Unheard since two performances in 1897, Charles Martin Loeffler’s Octet is recorded here for the first time, owing to the persistence of Graeme Steele Johnson, a versatile clarinetist whose artistic endeavors range from a TEDx talk to chamber arrangements and performances with the award-winning WindSync. A gem that blends Brahmsian warmth with Impressionist harmony, very much reflecting the American composer’s German and French roots, the Octet showcases Loeffler’s intricate musicianship and unique soundworld. Distinguished musicians have joined in this compelling exploration of musical rediscovery which aims to enrich the present musical landscape by restoring Forgotten Sounds . The program starts with Graeme’s arrangement for chamber ensemble of Debussy’s famed Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune , a work suffused with the poetic Symbolism dear to Loeffler, and aptly concludes with another little-known Loeffler work, the titular Timbres oubliés

The 13th installment of the Sunset Sessions series is once again curated by Danish DJ/producer and Ibiza icon Kenneth Bager on his Music For Dreams label. Featuring Balearic gems, downtempo delights, and ambient soundscapes from Dj Pippi & Willie Graff, Bliss, Grassskirt, Candidates of Ebba, Troels Hammer, Pepe Link, Subnesia, The Swan And The Lake, Ambala, Anders Ponsaing, Mike Salta, Copenema, Hess Is More, Santino Surfers, Be.lanuit and more, it delivers jazzy chill-out touches, melancholic house grooves, sun-drenched chords, and ethereal melodies—a love letter to the golden hour where sun meets sea.

Celebrated pianist and renowned Beethoven specialist Rudolf Buchbinder will release his first album on Deutsche Grammophon. The collaboration sees him record not only his own new interpretation of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations but to commission 12 new variations himself, echoing the original story where in 1819 music publisher and composer Anton Diabelli wrote a 32-bar German Dance – a forerunner of the waltz – and sent it to more than 50 Austrian composers, asking each of them to write a variation on his original theme.

One of the all-time greats of Brazilian Jazz-Fusion, Flora Purim, returns with her first studio album in over 15 years, ‘If You Will’. This album is a triumphant celebration, exploring new compositions alongside fresh versions of some of Flora’s favourite songs. Title track ‘If You Will’ revives her past collaborations with producer and long-time friend, the legendary George Duke.

Soul Jazz Records are re-releasing Airto Moreira’s classic album ‘Samba de Flora’, out of print for 30 years ever since its original release in 1988. The album is very limited to just 1000 copies only, pressed on both vinyl and CD.

2 CD set featuring the March and June concerts in 1974 from Tulsa and Cleveland. Prepared and researched for FTD by Robert Frieser / Hans Slebos ('Forty Eight Hours To Memphis' and '3000 South Paradise Road'), this release will be presented in the 7" digi pack format [7" Classic Album Presentation] and accompanied by 16-page 4-color booklet and extensive liner notes.

Tim Blake played synths with Gong, Hawkwind, Steve Hillage, and other similar projects before going solo as a synthesizer performer and recorder. This was Blake's first studio release versus his recordings of live gigs. He really polishes things up a great deal, adding guitars and singing in the style of Gong's Daevid Allen and Steve Hillage's solo offerings. Blake's vocals would never be his strong point. His blessing to the ears was and always will be his ethereal and spacy synthesizer expertise. As Gong and Steve Hillage all preached the New Age and tuning into earth vibes and aligning one's soul with Earth energies to bring in a world of light and love – so Blake also crooned.

Well played, fresh sounding, and highly energetic, Asia's Live in Moscow proved to be their best on-stage album, captured during their 1990 European tour. Featuring John Wetton, Carl Palmer, Geoff Downes, and newcomer Pat Thrall (most notably from the Pat Travers Band) replacing Steve Howe on guitar, the band sounds enthusiastically sharp where it matters most. Howe's absence is indeed apparent, but the band comes through on the biggies like "Heat of the Moment" and "Only Time Will Tell," while giving secondary hits like "Don't Cry," "Go," and "Time Again" new life.

Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704) was a French composer who was a contemporary of Louis XIV. Charpentier created liturgical works full of grace and energy, using great imagination for his musical settings. This is very much evident in the selections for this recording, the TE DEUM and the MESSE DE MINUIT. The first one is a joyously triumphant interpretation of the thanksgiving text, using eight soloists, chorus and orchestra, including three trumpets, something unusual for the times.

“This is not at all what I wrote, but play it like this. Do play it this way!” exclaimed Dmitri Shostakovich after Yudina performed the freshly written 24 Preludes and Fugues. This exclamation contains the key to understanding of Maria Yudina’s performing art – a controversial and disputable one that left a profound imprint on the cultural environment of the twentieth century. The 10-album set is the biggest part of Maria Yudina’s surviving studio and concert recordings from the Melodiya archive made between 1948 and 1969.

However cultivated the European centres of Habsburg imperial power may have been, few could regularly have boasted musicians of the calibre of Cinquecento. Their ongoing exploration of Franco-Flemish repertoire from the sixteenth century uncovers major works by Johannes de Cleve and Jacobus Vaet.

Although they generally aren't thought of as being as innovative as their contemporaries the Beatles, the Rolling Stones or the Who, the Kinks, thanks to Ray Davies' ever evolving songwriting and brother Dave Davies' power chording, fuzzed-out guitar sound, may well have influenced the actual sound of later bands more than any of those groups. This fine single disc collection brings together the Kinks' Pye Records singles from the 1960s, and includes the power chord shot heard around the world, "You Really Got Me," as well as its close siblings "All Day and All of the Night," "Tired of Waiting for You" and "Til the End of the Day," and later and relatively more sophisticated hits like "Waterloo Sunset" and "Lola." The end result is a solid chronological survey of the Kinks' most commercial and influential period.

Alarm Will Sound's recording of Steve Reich's monumental orchestral/choral works The Desert Music and Tehillim, released on the Cantaloupe label in 2002, greatly benefits from the group's close connections with the composer: the ensemble's conductor, Alan Pierson, and several of the performers studied at the Eastman School with Brad Lubman, a conductor frequently enlisted by Reich. Also, Pierson's arrangements, which reconcile the chamber and orchestral versions that exist for both works, were prepared in close consultation with the composer; thus, this may well be the definitive recording of these pieces. Brilliantly sonorous in their climaxes – the burst of light near the end of Desert Music, the "Alleluias" that close Tehillim – the players also articulate Reich's intricate canonic textures with nimble precision.

Boulders is the first solo album by Roy Wood. Apart from harmonium on track one played by John Kurlander, all the instruments (including guitars, cello, saxophones, recorders) and voices were by Wood, who also wrote, arranged, and produced the whole album, and did a self-portrait for the front cover. Issued on Harvest, it peaked at No. 15 in the UK Albums Chart. The album also peaked at 176 on the US Billboard 200. Most of the album was recorded while Wood was still in The Move, although it was not released until he had left the Electric Light Orchestra and was fronting Wizzard. Two singles were taken from the album, "When Gran'ma Plays the Banjo" (February 1972), and "Dear Elaine" (August 1973). The latter reached No. 18 in the UK Singles Chart. "Rock Down Low" and "The Locomotive" were sometimes featured by Wizzard in their live performances. "Songs of Praise" was recorded by the New Seekers and reached the last six for the British entry to the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest. Wood had previously attempted recording "She's Too Good for Me" in 1968 with Move bandmate Trevor Burton, before re-recording the song entirely himself for "Boulders". These early attempts were released on The Move Movements boxed set and on Anthology 1966–1972.

The 12 tracks that appear on The Best of the Alan Parsons Project include some of their greatest singles, like "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You" from 1977's I Robot and the inducing "Games People Play" off of The Turn of a Friendly Card. Even though these songs are splendid all by themselves, they seem to lose their conceptual weight when taken away from their original albums. As singles, they do act as a fine representation of how The Alan Parsons Project's music sounds and conveys its mysterious air, but even with a dozen singles on this album there's just too much of their other worthy material that is sadly left off.