In the late 1970s and early 1980s, groups that played period instruments started to appear. They were strongly associated with particular conductors, usually the musician who formed each ensemble, and generally were not full-time organizations. Typically, they gathered for a limited number of concerts and recordings a year, and their membership was variable. Half the people playing on one day's studio session as the London Classical Players might have been on stage the week before as part of the Academy of Ancient Music. In 1986, a group of the best of these freelance players sought increased security and the artistic benefits of performing regularly as a permanent orchestra, and formed the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. As most London orchestras, they organized themselves into a self-governing co-operative owned by the musicians. As a matter of policy, they decided against appointing anyone as its music director or permanent conductor. This meant they had to shine from the outset to attract the best interpreters to lead their performances.

Swiss pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and American guitarist Mary Halvorson are known for their distinctive and unconventional style—in the best sense of the word. As expected, their music is rooted in strong improvisational ideas, yet their compositional skills are evident in each piece. Bone Bells marks their third duo album, following Crop Circles (2017) and Searching For the Disappeared Hour (2021).

This British blues-rock group is remembered mostly for their keyboard player, Christine Perfect, who would join Fleetwood Mac after marrying John McVie and changing her last name. Although they were one of the more pedestrian acts of the British blues boom, Chicken Shack was quite popular for a time in the late '60s, placing two albums in the British Top 20. The frontperson of Chicken was not Perfect/McVie, but guitarist Stan Webb, who would excite British audiences by entering the crowds at performances, courtesy of his 100-meter-long guitar lead. They were signed to Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon label, a British blues pillar that had its biggest success with early Fleetwood Mac.
Chicken Shack was actually not far behind Mac in popularity in the late '60s, purveying a more traditional brand of Chicago blues, heavily influenced by Freddie King…

Pianist Don Pullen's second recording by his African-Brazilian Connection (which includes bassist Nilson Matta, two percussionists and altoist Carlos Ward) is dedicated to the memory of the late tenor-saxophonist George Adams. The music is more subdued than is usual on a Pullen disc, with the harmonies being less dissonant and the mood often melancholy and reflective but occasionally joyous. This is one of Pullen's more accessible and introspective sessions.

Seiji Ozawa, born of Japanese parents in Manchuria, began music lessons at the age of seven. At 16 he entered the Toho School of Music in Tokyo, intending to pursue a career as a professional pianist. He abandoned that plan after breaking both of his index fingers in a rugby game. It was then that he turned to conducting and composition. While still a student Ozawa gained podium experience with professional ensembles, including the NHK Symphony Orchestra and the Japan Philharmonic. He graduated in 1959 with first prizes in conducting and composition and traveled to Europe to pursue further studies.

Trans-Neptunian Objects 2 sees ASC pick up the baton from the end of the first album and continue proceedings in a similar fashion. Featuring another 7 astral excursions into deep space and beyond and spanning just short of 70 minutes, Trans-Neptunian Objects 2 is the final journey in the series.

Gautier Capuçon rose quickly through the ranks to become one of the leading French cellists of the 21st century by his 20th birthday. Like Mstislav Rostropovich before him, Capuçon is also an accomplished pianist, but his keyboard tastes expand beyond the realm of classical music and include jazz. What is remarkable about Capuçon is what he managed to accomplish so quickly: by his mid-twenties, he had won two important competitions and appeared on nearly 20 major recordings with artists like Martha Argerich and Myung-Whun Chung, among many others. His choice of repertory has been broad, taking in standards by Haydn, Beethoven, and Brahms and lesser-knowns from the 21st century, such as Erwin Schulhoff, Hanns Eisler, and Éric Tanguy. In 2022, Capuçon created the Fondation Gautier Capuçon, an outreach program to assist young classical musicians. The following year, he issued the album Destination Paris.

Leon Russell's CD "Snapshot" comes unheralded. There are no musicians listed, no writers' credits for the songs. But the music has delightful gems. The double-entendre titled "Come for You" bounces joyfully with romantic bliss as the background singers, stinging electric guitar and Russell's growl-sing make the track shine. "Honey & Eli" is another of my favorites with Russell's signature piano – his fingers seem to bounce along the keyboards – and soul horns to create an intoxicating mix, "I see sweet love there in your eyes; true love cannot be denied." Another gem that should not be confused with the Hank Williams' classic by the same title is the religious but not preachy "I See the Light." Russell is in reflective mood here on the Almighty and the afterlife with a slower beat and his vocals soulful and passionate, "I see a place there in the distance now, a sweet delight, his precious love abounds, I hear his words and then I feel alright; I speak his name; I see the Light." The rest of the CD is a mix with some predictable melodies, but also some joyful surprises. "Lost Inside the Blues" is a strong track. The CD concludes with a Russell instrumental "Friendly Fire." "Snapshot" is a strong set, well worth exploration by fans of Russell and heartfelt roots music. Enjoy!

