Paatos is a Swedish progressive rock band that was formed in 2000 by Reine Fiske (followed up by Peter Nylander), and Stefan Dimle (both previous members of Landberk and current members of Morte Macabre), Petronella Nettermalm, Ricard Nettermalm (Puckspony) and Johan Wallen. The band has many influences. The sum of Sigur Ros, Bjork, Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Can, early Bowie, and many more, plus the inevitable affect of the Swedish constant state of melancholy and lack of sun during a better part of the year, creates its own voice. The five members of Paatos have varied musical backgrounds which they bring into the studio and rehearsals when the music is composed. The beauty is that this creates music that none of the members could accomplish on their own, as well as being a very unifying process for the band…

In one of the more unique groupings of musicians from the ECM stable, Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko assembled his fellow countryman Tomasz Szukalski on tenor and soprano saxes, British bassist Dave Holland, and Finnish drummer/percussionist Edward Vesala to play contemporary jazz with a distinct Euro-classical chamber feel. Those who are familiar with the music of Kenny Wheeler will hear an immediate connection, as Stanko and this ensemble employ techniques of free-floating moods and lightly soaring sounds, with Holland's anchoring bass prodding the slight rhythms forward. The beauty of this concept is in how the quartet plays from an inward direction, with few direct jazz references save improvisation. It's also not an entire program of ballads or terpsichore, as the title suggests…

An ambient instrumental release from black tape for a blue girl’s Sam Rosenthal in collaboration with Vidna Obmana. More than ever before, Sam lets his emotions run away on a tide of ambient turbulence. Five drifting movements ride the intake of senses, breathing the air of life and surrounding beauty. As fullsome as the cycle of seasons, cascading visions of past and present contact loop and collide. A very deep personal intrusion into the mind & heart, represented by a dark, mysterious and sensual music. Cast adrift into the caring hands of this truly original and honest artist who not only lives within himself, but sheds his soul through others as well.

Antropomorphia are back! Six years after their acclaimed studio full-length "Merciless Savagery" (2019), the Dutch death dealers return with their most brutal and dark record so far that is aptly entitled "Devoid of Light". When Antropomorphia created "Devoid of Light" over a period of two and a half years, they never lost sight of their vision: to combine a wide variety of harsh musical textures including fanatical, white-eyed aggression, misanthropic and nihilistic lyrics, and dark emotions such as anger, despair, and pain among many others into dark and oppressive soundscapes. Antropomorphia were originally spawned from the foul stench of death in the Dutch city of Tilburg in 1990. At the time, they were pioneers, which soon turned them into a corner stone of the brutal music scene in the Netherlands…

Even though Marc-André Hamelin is world-renowned for his astonishing virtuosity and a massive repertoire of the most demanding piano works, including those of Scriabin, Godowsky, and Sorabji, he has startled many with his sudden turn toward the placid domain of Classical music. First came his critically acclaimed recordings of Franz Joseph Haydn's keyboard sonatas, which were surprise best-sellers for Hyperion, and here he offers a double-CD of the piano sonatas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with a handful of short pieces to round out the discs. Since Hamelin's fine reputation precedes him, suffice it to say that these are among the most meticulously played and wittily interpreted renditions of these pieces ever recorded.