The Yorkshire Baroque Soloists and Yorkshire Bach Choir were formed in 1973 as the basis of the famous York Early Music Festival, and have built a firm reputation as one of the finest ensembles in the world in their performance and interpretation of 17th and 18th century music. Under their director Peter Seymour they return to disc with a fine selection of soloists to perform Bach’s Mass in B Minor. Their 2009 disc of Bach’s St John Passion, also on Signum, was released to excellent reviews.

On CD for the first time, this album has been digitally re-mastered and includes bonus tracks and previously unreleased material 'Chevy Baby', 'Barracuda Waver', Surfers Are Back', 'Rendevous', 'The K.G.B. (Made A Man Out Of Me)', 'Ballad Of A Liar', Gotta Get A Gun', Grammar Of Misery', 'I Can't Sleep', 'On A Sunday', 'Shades Of Today' & Summer Fun' (Alternate Version). Also includes original artwork plus booklet featuring extensive sleeve notes from the band and rare memorabilia. Drop Out with The Barracudas is the debut studio album by English rock band The Barracudas, released in 1980 by record label Zonophone.

Scandinavia’s archaeologically known prehistory encompasses around twelve thousand years, culminating in the Viking period (c.800–1050AD). The Middle Ages then followed, around six hundred years later than in continental Europe – a late development due to the long period in which ice still covered Europe’s northern parts. Volume 2 in Delphian Records’ groundbreaking collaboration with the European Music Archaeology Project constructs a soundscape of these two periods, featuring both music improvised on Viking instruments, and notated songs and instrumental items from the early centuries of Christianity in Scandinavia.

The Greek and Roman cultures of classical antiquity have left an indelible mark on European society. The Greek 'muse' is the origin of our concept of 'music', and ancient Greek culture included concert performances with a listening audience, hundreds of years before the rest of the continent.

This intimate recording by guitarist John Abercrombie and clarinetist John Ruocco is reminiscent of the famous recordings from the 1960s by Jimmy Giuffre with Jim Hall. A contemporary take on chamber jazz, it comes from a similar heritage but in a different musical context, more introverted, lyrical and half a century more modern. Guitarist John Abercrombie is well-known for his recordings as leader and as a sideman for ECM but his partner in this project is a less-familiar name. The American tenor saxophonist and clarinettist John Ruocco has been closely associated with the Belgian jazz scene and he is director of the Dutch Jazz Orchestra and he has directed The Den Haag Conservatory big band for a number of years.

Always unique and uncompromising, John Abercrombie gained a good deal of his popularity from his solo playing. Not the virtuoso of his primary influences – Django Reinhardt, Tal Farlow and Jim Hall – Abercrombie is much more the introvert. He often bypasses traditional techniques to pursue experimental sounds and rhythms. Along with Ralph Towner, whom he has recorded with before (see Sargasso Sea), Abercrombie makes excellent use of space within both his compositions and solos. Upon the first listen there may not appear to be very much here; however, this music needs to be absorbed over several listens to appreciate Abercrombie's brilliance.

likely to divide listeners. Some may object to French players performing Austro-German music, while others will embrace the notion of musical internationalism. Others may object to first-rate Schubert being joined to second-rate Hummel, while others will enjoy the chance to hear an unfamiliar as well as a familiar work. After they hear it, however, most listeners will likely agree on two things. First, they will likely find that the French players do a marvelous job of breathing life into both these works.

This two-hour double-disc set of Joseph Rheinberger's complete piano trios is a hefty contribution to the rehabilitation of the composer's oeuvre, though it may be more than the average listener can appreciate in one sitting. Rheinberger's music is earnest and perhaps too heavy for some tastes, and it may even seem too stodgy and dryly theoretical. In his mature Romantic style, his reliance on Classical form, and his pensive expression, Rheinberger often resembles Brahms, though it must be said that he lacks Brahms' rhythmic ingenuity, contrapuntal dexterity, and emotional depth.

In its way, this German release is more radical than many of the other discs on which recorder players have asserted their rights to big swaths of the Baroque repertory. The radical quality doesn't lie in the arrangement of Bach works for the recorder, which in no way goes beyond Bach's own musical recycling ethic. (Three works were originally written for flute, one was an organ trio sonata, one was a violin sonata, and one is for harpsichord alone.) The unusual quality of the arrangement instead lies in the treatment of the accompanimental harpsichord, which is all alone with no gamba or anything else supporting its fundamental line.

Hyperion's series of recordings of Bach transcriptions continues with this superlative release by Hamish Milne. While earlier volumes had featured the transcriptions of Busoni, Feinberg, Friedman, and Grainger, this volume features transcriptions by Russian composers. And, as with earlier volumes, the transcriptions reveal more about the transcriber than they do about the composer. In the case of Siloti's transcriptions of the Prelude in B minor and the Air from the Third Orchestral Suite, we find a transcriber of strength and delicacy, of massive sonorities and ethereal melodies.