This 5 Disc Set set covers the years Kevin Ayers was signed to the legendary Harvest label, 1969-1974.

L'auge del període barroc, a principis del segle XVIII, va ser un moment de guerres i aixecaments a Catalunya, però també de la creació d'una cort reial a Barcelona després de tres segles sense tenir-ne. Per això, els músics i compositors de Catalunya es van posar en contacte amb els estils i tècniques més avançats de Nàpols, París i Viena. Tomàs Milans (1672-1742) és un dels principals compositors d'aquest període, contemporani amb Fux, Delalande, Caldara, Scarlatti i Albinoni, tot i que va compondre només música religiosa per la seva obra com a mestre de capella a Barcelona i Girona.

As part of Columbia/Legacy's ongoing celebration of Johnny Cash's 80th birthday in 2012, the label assembled a series of compilations under the rubric "The Greatest." This 19-track collection covers ground so obvious that it's a wonder there hasn't been a similar compilation before: it showcases Cash's chart-toppers. Strictly speaking, some of these singles did not reach number one – 1958's "The Ways of a Woman in Love" and 1979's "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky" peaked at two, while 1958's "What Do I Care" topped out at eight – and a good case could be made that "Get Rhythm," the charting flip of "I Walk the Line," should have been here, but that's ultimately nitpicking as this provides a single-disc overview of Cash's charting years unlike any other compilation on the market.

Wolfgang Dauner has now been highly active on the scene for more than fifty years. Dauner hired top young musicians to be around him for the current upgrade to United 2.0. The second United generation, like the first one, is eagerly researching the crossing points between jazz, rock, funk and world music. Featuring some of the finest avant-garde jazz players from Germany and beyond the Ensemble began life in 1975. Pianist Wolfgang Dauner, initially recruiting musicians from his home base of Stuttgart (then a hotbed of avant-garde jazz), put together a rotating cast of musicians, and shared writing and arranging duties with guitarist Volker Kriegel.

This is CPO’s second release of Pejačević’s chamber music. The internationally active and renowned Sine Nomine Quartet from Switzerland and Oliver Triendl are outstanding advocates on behalf of this versatile composer. The last movement of the Piano Quintet Op. 40 is a highlight; with a solemn introduction and animated theme, which pervades the entire movement with kinetic energy.

“Brilliant singer … a lean, straightforward voice animated by a subtle flatée … real ‘vocal artistry’,” raved German early music expert Bernhard Morbach of Kulturradio Berlin Brandenburg about Amaryllis Dieltiens’ debut on AEOLUS in 2011. With her own ensemble Capriola Di Gioia, Dieltiens now presents a deeply touching Stabat mater in Boccherini’s original version from 1781.

There are few images as riveting as Roy Orbison standing completely motionless at the microphone in his trademark dark shades as he climbs the notes of one of his haunting, operatic pop songs, sounding for all the world like an angel stranded on earth and yearning to get back home. From his first recordings in the mid-'50s for Sun Records through his unlikely comeback in the late '80s, Orbison never lost an inch of his astounding vocal range or his knack for writing concise and emotionally nuanced pop ballads that seemed for all the world like mini-operas. This 14-track (there's a 15th CD-R track as well) offers key sides taken from all phases of his career, including samples from his brilliant '60s output ("Oh, Pretty Woman," "Only the Lonely," "Blue Bayou," "It's Over," "Crying") and cuts from his 1989 Mystery Girl album like the well-written and sung "She's a Mystery to Me."

Cafe Del Mar Volume 18 is collaboration with the leading artists that have played a major role in the history of Cafe del Mar and shaped the Сhillout music culture over the years. 20 of the tracks are especially composed for this project, which encapsulate the original spirit of Cafe del Mar. Volume 18 sees the return of many iconic artists such as Afterlife, Moby, Chicane, Bent and Underworld back to the series.

Best known as the keyboard wizard of the venerable Hungarian rock band Omega, the solo work of Laszlo Benko is by comparison virtually unknown beyond the confines of Eastern Europe. A curious offering of keyboard based electronic music, it can be likened at times to some of Tangerine Dream's mid-seventies material such as Rubycon or Ricochet albeit with a more light-hearted, zany touch much more along the lines of Kraftwerk minus the vocals or even some of Vangelis' seventies work. Prefering shorter formats rather than longer multi-dimensional compositions favoured by many progressive electronic artists, it is worth a brief glimpse into his musical contributions and developments within Omega in order to better introduce his solo work.

