The Musea label and the Finnish magazine Colossus endlessly continue their quest for the greatest universal themes, in order to complete their collection of concept-albums dedicated to Progressive rock. The hero of the day is Dante Alighieri, the famous medieval author from Firenze who wrote "The Divine Comedy". That's precisely this epic piece of work, without a doubt one of the greatest books of all times, that serves as the basis for this project. And of course, it has been divided in three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso.
The second part, Purgatorio, deals with the poet’s journey through Purgatory, the abode of penitent souls waiting to ascend to heaven after having being purged of their earthly sins. The set comprises 36 tracks spread over 4 CDs, for a total of 35 bands and artists from a wide range of countries…

Though former Runaways guitarist Lita Ford has been absent from the recording industry since 1997, she hasn't exactly been idle. After releasing Kiss Me Deadly, her final album after a string of them in the '80s and '90s, the music scene – and the industry with it – changed, and alternative ruled the airwaves. Ford got married to Jim Gillette, former vocalist with hair metal rockers Nitro, and started a family. In addition, she relocated to the Caribbean. Wicked Wonderland is uncharacteristic of the pop-metal she released a decade ago. It's an in-your-face metal record, but ultimately it's a very studied and calculated 21st century pop-metal record.

Kurt Cobain made plenty of mistakes in his life, but loving the Vaselines was not among them. Nirvana covered three of their songs, and as Kurt might tell you if he were alive today, from 1986 to 1989 the Vaselines were the best pop band around…

Raimondi has advantages: the dark coloring of his voice, the vocal menace, the power of his bass." The three ladies - especially the Te Kanawa has become livelier, more insistent - Maazel has the singers and Mozart firmly in hand.

– Hermes Lexikon

Henri Crolla (1920-1960) was an Italian jazz guitarist and film composer. Born in Naples, Campania, Italy, to a family of itinerant Neapolitan musicians, he moved with his family to Porte de Choisy in France in 1922 following the rise of fascism in Italy. One of his neighbours was a young Django Reinhardt, with whose family he became close. He also put to music many poems from Prévert's Paroles with Joseph Kosma.

"Love Etc." is a song by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys from their tenth studio album, Yes (2009). It was released on 16 March 2009 as the album's lead single.
Post-modern ironists cloaked behind a veil of buoyantly melodic and lushly romantic synth pop confections, Pet Shop Boys offer wry yet strangely affecting cultural commentary communicated by the Morse code of synth washes and drum machine rhythms. After first emerging in the mid-'80s with "West End Girls" and "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)," Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe quickly established themselves as hitmaking singles artists who were also able to craft emotionally resonant albums, like 1988's Introspective and 1990's Behaviour…

Handel’s English oratorios, though unstaged, generally remain vividly theatrical. Samson is less operatic, opening with the hero already defeated, blinded and in chains, long after Dalila’s seduction and subsequent treachery. The drama is of the mind rather than of action, with virtually no incidents in Act I, and Act II limited to two encounters, Dalila offering remorse and the giant Harapha mocking the captive.

All three of Family's 1970 BBC sessions (all of them previously unreleased) are on this 77-minute CD, all of them dating from the time when Poli Palmer had joined the band to fill out its sound on flute, piano, vibes, and percussion. Only the first of the three sessions is taken from the master tapes, with the other two surviving only in the form of the off-air recordings that served as sources for this CD. Also, that first session (from January 1, 1970) wasn't a typical performance by the group, given that - because singer Roger Chapman was ill - the band performed two instrumentals (one of which, the jazzy "Here Comes the Grin," makes its first appearance here)…

Spanish Songs of the 16th century A genuine potpourri of different songs and languages always following the notion of “docere et delectare” (to instruct while giving pleasure), the famous Ensaladas of Fletxa, Carceres, Vila and Chacon constitute a unique genre in 16th century Spanish literature and music. They are certainly related to the French ‘fricassée’ and the Italian madrigal comedy, and sometimes pay tribute to Janequin. The genre delighted listeners throughout the 16th century with its depictions of the eternal struggle between good and evil, portraying such varied characters as Lucifer, the virgin Mary, rustic shepherds, shipwrecked pilgrims, Adam and the ancient prophets.

A unique phenomenon in popular music history, Jethro Tull have been and still are one of the most successful live performing acts on the world stage, rivaling Led Zeppelin, Elton John and even the Rolling Stones. After forty years at the bottom, at the top and various points in between, with now some 30-odd albums to their credit and sales totaling more than 50 million, Jethro Tull are still performing typically more than a hundred concerts each year. This concert recorded in 2008 is one of their best.

Galliard were in on the ground floor of the British progressive rock movement, releasing their debut album, Strange Pleasure, in 1969 and mixing jazz, rock, folk, and psychedelic influences. The following year, New Dawn pretty much picked up where its predecessor left off, with one key exception. The band had initially featured two wind players, Dave Caswell and John Smith; though Smith was absent from New Dawn, a whole brace of additional horn players had been brought in to augment the sound. This was during the period when the likes of Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears (and their British equivalents) were starting out, and brass-rock was all the rage.

Sometimes it takes extremely talented and worthy musicians a long time before releasing an album in which they lead. Some of the musicians never do. Luckily, Aaron Heick got together with the Japanese label Venus Records to release his first album under his own moniker. Easily one of the best modern alto saxophonists in the United States, Heick has performed and recorded with stars such as Chaka Khan, Barbra Streisand, Paul Simon, Frank Sinatra, and Richard Bona. In this one-horn quartet setting with the extraordinary John di Martino and his Romantic Jazz Trio, Heick shows his phenomenal technique, solid sound, and emotionally charged soulfulness. Some of the selections on this album include Carlos Santana's "Europe," flutist Herbie Mann's funky "Comin' Home, Baby," a song by the Beatles "And I Love Her," and the evocative "Infant Eyes," written by Wayne Shorter. There are also two original compositions by Heick himself.

Galliard is a sextet formed in the summer of 68, and developed a psychedelic type of brass rock, fronted by twin wind players Caswell and Smith and singer Geoff Brown. They recorded two albums on the Deram Nova label (the subsidiary prog label of Decca records) around the turn of the 70's decade, when brass rock was the rage. Their first album Strange Pleasure By Galliard, released in 69, was quite eclectic, ranging from Medieval to Flamenco/Spanish music. For their second album New Dawn, wind player John Smith was gone, but the group adjoined a mega brass section of four player, plus keyboardist Morton.