Ache - De Homine Urbano (1970). Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce a newly re-mastered edition of the classic debut album by Danish Progressive Rock group Ache. Formed in 1968, with a line-up of Torsten Olafsson (bass, vocals), Finn Olafsson (guitar, vocals), Peter Mellin (organ, piano) and Glenn Fischer (drums and percussion), Ache first came to attention in Denmark with their work De Homine Urbano ("About Urban Man”) which was the first ever Rock ballet, performed by the Royal Danish Ballet Company in Copenhagen in 1969. Influenced by groups such as The Nice, Iron Butterfly and more, Ache’s music was a powerful Psychedelic Progressive Rock driven by Peter Mellin’s powerful Hammond Organ and the fluid guitar playing of Finn Olafsson. The album "De Homine Urbano” was released in Europe by Philips Records in February 1970 and featured two tracks that dominated either side of the record…

Lightshine were one of the many shortlived underground Krautrock bands that left behind this great debut album for all to discover. This album features the solid musicianship of 5 proggers who have crafted 2 sides of some pretty dark yet melodic music. Lightshine drip Ash-Ra like guitar solos, space keyboards and flute over a dark full bodied bass and drum foundation. Their music is aggressive yet very much contained. According to the liner notes these guys played along with the likes of Jane, Hoelderlin and the Scorpions. "Feeling" contains 2 epic tacks which really give the band some room to experiment and wind out their solos onto. Overall a great album to play and enjoy again and again and a great find in the lot of 70's Krautrock.

The reissue one of the most legendary italian prog albums ever! "Invasori" was originally released only in a few promo copies for the Philips label back in 1976 (and that LP is now a very expensive collectors' item), so that many italian prog fans didn't even know that this title was ever existing. "Invasori" is a beautiful and haunting progressive concept album divided in two suites in the classic italian style, with italian vocals, various moods and an overall spacey atmosphere with hints of Pink Floyd. This is an excellent and rare find!

Iceberg from the middle of the 70's were easily one of the best Progressive bands to come from Spain. This band came from Barcelona and consisted of: Max Sune (guitar), Josep Mas Kitflus (keyboards), Primi Sancho (bass) and Jordi Colomer (drums), Angel Riba (voice) could only be heard on the first record. Their style was definitely jazzier but with continuous conversations between the guitars and keyboards in a mixture of fusion and symphonic sounds. The band mixed Return to Forever or The Mahavishnu Orchestra's crazy and energetic music and Santana's more latin one. Iceberg made four studio-albums entitled: "Tutankhamon" (1975), "Coses Nostres" (1976), "Sentiments" (1977) and "Arc-en-Ciel" (1979).

Tales of Mystery and Imagination is an extremely mesmerizing aural journey through some of Edgar Allan Poe's most renowned works. With the use of synthesizers, drums, guitar, and even a glockenspiel, Parsons' shivering effects make way for an eerie excursion into Poe's well-known classics. On the album's 1987 remix, the instrumental "Dream Within a Dream" has Orson Welles narrating in front of this wispy collaboration of guitars and keyboards (Welles also narrates "Fall of the House of Usher: Prelude"). The EMI vocoder is used throughout "The Raven" with the Westminster City School Boys Choir mixed in to add a distinct flair to its chamber-like sound.

Prototypical 70's Belgian band, Dragon's music falls mostly in the hard progressive category with a psychy edge. For all the adepts of delicate and elaborated rock, this band displays a great richness, a great instrumental diversity (Mellotron, guitar, trumpet, trombone, saxophone, etc.) with some lightened guitar soli. They sound like a mix of Iron Butterfly, Uriah Heep, Van Der Graaf Generator, and 70s Italian Art Rock.

Romance '76 (1976). Esoteric Recording’s Reactive label is pleased to announce a newly remastered CD release for the seminal German Electronic & Ambient musician Peter Baumann’s debut solo album, “Romance ‘76”. Peter Baumann came to prominence as a key member of Tangerine Dream, joining Edgar Froese and Chris Franke in the group in 1971 and making his debut on the album “Zeit”. His contribution was felt on the classic Tangerine Dream albums released by Virgin Records issued between 1974 & 1976, “Phaedra”, “Rubycon”, “Ricochet” and “Stratosfear”. In 1976 he embarked on a solo career with his classic work “Romance ’76”, recorded in July and August that year in Berlin and Munich. The result was a remarkable album that is now held in huge esteem by aficionados of German Electronic Music…

Always one of the most in demand bassist and session men. He does not have a large body of work as a featured artist, but here you can catch him in a rare environment. This time he gets to lead and pick the tracks. A great find.This needs to be added to a serious jazz library, as the important jazz figure he is.

For his next act, the decibel champion of electric jazz shocked the world by unplugging and returning to South Indian music before an excitable audience at South Hampton College. Yet the alert John McLaughlin follower will note that beyond the reliance upon South Indian instruments and scales, there are unbroken links to records like My Goal's Beyond and the high-speed electric music that McLaughlin was casting aside at the moment. McLaughlin called his new quintet Shakti, which means "creative intelligence and beauty and power" and the music here has all of that and something else, a ferocious streak inherited from the Mahavishnu days.

The complete Hymns, Spheres, at last available on compact disc. Keith Jarrett’s first encounter with the Karl Joseph Riepp baroque organ of the Abbey of Ottobeuren – one of the great improvisers of the age communing with one of Europe’s most famous instruments – brought forth some truly unique music. The 1976 double LP release has long been a favourite amongst organ music aficionados as well as Jarrett’s loyal following, admired for Jarrett’s spontaneous improvisational resourcefulness, the variety of textures drawn from the instrument, and for the sheer physical power of the sound in the church, beautifully captured in the ECM recording.

A very large group session recorded in March 1976 for Fantasy, Everybody Come on Out features Turrentine with Joe Sample, Lee Ritenour, Craig McMullen, Paul Jackson, Harvey Mason, Bill Summers, and Dawilli Gonga.

Friend Of Mine (1976). Recorded in the wake of the collapse of Stax Records in 1976, Friend of Mine brushed up against a long fallow period in Little Milton's recorded output, and was also unavailable for many years, thus making it one of his least-known albums. Produced by Milton for Henry Stone's TK Records and issued on the Glades Records imprint, this is a soulful blues workout drenched in sweaty vocals and long, sustained performances, of which perhaps the best is the five-and-a-half-minute "You're Gonna Make Me Cry," which also includes some impressive guitar. The record's strongest body of songs are the smooth soul ballads such as "Baby It Ain't No Way," the rousing "Don't Turn Away" (a song that one wishes Elvis Presley could have discovered and considered covering)…