Singer Barbara Lea's second album is pretty definitive of her early years. Lea is joined by the great (but ill fated and largely forgotten) trumpeter Johnny Windhurst, Dick Cary on either piano or alto horn, sometimes pianist Richard Lowman, guitarist Al Casamenti, bassist Al Hall, and drummer Osie Johnson. Originally a dozen selections, the CD reissue adds an alternate take and an additional title. Lea remains true to the lyrics yet uplifts the material, while the rhythm section swings lightly. Among the many highlights are "Nobody Else but You," "I'm Comin' Virginia," "My Honey's Lovin' Arms," and "Baltimore Oriole." Delightful music by a singer who deserves to be celebrated.

Henry Cow's third album, originally released in 1975, found them expanded to an eight-piece ensemble after a guest session on another group's record. Henry Cow absorbed Slapp Happy into their lineup after appearing on Slapp Happy's Desperate Straights album. It was a tenuous relationship (lasting only long enough for this release, and with Slapp Happy crumbling after Dagmar Krause decided to stay on with Henry Cow), but one that produced some stunning results. Anthony Moore and Peter Blegvad's "War" has enormous proportion and power that would have been beyond the scope of a relatively quiet trio. The sheer ambition of this work is bracing. Intricately composed and arranged pieces, rife with lyrics that meld poetry with politics, give way to extended improvisations. While that had always been the Henry Cow recipe, it was never given such dramatic sweep. No one has ever, before or since, sounded like this incarnation of Henry Cow.

Woody Guthrie's raw and intimate home recordings will be released for the very first time ever in a two-volume collection, Woody At Home – Volumes 1 & 2. This collection contains 22 unreleased recordings, including 13 previously never-before-heard Woody Guthrie songs. These rare recordings include This Land is Your Land, featuring new verses, and the only known Guthrie recording of Deportee in existence.

Mojo's bespoke Man Machine collection underlines Ralf's points perfectly, spanning three decades and showcasing the genre's evolution.
The pioneering sounds of Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream and Jean Michel Jarre sit alongside the second-gen electronic adventurers Ultravox, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark and The Orb, while the likes of LCD Soundsystem, Fujiya & Miyagi, Four Tet, Audion and M83 are among those who continue to push the genre forward.
Welcome, then, to a revolution in sound, and a compilation that proves just how far things have progressed since Autobahn's release was met with the critical, quizzical side-swipe of "It's good, but is it rock?"

Concerti for two violins, strings and basso continuo TWV 52:D3 (first recording), A2, C2 & g1 (first complete recording)

Award-winning jazz singer Michelle Nicolle and acclaimed composer and pianist Paul Grabowsky unveil the hidden poetry within beloved ballads by artists such as Frank Sinatra and Cole Porter, transforming familiar melodies into haunting explorations of longing, heartbreak, and the bittersweet beauty of unrequited love. From jazz standards to unexpected gems, each song is stripped back to its emotional core, revealing those ephemeral moments of yearning often disguised beneath popular songs.

On his seventh release for Posi-Tone, trumpeter Josh Lawrence delivers a thrilling, heartfelt exploration of works by Thelonious Monk and Frédéric Chopin. Still We Dream combines fiery post-bop drive with classical elegance, resulting in a suite of reimagined pieces that move seamlessly between jazz tradition and forward-thinking improvisation. With an all-star ensemble including Diego Rivera (tenor sax), Art Hirahara (piano), Boris Kozlov (bass), and Rudy Royston (drums), Lawrence strikes a compelling balance between intellectual depth and emotional resonance. A standout release that bridges eras and genres with imagination and soul.

With It’s All About Love, seasoned jazz vocalist Donna Byrne makes a radiant return to Challenge Records, delivering her ninth studio album and reaffirming her place among the great interpreters of song. Spanning a rich career of nearly four decades, Byrne remains true to her roots, offering a heartfelt collection that honors the traditions of jazz while showcasing her timeless artistry.

Bruce Springsteen once said he intended to make an album with words like Bob Dylan that sounded like Phil Spector where he sang like Roy Orbison, a nifty summary of many, but not all, of his artistic ambitions and a key to his appeal. Unlike any other singer/songwriters saddled with the appellation of "the new Dylan" in the early '70s, Springsteen never hid how he was raised on '60s AM radio.

