Tout Jean-Louis Murat est là, dans ce disque qui a marqué la fin d'une longue traversée du désert (ou dans son cas des volcans d'Auvergne). Après trois albums rapidement tombés dans l'oubli et un semi-succès avec le single "Suicidez- vous, le peuple est mort", Murat a disparu pendant plusieurs années pour peaufiner un grand retour. Et c'est bien de ça qu'il s'agit : un classique, l'inauguration d'un nouveau style, celui d'un chanteur de charme, à la voix chaude, qui a assimilé l'exigence littéraire de Manset, les innovations techniques de la new wave, l'élégance distante d'un Bryan Ferry, la langueur bizarre d'un Robert Wyatt et quelques influences latines.

I cannot help feeling that Alessandro Stradella is possibly still one of the major unexplored talents of baroque music. I say this, not because I personally know of piles of forgotten masterpieces by him, but simply because when there is so much of his music that has not been recorded or made available in modern editions, and when what one does get to hear suggests so much talent (the powerful oratorio San Giovanni Battista, for instance), it makes you wonder just what else there might be waiting to be discovered.

The marvelous voice of tenor Ian Bostridge could not be more perfect for this program of Bach cantatas and arias. Like Hans Hotter before him, Bostridge's voice has a unique ethereal quality, a hollow distance that identifies less with the character and more the spirit of the subject. His singing clearly captures the "disembodied presence", as Michel Roubinet aptly puts it in the booklet's notes, of the mortal somewhere between resignation of the world and the ultimate union with Christ–the theme that links every selection here.

Les Retrouvailles is the fifth studio album by French musician Yann Tiersen. Released in 2005 through Ici, d'ailleurs… record label, it features a number of high-profile guest vocalists, both French and Anglophone alike: Christophe Miossec, Dominique A, Elizabeth Fraser (of the Cocteau Twins), Jane Birkin, and Stuart Staples (of the Tindersticks). As is customary with his albums, Tiersen showcases his multi-instrumental skills, which on the album encompasses the accordion, piano, mandolin, and harpsichord, among others.

Last year saw the launch of the David Munrow Edition on Virgin Veritas (9/96). The series continues with this, arguably Munrow’s most consistent and most polished collection, devoted to the sacred and secular polyphony of the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These recordings remain marvellously fresh and vital – even in the case of pieces that have since had more polished or more clearly recorded interpretations.

The Virgin Years 1977-1983 is the follow-up to last year's The Virgin Years 1974-1978 (see review) by Tangerine Dream (TD). The latter album was a 3CD-box set comprising the five remastered albums TD recorded for Virgin Records between 1974 and 1978: Phaedra (1974), Rubycon (1975), Ricochet (1975), Stratosfear (1976) and Cyclone (1978) plus a selection of rare single releases, 7-inch edits as well as two rarely heard radio adverts. However, it didn't contain Encore, originally released in 1977. The follow-up to this previous release contains seven albums plus two singles all packed on a 5CD-album set.

Lumineux, c'est l'adjectif pour décrire cet album, vous vous rappelez la chanson "billy bob a raison" sur l'album "negatif" et bien c'est du même tonneau et quelque fois en mieux notamment "la ballade du mois de juin" porté par la voix à la limite de la cassure par miss biolay, "Tête à Claques" un duo bluesy avec de paroles plus Hardy que Françoise ("t'as voulu des sous tasses on a eu des sous tasses, t'as voulu un vélo …"), "A House Is Not A Home" délicieuse ballade mélancolique en anglais à la prononciation très scolaire…