Georgian composer Giya Kancheli wrote seven symphonies between 1967 and 1986, all sharing an organic one-movement form. If his work has been in danger of losing its identity amid the tide of spiritually motivated music to come out of the ex-Soviet Union in recent years, these persuasive performances will set the record straight. Both are distinctly Russian in character: grave, ritualistic, shot through with religious symbols – pealing of bells and fragments of Georgian ‘church songs’ – long paragraphs punctuated by crude blasts, in the manner of Schnittke or Ustvolskaya, and brief flashes of caustic vulgarity – sudden jazz ‘wowing’ in the brass or a sinister quoting of a Bach invention. The Second rises gradually from an ascending four-note scale, richly suspended across the brass. Kancheli’s control of its sustained, circular development is extraordinary, moving from a gargantuan anticipation of the melody with its wistful, downturned coda to bright, dancing Stravinskian ostinatos in the wind and back again. The longer Seventh Symphony is conceived on a more conventional and grandiose scale. Suffused with Georgian folksong, its powerful rhetoric and hefty orchestration hark back to the world of Shostakovich, though veiled in a prayerful introspection peculiar to Kancheli.

Polydor/Universal’s The Face: The Very Best Of Visage collects 15 tracks from the early-'80s synth pop supergroup (featuring members of Magazine, Ultravox, and The Rich Kids), including four versions of their international smash, "Fade to Grey." Longtime listeners who picked up 1993’s Fade to Grey: The Singles Collection will find much of the same here (minus fan favorite “Beat Boy”), but the remixes – which range from excellent (“Fade to Grey" [Michael Gray Mix 2009]) to just passable (“Fade to Grey" [Lee Mortimer Remix 2009]) – and the ultra-hot, club-ready mastering job should entice those who have yet to add these over the top electro-pop legends to their MP3 collections.

Recorded during the second "Shelter Of Mine" Convention. Hybrydy, Warsaw, Poland (01.02.2020).

Hyperion has brought together two fetching, large-scale pieces by Charles Villiers Stanford for its “The Romantic Violin” series. Both are mature works, written in 1888 and 1899 during Stanford’s “high noon”, when the Cambridge-based Irishman was winning acclaim at home and abroad as a leading British composer. The earlier Suite was written for his mentor, the great German violinist Joseph Joachim. It’s a piece of considerable beauty, both an homage to past musical styles and a tune-filled example of highbrow populism that repays multiple hearings. It begins with a nod to Bach’s solo violin music, and the titles of some movements (as well as their music)–such as Allemande and Tambourine–continue the Baroque-style tribute. Though longish (just shy of half-an-hour), it never overstays its welcome.

Individually, the members of the Manzanita Quintet have created astounding music in their associations with artists such as Kneebody, Dave Douglas, Ralph Alessi, Jerry Granelli, Art Lande, Beck, and so many more. These experiences inform their role as the inspired jazz faculty at the University of Nevada, Reno and in the music they create collectively. Along with Monk's "Bemsha" and Charlie Haden's "Silence," trumpeter Josh Reed, saxophonist Peter Epstein, pianist Adam Benjamin, bassist Hans Halt and drummer Andrew Heglund have crafted a set of modern, original compositions that alternately stretch and groove, roar and whisper, revealing the inventive, creative vitality they've brought to this stretch of the Sierra foothills.

The orchestral works Passacaglia, Ritual and (K)ein sommernachtstraum are all very well-conducted and beautifully recorded on this CD (as usual with BIS-records). The Malmö symphony orchestra specialized in Schnittke during the 80's, and that can be heard here. There is a great understanding to the sometimes very odd music.

The Leuven Chansonnier (1470–75) includes not only fifty compositions by such leading 15th century Franco-Flemish names as Johannes Ockeghem, Antoine Busnoys and Firminus Caron but also twelve newly rediscovered works that exist in no other source. The Ensemble Sollazzo here brings a selection of this music to life in an interpretation that is both brilliant and refreshing. Sollazzo Ensemble was founded in 2014 in Basel and brings together musicians with a strong interest in late medieval and early renaissance repertoires. The ensemble is directed by fiddle player Anna Danilevskaia and benefits from the different musical backgrounds of its members: while some of them come from Early Music families, others have found their calling via modern classical music, theatre or even musical.

