, he earned a teaching degree and, in 1990, he won First Prize as organist, at the Paris Conservatory (CNSM) in the class of Michel Chapuis. His later exceptional career confirms the hopes represented by all these awards.