Louis Vierne is renowned as one of the most brilliant of all French organ composers. His piano works are little known despite their colourful, imaginative and inspiring treatment of the instrument. The early Deux Pièces owe their lyrical style to Mendelssohn, while the Suite bourguignonne exudes an atmosphere of joie de vivre and romantic contentment. Impressionism can be heard in the Trois Nocturnes, the third of which is considered one of Vierne’s masterpieces with its evocative use of birdsong, while the shadows of war echo in the solemn Poème des cloches funèbres. This is the first of two albums covering repertoire that deserves a place in the pantheon of French piano music.

After spending a few years in limbo after scoring her first R&B hits "Dance With Me, Henry" and "Good Rocking Daddy," Etta James returned to the spotlight in 1961 with her first Chess release, At Last. James made both the R&B and pop charts with the album's title cut, "All I Could Do Was Cry," and "Trust in Me." What makes At Last a great album is not only the solid hits it contains, but also the strong variety of material throughout. James expertly handles jazz standards like "Stormy Weather" and "A Sunday Kind of Love," as well as Willie Dixon's blues classic "I Just Want to Make Love to You." James demonstrates her keen facility on the title track in particular, as she easily moves from powerful blues shouting to more subtle, airy phrasing; her Ruth Brown-inspired, bad-girl growl only adds to the intensity. James would go on to even greater success with later hits like "Tell Mama," but on At Last one hears the singer at her peak in a swinging and varied program of blues, R&B, and jazz standards.

With his early theatrical successes, Wolf-Ferrari brought a transparency of sound and a sense of lightness and charm to the realm of Italian opera. Alongside these qualities came a renewal of opera buffa, of which he proved to be a master – exemplified in the overtures and excerpts heard here. The comic energy and vibrancy of Il segreto di Susanna, the melodic beauty of Il campiello and the sweeping lustre of I gioielli della Madonna show how Wolf-Ferrari reinvigorated the genre through his incomparable passion and expression.

Here is Johann Sebastian Bach in transfigured light: with organ chorale preludes, vocal cantata movements and orchestral sinfonias – 24 pieces in all – transcribed for trio and solo piano by Fred Thomas, and threaded into a compelling new sequence by Manfred Eicher. On Three Or One, Bach’s idiom is respectfully explored by three innovative players, a process Thomas describes as “quietly joyful,” and the trio pieces, primarily drawn from Bach’s Orgelbüchlein, acquire a fresh character in the hands of Kazakh violinist Aisha Orazbayeva and British cellist Lucy Railton, musicians more often associated with contemporary composition’s cutting edge.

The legendary never released "Ghost Album" from 1981.
Recorded in late 1980 & early 1981 but never released. Featuring 8 incredible tracks. This was intended to be the follow-up to the fantastic "Galaxy" album.
Produced by Rockets creator - Claude Lemoine, it features all 5 original members: Alain Groetzinger, Alain Maratrat, Christian Le Bartz, Fabrice Quagliotti, Gerard L’Her. All tracks written by the original band.

Lionel Loueke, one of the jazz world’s most searingly original and sought-after guitarists, has devoted the bulk of his output to original music. But Close Your Eyes, originally released on vinyl by Newvelle in 2018, found the Benin-born Loueke focusing entirely on standards and canonical jazz classics.

With their second album Rides Again, the James Gang came into their own. Under the direction of guitarist Joe Walsh, the group – now featuring bassist Dale Peters – began incorporating keyboards into their hard rock, which helped open up their musical horizons. For much of the first side of Rides Again, the group tear through a bunch of boogie numbers, most notably the heavy groove of "Funk #49." On the second side, the James Gang departs from their trademark sound, adding keyboard flourishes and elements of country-rock to their hard rock. Walsh's songwriting had improved, giving the band solid support for their stylistic experiments. What ties the two sides of the record together is the strength of the band's musicianship, which burns brightly and powerfully on the hardest rockers, as well as on the sensitive ballads.

With Mike Oldfield clearly beginning his shift away from ambitious multi-instrumental epics into more pop-inflected territory, what better time could there have been for his label to remind listeners that he'd always had an eye for the three-minute single? True, nothing here is as overt as "Family Man," the hit that he and his band wrote for Hall & Oates, but still a cover of ABBA's "Arrival" swiftly followed by such stirring delights as "Portsmouth," "In Dulci Jubilo," "On Horseback," "The Sailor's Hornpipe," and…

Returning to independent status, Bob Seger recorded Back in '72, not only the finest of his early-'70s albums but one of the great lost hard rock albums of its era…