Mike Oldfield's groundbreaking album Tubular Bells is arguably the finest conglomeration of off-centered instruments concerted together to form a single unique piece. A variety of instruments are combined to create an excitable multitude of rhythms, tones, pitches, and harmonies that all fuse neatly into each other, resulting in an astounding plethora of music. Oldfield plays all the instruments himself, including such oddities as the Farfisa organ, the Lowrey organ, and the flageolet. The familiar eerie opening, made famous by its use in The Exorcist, starts the album off slowly, as each instrument acoustically wriggles its way into the current noise that is heard, until there is a grand unison of eccentric sounds that wildly excites the ears.

Star countertenor Philippe Jaroussky continues his exploration of operatic settings of the Orpheus myth with the most famous of the many operas inspired by the story of the Greek poet who searches for his dead wife in the Underworld: Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice. It contains one of the world's best-loved operatic arias, Orfeo's restrained, but moving lament, 'Che farò senza Euridice'.

"Clavier-Übung (keyboard exercise) consisting of an Aria with diverse variations for 2-manual harpsichord, dedicated to music-lovers to gladden their hearts, by J. S. Bach, composer to the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, Kapellmeister and Civic Director of Music for Leipzig. Edited by Balthasar Schmid at Nuremberg.” So runs the very modest title for a piece of harpsichord literature that can be described only as a work of towering complexity and of the most profound expressive grandeur. Its richness derives on the one hand from its great number of rhythmic figures (only, perhaps with Stravinsky does such profusion again occur), and on the other hand from a composing style that makes use of almost all the possible canonic intervals and inversions.

An important composer during the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras, Adriano Banchieri is most noted for his founding of the Accademia dei Floridi in Bologna. Banchieri was one of the first composers to convert the madrigal into use for dramatic purposes. He developed a form called “madrigal comedy,” which was an unstaged, but still dramatic, collection of madrigals which told a story when sung together. These works are performed by the Delitiae Musicae, conducted by Marco Longhini.

Love over Gold is the fourth studio album by the British rock band Dire Straits released on 20 September 1982 by Vertigo Records internationally and by Warner Bros. Records in the United States. The album produced two singles, "Private Investigations", which reached number 2 on the UK Singles Chart, and "Industrial Disease", which reached number 9 on Billboard's Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the United States. The fourteen-minute opus, "Telegraph Road" has gone on to become a favourite on FM radio worldwide. The album reached number 1 on album charts in Australia, Austria, Italy, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom, and number 19 in the United States. Love over Gold was later certified gold in the United States, platinum in France and Germany and double-platinum in Canada and the United Kingdom.

Alberta Cross return with a new take on their timeless debut album ‘The Thief & The Heartbreaker (Reimagined)’, which set the foundation for their Americana-tinged indie and alternative sound.

Danger Money is the second and final studio album by the progressive rock supergroup U.K., featuring John Wetton , Eddie Jobson and Terry Bozzio. It was released by E.G. Records / Polydor in March 1979. "The Only Thing She Needs", "Caesar's Palace Blues" and "Carrying No Cross" had been performed on tour throughout 1978 (and an early version of "Carrying No Cross" included what became the intro to the title track) by the band's original line-up with Bill Bruford and Allan Holdsworth. "Rendezvous 6:02" and "Nothing to Lose" were both edited for single release.

The Last Will And Testament (CD jewel case) "The Last Will and Testament" is a concept record of sorts. A restless musical journey in a way mirroring my own relationship with music as a consumer of it," narrates band leader Mikael Åkerfeldt. "I pick up something here, dismiss something there. I worship and I hate music at the same time. This ambivalence leads me down some type of creative path of my own and then, all of a sudden, a collection of songs has been written. Best case scenario, these songs are good enough to impress the band. Good enough for the "powers that be" in terms of the industry. Good enough for "you"?! I love this record. I have to say it (write it). Maybe I'm proud even? There are some familiar ingredients in there I suppose. Most of our music has sprung from the same source, so I guess it's not much of a shocker if it's going to sound like "us". I'm a bit in awe of what we did with "The Last Will and Testament". It feels like a dream. There is some "coherence" and " songwriting skills" I hope, but what do I know? I tend to favour the "strange" over the "obvious", but I feel like I'm in the minority, and that's fine. So… fair warning! Don't expect an instant rush (as per usual), but if you do "get it" (have you got it yet?) right away, that's ok too!"

