Phil Carmen (born Herbert Hofmann, February 14, 1953 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Swiss musician and producer of Canadian heritage. Carmen grew up in Frankfurt am Main, Germany and in Lucerne, Switzerland. In Lucerne, he went to the Conservatory, but later studied bookkeeping. In 1975, he decided to turn to music. With bassist Mike Thompson (born Marcel Galuzzi), he founded the duo Carmen & Thompson, playing especially country music. The single "Time Moves On" reached #31 on the Italian charts in 1980, and in 1981 they appeared at the San-Remo-Festival performing the song "Follow Me".

"Luce della Luna": questo è il significato del termine brasiliano Luar, che sta a indicare come questa nuova avventura del chitarrista Bebo Ferra sia ispirata alle atmosfere della musica sudamericana, alle melodie suadenti e nostalgiche di quella che viene considerata la musica popolare più conosciuta del mondo.

The timbre of Cassandra Wilson’s voice is like an opal—incomparably beautiful, deliciously pearlescent, graceful, rich, and eternally strong. On She Who Weeps, originally recorded in 1990 and rereleased last January, lyrics bare little importance. The descriptive quality of words takes a back seat to Wilson’s innate ability to instantly create an atmosphere and strike emotional chords merely by spreading her lips and exercising her larynx. The disc starts off with a romp through Wilson’s own composition “Iconic Memories.” The slight reverb on her voice contributes a sort of sonic aura to the sound, and when vocal overdubbing emerges at the end, the music becomes fiery yet ethereal. Rod Williams on piano, Kevin Bruce Harris on electric bass and Tani Tabbal on drums combine their energetic playing for some ecstatically spirited sounds.

Presented here are a dozen sizzling ballads from the mighty Stephanie Mills, one of the '90s finest female vocalists. MCA Records makes sure Ms. Dynamo's reputation carries into the millennium with this emotionally charged set which includes her roasting rendition of Peabo Bryson's "Feel the Fire" and the gospel-ish "Power of Love."

Café del Mar was opened on Ibiza on the 20th of June 1980. The concept was quite simple: Music for the fantastic sunset view. In its early days Café del Mar has been a well-known meeting point for the locals and an inspiration for artists and writers. In the 90s it has developed into one of the most famous spots on Ibiza, which often was chosen for big media-events of MTV, BBC Radio 1 or Channel 4. But most of all Café del Mar is well-known worldwide for their annual chillout compilations. The first official Café del Mar CD was released in 1994, based on the big amount of requests by the fans of the Café. It was a worldwide success and became the starting point to a range, which has gained a great reputation and millions of sales. Café del Mar 35th Anniversary now delivers a wide musical overview on the previous 35 years of this great location. Here you'll find contributions from fantastic acts like Art Of Noise, John Williams, Nightmares On Wax, Moby and M83.

The year 1965 was a turning point in the life of John Coltrane. It was at this point that he crossed the line into the free jazz arena that he had been approaching since the early '60s. Besides his landmark Ascension, no album better illustrates this than the awe-inspiring Meditations. Coltrane's regular quartet - McCoy Tyner (piano), Jimmy Garrison (bass), and Elvin Jones (drums) - is expanded here with second drummer Rashied Ali (who assumed Jones' spot after this album) and saxophonist Pharoah Sanders. This conglomeration produces some dense textures, especially in the epic first track "The Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost." This sonic hurricane is a 13-minute outpouring of spiritual emotion that is at once compelling and exhausting…

After the release of 1982's "Livin' in the New Wave", André Cymone wrote and produced four songs that appeared on Evelyn "Champagne" King's "Face to Face", including "Teenager," a Top 30 Billboard Black Singles hit. For his second solo album, Cymone put aside his one-man band approach and utilized his touring group. Guitarist Bobby Dean (three songs) and drummer John "Bam Bam" Morgan (two songs), along with keyboardists Craig Thomas, André Cumne, and Linda Rennae (Cymone's sister), all contributed, though electronic gear is so dominant that the material actually sounds more like the work of one or two individuals with occasional background vocals.

The doo wop, gospel, blues, girl group and ballad scenes of Los Angeles fused to make it one major soul city.Ace has very strong links with Los Angeles labels such as Modern, Combo, Flash, Flip, Mirwood, Money, Doré and Era, most of which had notable soul singles in their catalogues. Couple that with our many licensing deals of music made in that city and it is safe to say Los Angeles is just about our main area of expertise.

