Mylène Farmer is a French singer, songwriter, occasional actress and author. She has sold more than 30 million records and is among the most successful recording artists of all time in France. "Monkey Me", co-written with Laurent Boutonnat, was released in December 2012.

Italian pianist Massimo Faraò's popularity in Japan and elsewhere has been elevated since he started recording for the independent audiophile label Venus Records. This collection of French love songs features the vocal talents of Claudia Zannoni on "Les Feuilles Mortes (Autumn Leaves)", "La Vie En Rose" and "Que Reste-t-il De Nos Amours (I Wish You Love)".

On "Encore", French jazz singer Virginie Teychene stands on the edges of collective memory and draws us into an unexpected encounter with our own emotions. Partnered with a quintet, she takes us by the hand and urges us to dance, over and over again, on this loving tribute to chanson singers Claude Nougaro, Barbara and Alain Bashung.

A winner of the Prix du Jury and Prix du Public at the 2008 International Vocal Jazz Competition in Juan-les-Pins, Virginie Teychene is celebrated for her song interpretation, musicianship and skill at scat performance. On "Bright and Sweet", which features favorites of the likes of Abbey Lincoln, Mimi Perrin and Peggy Lee, Teychene lets her light shine.

Barbra Streisand is one of the most distinguished pop singers of our generation. She showed there was no limit to her talents when she released "Classical Barbra". The masterpiece is her groundbreaking classical crossover album from 1976. It made a definitive statement in the classical music realm. Glenn Gould praised her voice as “one of the natural wonders of the age, an instrument of infinite diversity and timbral resource”. It remains one of the first and still one of the greatest records we know today as “classical crossover”. Nominated for Best Classical Performance – Vocal Soloist at the GRAMMYS, the album would go on to be certified gold.

The Hamilton Music Award winner Chantal Chamberland releases her ‘Best of’ compilation album, "Autobiography". Her trademark smoky, sultry jazz vocal is perfectly expressed in a wonderful diversity of genres, moving from sultry and soulful to bluesy and brassy with graceful ease.

Callas never sang a role in French on stage, though she had studied French repertoire as a student and one of her most famous roles, Cherubini’s Medea, had originally been written in French as Médée. From the early 1960s she made her home in Paris, where in 1961 she recorded this recital of French-language arias for both soprano and mezzo-soprano, composed in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

As in her first Callas à Paris recital, recorded two years previously, the diva performs arias of diverse weight, colour and mood - from the darker tones of Berlioz's Marguerite to the brilliant 'Jewel Song' of Gounod's Marguerite, and from the mezzo-ish melancholy of Massenet's Charlotte to the soprano coquetry of the same composer's Manon. 'Simply as an artist,' wrote Gramophone in its review of the recital, 'in her sense of line, her feeling for a word, her command of colour and her mastery of the whole complex art of interpretation - [Callas] is so far ahead of all other contemporary singers, and of all but the greatest past singers, too, that she almost spoils us for the rest.'

For her first album on Linn soprano Cassandra Wright has recorded a programme that offers a musical exploration of various facets of human nature. In the Twilight encompasses composers as varied as Barber, Joseph Marx, Debussy, Grieg and Korngold. In Cassandra’s own words, ‘Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, which was the initial inspiration for this collection of songs, evokes the innocence and wonder of childhood through its enchanting description of a carefree summer evening.

André Robert Raimbourg, better known as André Bourvil, and mononymously as Bourvil, was a French actor and singer best known for his roles in comedy films, most notably in his collaboration with Louis de Funès in the films Le Corniaud (1965) and La Grande Vadrouille (1966). For his performance in Le Corniaud, he won a Special Diploma at the 4th Moscow International Film Festival.

On "A Queen of Hearts", French-American vocalist Rosemary Standley, better known as the singer for the band Moriarty, turns her vocal talents to the cabaret era. In 2013, she performed in the musical "A Queen of Hearts" directed by Juliette Deschamps at the Theatre de la Bastille. Afterward, she and pianist Sylvain Griotto took the show on the road. Here, she slips into the skin of a star and evokes memories of Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe, Nina Simone and Billie Holiday.

Édith Piaf is almost universally regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Still revered as an icon decades after her death, "The Sparrow" served as a touchstone for virtually every chansonnier, male or female, who followed her. Her greatest strength wasn't so much her technique, or the purity of her voice, but the raw, passionate power of her singing. (Given her extraordinarily petite size, audiences marveled all the more at the force of her vocals.) Her style epitomized that of the classic French chanson: highly emotional, even melodramatic, with a wide, rapid vibrato that wrung every last drop of sentiment from a lyric. She preferred melancholy, mournful material, singing about heartache, tragedy, poverty, and the harsh reality of life on the streets; much of it was based to some degree on her real-life experiences, written specifically for her by an ever-shifting cast of songwriters.

In the course of a career lasting just over 30 years, Dalida earned 45 gold record awards and a pair of platinum records for her sales in Europe, the Middle East, and Japan. A superstar in France and much of the rest of Europe, Dalida enjoyed hit records in three different decades, despite an increasingly troubled personal life after the early '60s.

Our knowledge of Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji is based more on his reputation than on his work. A marginal figure in twentieth-century music, he is renowned for the length and complexity of his compositions. After forbidding the performance of his music, he earned a small income through his writings as a critic and essayist of great wit. His best-known works are for solo piano, many of which have been released by BIS. This disc presents first recordings of his music for chamber ensemble and chamber orchestra plus several world premiere recordings of art songs, including a new arrangement and the first completion of a fragment.

Over 4 decades, Ariel Kalma published several vinyl LP's, cassettes, and CD's. His compositions have been used for modern dance-theatre, films, musical poetry, guided meditations, transformational groups. Ariel Kalma has also played on many albums in France - even throughout Europe, the US and recently Australia, where he lives.