Some will be aware of the long running partnership between the Finland’s Colossus Project and French label/distributor Musea Records. The fruits of this joining have produced an impressive twenty-plus back-catalogue of ‘compilation’ releases dating back over a decade and a half. The format has altered somewhat over the years, but in essence the varied projects bring together bands and musicians, from across the globe, to offer interpretations from a given theme. This is the second installment in the Colossus Decameron series, spanning Decameron days 4-7.
As the album title implies, the book itself contains one hundred tales - this is told by a group of ten young people who are hiding in an isolated villa just outside Florence in Italy to escape the Black Death, circa 1346-53. Given the storyline the music within this box set steers clear, for the most part, of too graphically portraying the horrors of the subject matter and remains fairly upbeat…

"Purgatorio" is the second part of Tangerine Dream's three part interpretation of Dante's "La Divina Commedia". Unlike the other two parts of the trilogy which were recorded live, this double CD set, running to over 130 minutes, is a studio recording. Once again (as with "Inferno"), the piece is primarily in the form of an oratorio, with seven guest female vocalists. These singers are a mixture of altos and sopranos, all with beautiful, classically trained voices.

After he'd been a fixture of the British new wave/punk/underground/alternative scene since the late '70s, 1994's Take Me to God marked Jah Wobble's first major commercial success as a solo artist, reaching number 13 in the U.K. The use of numerous guest musicians (including Can drummer Jaki Leibezeit) gives this a feel of a rotating collective, with Wobble (who plays several instruments here in addition to the one he's most known for, bass) the constant. Quite a few singers contribute, giving this more of a song-oriented feel than some of his other work, some of the more celebrated including Gavin Friday, Dolores O'Riordan of the Cranberries, Senegalese vocalist Baaba Maal, and top world music artist Najma Akhtar. The 66-minute length of these sprawling excursions almost inevitably means the program will drag at times, according to your musical inclinations. Lyrically, too, it's so varied as to make it difficult to connect with a pronounced attitude or viewpoint, the concerns ranging from the almost indecipherably frivolous ("Yoga of the Nightclub") to the numerous references to God that pepper the song titles.

The story of the Cranberries is one of dogged survival. Debuting with a maiden release that everybody seemed to rate as a portent of great things, the band suffered not only a "difficult" second album but also an absolute stinker of a third one, as the bandmembers strove desperately – too desperately – to live up to their reputation for sensitivity and thoughtfulness, and completely lost sight of their true virtues in the process. Internecine squabbling, health problems, and general disaffection all took further toll, so much so that, as the band prepared to release its fourth album, 1999's Bury the Hatchet, many observers were shocked to learn that the band even existed any longer, let alone was capable of actually making a new record – especially one that was as good as Bury the Hatchet turned out to be. Filmed at the Paris Omnisport de Bercy on December 9, 1999, toward the end of that album's accompanying tour, Beneath the Skin captures the full 84-minute concert performance, with the band ranging and, occasionally, raging through a veritable greatest-hits collection.

In 2021, Texas blueswoman Carolyn Wonderland released Tempting Fate, her Alligator debut. She'd been in the game for two decades. Dave Alvin produced, played, and sang on it, alongside a cast of Texas luminaries. It was greeted with excited reviews from the rock and blues press, enhancing her touring reputation. Alvin is a big presence on Truth Is, her sophomore outing for the label. He produces, plays, and co-wrote four songs with Wonderland. Her trio – Naj Conklin on basses and Giovanni "Nooch" Carnuccio on drums and percussion – host a studio cast that includes vocalists Shelley King, Marcia Ball, and Ruthie Foster, organist Red Young, pianist/organist Bukka Allen, lap steel guitarist Cindy Cashdollar, and others.

Gary Moore's tribute to Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green, Blues for Greeny, is more of a showcase for Moore's skills than Green's songwriting. After all, Green was more famous for his technique than his writing. Consequently, Moore uses Green's songs as a starting point, taking them into new territory with his own style. And Moore positively burns throughout Blues for Greeny, tearing off licks with ferocious intensity. If anything, the album proves that Moore is at his best when interpreting other people's material – it easily ranks as one of his finest albums.

"The symphony performance under Eivind Aadland has everything you would hope for: lots of energy and excitement, with a very fine, well-prepared orchestra." (American Record Guide) The complete edition of Edvard Grieg's symphonic works with the WDR Symphony Orchestra under Eivind Aadland is now available as a set. This edition is especially convincing thanks to the authentic approach of the Norwegian Eivind Aadland. Vol. 1 and 2 are dedicated to the original orchestral works, whilst Vol. 3 contains a portion of the transcriptions of works that Grieg had originally composed for the piano.

Sette Voce was founded in 2001 and its members are from a number of European countries. They are directed by the renowned Dutch baritone Peter Kooij and the ensemble has been invited to appear at several important national and international festivals.

With 17 symphonies and 32 concertos to date, Kalevi Aho is one of today’s most prolific composers of large-scale orchestral scores. The present disc brings together two works separated by 35 years, but also by the reception they have enjoyed: whereas Sieidi, the percussion concerto Aho composed in 2010, has become one of his most performed works, Symphony No. 5 from the mid-70s is a rarely heard score. Sieidi was written for Colin Currie, who has recorded it here and who performs the concerto with orchestras across the world.