Famed throughout musical Europe from the 1720s onwards for his extreme prowess on the violin, Pietro Antonio Locatelli (1695-1764) bequeathed to posterity an admirable if relatively small body of work, the publication of which he himself largely oversaw following his move to Amsterdam in 1729. Here Fabio Biondi draws on it to paint a unique portrait. Rather than immersing himself in L’arte del violino, op.3 - the best-known opus of a composer to which they already devoted an initial album in 1995 (Opus 111, OPS30-104) - Biondi and his friends in Europa Galante opt for a more intriguing Locatelli: the six Introduttioni teatrali (Theatrical Introductions) which constitute the first part of the Opus 4.

Bang! Records announces Thinking Of Another Place, Lou Reed´s first triple-live vinyl LP from 1976's Rock´n´Roll Heart USA tour. A superb performance recorded for radio broadcast, restored and remastered, Reed plays seven tracks from that album alongside songs from Transformer (1972), Berlin (1973), Sally Can´t Dance (1974, and Coney Island Baby (1975), as well as some excellent Velvet Underground thrown in for good measure. Absolutely killer live performance with high sound quality, released in a trifold jacket with extensive liner notes by Jaime Gonzalo and Nina Antonia, including previously unseen photography courtesy of Bob Bery and rare live posters and magazine covers from those days courtesy of Gonzalo. Recorded at Civic Theatre, Akron, Ohio (USA), October 23rd, 1976. Edition of 500, released under license from Easy Action Records. Personnel: Lou Reed - vocals and guitar; Michael Fonfara - keyboards; Bruce Yaw - bass; Marty Fogel - sax; Michael Suchorsky - drums.

Fans of Sun Ra's Space Bop and genre-bending jazz were in for a shock with Strange Strings. Even in the eclectic and sometimes baffling Sun Ra catalog, Strange Strings, first issued in 1967, is an outlier. Is it music, or just noise? Or noise as music? John Cage could not be reached for comment.

The first incarnation of Bronski Beat unfolded over a short but sweet period from April 1984 with ‘Smalltown Boy’ and ending in September 1985 with their post-split remix album ‘Hundreds And Thousands’. With a nod to the original ‘Hundreds And Thousands’, and following on from last year’s 40th Anniversary editions of ‘The Age of Consent’, London Records announce an all new Bronski Beat album - ‘Forbidden Fruit - The Age Of Consent Remixed’.

School's Out catapulted Alice Cooper into the hard rock stratosphere, largely due to its timeless, all-time classic title track. But while the song became Alice's highest-charting single ever (reaching number seven on the U.S. charts) and recalled the brash, three-and-a-half-minute garage rock of yore, the majority of the album signaled a more complex compositional directional for the band. Unlike Cooper's previous releases (Love It to Death, Killer), which contained several instantly identifiable hard rock classics, School's Out appears to be a concept album, and aside from the aforementioned title track anthem, few of the other tracks have ever popped up in concert. That's not to say they weren't still strong and memorable; while such cuts as "Gutter Cat vs. the Jets," "Street Fight," "My Stars," and "Grande Finale" came off like mini-epics with a slightly progressive edge…

The first-ever full length set from Blues Queen Sylvia - both a singer and a bassist, working here in a small combo with Jimmy Dawkins on guitar!
Sylvia Embry began playing piano as a child and sang in church choirs, moving to Memphis at the age of 19. In the 60s she settled in Chicago, where she met and married blues guitarist Johnny Embry, who taught her to play bass guitar. In the 70s she worked for several years with Lefty Dizz and she can be seen playing bass and singing one song with his band in the film Mississippi Delta Blues. She shared the credit with her husband on an album for Razor Records, was part of Alligator Records’ Living Chicago Blues project, and had an album released under the name Blues Queen Sylvia on the German L&R label…

Sir Thomas Beecham was one of the most important orchestra conductors of the 20th century, exerting a huge impact on the entire field of classical music – and the way people listen to it, and the way people have been exposed to it – through his performances, recordings, and the two major orchestras that he founded. Beecham was born in 1879, the son of Sir Joseph Beecham, the maker of a popular and profitable brand of patent medicine.

