Written in the Sand is a studio album by the Michael Schenker Group, the first group effort after the McAuley Schenker era. Re-energized by the short-lived reunion with UFO and by the recording of Walk on Water, Michael Schenker collected yet another group of players and recorded Written in the Sand. No matter what inspired them, Schenker and the new line up of Leif Sundin on vocals, Shane Gaalaas on drums, and Barry Sparks on bass deliver some respectable metal reminiscent of the earliest and best known Michael Schenker Group albums.

With saxophonist Jan Garbarek and bassist Charlie Haden along for the ride, Keith Jarrett indulges in three slow, rambling, meditative, vaguely neo-classical concertos for piano and string orchestra. While a few of Jarrett's and Garbarek's passages here and there have a syncopated jazz feeling, this is mostly contemporary classical music, perhaps even somewhat ahead of its time (it might fit in with the neo-Romantic and minimalist camps today). However, although this music can be attractive in small doses, the lack of tempo or texture contrasts over long stretches of time – particularly the nearly 28-minute "Mirrors" – can be annoying if you're not in the right blissful mood. Mladen Gutesha and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra perform the string parts with what can only be described as commendable patience.

When you hear Diana Krall sing, her breathy voice makes lyrics like, "Someone to hold me tight, that would be very nice" sound like a personal invitation. If you close your eyes, it feels like she's serenading you, and you alone. Talk about personal connections. Listening to the crowd's appreciative but respectful applause and cheers as she started playing "So Nice" on the piano, it seems a lot of Krall fans feel the same way. Watching her up close in this two-disc Diana Krall: Live in Rio: Special Edition is a different experience, though. Every once in a while, as I watched Krall's intense performance, her face contorting with the music as she sang and played piano, I felt that her love might not be for the fans or even her husband, rocker Elvis Costello (even though she dedicates "I've Grown Accustomed to His Face" to him), but for the music itself. Songs like "Let's Fall in Love" and "Too Marvelous for Words" look like love letters to the jazz and standards she plays.

Viktoria Mullova - The Peasant Girl
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 405 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Onyx # ONYX 4070 | Country/Year: Europe 2011
Genre: Classical, Crossover | Style: Classical/Jazz/Folk

…sit back and enjoy the brilliant, imaginative playing, with its interesting dialogue between the performance styles of jazz and classical music…[Mullova] certainly sounds spontaneous but retains a disciplined polish from her classical training…all in all this is a very stimulating programme, performed with flair and finesse.

Mylene Farmer's ninth album is named Monkey Me & it'll be an instant success like her previous ones. The first single "A L'Ombre" marks the come-back of composer Laurent Boutonnat, playing on woman/child duality, a happy star but also "at the edge of the edge"…