Before he moved to Nassau and became a carefree, laid-back expat who craved sunshine, Robert Palmer lived in New York City, hired Little Feat for a backup band, and released the all over the place yet still solid Pressure Drop. Named after the massive reggae hit from Toots & the Maytals and the excellent cover version Palmer performs here, Pressure Drop is sometimes wrongly sold as the singer's first island-styled album. Past the title cut, Feat and the New Orleans funk of the Meters are much bigger influences, along with smooth, dated disco ballads smothered in strings. The latter numbers are what make the album too blue-eyed and polished for fans of Palmer's more gutsy moments, but the soft songs are well written and convincing, especially the opening "Give Me an Inch"…

This is another "Best of" CD, this time with Vance Kelly. There are 11 of his best songs from his previous CD's, like "Wall to Wall" or "Tell Me Why". But there are also 3 new recorded songs from 2011, "Foot Loose" and "Fancy Free" and "Purple Rain". Yes, Vance is one of the best modern Chicago Blues artists!

15 complete original Sinatra albums and 43 bonus tracks on a limited edition 9CD box set. Legendary records from Frank Sinatra's golden age as a popular sophisticated vocalist released on Capitol with three on the singer's own label Reprise - with accompaniment from orchestras conducted by Nelson Riddle, Billy May and Johnny Mandel. Digitally remastered. Includes detailed booklet.

Formed in the mid 70s, Independent Musicians Associated (MIA) was a group of musicians, technicians and drawers gathered together by Lito and Liliana Vitale's parents. They produced their own records and concerts in an independent way. Their music is a complex symphonic rock with definite Argentinean/latin folk influence with multiple corals and vocals beautifully contrasting with the keyboards and a great guitar sound upon a strong rhythmic section. They were highly influenced by symphonic music, more noteworthy by ELP, Gentle Giant and Focus. Their debut was "Transparencias", an exquisite album of classical. Their second album was vocal oriented. Lead by Alberto Muñoz -author of the lyrics - this effort was a different approach, though still keeping the symphonic mood in the form of songs. On "Cornostipicum", MIA returned to the instrumental-symphonic rock with elaborated pieces such as "Crifana y Tamílstenes". This album is a highly recommended classic and certainly one of the best ever from Argentina.

Not only an electronic artist, but a dedicated photographer and painter as well, Ildefonso Aguilar seems to state a small late pioneering into Spanish electronic music by just an album, "Erosion" (originally recorded in Germany in 1978, only a selection of the original recordings were released a few years later on cassette and LP). A masterpiece of proto-ambient, isolationism and minimal synth music. Spooky, meditative soundscapes inspired by the desolate volcanic landscapes of Lanzarote (Canary Islands), created using Minimoog, Polymoog, vocal loops and field recordings.

Following on from and designed along the same lines as the Guide to Period Instruments, this boxed set includes an exhaustive introductory text as well as a great quantity of music excerpts on the set’s eight CDs. These extracts have been taken from the extensive repertoire recorded by Ricercar over many years, with excerpts from recordings kindly provided by our colleagues from Harmonia Mundi, Gimell, Accent, Alpha and Sony supplementing our programme where necessary. The Lutheran repertoire of the Renaissance has remained for all intents and purposes unrecorded up until now; the tracks illustrating this repertoire together with other excerpts have been recorded specially for this compilation by Vox Luminis.

Dimitry Sinkovsky is a dazzlingly multi-talented artist a brilliant violinist, countertenor, conductor, and founder in 2011 of the ensemble La Voce Strumentale. In Virtuosissimo, his fifth venture with Naïve, he has teamed up again with the ensemble Il Pomo dOro, his partners in numerous recordings and concerts, to cast more light on Pisendel, a celebrated violinist and composer who led the prestigious Dresden Court Orchestra, and a Vivaldi devotee who copied out several of the Venetian masters concertos for performance in Dresden.

Handel wrote very little for the flute. Indeed, when he wrote the indication ‘flauto’ in his scores he meant recorder. His use of ‘traversa’ is limited to a few sonatas and an occasional movement in operas and oratorios. However, the flute was a popular instrument among amateur musicians in Handel’s London. The publisher John Walsh capitalised on this when printing arrangements of arias and overtures that could be played by either flute or violin, with continuo accompaniment. The London Handel Players take inspiration from Walsh’s editions, with flautist Rachel Brown restoring violin parts to some favourite pieces from Alcina, Solomon and Semele.

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were important for the development of the transverse flute: the technical improvements introduced by French and German flautists made the instrument more accurate in its tuning, more powerful in its sound, and more agile in quick passages, so much so that it superseded the recorder and began to compete with the violin, even replacing it in some sonatas or concertos.

The seventeenth century was a very dark century for the peninsular kingdoms. Famine, epidemics, and all kinds of miseries seized upon a diminishing and very fragmented population. In spite of the continuous social economical and epistemological crisis and of the imposition of an ideology of domination, Spanish culture had flashes of brilliance. And music was a very important part of that culture, particularly vocal music. It was a vehicle of expression for restrained passions, a music that, at times, sang to disillusionment and deception of the senses, just like the tono that lends its title to this recording. The Tonos selected for this recording coincide with this period, in which theatre performances enjoyed a new boost.