Close To The Fire is a studio album by Dutch progressive rock band Kayak, released in 2000. It was a comeback album, the first since their split in 1982. The line-up was almost the same as the one that recorded the album Royal Bed Bouncer in 1975. Only guitarist Johan Slager was not involved. He was replaced by Rob Winter. By 1997, Kayak founder members Ton Scherpenzeel and Pim Koopman decided to work on new material. They had no name for their project yet, and it was not their intention to release the songs as Kayak. Apart from Scherpenzeel and Koopman, no former Kayak members were involved at this stage. Lead singer on the demo versions was Alex Toonen, from Dutch progressive rock band "For Absent Friends". Record companies were not immediately interested, and the songs were not developed further. Then, original Kayak singer Max Werner offered to have a go at the demo's. With his vocal sound the songs got a genuine Kayak feel, and it was decided to release the songs as the new Kayak album. more…

German-born composer and arranger Claus Ogerman, born in 1930, must rank as one of the most versatile musicians of the twentieth century. When he was at his peak in the 1970s, writing everything from ballet scores to arrangements for Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim, diva Barbra Streisand, and jazz/R&B saxophonist George Benson, there was hardly a radio station on the dial where his music wasn't heard during the course of a typical day – and he's still quite active. The key to his success has been his ability to stay in the background behind the musician he's working with and yet create something distinctive. This 1982 collaboration with the late jazz saxophonist Michael Brecker is one of his most successful works, not least because the overlap between the extended harmonies of jazz and the chromaticism of the late German Romantic polyphony in which Ogerman was trained is large enough to allow Brecker to operate comfortably – his improvisations seem to grow naturally out of the background, and the intersections between jazz band and orchestral strings come more easily here than on almost any other crossover between jazz and classical music.

Tracey Thorn’s third solo album, Love and Its Opposite, focuses on the big topics outlined in its title, but it does so in miniature; both lyrically and musically, it’s a record about the small details that make up the most mundane and wrenching moments of a person’s day-to-day life…

Yes' debut album is surprisingly strong, given the inexperience of all those involved at the time. In an era when psychedelic meanderings were the order of the day, Yes delivered a surprisingly focused and exciting record that covered lots of bases (perhaps too many) in presenting their sound. The album opens boldly, with the fervor of a metal band of the era playing full tilt on "Beyond and Before," but it is with the second number, a cover of the Byrds' "I See You," that they show some of their real range. The song is highlighted by an extraordinary jazz workout from lead guitarist Peter Banks and drummer Bill Bruford that runs circles around the original by Roger McGuinn and company…

' Bennie Maupin's Cryptogramophone label follow-up CD to "Penumbra" both parallels and provides a departure from that excellent effort. What is similar is the softer tone Maupin is displaying in his far post-Headhunters days, refined by experience and cured though wisdom. The music Maupin plays on this beautiful effort is even more subdued, as he collaborates with an ensemble of relatively unknown musicians from Poland.' Michael.G.Nastos@allmusic.com

Swedish electronica duo Koop create layered, dreamy, beat-driven tracks that are often graced with jazzy instrumental loops and graceful female vocals. KOOP ISLANDS continues the group's pioneering fusion, mixing trip-hop, acid jazz, and more progressive electronica tendencies. Guest singers Ane Brun, Yukimi Nagano, Earl Zinger, and others lend their pipes to Koop's trancey, floating grooves, creating a cool, ethereal, noir-ish soundtrack that plays like a hotel sign blinking off and on through a dusky, rain-swept night.