Theo Croker is a storyteller who speaks through his trumpet. A creative who refuses boundaries, the GRAMMY Award-nominated artist, composer, producer, thought leader, and influencer projects his voice through the music. After seven years of sojourn in Shanghai, Croker crash-landed with a simmering original sound on the 2014 Dee Dee Bridgewater-assisted album Afro Physicist. Following the success of Escape Velocity in 2016, he ascended to a new stratosphere with Star People Nation in 2019.

Tourism: Songs from Studios, Stages, Hotelrooms & Other Strange Places is the fourth studio album by Swedish pop duo Roxette, released on 28 August 1992 by EMI. Despite often being mistaken for a live album, the record was described by Roxette in its liner notes as a "tour album"; the band recorded the majority of its material in numerous recording studios in-between live dates of their worldwide Join the Joyride! Tour. The album contains three live concert recordings, while another track was recorded live in an empty nightclub in São Paulo. A further two tracks were recorded in Buenos Aires' Alvear Palace Hotel. The album received mixed reviews from American publications upon release, with several of them confused over its concept, and incorrectly describing it as containing just five previously unreleased songs. It also underperformed on the Billboard 200, peaking at number 117 on the chart and selling approximately 278,000 copies—far short of the million-selling Joyride. Nevertheless, the album was a commercial success in Europe, and was certified platinum in numerous territories. As of 2001, Tourism had sold over 6 million copies worldwide.

To coincide with its 20th anniversary, Eminem has released an expanded edition of The Eminem Show featuring 18 additional songs. The hugely successful fourth studio album arrived all the way back in 2002, and the Detroit rapper has expanded upon the release with instrumentals, previously unreleased tracks, and other rarities. One of the most notable inclusions on the extended tracklist is “Jimmy, Brian and Mike,” a song intended for his third full-length The Marshall Mathers LP.

A long time coming but worth the wait. Unfortunately there are hardly any instrumental hits in this day and age, but there was a time when some of the biggest chart hits were brilliant instrumentals and most of them are on this 3CD collection. You will know the songs even if you don’t know the artist initially, as a lot of the songs have been used in movies and TV commercials over the years apart from the continuous radio airplay on Easy Listening stations across Australia. Some of the names worth mentioning are: The Dave Brubeck Quartet, Ramsey Lewis Trio, Hugh Masekela, Hugo Montenegro & His Orchestra, Paul Mauriat, Percy Faith & His Orchestra, The Ventures, Sandy Nelson, The Shadows, Van McCoy, George Benson, Marvin Hamlisch and the list goes on.

Quest for Fire is the second studio album by American record producer Skrillex. It was released on February 17, 2023, through Owsla and Atlantic Records. It follows his 2014 album Recess and was preceded by the singles "Rumble" (with Fred Again and Flowdan), "Leave Me Like This" (with Bobby Raps), and "Xena" (with Nai Barghouti). It also includes collaborations with Aluna, Eli Keszler, Pete Wentz, Starrah, Swae Lee, Noisia, Dylan Brady, Four Tet, Missy Elliott, Mr. Oizo, Porter Robinson and Bibi Bourelly.

“So many vintage classics: here is our curated and varied play-through selection, all re-mastered with great sound and stirring melodies ” (MusicalMerit)

"Instant Replay" itself kicks off with an "American Top 40" peppy countdown and boogies its way through an ode to rolling over in the clover that's as minty and mildly abrasive as toothpaste. Hartman, one of popular music's undersung utility infielders, sculpted his disco breakthrough with the same intricacy as Seymour Chwast's phantasmagoric album cover, but his fondness for real live percussion, room ambiences, and endless good-time monkeyshines set the finished work apart from the chilling and provocative flesh-against-machine conundrums posed by Donna Summer's work with Giorgio Moroder. His unapologetic love of show tunes with top-hat-and-a-cane swagger shines through the 11-minute-plus "Countdown/This Is It," where the mastermind chases Blanche Napolean through an obstacle course of sometimes-harmonized scat singing in between spidery sax lines from the songwriter's old boss, Edgar Winter.

Hartman's followup to "Instant Replay", and while nothing here raced up the charts like that album's title single, the producer/singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist flashes his party energy through sturdy constructions. "Hands Down" trails off with Stevie Wonder and Edgar Winter trading fours on harmonica and sax respectively an inspired collaboration that could have run on a few minutes more. "Just for Fun," almost a one-man show, contrasts a muscular, syncopated hook to the insouciance of the lyric. The finale, "Free Ride," retools a hit Hartman originally wrote and sung for Edgar Winter, transferring the choogle of the older version's rhythm guitar to the rhythm section for a seemingly-simple discofication displaying the hand of a master crafsman.