When we realized in early March that, due to the Covid-19 global pandemic, freelance musicians were going to be out of work for quite a while, I decided to make a recording to help make up for musicians' lost income with some music that would lift the spirits of listeners stuck inside at home.

The Mojave Desert reverberates with mysticism. It’s a landscape of boulders seemingly transported from the moon alongside Joshua Trees, their tops angled upward like hands grasping at the heavens. This is where everyone from John Lennon and Keith Richards to Victoria Williams and Gram Parsons have come for inspiration. And early last year, it’s where The Head and the Heart decided to shed old skin before writing their fourth album, Living Mirage, a sweeping, artful expansion of the earthy folk rock that once defined them.

Upside Down 2020 is legendary dancehall singer Buju Banton's 13th studio album - his first since Before the Dawn in 2010, which won a Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album one year later.

A Fin-De-Siècle Little Mermaid: Marc Albrecht and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra present Zemlinsky’s lush symphonic poem Die Seejungfrau. Zemlinsky was a child of fin-de-siècle Vienna, who for decades has been overshadowed by colleagues such as Gustav Mahler – the man who married Alma, the woman Zemlinsky also loved - and Arnold Schoenberg – the man who would later become his brother-in- law.

Born on Staten Island to an Italian/Puerto Rican family with strict religious beliefs, Becca Mancari spent much of her childhood wrestling with issues of identity and belonging. When she set out on her own, Mancari followed the wind from Appalachia to Arizona, from south Florida to India, drifting in search of purpose and community.

Following remix work for Björk and Zola Jesus, productions for serpentwithfeet, and her debut album on Tri-Angle, American experimental musician and producer Katie Gately moves to Houndstooth for her sophomore album Loom, dedicated to her mother, who passed away in 2018.

Corb Lund’s 11th studio album, Agricultural Tragic, finally puts a name to the genre he’s been embodying all of these years.

Produced and recorded by Arca, KiCk i defines a new era of multiplex harmony for the Venezuelan artist, singer, DJ, performer and experimental music composer. With appearances from Björk, Rosalía, Shygirl and Sophie, this is the first time Arca has invited collaborators into her world, previously having lent her sound to some of the decades most avant-pop artists.

This summer, Dirty Projectors will release Flight Tower, the next in a sequence of five EPs to come in 2020. Each EP will feature a different band member on lead vocals — Maia, Felicia, Kristin & Dave — with everyone trading verses on the fifth and final installment.

Massey Fucking Hall, the upcoming live album from Japandroids, captures the power and intensity that have made the band one of indie rock's most beloved live acts. The Canadian duo on guitar and drums, bring a wall of sound that delivers a full dose of raw and unhinged emotion to sixteen fan favorites that span the band's storied career. Sonically this is Japandroids perfection, capturing the energy that has long made their live shows so electrifying; performed at the legendary Massey Hall in Toronto.

Multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer Derrick Hodge’s 3rd album Color of Noize reflects a melting pot of influence and experience with jazz flow, hip-hop groove, soulful depth, spiritual heft, and creative fire.

Handel’s dramatic opera-oratorio Semele, which was recorded from a live performance at London’s Alexandra Palace Theatre in May 2019.

Chihiro Yamanaka is a Japanese jazz pianist and composer, born in Kiryū, Gunma Prefecture. As of 2012, she was based in New York City.

The Black Art Jazz Collective was founded in 2012 by Wayne Escoffery and Jeremy Pelt with the aim of honouring and preserving the art of some of the progenitors of jazz who inspired them, hired them and mentored them first-hand. And while the band does pay homage to the greats of the past they also continue the evolving tradition of jazz with a body of work that remains firmly entrenched in the modernism of today. From the angular melody of Escoffery's "Involuntary Servitude," to the ingratiating groove of Pelt's "For the Kids," the ensemble extends the range and potential established by their illustrious predecessors with innovative original compositions, solos that run the gamut from thoughtful to virtuosic and a shared sense of purpose that is unique on today's jazz landscape.

Call For Winter is an album with a sonorous beauty and majestic flow.