Warren Zeiders went from daily hours on the lacrosse field to headlining sold out arenas in less than three years, and now, the 25-year-old Pennsylvania native is set to release his album"Relapse, Lies, & Betrayal” on Friday, March 14, 2025, via Warner Records.

Sofia Gubaidulina’s religious nature, specifically Russian Orthodox, finds expression in each of these pieces. Each also makes use of her much-loved bayan, the Russian button accordion played here with great virtuosity by Iñaki Alberdi. Kadenza is a solo tour de force; Et exspecto, based on the closing words of the Creed (‘I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come’) is an impressive five-movement sonata in which, the booklet-note tells us, the performer’s interpretation goes, with her encouragement, well beyond the composer’s notation. In the other works, much is made of the combination of the accordion sounds and Asier Polo’s cello. With In croce, a number of cross-like ideas derive from the title – crossing of registers, crossing of lines and textures and so on – which are essentially private creative stimuli for the composer. But in the major work on the record, the half-hour Seven Words, the sentences spoken by Jesus on the cross are graphically, even fervently implied. Gubaidulina’s love of short motifs, here often using very close intervals, produces in her hands music of strong and even painful intensity, seizing and gripping the attention, sometimes with fiercely punched chords on the accordion or with soaring harmonics on the cello that vanish into silence after the final Word. The longest movement is the central No 4, Jesus’s cry, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’, a powerful and deeply affecting invention. This is a remarkable, compelling work.

Sofia Gubaidulina, one of the most distinct composers of the present time, says of herself that she is “a daughter of two worlds, whose soul lives in the music of both the West and East”. From her father’s side, her life was entered by the world of Islamic culture, while her mother introduced her to Christianity, in which she found her identity in the Orthodox faith. Her quest for a singular style was strongly influenced by the legacies of J. S. Bach and Anton Webern, as well as Dmitri Shostakovich, who encouraged her to remain herself and “continue down the mistaken path” for which she was criticised by the guardians of aesthetic correctness in the Soviet Union. Gubaidulina’s personal story is one of a struggle to live in truth, conducted with calm, patience, perseverance and inner conviction. The five string quartets represent a singular journey towards a vision of freedom beyond the borders of any system: she extracts the material from beyond major-minor tonality, using micro-intervals, serial techniques, aleatory elements, unusual playing methods, thus revealing previously unthought-of acoustic possibilities of instruments, including the space itself, the movement of musicians, etc. The Stamic Quartet, an ensemble representing the famous Czech quartet school, is an attentive interpreter of the first complete recording.

Their biggest hits from the '70s like 'You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet', 'Takin' Care of Business', 'Roll On Down The Highway', 'Let it Ride', 'Hey You', 'Take It Like A Man', 'Blue Collar', 'I'm in Love', and four more!

Exactly 30 years to the day, multi-platinum, four-time GRAMMY-nominated rock band Goo Goo Dolls are set to release a 30th Anniversary deluxe edition of their fifth studio album, A Boy Named Goo, on March 14. Originally released in 1995, this classic album catapulted the band to mainstream success and was Certified 2x Platinum within a year of its release. Driven by the smash hit “Name,” the record also included the singles “Flat Top,” “Naked,” “Only One” and “Long Way Down.”

Seit fast fünf Jahrzehnten prägen Yello die Entwicklung der elektronischen Popmusik, der Dieter Meier (Vocals) und Boris Blank (Keyboards, Sampling) ab Ende der 1970er Jahre mit Kulthits wie „Bostich“, „Oh Yeah“ oder „The Race“ ihren Stempel aufgedrückt haben. Mit ihrem collagenhaften Signature-Mix aus synthetischen Beats, organischen Soundbits und assoziativen Wortspielereien probieren sich die Schweizer immer wieder neu aus, während man sich sämtlichen Genreschubladen bis heute kategorisch mit unverbindlichem Lächeln verweigert.

Seit fast fünf Jahrzehnten prägen Yello die Entwicklung der elektronischen Popmusik, der Dieter Meier (Vocals) und Boris Blank (Keyboards, Sampling) ab Ende der 1970er Jahre mit Kulthits wie „Bostich“, „Oh Yeah“ oder „The Race“ ihren Stempel aufgedrückt haben. Mit ihrem collagenhaften Signature-Mix aus synthetischen Beats, organischen Soundbits und assoziativen Wortspielereien probieren sich die Schweizer immer wieder neu aus, während man sich sämtlichen Genreschubladen bis heute kategorisch mit unverbindlichem Lächeln verweigert.