TED MULRY first came to the attention of the music industry when he sent a demo of some of his own compositions to Albert Productions in Sydney. The company persuaded him to become a recording artist and he soon rose to fame as a solo singer/songwriter with his own composition, the pop ballad “Julia”, which made the Australian charts in 1970.
He followed that with “Falling in Love Again”, a song by The Easybeats songwriting team Harry Vanda & George Young, which was a major hit in 1971.Mulry was a prolific songwriter, and a number of bands and artists, including John Farnham and Alison MacCallum, recorded his songs. Most notably, rock band Sherbet had a hit with his song, “You’re All Woman”.

Alessio Elia’s (b.1979) compositions are inspired by the acoustic nature of the sounding universe, its inner laws. Perhaps this is why, from the first moment of listening, these works feel organic natural and euphonic but also ordered, planned and clear.

God in Three Persons is a rock opera/concept album by The Residents, released in 1988. It was about a man 'Mr. X' and two conjoined twins. The songs are all sung in a rhythmic spoken word fashion, similar to talking blues. A companion soundtrack album, featuring most of the instrumental backing tracks, was also released. A central motif of the album is the organ riff from "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)" by 1960's frat rock band The Swingin' Medallions.

Cage et Dowland: les deux John, à quatre cents ans de distance, se répondent par un goût commun pour une expression sobre, des formes concises, une réalisation intime - pour le plaisir aussi que procurent les mots en tant que tels. Chacun cultive ce désir à sa manière: Cage entreprend, en funambule, de s’approcher de l’essence de la pensée musicale avec humour, légèreté et profondeur; Dowland vise l’expression des sentiments à l’état pur.
Cultivant comme toujours un anachronisme fécond, Thélème rassemble dans ‘all we get is life’ l’intégralité des pièces pour deux voix et luth de Dowland et plusieurs compositions de Cage. Enfin, Sting, artiste à la renommée internationale, offre une réécriture de son tube ‘Shape of my Heart’, qui devient ici une sorte de ‘lute song’ du XXIe siècle, bouclant ainsi la boucle dans un album où Renaissance et présent se croisent, entrent en dialogue, se mêlent et se confondent pour transcender les frontières des esthétiques et des genres.

Davy Graham was one of the most eclectic guitarists of the 1960s, and his mixture of folk, blues, jazz, Middle Eastern sounds, and Indian ragas was an important catalyst of the British folk scene. Like Sandy Bull and John Fahey – two folk-based guitarists with a similar taste for genre-bending experimentation – Graham could not be said to be a rock musician. But like Bull and Fahey, he shared the eagerness of the '60s psychedelic rockers to stretch out and incorporate unpredictable influences into his music. While he wasn't much of a singer, Graham's taste in material was broad and shrewd, encompassing blues, ragas, Joni Mitchell, Charles Mingus, and the famous instrumental "Anji," which Graham recorded in 1962, way before the more famous versions by Bert Jansch and Simon & Garfunkel. Collection includes: The Guitar Player (1963); Folk, Blues & Beyond… (1965); Midnight Man (1966); Large As Life And Twice As Natural (1968); Hat (1969); Godington Boundry (1970).

When the Quatuor Ysaÿe dares… all together twelve concerts LIVE in Paris! Played without a safety net at the Auditorium of the Musée d’Orsay! These were the conditions needed to recreate the uncompromising universe of the Beethoven quartets, a true musical Everest. Here, at the very peak of its art, the Quatuor Ysaÿe offers the final dazzling demonstration of the unique rigor and sensibility that for thirty years marked it out as one of the finest in the world.

‘Aspects’ portrays the Aquarelle Guitar Quartet’s love of musical diversity. It is a collection of music that observes a startling variety of perspective and which reflects the group’s ability to craft an emotive and diverse musical tapestry. The album includes original works for four guitars, arrangements that have been made by members of the group, and even a new work written especially for this project. ‘Aspects’ is both retrospective and prospective: it includes favourites which the Quartet has been performing for many years and also pieces which it has learnt specifically for this recording and which will form the basis of new concert programmes in the future.