The Chihiro Yamanaka album, Somethin' Blue, is her Blue Note Records debut. Ms. Yamanaka, who most often performs and records in trio format, assembled a sextet for these sessions and created a new compositional universe that places Somethin’ Blue in the lineage of classic Blue Note recordings. Chihiro Yamanaka’s music pivots between her strikingly original compositions and her unique arrangements in which she accomplishes the impressive feat of introducing the element of surprise into some of the most famous songs in the jazz repertoire, contemporary popular music, and even the works of classical composers.

Between When Planets Explode and Joined Ends, Oliver Johnson's first and second Dorian Concept albums, the Viennese musician and producer released a few singles and EPs. Among them were the brilliantly nutty "Trilingual Dance Sexperience" and relatively restrained four-track EP Her Tears Taste Like Pears, his first work for Ninja Tune. Johnson also performed around the world, including a stretch as a keyboardist for Flying Lotus' live show. He retreated from the stage, swapped out the microKORG with which he'd been closely associated, and eventually developed new material with use of other analog synthesizers and an electric Wurlitzer piano. Less jumbled and jagged than his debut, Joined Ends is filled with spiraling melodies and softer beats that place him a lot closer to Lone than to Hudson Mohawke…

A great little groover from keyboardist Charles Earland – and an album that definitely lives up to its title! There's plenty of street sounds going on here – lots of modern R&B modes that echo the changing styles of early 80s soul music, especially on the east coast! And as part of that, there's a good deal of vocals on the record, alongside Charles' keyboards – work by singers who include Larry Hancock, Bruce Gray, and Sheryl Kendrick – each of whom adds plenty to the record, working over jazzy grooves nicely scored by Earland. Titles include "Be My Lady", "Take Me Away", "Feels So Good To Me", "Burning Devotion", "Tell Me What It Is", and "Go All The Way". CD features a bonus track – "Be My Lady (7" mix)".

On the occasion of its 40th anniversary (1974-2014), the Arditti Quartet, one of the most famous groups in contemporary music, has chosen to record, for the second time and this is an occurrence sufficiently rare that it bears emphasizing , the complete string quartets of Brian Ferneyhough. The pieces on these discs immediately weave an auditory spell and well illustrate this composer's brand of complexity, i.e., writing reputed to be unplayable for the instrumentalists but providing a definite pleasure for the listener, caught up in the headiness of a universe without limits or vanishing point. This 3-CD set will not only be one of the indispensable releases of 2014 but also the best way to apprehend the music of a fundamental composer whose intense writing, emancipated heir of Schoenberg, remains radically expressive, chaotic in appearance but sublimated here by the freedom and excellence of the interpretation.

One Love, One Rhythm: The 2014 FIFA World Cup™ Official Album is an official compilation of Latin pop music honoring the power of the FIFA World Cup™ football/soccer game, featuring tracks by Ricki Martin, Jennifer Lopez, Pitball, Shakira, Baha Men, Santana, Wyclef Jean and many other international sensations. This is a deluxe edition, released by Sony Music.

This disc is an amazing example of the hubris of a major classical label at the height of its imperial aspirations. Imagine the Columbia Records of the '60s releasing a record of Bruckner's Mass in E minor. Imagine the Sony of the new millennium releasing a disc by a provincial German chorus and an unknown conductor. Now be grateful that in 1991 that Sony, at the height of its aspirations, saw fit to record a splendid provincial German chorus and a brilliant unknown conductor in a magnificent recording of Bruckner's tremendous Mass in E minor. How else would there come to exist so wonderful a performance as this one by Frieder Bernius leading the Kammerchor Stuttgart and the Deutsche Blaserphilharmonie? The sound of the Stuttgart choir is pure, strong, and ardent.

2014 album from the UK's finest interpreter of song. On HARD RAIN, Barb Jungr covers the songs of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. Oft referred to as 'the politicized chansonnier' and cited as one of the world's best performers of Dylan's material, Barb turns to six of his most politically hard-hitting songs along with five of Leonard Cohen's most impassioned songs of conscience. Barb's selection for HARD RAIN reflects her despair with the political times that we live in and she has deliberately chosen songs that resonate as strongly today as they did when they were originally written. All of the arrangements on the album are by Barb and her long-standing collaborator and accompanist, the pianist Simon Wallace, who also produced the album. Together with Barb and her band, they inject new life and energy into each song.

Originally a member of a nascent Black Uhuru in the mid 70's, Don Carlos rose to fame in the early eighties as a solo singer, sometimes in the company of his spar Goldielocks, with tracks such as Dice Cup, Hog & Goat, Late Night Blues aka Nice Time and more, with an mellow singing style pitched somewhere between the "Apache" ululations of Michael Rose and the creamy balladeering of Al Campbell. Here is a selection of tracks he recorded circa 1981 for Bunny Lee, which includes Late Night Blues, Spread Out and Money & Woman.

The music of Souvenance, by turns graceful, hypnotic, and taut and starkly dramatic, was recorded in 2014 – six years after oud-master Anouar Brahem’s last ECM album, “The Astounding Eyes of Rita”. “It took a long time to write this music,” he acknowledges, noting that his emotional world had been usurped by the unfolding story of political upheaval sweeping first through Tunisia then through the neighbouring countries. Extraordinary waves of change, accompanied by great hopes and fears. “I don’t claim a direct link between my compositions and the events taking place in Tunisia,” says Anouar, “but I have been profoundly influenced by them.” New directions for the music find Francois Couturier returning to the Brahem group, frequently supported by subtle string orchestration.

They consider themselves the oldest tribe of ancient Greece. Their territory is a place from the eternal Golden Age, where peaceful shepherds, unhindered by hard work, can pursue their pleasures and passions. A blissful, perfect country life: Arcadia, the ideal place for ancient mythology, for nymphs and shepherds, heroes and gods. It needn’t worry us that Arcadia was transported from its original location in the heart of the Peloponnese to Sicily in classical Latin literature.

Three Blind Mice Blu-spec CD reissue series. Limited paper sleeve edition. Summertime is the seventh album by pianist Tsuyoshi Yamamoto released by the Three Blind Mice label. Virtually unknown when he made his first recording in 1974, he had become one of the most popular jazz pianists by the time of this exciting live recording in 1976.

Alma Afrobeat Ensemble was founded in Chicago in 2003 by guitarist Aaron Feder. In 2006 Aaron moved to Barcelona in search of a different sound for the AAbE. He quickly found a group of international members, from all continents of the globe. In a short time the band was reformed and headlined the Fiestizaje music and arts festival in 2008. The band then set about recording their first studio album, Toubab Soul which was released in 2010. Shortly afterwards, they released the remix album, Toubab Resouled, and opened the world music festival Cruilla de Cultures with Konono No 1.

OehmsClassics proudly presents this recording of the Jubilee Concert „250th Anniversary of the Birth of Simon Mayr“ made in June 2013 in Ingolstadt. The performance was of Mayr’s opera Ginevra di Scozia, a saga from Scotland that is an important step in the transition to romantic Italian opera.

Although John Cage occasionally worked in large, sophisticated studios - for example, when he composed Fontana Mix in 1958 - his approach to electronic and tape music was often uncomplicated, makeshift, and pragmatic, employing simple tabletop devices: tape machines, phonograph cartridges, contact microphones, record players, portable radios, etc.
He developed a soundworld that was utterly new, radical and demanding. It heralded the age of the loudspeaker, mass communication and Marshall McLuhan's 'global village.' The hiss, crackle and hum of electronic circuits,
and the disembodied sounds, snatched by radio from the ether, spoke of the 20th century.