The Carpenters' box set retrospective From the Top is a 67-track, four-CD set running under 3 ½ hours (which means it could have fit on three CDs) that traces Richard and Karen Carpenter's musical efforts from the formation of the Richard Carpenter Trio in 1965 to Karen's final recording session in April 1982. This is Richard's compilation; he introduces it and writes a track-by-track commentary, and has also done a lot of refurbishing, remixing 40 tracks and providing "additional recording" on many. The set proceeds chronologically, and most of the 20 previously unreleased tracks date from the '60s, as the group's emerging sound can be traced in demos. The Carpenters' hitmaking period of 1970-75 is extensively covered from the last quarter of the first disc to the start of the third, with most of their big hits included, though Richard excludes a few without comment. Also included are many album tracks that sometimes match the quality of the singles. Richard includes a couple of the Carpenters' singles from the second half of the '70s, and devotes the rest of the third disc and most of the fourth to excerpts from stray projects – Christmas albums, TV specials, Karen's solo album (which Richard carefully notes went unreleased "at Karen's behest"). As such, there is necessarily a fall-off in the set's quality. But by sequencing the songs chronologically, choosing only the ones he wants, and remaking them to his satisfaction, Richard is telling his version of the Carpenters' story, chronicling his band's rise and fall, which occurred in artistic and commercial terms well before his sister's death.

"My name is Christopher von Deylen - and I am Schiller." At some point during every Schiller concert, von Deylen speaks these ten words and the crowd goes wild. Schiller’s ethereal “global pop”, as his fans and the press have coined the style, gives the listener a feeling of floating in a dream world. Inspired by electronic classics such as Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, and Jean-Michel Jarre, von Deylen is known for creating visionary sounds that are way ahead of their time.
"Timeline: The Very Best of 1998-2011" looks back on Schiller’s accomplishments through the years as it chronicles the best and most important songs of Schiller’s career - compiling noteworthy tracks from prior albums such as Zeitgeist, Voyage, Day and Night, and Desire. Guest artists include Nadia Ali, Colbie Caillat, Chinese pianist Lang Lang, Indonesian-French artist Anggun, and more.

Flamboyant British icons of the 1970s whose nasty fusion of heavy metal, glam rock, and sneering cynicism influenced many punk bands. Collection includes: 'Mott The Hoople' (1969); 'Mad Shadows' (1970); 'Wildlife' (1971); 'Brain Capers' (1971); 'All The Young Dudes' (1972); 'Mott' (1973); 'The Hoople' (1974); 'Live' (1974) 30th Anniversary Edition 2004; 'Rock And Roll Queen' (1974); 'Drive On' (1975); 'Greatest Hits' (1976); 'Two Miles From Heaven' (1980); 'The Ballad Of Mott: A Retrospective' (1993); 'Fairfield Halls, Live 1970' (2007).

The Mars Volta have never taken the easy route. Their sixth album since Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala quit seminal post-hardcore outfit At The Drive-In in 2001, ‘Noctourniquet’ is framed around a narrative based both on Superman villain Solomon Grundy and the Greek myth of Hyacinthus. If you need refreshing, that’s the one in which Hyacinth, the (male) lover of the god Apollo, attempts to impress Apollo by catching his discus, but gets struck by it and dies. The music follows the same recondite, abstruse path as the lyrics - an ambitious, avant-garde swirl of prog, rock, post-rock and quasi-metal that carries the weight of such intense cerebral pressure. Suffice to say, there are no songs about wearing the same jeans for four days…

'The Doors announced themselves to the world with a near-perfect debut album,' writes veteran rock journalist Ben Fong-Torres in his notes for this unprecedented box. Indeed, The Doors' self-titled 1967 debut recorded in late '66 struck awe in fans and critics alike, and heralded the arrival of the one the most original and daring bands ever. Through five more studio albums, The Doors were fronted by the legendary Jim Morrison, and continually pushed the boundaries of contemporary music and popular culture. To mark the band's 40th anniversary, Rhino salutes their legacy with a 12-disc box housing remastered & expanded editions of these six album masterpieces.

Collection includes all studio albums and two compilations by English musical group Talk Talk. The group had a string of international hit singles including "Today", "Talk Talk", "It's My Life", "Such a Shame", "Dum Dum Girl", "Life's What You Make It" and "Living in Another World". In their later years the band's commercial appeal receded, but their critical reputation increased as they moved from synthpop to a more experimental form. Their final two albums, Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock, were highly acclaimed and remain influential to experimental alternative rock genres, especially post-rock.

Collection includes: 'Everlasting' (1987); 'Good To Be Back' (1989); 'Unforgettable With Love' (1991); 'Take A Look' (1993); 'Holly & Ivy' (1994); 'Stardust' (1996); 'Snowfall On The Sahara' (1999); 'The Magic Of Christmas' (1999); 'Ask A Woman Who Knows' (2002); 'Leavin' (2006), and 'Still Unforgettable' (2008); Natalie Cole en Español (2013).

Part of a eight-album Donna Summer SHM-CD cardboard sleeve reissue series featuring albums "Love To Love You Baby", "A Love Trilogy", "Four Seasons Of Love", "Remember Yesterday", "Once Upon a Time", "Live And More", "Bad Girls", and "On The Radio".