This 1970 club date in a Munich club by Art Farmer wasn't released until 1998, but it is by no means a collection of outtakes; it was in the possession of the club owner as his own private treasure. The flügelhornist (though he is inexplicably credited playing trumpet on the CD) is joined by his pianist of choice while in Europe, Fritz Pauer, along with bassist Peter Marshall and drummer Erich Bachtragl. Both Farmer and Pauer deliver consistently outstanding solos throughout the set, and what's unusual is that all of the tracks are originals by the leader. "Concord" and "Concourse" are both up-tempo cookers, while Marshall's fine solo introduces the bluesy "Overnight." While the piano is slightly buried in the mix, this otherwise excellent recording is very much a worthwhile investment for fans of hard bop.

This first installment in Classics' multi-volume Reinhardt series is a fine place to start your Django collection. Recorded between 1934-1935, the 23 tracks include many of first sides from the Quintet of the Hot Club of France, which Reinhardt formed with frequent cohort and violinist Stephane Grappelli. Cut for the French Ultraphone label, the material includes such top-notch QHCF sides as "I Saw Stars," "I'm Confessin'," and "Dinah." There's also a few numbers Reinhardt cut with the Michel Warlop Orchestra before teaming up with QHCF. And while JSP's Reinhardt discs often beat out many of the Classics titles for sound quality, this early offering ranks as one that stands up just fine.

A blip in the Byrds' discography that could easily be missed, as all of the songs from these pre-Mr. Tambourine Man sessions are also found on the much more widely available In the Beginning. Byrds fans really need to track this down, though, because six of the 11 cuts are actually entirely different versions than the ones that appear on In the Beginning, and in some cases the differences are substantial…

Michael Burks' third release on Alligator Records, Iron Man, is as close to being a live album as you can get from a studio performance. This could be attributed to Burks using his seasoned road band on this date instead of the Memphis studio musicians used previously on Make It Rain and I Smell Smoke. Alongside Burks' searing Flying V strut, Wayne Sharp's greasy Hammond B-3 dominates this set, reveling in soul and rock influences, including a cover version of Free's "Fire and Water," a definite nod to the blues-rock audience Burks has gained over his 30-plus years on the road. While Iron Man is an overall inspired modern electric blues disc, a few missteps hamper the session. "Ashes in My Ashtray," penned by Chicago bluesman Jimmy Johnson, would have made a better instrumental in this particular case, as the lyrics get in the way of an intense Burks guitar performance.

Esoteric Recordings is pleased to announce the release of Speak Down the Wires, a re-mastered four-disc clamshell box set of the four albums issued by the Edgar Broughton Band / The Broughtons between 1975 and 1982: “Bandages”, “Live Hits Harder!”, “Parlez Vous English” and “Superchip: The Final Silicon Solution”. From the release of their debut album for EMI’s Harvest label in 1969, “Wasa Wasa”, the Edgar Broughton Band were trail blazers for the counterculture and rock music with a social conscience and could even be seen as godfathers and influencers of the later Punk movement. Hailing from Warwick and featuring EDGAR BROUGHTON (guitars, vocals), STEVE BROUGHTON (drums, vocals) and ARTHUR GRANT (bass, vocals), their hard hitting approach over a series of albums for the Harvest label earned them many loyal fans and several hit singles (including their anthem ‘Out Demons Out!’).

Firma Melodiya presents a recording of chamber works by Alban Berg and Olivier Messiaen. Four Pieces for Clarinet and Piano (1913) were created by Alban Berg, one of the pupils of Arnold Schoenberg, the founder of the Second Viennese School, in a period of an intense creative ascent, a year before he began to work on his opera Wozzeck. Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time is arguably one of the most amazing pages of chamber music of the 20th century. It was composed during the composer’s stay in German prisoner-of-war camp where it was premiered in January of 1941.

Rainer Bloss (1946-2015) was a German electronic musician. He collaborated with electronic composer Klaus Schulze in the 1980s to produce several albums, including Audentity (1981), Aphrica (1984), and Drive Inn (1984). Worked as co-writer for Alphaville since mid-90s.