Without any obvious keystone event, Biota – who started recording in the late 1970’s as the Mnemonist Orchestra – have quietly become a musical fixture, honoured for their uniquely, abstract, layered, polystylistic approach to musical construction - deaf to fashion or possible sales. And it seems, paradoxically, to have been just this art-orientated commercial indifference that has slowly won them loyal followers and surprisingly respectable sales. Now, for a wider audience - and at a congenial price - this box collects five representative releases that span their discography and track the radical evolution of their crystalline aesthetic – with added documentation, a band history, insights into their work process, and a full-length bonus CD embroidered from their archive of rare and unreleased material. Contents: Funnel to a Thread, Half a True Day, Invisible Map, Object Holder and Gyromancy (recorded as the Mnemonist Orchestra), and the box-only bonus Counterbalance.

"Saints and Sinners" is the 2nd studio album by Kane Roberts. It was produced by Desmond Child, who also has co-writing credits on all tracks. "Twisted" was the album's first single. The accompanying video featured model and actress Tania Coleridge. The second single, "Does Anybody Really Fall in Love Anymore?", became a hit on radio and MTV, peaking at #38 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. It was written by Child, Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, and Diane Warren, and was previously recorded by Cher for her 1989 album Heart of Stone.

The richest transmission of printed wedding compositions comes from the prosperous Hanseatic cities. From this rich trove we have recorded for the first time a marvelous selection of interpretations by Manfred Cordes and his WESER RENAISSANCE ensemble: motets, sacred concertos, and ensemble songs, true to the motto: 'The wedded state originated in an ancient land; it was instituted in Paradise by God’s command'.

Born and raised in the prairies of Saskatchewan, Gerry Wall's lifelong passion for music began when he delivered a newspaper to Joni Mitchell one frozen February morning in his childhood. He credits his technical skill to dark Canadian winter nights, where there was nothing to do but pick up a guitar and refuse to let it go.

With the team they have the renowned and versatile Trondheim Jazz Orchestra. The project is based on enlarging the detail richness of the solo hardening flaw game - which has traditionally been the most common way to use hardening flaws. The large ensemble acts as a magnifying glass where they look for the details, then mix, throw it around and evaluate. With Olav and the hardening fella in the center.

Angela Brown personifies the ideal soprano: sheer vocal power; luxurious finesse; and shimmering, high pianissimos. With a charming personality larger than life, she unites opera, pops, and gospel in one sensational voice. A featured artist on the two-time Grammy Award® winning recording “Ask Your Mama,” Angela’s international reputation continues to grow.

“For 25 years legendary Brazilian producer Kassin was trying to get me to make an album of my songs. We finally made it.
In Poland”

The great Italian stage and screen director Franco Zeffirelli made these widely acclaimed films, both starring Plácido Domingo. with Georges Prêtre conducting the Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala. Pagliacci, which co-stars the great singing actress Teresa Stratas, brought Zeffirelli the coveted Emmy as Best Director in the category of Classical Music Programming. Cavalleria was filmed on location in Sicily, which adds immeasurably to the power and atmosphere of this timeless story of love, honour, justice, and violence.

The Gateway Trio is a cooperative in the greatest sense of the word, as guitarist John Abercrombie, bassist Dave Holland, and drummer Jack DeJohnette are all respected players, composers, and bandleaders on the jazz scene. Even though this only the third Gateway recording and the group's first in 17 years, each group member collaborates frequently with the others. As a result there is always a great sense of interplay between Abercrombie's sometimes-mellow-sometimes-distorted guitar, Holland's huge toned bass, and DeJohnette's dancing drums. All of the compositions are by the band members and are wide-ranging in scope.

In Gustav Mahler's first four symphonies many of the themes originate in his own settings of folk poems from the collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy's Magic Horn). A case in point, Symphony No. 4 is built around a single song, Das himmlische Leben (The Heavenly Life) which Mahler had composed some eight years earlier, in 1892. The song presents a child's vision of Heaven and is hinted at throughout the first three movements. In the fourth, marked ‘Sehr behaglich’ (Very comfortably), the song is heard in full from a solo soprano instructed by Mahler to sing: ‘with serene, childlike expression; completely without parody. The symphony is scored for a typically large, late-romantic orchestra (though without trombones and tuba) and an extensive percussion section which includes sleigh bells as well as glockenspiel. However, Mahler mostly deploys his forces with a transparency and lightness more akin to chamber music or eighteenth-century models like Mozart or Haydn. The Fourth has become one of his best-loved symphonies, and is here performed by Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä, joined by the angelic voice of English soprano Carolyn Sampson.

Sony Masterworks will release the official soundtrack album for Martin Scorsese’s crime drama The Irishman. The album features a selection of songs from the movie by artists including The Five Satins, Fats Domino, Smiley Lewis, Donnie Elbert, Bill Doggett & others. Also included is the Theme for the Irishman composed by Robbie Robertson. The Irishman stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel, Ray Romano, Bobby Cannavale, Anna Paquin, Stephanie Kurtzuba, Jesse Plemons, Kathrine Narducci, Sebastian Maniscalco, Emma Tillinger Koskoff and Jane Rosenthal. The movie based on Charles Brandt’s nonfiction book I Heard You Paint Houses is set in post-war America and chronicles one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American history, the disappearance of legendary union boss Jimmy Hoffa. The drama, which premiered at this year’s New York Film Festival, is opening in select theaters this weekend before its debut on Netflix on November 27.

There is hardly a better way to approach Ludwig van Beethoven than through his piano concertos. Beethoven’s own instrument was the piano, and in his improvisations – which made him the darling of the Viennese salons – he merged virtuosity and unbridled expression. The piano concertos give a clear idea of these performances. At the same time, they are prime examples of Beethoven’s ability to create large orchestral works with seemingly endless arcs of tension.The complete recording of all five works with Mitsuko Uchida and Sir Simon Rattle was one of the most spectacular projects of the Berliner Philharmoniker during the Rattle era – and at the same time the highlight of the collaboration between the orchestra and the pianist, which began in 1984.

Bollani is no stranger to Brazilian music, having previously recorded an entire album of Jobim's music, Falando do Amor (Venus Jazz, 2003) and the enthusiasm and panache of his playing here reveals an obvious love for, and affinity with the music. The choro and samba which spawned bossa is represented here in all its diversity, and Afro-Cuban rhythms, tango and European styles which have all shaped the development of music in Brazil, color the material on Carioca.

Rain Tree Crow is the result of a collaboration between former Japan members David Sylvian and Mick Karn. Sylvian and Karn teamed with keyboardist Richard Barbieri and Steve Jansen, adding guitarists Phil Palmer and Bill Nelson for their self-titled debut. Like a mellower, new age-oriented version of Japan, Rain Tree Crow explores stark soundscapes that sound alternately beautiful and desolate. Although it is a bit too challenging to provide a good introduction to Sylvian and Karn's music, the album remains fascinating for their fans.

Very fine album of warm, soothing, floating ambient soundscapes and clever synth compositions, occasionally accompanied by nicely fitting drum work.