Martin Gore has famously noted that Depeche Mode stopped worrying about its future when the first post-Vince Clarke-departure single, "See You," placed even higher on the English charts than anything else Clarke had done with them. Such confidence carries through all of A Broken Frame, a notably more ambitious effort than the pure pop/disco of the band's debut. With arranging genius Alan Wilder still one album away from fully joining the band, Frame became very much Gore's record, writing all the songs and exploring various styles never again touched upon in later years. "Satellite" and "Monument" take distinct dub/reggae turns, while "Shouldn't Have Done That" delivers its slightly precious message about the dangers of adulthood with a spare arrangement and hollow, weirdly sweet vocals…

Bach's sonatas for viola da gamba and keyboard, BWV 1027-1029, were partly adapted for other works, and there's nothing outrageous in itself about playing them on a cello. Indeed, the gamba was a fairly old-fashioned instrument by Bach's time, and the present performance may well be historically authentic, as the booklet contends. German cellist Nicolas Altstaedt tones down his instrument, so to speak, by using a low tuning intended to reproduce the gamba's more intimate quality. Nevertheless, this is an unusual reading, one that makes the music much darker and more dramatic than it usually is, or, perhaps, was intended to be.

The performance of the St. Matthew Passion at the 1950 International Bach Festival still carries an enormous reputation. The Wiener Singverein and the Wiener Symphoniker were conducted by Herbert von Karajan. The singers were all said to be among the best of the early postwar period, and Kathleen Ferrier was at the peak of her tragically short career. And even his detractors had to admit that in the immediate postwar period Herbert von Karajan was at his least narcissistic when he was feeling slightly chastened by having picked the losing side and slightly nervous that someone might hold his choice against him. We are gratified that „Andante“ has reissued the performance and thrilled with the excellence of the digital remastering and with the richness of their packaging.

This new album release by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Hannu Lintu presents a new contemporary voice within Finlands contemporary music scene: Antti Auvinen. This album includes three recent orchestral works by the composer marked by highly pressurised and explosive rhythms and sounds. The premieres of Antti Auvinens (b. 1974) Junker Twist (2015) and Himmel Punk (2016) in the mid-2010s electrified the scene of Finlands contemporary music: music critics felt that a new major voice in the countrys music scene had been born. Auvinens works are often thematically connected to events in the surrounding society.

Dinosaurs, formed in 1982, was an American, Bay Area-based supergroup, that emerged from the psychedelic music era of San Francisco.

50 Jahre früher lebte und wirkte am Salzburger Hof Georg Muffat, allerdings nicht unumschränkt, musste er sich doch die musikalische Arbeit mit lgnaz Franz Biber teilen. Galt letzterer als bester Geiger seiner Zeit, so war Muffat »das Haupt der katholischen Orgelspieler«.

“I’ve wanted to record Elgar’s violin concerto for a long time,” says Vilde Frang. “It really is a journey … Such a vast piece of music with such an original structure and so many impulses and ideas … You need to take the time to savour all these moments … That is part of the magic of the piece.” She has now recorded the epic concerto with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and its music director, Robin Ticciati. The album is completed with a delightful short piece by Elgar, Carissima, in a version for violin and piano (played by Thomas Hoppe). “There are some hidden messages in the concerto,” continues Frang. “It actually starts with the answer, and then after it comes all the questions … Playing it is almost a meditative experience.” When she performed the work in the UK in 2023, the Guardian wrote: ““Not only did Frang deal with its virtuoso demands as though they barely existed, but her extraordinarily beautiful tone … seemed to honour the source of Elgar’s inspiration with a startling immediacy.”

This midline-priced compilation attempts to survey Barry White's recording career from 1973-1999, giving equal weight to different periods of that time as if they were equally successful. That's what can happen when the artist is involved in the selection of a compilation; White is credited as compilation producer along with Universal's Harry Weinger in what may be his final contemporary album credit (he died while the disc was in production).

The most popular and successful lineup of Return to Forever – Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Lenny White, and Al Di Meola – was coming off the Grammy-winning No Mystery when it recorded its third and final album, Romantic Warrior. It has been suggested that in employing a medieval album cover (drawn by Wilson McLean), using titles like "Medieval Overture" and "Duel of the Jester and the Tyrant," and occasionally playing in a baroque style, particularly in Clarke's "The Magician," Corea was responding to Rick Wakeman's successful string of albums on similar themes. Certainly, the music suggests that the musicians have been listening to Wakeman's band, Yes, among other progressive rock groups.

Terry Callier's first album - recorded in 1964 when he was a wee teen hanging around Chicago's folk scene! As the title indicates, the album's definitely got a folk-styled sound - but also as the "new" implies, it's got a sound all it's own, fresh and free - and that sound is the genius that is Terry Callier! This is very stripped down material, very dark and brooding - a good chance to hear Terry before he hit the Chess studios and they backed him up with a lot of orchestrations (although we love the orchestrations, too.) The material has a soulful spiritual feel, and is sung with a lot of passion over acoustic guitar. Think of Nina Simone's folksier stuff from the same time, if you need a reference.

All credit to Gary Moore for having the courage to leap into the relative unknown with A Different Beat. It is indeed greatly removed from anything he had released prior to 1999. Perhaps it was the new-found freedom from the guitarist's contract with Virgin that fuelled the change of direction–that and Moore's obvious affinity with outfits along the lines of Apollo 440 and Fatboy Slim (to whom "Fatboy" is a tribute).

Eric Clapton’s lifelong passion for the blues burns brightly inNothing But The Blues. The CD of the soundtrack features 17 previously unreleased live performances recorded in 1994 during the legendary guitarist’s tour supportingFrom The Cradle, his GrammyÒ-winning, multi-platinum blues album. Clapton’s longtime co-producer, Simon Climie, has remixed the audio from those performances from the original multi-tracking recordings. -The previously unreleased live performances onNothing But the Bluesserve as a vital counterpart toFrom The Cradle, which was recorded in the studio.

Compiled in conjunction with Clannad band members, In A Lifetime includes all the hits and two new songs ‘A Celtic Dream’ and ‘Who Knows (Where The Time Goes)’ both produced by Trevor Horn.

In 1983 when this performance was taped in Cannes, France during the Midem Festival, B.B. King was carrying one of the best bands of his entire career. Under the leadership of trumpeter Calvin Owens the band were tight and concise supporting B.B's stinging guitar and vocals to exceptional effect. These workouts on many of his greatest hits are the perfect introduction to the King of the Blues.