It used to be said there were only two sure things in the world: death and taxes. Add a third–a live Rolling Stones album every three years. In what's essentially become a flourishing, if decidedly spotty subcatalog (the notable exception being the stellar Get Your Ya-Ya's Out, culled from the band's 1969 performance peak), 1982's Still Life is the band's fourth live collection and marks the beginning of a long stretch of laurel-resting…

Mieczysław Weinberg, born in Warsaw in 1919, became a close friend of Shostakovich in Moscow, after fleeing eastwards before the invading Nazis in 1939. His style has much in common with Shostakovich’s…….This recording pairs an early orchestral work, the suite Polish Tunes of 1950, with the last full orchestral symphony he was to complete, dedicated to the memory of those who died in the Warsaw Ghetto

It is good to note the present resurgence of interest in Frank Martin on record, and to welcome this premiere recording of the Piano Concerto No. 1 of 1933-4. Martin was already in his early forties by the time he came to write his First Concerto and it bears many of the fingerprints one recognizes from such mature works as the Petite symphonie concertante and the Concerto for seven wind instruments. Gieseking, who gave the first performance with Ansermet and the Suisse Romance, appears not to have given a particularly convincing account of the solo part, but the work …..

Robert Layton @ Gramophone.co.uk

This welcome issue brings together for the 1st time on disc all the works by the great Swiss composer Frank Martin (1890-1974) for solo piano, piano 4-hands or 2 pianos. CD 1 covers the weightier solo pieces, not only the '8 Preludes,' the 'Fantasy on Flamenco Rhythms' and 'Guitare' (a transcription of the '8 Short Pieces' for guitar), but 3 shorter works, all excellent. CD 2 is generally lighter in tone, leading off with a sparkling version ……Highly recommended.

Nicholas A. Deutsch @ Amazon.com

Singer Joyce Breach lives in New York. Winner of the 2000 MAC Award for Best Jazz Performer and winner of the 1998 Bistro Award for Best CD, This Moment, she is an accomplished and sophisticated interpreter of classic American popular song. Before moving to New York in the 1990's, she was a well-known singer of long-standing reputation in her hometown of Pittsburgh, PA when she began to develop a more national profile with her first CD for Audiophile Records, released in 1992. In the fall of 1992, she made her New York debut at the Mabel Mercer Foundation Cabaret Convention in Town Hall…

SIMONE is her own woman: a singer, songwriter & performer whose ability to transcend genres echoes the tradition of her mother, musical icon Nina Simone.
A highly-praised live performer whose impressive resume includes starring roles on Broadway in such acclaimed musicals as Rent and Aida, Simone has developed an exciting and diverse repertoire of pop, soul, jazz, rock and funk, expressed in shows she’s done throughout the world. “Touring with Simone on Simone has been a dream come true as I’ve traveled around the world and graced stages that are legends unto themselves…

Back with their first new studio album in four years, Mr. Big have survived the turmoils of significant lineup alternations, the introduction of grunge, a seemingly unavoidable breakup, and the odds stacked against the entire original lineup coming back together for a reunion in 2009, and yet somehow they've overcome all of that and continue to regularly tour and create music right in line with their earlier efforts.

Guitarist/vocalist Paul Weller broke up the Jam, the most popular British band of the early '80s, at the height of their success in 1982 because he was dissatisfied with their musical direction. Weller wanted to incorporate more elements of soul, R&B, and jazz into his songwriting, which is something he felt his punk-oriented bandmates were incapable of performing. In order to pursue this musical direction, he teamed up in 1983 with keyboardist Mick Talbot, a former member of the mod revival band the Merton Parkas…

The most successful Hungarian rock band in history, Omega is one of the rare bands to have been known outside in his country. Their music is a combination of Eastern European prog with a bit of symphonic and a bit of psyche prog. The result is a dark orchestrated sound combined with extended improvisation. Their discography actually starts in the early 60's, and goes in till today in a more modern register. This originally 2-LP from '79 (on the 1-CD release the song "Rush Hour" has been deleted) showcases an inspired and powerful performance (more than 50.000 spectators!) from Omega, playing most of finest material like "Gammapolis" (great howling guitar licks), "Help To Find Me"…

Ephemeral mists began its musical journey during the end of 2008, when composer, Brett Branning (Abandoned Toys & The Synthetic Dream Foundation), began fusing his cutting edge ambient electronics with the ancient musical traditions and instruments of the middle east and far east. The result is a stunningly beautiful ambient world of sound that goes well beyond the cliches of the genre and reaches for daunting new artistic and creative heights. The debut album, "Moon Ritual", represents the pinnacle of electronic world fusion music.

Emerging in the mid-'90s, Shania Twain became the most popular country music artist since Garth Brooks. Skillfully fusing mainstream, AOR rock production with country-pop, Twain and her producer/husband, Robert John "Mutt" Lange, created a commercial juggernaut with her second album, The Woman in Me. The record became a multi-platinum phenomenon, peaking at number five on the pop charts and eventually selling over nine million copies in America alone.