A great date from the non-Louis Prima years of Keely Smith – a rare radio performance done with backing from the Count Basie Band! Both Keely and Basie are at the height of their powers here – and the album has a format that alternates vocal numbers with some equally great instrumental tracks – played by the Count's group with all the soulful, dynamic qualities of their best recordings for Roulette Records! Given the radio presentation, the recording quality is great – and the combination of talents makes for a really unique date that's quite different than any of Smith's other solo records. Titles include "Corner Pocket", "Cherry Point", "Gonna Build A Mountain", "Crazy He Calls Me", "Basically Blue", "Why Not", "Make The Man Love Me", and "My Heart Cries For You". © 1996-2024, Dusty Groove, Inc.

The band's wildly energetic and seriously soulful CD Jump Start is jam-packed with Lil' Ed's incendiary slide playing and rough, passionate singing, as the ragged-but-right Blues Imperials cook like mad alongside him. It is a tour-de-force of untamed slide guitar, rock solid rhythms, heartrending ballads and authentic deep blues vocals. Williams wrote or co-wrote 13 of the album's 14 songs, ranging from the non-stop boogie blast of "If You Were Mine" to the heart-on-his-sleeve honesty of "Life Is A Journey" to the bouncing and jazzy "Jump Right In" to the swaggering, autobiographical "Musical Mechanical Electrical Man." The album overflows with the band s full throttle drive and is fueled by Lil' Ed's love of both serious blues and good time fun.

Thomas-Louis Bourgeois (1676–1751) is one of the masters of the French chamber cantata at the time of the Régence, when – at last – it was permissible to introduce Italian influences openly in France. His imaginative music, as elegant as it is compositionally skillful, forms a welcome complement to the works of contemporaries such as Campra or Rameau who are infinitely better known today. Carolyn Sampson and Le Concert Lorrain revive for us the charming insouciance of the Régence.

John Hiatt is one of those singer and songwriter types whose songs have worked best, at least commercially, in the hands of others (Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt, Iggy Pop, Three Dog Night, the Neville Brothers, and many more have covered Hiatt songs and gone places with them), but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a voice. He does, and while he sings fine enough, his real voice is in the songs themselves, which are frequently brilliant. He may not be riding the charts with any of his own versions, but he's built a steady body of work over some 20 studio albums. This three-disc set features tracks from throughout that career, beginning with early material, then running through the 1980s and 1990s, and out into the new century. A good songwriter knows that a good song will have a life of its own – Hiatt has written an awful lot of those. This set offers 57 of them.

Hard as it may be to believe, but Rod Stewart has gotten through five decades without succumbing to a holiday album. That streak ends in 2012 with the release of Merry Christmas, Baby, an easygoing and chipper collection of secular seasonal standards. A couple of carols are thrown in for good measure but these songs – "Silent Night," "We Three Kings" presented as a duet with Mary J. Blige – along with a mildly incongruous "When You Wish Upon a Star," slide by easily on the mellow big-band swing of the rest of the record. Song for song, Merry Christmas, Baby is very much of a piece with Rod's ongoing Great American Songbook series, with Stewart not straying from the familiar form of these songs and producer David Foster laying on all manner of soft, soothing sounds, whether it's acoustic guitars, synthesizers, strings, or a children's choir on "Silent Night." Very rarely does this hint at the Rod of the '70s – and when it does on the closing "Auld Lang Syne," its intro given a spare folky treatment reminiscent of his Mercury work, it's a bracing, effective reminder of Stewart's skill as a singer – and instead relies on a gladhanding charm that suits the season, not to mention Stewart in his crooning dotage.

"The Lost Box" is the last the album of Swedish pop/new wave band Secret Service, popular in the early 1980s. Disk contains unreleased songs by the Secret Service. "There are many more forgotten songs to be completed. Some very old and some not more then 15-20 years old. All together they are The Lost Box!" A must have for all Secret Service fans!