During his lifetime, Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816) was in fact more famous than Mozart, and his operas were veritable hits. Nowadays, it is in the hands of experts such as Florence native Filippo Mineccia to restore his unjustly neglected compositional output. With his fine countertenor voice, Mineccia presents a collection of outstanding opera arias in a recording which for sure will quickly deserve a prominent place in the shelves (or hard drives) of the many Italian Baroque opera lovers. Mineccia has found in the Lisbon-based ensemble Divino Sospiro under the direction of Massimo Mazzeo an exquisite support. Born in Florence, FIlippo Mineccia began his musical studies very early in the prestigious School of Music of Fiesole, singing in the polifonic choir.

The release of Bernard Haitink's new cycle of the Beethoven symphonies was one of the most talked about classical events of 2006. Over recent years many people had questioned whether another complete set of Beethoven's symphonies would ever be recorded. But Haitink's revelatory recordings have demonstrated why fresh new interpretations of Beethoven's music are so important and why the composer's music is still so relevant today.

Stephan Moccio, acclaimed composer/producer (Miley Cyrus, Celine Dion, The Weeknd), returns to his classical roots and the piano. Classical discipline combined with his pop songwriting sensitivities gives him a unique edge. Organic, raw and honest, the album explores profound themes like love, relationships, aging. Conveying emotion without words, he creates melodies that course through delicately wrought compositions, revealing a more sensual and vulnerable side of this multi-faceted artist.

A Wednesday song is a quilt. A short story collection, a half-memory, a patchwork of portraits of the American south, disparate moments that somehow make sense as a whole. Karly Hartzman, the songwriter / vocalist / guitarist at the helm of the project, is a story collector as much as she is a storyteller: a scholar of people and one-liners. Rat Saw God, the Asheville quintet’s new and best record, is ekphrastic but autobiographical and above all, deeply empathetic. Across the album’s ten tracks Hartzman, guitarist MJ Lenderman, bassist Margo Shultz, drummer Alan Miller, and lap/pedal steel player Xandy Chelmis build a shrine to minutiae. Half-funny, half-tragic dispatches from North Carolina unfurling somewhere between the wailing skuzz of Nineties shoegaze and classic country twang, that distorted lap steel and Hartzman’s voice slicing through the din.

After securing their status as one of Manchester’s most exciting acts with their 2020 debut Architecture, and then consolidating the title with its 2021 follow-up The Art of Lying; new album Protagonists arrives as something of a new dawn for the four-piece. “This was our first straightforward album, which sounds strange given it’s the third one. Our first album was a little bit of a back catalogue, and the rest was written in the same vein to have a coherent record. The second album was a complete stab in the dark and written and recorded during lockdown restrictions, but it broke us into the top 100. Protagonists feels like the first album where there’s no pressure and one where we can cut loose."

Depending on where you vacation, the last thing you might expect from an album by a band named after a Finnish lake made infamous by a multiple homicide and titled Halo of Blood would be for it to be fun. Strangely enough, though, that's exactly the feeling that comes through on Children of Bodom's eighth album, which finds the Finnish band returning to deliver another dose of dazzlingly technical melodic death metal. Sure, the album is filled with lots of dark moments and macabre imagery, but listening to it is a bit like watching a fighter plane demo, which is to say it's loud, thrilling, and when enjoyed properly, it's likely to result in some hearing loss. Filled with big riffs and high flying solos, Halo of Blood is an album that's hard not to headbang along to…

This album is more than just a collection of covers of Bjork songs. Different from CDs like the "String Quartet Tributes to" artists like Bjork and Radiohead, this album really stands alone as a funky, brassy, bold, and beautiful big band jazz album. It combines very modern sounds (electric guitar, drums, electric/computerized percussion, etc.) with old-fashioned jazz elements (a killer horn section, great piano solos [particularly on "Cocoon"], the great vocals by Becca Stevens) a quality of Bjork's work that I have always admired, the combination of the modern and the antique.

‘Well, what a surprise – a divine surprise! I have delighted in immersing myself in the world of Handel for more than forty years now. But I must admit that I experienced yet another lesson in strength and joy when I toured and recorded the Dettingen Te Deumand the Coronation Anthems’, says Hervé Niquet. As a lover of large orchestral formations, he has assembled a number of instrumentalists and singers close to the (gigantic) forces used at the premiere, with a large band of oboes, bassoons and trumpets, and assigned the solo arias to the entire ‘chapel’. Niquet speaks of ‘the glittering power of this ceremonial music concocted by a Handel conscious of placing the best of his genius at the service of the crown and of history’, and he in turn invests all his enthusiasm and expressiveness in these works combining ‘grace and strength’. Fans of Champions League football will recognise in Zadok the Priestthe theme of that competition’s anthem!

Signify was the first Porcupine Tree album recorded as a full band unit, rather than primarily by frontman Steven Wilson with occasional assistance from other musicians, primarily the ones who would become full-time band members as of this album; Richard Barbieri, Colin Edwin, and Chris Maitland.
Signify marked a change in musical direction for Porcupine Tree. Instead of long ambient and psychedelic musical adventures, the band streamlined their sound into shorter, more digestible bites. Yes, the psychedelic feel is still there and the Floydian vibe is still present (though much weaker). It's just that now Porcupine Tree has been molded into a more palatable listening experience for the radio. A nicely done, excellent work with elements of psychedelic and ambient rock.

Pianist and composer Andrew Hill is perhaps known more for this date than any other in his catalog - and with good reason. Hill's complex compositions straddled many lines in the early to mid-1960s and crossed over many. Point of Departure, with its all-star lineup (even then), took jazz and wrote a new book on it, excluding nothing. With Eric Dolphy and Joe Henderson on saxophones (Dolphy also played clarinet, bass clarinet, and flute), Richard Davis on bass, Tony Williams on drums, and Kenny Dorham on trumpet, this was a cast created for a jazz fire dance. From the opening moments of "Refuge," with its complex minor mode intro that moves headlong via Hill's large, open chords that flat sevenths, ninths, and even 11ths in their striding to move through the mode, into a wellspring of angular hard bop and minor-key blues…