Thousand Knives (also known as Thousand Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto) is Ryuichi Sakamoto's first solo album. The album is named after Henri Michaux's description of the feel of using mescaline in Misérable Miracle. It was recorded in about 500 hours, and Sakamoto would spend whole days without sleeping working on it. The album's title track is one of Sakamoto's most famous compositions.

Music is shaped by the time and place it’s created… And in the 80s changes in politics, technology and culture came together to produce an explosion of new sounds that have come to define a generation. The importance and continued popularity of the 80s can’t be underestimated, from the pioneering producers of synthesised music like The Human League, Gary Numan and Giorgio Moroder to the immortal David Bowie. In addition, there are the brilliant electronic pop sounds of Soft Cell, Yazoo, Tears For Fears, Duran Duran, Pet Shop Boys, Boy George and Visage… Play just one of these epoch defining tracks and you can feel the electricity of the era. And then there are the sounds which are uniquely British; from The Cure, New Order, Dream Academy and Black to Spandau Ballet and Bryan Ferry. These bands/artists perfectly summarise the mood of 80s Britain. Chilled Electronic 80s brings to life an alternative side of the decade; One of equal wonder to the dance floor electro classics but also of chilled cool. Over 3CDs, these classic laid back tracks chart the birth of modern chill-out, chilled dance and electronic today… So sit back, relax and drift back in time as Ministry of Sound presents… Chilled Electronic 80s.

A Different Light is a look back at the career of Art of Noise member and soundtrack composer Anne Dudley. Although the album features songs from her most successful compositions, Dudley reworks them to create new pieces for her second solo album.

Gilead Limor is successfully established as a composer and performer of New Age music. A professional musician and sound engineer since 1981 and a qualified holistic therapist and healer since 1997, Gilead has combined his knowledge and experience in both fields to create some of the finest tranquil music for relaxation, meditation and guided imagery. Gilead has developed a large following of devoted fans in North America and other parts of the world. Gilead was the initial composer/performer signed to the highly popular "You Are…" series of CDs released in North America by Nesak International Inc.

Harold Budd's discs tend to end up in the new age section of the record store, because his music is generally pleasant, quiet, and soothing. But where most new age composers go for the obvious (and sometimes saccharine) melody, Budd veers off into ambiguity; he also lacks the mystical bent that often goes along with the new age style. Instead, his compositional voice is more like that of a detached observer – one who creates beauty without getting too involved with it. By the Dawn's Early Light finds Budd writing for various combinations of viola, guitar, harp, and keyboards. All of the music is lovely, but not all of the compositions sound complete. In several cases, they sound like raw ideas rushed into the studio before their time. Guitarist Bill Nelson provides much of the interest throughout the album, and the sighing, slithery viola of Mabel Wong lends an occasional turn-of-the-century salon feel to the proceedings. The only really embarrassing moments occur when Budd – whose voice sounds like an unfortunate cross between Garrison Keillor and Kermit the Frog – reads his own poetry. Skip those tracks and you'll be fine.

Philips's collection of major works that have propelled Gavin Bryars to New Music stardom is an effective overview of his music. The longest work is his Cello Concerto, handsomely played by Julian Lloyd Webber with a big, colorful tone and sustained intensity throughout its contemplative half-hour. A comparable mood pervades the bright tintinnabulating textures of the whimsically titled One Last Bar, Then Joe Can Sing. Similar as well, in their attractive serenity and suppressed sadness, are many of the other works here, prime among them the viola concerto in all but name, The North Shore, a tone painting of the rugged cliffs of northeast England. Adnan Songbook, settings of six poems by Lebanese poet Etel Adnan, are beautifully sung by soprano Valerie Anderson and delicately scored for a small ensemble. Bryars's biggest hits, The Sinking of the Titanic and Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet, have inspired him to numerous reworkings and capsuled fragments. They're represented by Titanic Lament, depicting a hymn tune dissolving into gray, watery textures, and two very different four-minute versions of Jesus' Blood, both with Tom Waits.

