Xhol's sound was a mix of jazz-rock and psychedelia. The band from Wiesbaden and former Xhol Caravan stood out for their pretty lengthy improvisations holding barely any vocals. The band became quite well-known with their two LPs released on Ohr. On Saturday, October 24, 1970, they performed at the third Essen Pop & Blues Festival at the Gruga hall. At that time, Hansi Fischer, one of the founders, had already gone on to Embryo. The whole festival had been recorded semi-professionally on soundboard by Roland Verheyen, an assistant to the promoter Konrad Mallison. The event's master tapes are partly preserved. Lavishly remastered the CD provides a quite acceptable sound, although the drums seem to be too loud. Xhol's gig had been divided into four pieces blending perfectly into each other.

Muddy's next-to-last Chess album, Can't Get No Grindin' marked a return to working with a band of his own after several experimental line-ups and recordings – Pinetop Perkins took over the piano spot from the late Otis Spann, with Chess veteran harpist James Cotton aboard, and PeeWee Madison, and Sammy Lawhorn handling the guitars (apart from Muddy's axe, natch). The music is raw, hard-edged, and sharp (the guitars slash and cut), more like a successor to Muddy's classic 1950's sides (he rethinks a bunch '50s numbers here) than to the London Sessions, Super Blues, brass blow-outs, and psychedelic albums that he'd been doing. It's also easy to hear Muddy's heart in this release – he fairly oozes soul out of every note he sings.

Few people and the world are more dedicated to the art of electric guitar than Cincinnati based singer-songwriter and certified guitar gunslinger Dudley Taft. The blues rocker returns for his 10th album, ‘The Speed Of Life,’ set for release on April 4, 2025, with a dozen new tracks recorded in the Czech Republic with his European touring rhythm section of drummer Nick Owsianka, and co-producer Dave Marks on bass, percussion, and keyboards. Additional recording and mixing was done at his own Muchmore Studios in the Cincinnati home he acquired from guitar legend Peter Frampton. The collection of all new original material takes the listener on a journey across a musical dreamscape that flows from thundering mountain tops down to serene valleys, while he mixes a cosmic array of guitar tones that only a master craftsman could yield.

Software formed in 1983 by German duo Peter Mergener and Michael Weisser, Software owes much to electronic pioneer Klaus Schulze. Software's music usually builds on sequencer patterns and simple melodies, creating a lighter version of The Schulze style. Digital-Dance is globally very relaxing and alternates floating pieces (Magnificient-Shore), atmospherical tunes (Island Sunrise, Sea-Gulls-Audience) and for sure synthetic tracks (Oceans-Breath, Digital-Dance) and odd passages (Waving-Voices). Soundscapes are very reminiscent of Tangerine Dream is the mid 80s.

Opus 111 continues its collection of Treasures of Naples and this time offers us a series of Neapolitan songs performed by Patrizia Bovi, Pino de Vittorio, Rosario Totaro and some instrumental soloists from the groups Micrologus and Cappella de »Turchini. The performances, always within the rigor that characterizes these ensembles, are full of freshness and liveliness. The singers articulate the texts, witty, sparkling at times, melancholic at other times, with total clarity. The instrumental works, including a version of the beautiful and anonymous "Villanella ch" all "acqua vai", are masterfully performed.

British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor presents a new recording of two concerto favourites: Chopin’s Piano Concertos Nos.1 and 2, released on 21st February 2020 on Decca Classics. Recorded with Elim Chan and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO), the record marks Benjamin’s fifth album on Decca Classics, following the hugely successful Homages in 2016, and is his first orchestral album since 2012.

This fourth volume in our scholarly compendium once more charts Liszt’s life through song (including three settings spanning as many decades of a portentous love-letter the composer received in 1841). Series maestro Julius Drake welcomes the gorgeous Sasha Cooke to Hyperion.