The former Portuguese colony of Cape Verde lies 600 kilometers off the Senegalese coast. Among the many local musical styles that can be heard on the island is the morna. The principle practitioner of this purportedly Portuguese-, Angolan-, and Brazilian-influenced musical form is Cesaria Evora. This CD documents two concerts morna master Evora gave in June of 1993 at the Olympia in Paris. With incredible ease and visceral strength, Evora sings song after song about love, loss, longing, and longevity. Minor-key and blues-sounding accompaniment is provided by a sextet on piano, harmonica, violin, guitar, clarinet, and cavaquinho (a four-string lute). A must-have for any morna fan, Cesaria Evora's A Live a L'Olympia highlights the good-natured "barefoot diva" at her best and in front of her devoted fans.

Elīna Garanča reflects facets of night-time on her latest Deutsche Grammophon release “When Night Falls”. The soprano chose a selection of orchestral songs, as well as works for voice and piano or guitar, that she performs together with the Orquestra Filarmónica de Gran Canaria, the Berlin Music Ensemble and the DG artists Albrecht Mayer and Raphaël Feuillâtre, among others. Commenting on the spectrum of rich colours from sunset to the silence of the night, Garanča notes: "I hope this music will allow listeners to tune out the world for a few minutes and completely immerse themselves in the special magic of the hours of night.”

This album from 1984 sees a remarkable return to form by Los Jaivas. After following-up the brilliant Alturas De Macchu Picchu with a sharp drop in quality for Aconcagua) they rebounded with this equally specatular work. Obras De Violeta Parra is a dramatic re-interpretation of the folk songs of Violeta Parra (a folk singer/socialist activist who was not related to the trio of Parra brothers who formed the backbone of Los Jaivas). This is no ordinary tribute album, for while Los Jaivas is occassionally faithful to the Parra original, their tendency is to use her material to drape their own extended compostions around. Indeed 6 of the 10 tracks here clock are in the 8-12 minute range. While most of the band are at the top of their game, it is pianist Claudio Parra and drummer Gabriel Parra who shine the brightest here.

Troubadours songs; laude to the Virgin and estampies from trecento mingle with Sephardic lullabies and folksongs collected in Italy. They tell the stories of simple men and women of the Mediterranean world. Languages and music have survived to the din of the wars, religious conquests, political dominations between North and South… This record is an intimate compilation which raises from the old village song telling the cycle of life, the redemption sought with the Virgin, the curtly love of the Countess of Die, Tarentella or the famous separdic lullaby Nani, Nani for the beloved son…« Ever since antiquity, the shores of the Mediterranean have assembled men and women who share a cultural heritage with multiple resonances. (religious and cultural : christians, jews, arabs, languages : castillan, occitan, florentin, napolitain, sarde…).

Vytas Brenner was a German born Venezuelan pianist, keyboardist and composer. His career started in the late 1960s and released his first album in 1973. His music took Latin American rhythms, as well as from unique Venezuelan tradition and combined them with Progressive Rock, to create delightful Symphonic prog, with elements of fusion, space rock and acoustic folk.

Caracoles ushers (GRAMMY-award nominated) Orquesta Akokán’s unique brand of mambo into the 21st century, imbuing it with the group’s signature sense of akokán–a Cuban Yoruba word meaning “from the heart”. Back at the helm are producer and multi instrumentalist, Jacob Plasse and virtuosic pianist, composer and arranger Michael Eckroth - a collaboration that continues to lead Orquesta’s exploration of the sublime mambo in all its depth and breadth. On this, their third album, they combine talents with Cuban lyricist, singer and composer Kiko Ruiz, who has toured and recorded with Pancho Amat’s illustrious Estrellas del Buena Vista Social Club as well as having a longstanding history as a singer, composer and arranger with Orquesta Maria Alejandra y Cubanía.

Other recent King's Singers' recordings on this label have reaffirmed the ensemble's credentials as compelling advocates of contemporary music. Here, only the most hardhearted of early music purists could fail to find the infectious cocktail of popular and religious Spanish music–largely 16th century–going to their heads, even if the King's Singers add the occasional theatrical embellishment. The music (much of it by "Anon") is organized into five categories, among them "fire" and "water" (with the alternative implications of ardor and alcohol).

Fire Burning in Snow, the third volume in Ex Cathedra's series of Baroque music from Latin America, is strong testimony to the vitality of the musical scene in South America in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The bulk of this album is devoted to the sacred and secular choral music of Juan de Araujo (1648-1712), who was born in Spain, but whose family moved to South America when he was a child. He lived in Peru and Panama, but spent most of his adult life in La Plata, Bolivia, where he was the organist at the cathedral. The music recorded here is notable for its almost Monteverdian range of styles and expressiveness. This selection of Araujo's strongly rhythmic work includes a rigorously polyphonic motet for triple choir; a simple, lovely lullaby for women's voices; and many stylistically diverse choral villancicos.