Purcell’s genius abounds throughout the latest volume of The Sixteen’s celebrated exploration of his music for monarchy. Rarely recorded in recent years, Harry Christophers and his award-winning ensemble breathe fresh life into these exquisite works, including two Welcome Songs and one of Purcell’s most famous verse anthems, Rejoice in the Lord alway.

King Charles II liked to project a strong, stable, divinely legitimated image. Whilst that image had no basis in reality, the scale of his deception and financial skulduggery did not emerge until 19th-century historians discovered secret treaty documents between Charles and King Louis XIV of France. Purcell had no idea of course, and so all of the music on this album celebrates the political triumphs that he and his colleagues thought they had witnessed. It includes the quite brilliant Welcome Songs 'Welcome to all the pleasures' (with its superb six-part fanfares to St Cecilia in the final chorus) and 'From hardy climes'.

"Celestial Jazz from the dark side of the Enosphere." This album features Strut Records artist Margaux Simmons on flute. John Notaro and Ben Maddox provide a sonic smorgasbord of Organs, Synths, Electric Guitars, Percussion and Drums.

The program chosen for this album shows a selection of works of Iberian music from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries that, with the title “Españoleta”, addresses the most outstanding musical forms and composers in Renaissance and Baroque Spain, also exploiting the sound resources offered by the Iberian organ in its most original version: a short octave keyboard, split register and battle trumpeting. The program opens with the entrance of clarines before playing songs, an anonymous work collected by Martín i Coll that serves as an exordium for the rest of the works.

solo piece for 3 trumpets, laptop, home-made amplification system and various resonating objects with live and pre-recorded trumpet sounds, field recording, birds, white noise, vibrating metal stuff, saws, toads, sine waves, music, natural and artificial jungle sounds…

Firefly is an album by American flautist Jeremy Steig recorded in 1977 and released on the CTI label. The Allmusic review stated "Jeremy Steig's jazz-funk throwdown, Firefly, is one of the great forgotten masterpieces of the genre… Firefly was designed for the purpose of being a hit in the dance clubs, and it should have been, because it kicks ass on that level as well as on the jazz-funk beam… This is burning".

American baritone saxophone player Charles Tyler cut his teeth with free jazz legends Ornette Coleman and Sunny Murray and enjoyed a career as a sideman with Steve Reid, Cecil Taylor and Billy Bang through the 1970s. By 1982 he found himself touring with the infamous Sun Ra Orchestra, and as a result, relocated to Denmark. It was in Europe that he recorded this album for Storyville Records, an imaginative collection of four originals seeing the matured saxophonist comfortably at the reins of his own quartet.

"Spirit" is the fourteenth studio album by English electronic music band Depeche Mode. This Deluxe version features five additional remixes.

Jazz at the Plaza Vol. I is a live album by Miles Davis. It was recorded in 1958 and released in 1973 by Columbia Records. Duke Ellington was recorded at the same event and released as the second volume (Jazz at the Plaza Vol. II).

RPWL (taken from the first letter of the surname of each of the original band members) started life in 1997 as a Pink Floyd cover band, but quickly found their own sound and their own place in the progrssive rock/symphonic rock arena. 'World Through My Eyes' is their fourth studio album follwing on from 'God Has Failed' (2000), 'Trying to Kiss the Sun' (2002) and 'Stock' (2003) and firmly establishes them, alongside Sylvan, as one of Germany's most important Prog bands writing music at the moment.

It's easy to love the piano of Steve Kuhn - even without the album's cover image of a model exposing herself by the side of a freeway! Kuhn's keys have a lot more class than warrants the cover - and from the very first note of the set, you'll be transported away from thinking about that image, and caught in rapt attention to Steve's warm tones on the piano.

HIVA: DEBUT ALBUM FROM VIRTUOSO AHMAD AL KHATIB & KAVEH MAHMUDIYAN. When the duo Ahmad Al Khatib and Kaveh Mahmudiyan now release their first album, "Hiva", it is with music from the piece "Study for Tombak and Oud" commissioned by Global Oslo Music in 2023. This work originated in a masterful meeting between two of the foremost performers in the world on the Oud, the stringed instrument that has a central place in classical Arabic music, and the percussion instrument Tombak, which is used to a particular extent within older Iranian musical traditions. Have a listen!

So the setting for the Epic Fest was outdoors on the massive grounds of Sharkeys B&G with a huge festival stage built with accompanying live sound system. It was a surreal setting. An old cabin cruiser boat sat near the stage with a gaping hole in the bow. Next to it were hundreds of empty childrens school chairs, just set out in the field in all forms of random positions. Quite strange. I have some photos somewhere. Epic Fest is mostly a Prog Festival, with some great bands, one whose name I can’t recall, were playing Zappa music, and they sounded great. Leonardo presented the debut of the PAKT t-shirt on this gig. It was good to be here.

This mid-December 2021 run by PAKT (Percy Jones, Alex Skolnick, Kenny Grohowski, Tim Motzer) was only our second tour together amongst the crazy schedules of all the members. Although a short tour, we all had a blast, and somewhere in there we recorded a studio album in the Catskills too. We traveled in two cars and took in some amazing landscapes amidst great conversation. Some epic shows come to mind like Buffalo, Cleveland, and Rochester but the final show at The Turning Point had a special beautiful vibe, and I felt we hit a lot of fresh new musical territory.

We travelled from Indianapolis in a torrential downpour for the better part of our drive to Columbus, Ohio for our last-minute show at Double Happiness. This booking was a late addition to our Midwest tour. We had no information about this venue, just going in with an open mind.