Stepmother is Lukas Simonis (Dull Schicksal, VRIL, Coolhaven …), Jeroen Visser (Kazanchis, morFrom …), Bill Gilonis (The Work, The Hat Shoes, Hail …) and David Kerman (5UUs, Present, Thinking Plague, Aranis …). Anglo-American-Dutch post-punk prog rock and experimental soundscapes with a dash of Monty Python thrown in. A reunion of an 80s band that never existed (but should have): twangy guitars, nifty keyboards, zany drumming, vocal histrionics à la The Rutles (well, sort of), lop-sided rhythms, regurgitated spam lyrics.

Another shrouded in mystery album from the Pyramid label, produced by Toby Robinson in Cologne circa 1974. Kosmische and Head sounds with plenty of Minimoog, analogue synths / keyboards, effects, loops, tape manipulation, treated percussions, etc., courtesy of Galactic Explorers, an electronic, minimal, ambient krautrock trio featuring Reinhard Karwatky (Dzyan). Take a trip to the inner regions of your mind, see ancient solar systems forming and listen to cosmic winds and vibrations while sine waves of pure bliss will give you total peace of mind… 24-bit domain remaster from the original tapes.

In the liner notes to his 2003 compilation CD moto.tronic, mercurial composer Ryuichi Sakamoto writes, "I want to break down the walls between genres, categories and cultures." Based on the restless variety of his output, he's done it. On this 14-track collection that emphasizes already available work from the late 1980s and '90s, we get soundtrack scores, solo piano, and remixes as well as syth-pop, techno, classical, and bossa nova music.

Anne Dudley, composer, artist and founding member of the hugely influential Art of Noise, and the only artist in history to have won an Oscar, a Grammy and had a No. 1 on the Billboard Dance Chart, releases her brand new work Anne Dudley plays the Art of Noise. This delicate, haunting piano album which sees the award winning composer reinterpreting the music of one of her most influential projects, the Art of Noise. This instrumental record finds Dudley performing piano covers of classic Eighties hits and new interpretations of pioneering electronic music.

Constance Demby is one of the few representatives of the New Age movement (in both her music and her personal philosophies) who consistently creates artistic, highly expressive compositions. Demby was trained in classical music as a child, and her artistic spirit led her to also master several other art forms; at the University of Michigan, she studied painting, sculpture, and music. It was her work as a sculptor that led her to new dimensions of sound. As she was torching a sheet of metal, it roared thunderously, and thus was born the Sonic Steel Instruments: the Whale Sail, and the Space Bass, enormous bowed instruments with deep archetypal resonances.

Steve Roach and Robert Rich are the most important electronic ambient musicians in the U.S. SoMa is their highly acclaimed follow-up to their first collaboration, Strata. Soma, according to Vedic writings, is "a drink made from plants which could help one commune with the gods." It is also the Greek word for body. So they designed this CD to be a vehicle to traverse between the physical and spiritual worlds. It is deep stuff. The soundscape offers listeners the opportunity to pursue and achieve states of ecstasy. The only extracurricular involvement is from the souls of the music and the listeners. The psychoactive atmospheres penetrate the defenses of the spirit and use Earth's resonant rhythms to tap into the biorhythms. From that point forward, Rich and Roach are in control. Listeners will go to the far reaches of the netherworld and stay within the limits set by this duo.

Weiss is archaic in his material: he shuns electronic elements and favours natural sound sources (voices, hands, feet) and employs considerable fantasy in the process of deriving sounds from objects which in their original environment have no musical function.

The 1973 album was her fourth solo release – another collaboration with John Cale – and was recorded in 1973 in London. Cale chose Brian Eno and Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music to work on the album with him; between them they provided the entire instrumental framework for Nico and her harmonium.This issue of The End is remastered here for the first time, and comes with a bonus disc of tracks including The End and a previously unreleased version of Das Lied der Deutschen performed live at London’s Rainbow Theatre on June 1, 1974, and some John Peel session tracks which are either unreleased or new to CD.

The Fountain: Music from the Motion Picture is the soundtrack album to the 2006 film The Fountain directed by Darren Aronofsky. Released on November 27, 2006, through Nonesuch Records, the album is a collaboration between contemporary classical composer and frequent Aronofsky collaborator Clint Mansell, classical string quartet the Kronos Quartet, and post-rock band Mogwai. The score received mixed reviews from critics and was nominated for several awards.