The soundtrack of the 1927 film Napoléon, directed by Abel Gance, was the first film soundtrack ever composed. It was written by Arthur Honegger, a close collaborator of Abel Gance, and consists of twenty minutes of music. In the 1990s, Marius Constant composed a film score for a screening in Paris of the Kevin Brownlow cut, here performed by the composer himself conducting the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, enhanced by the original compositions by Honegger.

It might be tempting to dismiss this Ralph Towner effort as New Age fluff, but the music is so gorgeous that any such considerations fall to the wayside. Yet the wayside is precisely where Towner sets his sights, which is to say that his interest lies in edges where musical idioms meet. He explores these lines, not unlike the blotted cover, with an ease of diction at the fret board that is recognizable and comforting. Drummer Peter Erskine shares the bill, but Towner adds a few synth touches for broader effect, as in “The Sigh,” which opens the session in a cleft of fluid energy.

Dr. John's debut for GRP doesn't deviate from any release he's made for several other labels. It's still his chunky, humorous take on New Orleans funk; these are his songs, visions and performances, and there's none of the elevator material or laidback, detached fare that's a customary GRP byproduct. Such songs as "Witchy Red," "Spaceship Relationship" and the title selection are a delicate mix of seemingly outrageous but actually quite sharp commentary and excellent musical performances from Dr. John on keyboards, Hugh McCracken on guitar, and several other veterans, among them the great Red Tyler on tenor sax. While not quite as fiery as his classic sessions for Atlantic, if anyone can bring the funk to a company that's famous for avoiding it, it's Dr. John.

'Pushin' Too Hard' is a 94-track celebration of 1960s garage punk, a retrospectively named genre first compiled on Lenny Kaye's seminal 1972 collection 'Nuggets'. This is raw, exciting music with tons of attitude - fuzz guitars, swirling organs, wailing harmonicas, thumping drums and tough vocals are plentiful. In the mid 1960s, teenage rock 'n' roll groups proliferated throughout the USA, often inspired by 'British Invasion' bands such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Yardbirds as well as US styles including surf, blues and folk rock. Most towns and cities had local scenes revolving around dance parties, clubs and 'battle of the bands' contests and many of the bands here were regional royalty but never broke nationally. Key bands featured include The Seeds, The Sonics, The Standells, The Shadows Of Knight, The Thirteenth Floor Elevators, Love, The Electric Prunes, Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band, We The People and ? & The Mysterians. There are national US Billboard Hot 100 hits from Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs - 'Wooly Bully' (#2), The Strangeloves - 'I Want Candy' (#11), The Castaways - 'Liar, Liar' (#12), The Beau Brummels - 'Just A Little' (#15), The McCoys - 'Fever' (#7), The Bobby Fuller Four - 'I Fought The Law' (#9), Paul Revere & The Raiders - 'Just Like Me' (#11), The Barbarians - 'Are You A Boy Or Are You A Girl' (#55), Love - 'My Little Red Book' (#54), The Knickerbockers - 'One Track Mind' (#46) and The Seeds - 'Pushin' Too Hard' (#36) presented here in a longer unedited version. Rarities from The Blue Beats, The Dirty Wurds, The Apparitions, The Bedlam Four and The Jackals are released here on CD for the first time while many other tracks have never been released in the UK before.

Originally recorded in 1977, this splendid re-release per of Haydn’s sacred masterpiece in its original fully orchestral version was never released as a CD or in digital, making it one of the highlights of our Marriner centenary jubilee!

Here comes an album as part of our Paavo Berglund retrospective: a superb rendition of César Franck’s major works, previously unavailable to digital partners, with the Variations symphoniques, featuring Argentinian pianist Sylvia Kersenbaum, newly remastered in high resolution.

Respighi: Pines of Rome, Bernstein: Symphony No. 2 "Age of Anxiety", Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazate, Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 "From the New World", Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4, Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. No. 3 “With Organ”, Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2, Mahler: Symphony No. 6 “Tragic”, etc. Recorded 2006-2019.

Tristano's piano solos are challenging and ambitious on these unaccompanied solo works, recorded between 1960 and 1962 (all except "You Don't Know What Love Is" Tristano originals). The variety and sheer amount of ideas, plus the facility of the lines and the overall performances, are impressive. This is a superb presentation of Lennie Tristano's work.

Antonius Gerhardus Michael Koopman, known professionally as Ton Koopman, is a Dutch conductor, organist, harpsichordist, and musicologist, primarily known for being the founder and director of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir.

In 2019, I began to think about making concept albums. Of all the ideas I developed, one of the most potent was that of collating works that we would like to listen to in the morning and evening. This was the sentiment behind the creation of the albums Morning and Evening.

In November 2022 world-renowned kora player Ballaké Sissoko and acclaimed guitarist Derek Gripper spend just three hours recording a wordless album together. The kora and guitar in the hands of masters - a session where New Ancient Strings meets One Night On Earth.

The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau has been one of television's most celebrated programs of all time. Jean Michel Jarre, a countryman of Jacques Cousteau's, composed and performed an e-music opus in honor of the oceanographer. En Attendant Cousteau (aka Waiting for Cousteau) is a departure from Jarre's usual format. This disc has three tracks that are longer than his normal tracks. (They are between six and nine minutes.) The fourth track is a major work, clocking in at 47 minutes. That track, "En Attendant Cousteau," is an epic minimalist creation. This is groundbreaking stuff, an unusual mode for Jarre, who hasn't gone this far out on a limb since his debut in 1976. It is a worthy risk. The atmospheric minimalism of the title track is deep and substantial. This is a great CD, certainly one of Jarre's top three. It will appeal to fans of Robert Scott Thompson, Jeff Pearce, James Johnson, and Mychael Danna…

Heaven, a Progressive/Jazz Rock group from Portsmouth, burst forth onto the British rock scene in 1970 when they appeared at the legendary Isle of Wight festival sharing a bill with The Who, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix et al. Making a stunning debut, the band (now managed by festival organiser Rikki Farr), soon secured a recording deal with CBS Records who signed the band for a large advance. The resulting double album 'Brass Rock 1' appeared in 1971, adorned in a lavish fold-out sleeve. Well received critically, the album failed to achieve the expected success and Heaven soon disbanded, leaving behind a fine example of classic jazz rock. Officially released on CD for the first time, this Esoteric Recordings reissue is digitally re-mastered from the original master tapes and restores the artwork of the album in full.

Mannerisms may be expensive and difficult to find, but it's the place to start collecting Manfred Mann's post-EMI material. The compilation was originally issued in 1976, containing a dozen A-sides and notable album tracks, and it was decent as far as it went, filling in a few holes and re-exposing some worthwhile album tracks. What will surprise many listeners (especially Americans, who may well never have heard of, much less heard, these sides) is how late Manfred Mann embraced the basic British Invasion sound, well into 1967, and also how good a psychedelic band they were.

Send Dudes is the latest album by Aktiv Dödshjelp, released by Loud Media. This highly anticipated album showcases the band's signature blend of metal and punk influences, delivering a raw and powerful listening experience for fans of heavy music.