For her second recital with piano, mezzo-soprano Adele Charvet reunites with Florian Caroubi, who has been her regular duo partner since 2015. Together they celebrate the belle epoque of the great French melodists (Massenet, Debussy, Faure) and their proteges, including Chausson, Hahn, Koechlin, Aubert, Caplet, Messager, Enesco, Albeniz, Madeleine Dubois and Nadia Boulanger, as well as the much less known Xavier Leroux and Ernest Moret. This is a programme about lines of descent and musical transmission, energised by the texts of great poets such as Verlaine, Mallarme, Maeterlinck, Banville, Leconte de Lisle, Louÿs and Toussaint.

Whether melting away like a singing gondolier on the Grand Canal or tumbling around like Eulenspiegel, whether chuckling melancholically in the depths like a brooding hen or springing acrobatically across the high wire: once the clarinet had outgrown its infancy, its rapidly expanding possibilities soon made it “the talk of the town” – praised by enthusiastic advocates such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, technically advanced by new virtuosos, and given a wide variety of tasks by composers eager to experiment. At the forefront of these pioneers was Carl Stamitz, one of the first Mannheimers of the second generation, who wrote almost a dozen concert works for the slender instrument, leaving the guild of clarinet players with a precious little catechism, which can now be heard in its entirety on record for the first time.

Three years after their album of works by J.S. Bach (FUG 792), flautist Toshiyuki Shibata and keyboard player Anthony Romaniuk now record works not only by Bach but also by his sons Carl Philipp Emanuel and Wilhelm Friedemann, "the most original and innovative" of the lineage, according to Shibata. Both musicians were trained in historically informed interpretation in Belgium and admit their fascination for Art Nouveau, stating that it harmoniously combines tradition and innovation; they have also been influenced by other musical traditions, including jazz and contemporary music: "Preludes and improvisation were essential elements of music-making in the 18th century — for us it’s natural to add preludes and postludes to our performances," says Shibata, who plays three traversos, copies of instruments by after Buffardin, Eigentopf and Quantz; Romaniuk plays a Flemish harpsichord and a Silbermann fortepiano. Their programme includes improvised preludes, a bold ending to BWV 1032/I and an original extra movement — a Gigue from BWV 997 with influences from several genres woven into its bass line, honouring both tradition and invention.

The Far Flung Trio are Katherine Hunka (violin), Dermot Dunne (accordion) and Malachy Robinson (double bass): the name reflects their sense of fun and the eclecticism in their programing and performances.

Loewe composed Hiob as his twelfth oratorio in 1848. To understand the context and background of the work and Loewe’s oratorio style in general, it is important to be aware of the environment in which he wrote: Mendelssohn had died a year earlier, and his benchmark oratorios ‘Paulus’ (1836) and ‘Elias’ (1846/47) were already available, and Loewe is likely to have been familiar with them. Telschow wrote a condensed summary of the 42-chapter Book of Job from the textbooks and psalms of the Old Testament for the oratorio.

In 1777, Mozart met the wealthy Ferdinand Dejean, an amateur flautist and retired surgeon of the Dutch East India Company. Dejean commissioned a handful of works from the young composer, who termed them ‘some simple, short little concertinos’. Nevertheless, these pieces, which actually demand great virtuosity from the soloist, as well as a sensitivity to tonal nuances, have continued to be popular favourites ever since. A short while later, during his stay in Paris, Mozart wrote a further concerto, this time for a flute-playing aristocrat and his harpist daughter to perform as a duo of soloists – both of them ‘admirable musicians’ according to Mozart. Unlike Dejean, this noble virtuoso had an up-to-date instrument with eight keys, allowing the flute to reach down to middle C, and to play in the – hitherto impractical – key of C. Supported by A Nocte Temporis, the ensemble that she founded in 2016 with Reinoud Van Mechelen, flautist Anna Besson, now one of the most acclaimed instrumentalists of her generation, has recorded these evergreen works, with solo harpist extraordinaire Clara Izambert joining her in the Concerto for Flute and Harp.