Chamber music has never been John Adams' most natural outlet for expression; he tends to work on a large scale, in both duration and the performing forces his music calls for. Violinist Angèle Dubeau, who had already released "portrait" albums featuring the string works of Philip Glass and Arvo Pärt, therefore didn't have a large range of choices of Adams works to fill out this CD, but the three pieces included are all winners. Shaker Loops (1978) for string septet was Adams' first big success and it remains one of his most frequently performed works, probably at least in part because of the relatively modest size of ensemble it requires.

Canadian violinist Angèle Dubeau and her ensemble La Pietà pay homage to Philip Glass with this disc of some of his music for strings, plus arrangements of other works of his. The arrangements are by Michael Reisman, who has collaborated closely with Glass since the period of Einstein on the Beach, so they are idiomatic and persuasively transfer the works to a new medium. Two of his arrangements, the Overture to La Belle et la Bête and The Hours Suite, taken from the film soundtrack, include an amplified arsenal of instruments, including piano, harp, and celeste.

As an artist, French singer-songwriter Yves Simon (born in Choiseul, France, 1944) lived two lives. On one hand, he was a writer, publishing almost one book a year since 1971 and eventually being rewarded (in 1988 and 1991). On the other hand, he was an almost as prolific recording artist, having released around twenty LPs since 1967, though his two first outings remained under the radar.

Out there on the extreme fringe of the repertoire is Karol Szymanowski – the Polish modernist composer whose opera King Roger is occasionally revived by non-Polish opera companies. Somewhere further out past Szymanowski is Mieczyslaw Karlowicz – the Polish fin de siècle composer whose three-movement tone poem The Eternal Song is very occasionally recorded by non-Polish performers.

These live recordings of Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and CosÏ fan tutte are a fine tribute to celebrate 40 years of La Petite Bande. They have released an Anniversary Series to mark the oustanding achievement of this highly regarded Belgium-based ensemble.

An obscure footnote of early-'70s British art rock, Khan featured guitarist Steve Hillage, keyboardist Dave Stewart, and ex-Crazy World of Arthur Brown bassist Nick Greenwood. Their sole album from 1972 was dominated by Hillage's lengthy, ambitious compositions and Stewart's organ, which owed much to the Canterbury Scene of British prog rock. The group didn't offer much to distinguish themselves from the many other British outfits exploring similar territory, and disbanded after one LP. Hillage went on to join Kevin Ayers and Gong before establishing a solo career; Stewart played with Hatfield & the North and National Health.

Alpha is the second studio album by British rock band Asia, released in 1983. It was certified platinum in the United States, eventually selling close to two million copies. Released one year before the departure of guitarist Steve Howe, Alpha was the last album with the band's original line-up until 2008's Phoenix, after the original members reunited in 2006, and the last album with Howe until Aqua in 1992. Alpha was written by the songwriting tandem of John Wetton and Geoff Downes, with the exception of "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes", which was written by Wetton alone. Alpha was recorded during the spring of 1983 at Le Studio in Morin Heights, Quebec and Manta Sound in Toronto.

Like Chopin’s Barcarolle, Fauré’s work shows equal measures of limpidity and gravity, brightness and great depth. Finding the right words to describe music such as this, which is not at all descriptive, is far from easy, and it puts us on unsafe ground. In answer to a lady who asked him in what sunny climes he had written his Sixth Nocturne, the composer replied ‘In the Simplon tunnel’. An apt quip! But we are touched by this music, which is very secretive, yet very human, because of its élan, its aspiration to something vast, and at the same time its inner poetry. Not a single page of the thirteen Barcarolles is lacking in that inspiration, which so movingly brings them together as a set of thirteen poems.

Modest Mouse create a sonic world that balances jagged chaos with haunting beauty, making them one of the most influential indie rock bands of the last 30 years. ‘An Eraser And A Maze’ is the first new studio album from the band since 2021’s ‘The Golden Casket’. A physics theory says past, present and future coexist - and that’s the best lens for ‘An Eraser And A Maze’, which feels like every era of Modest Mouse happening at once. Guided by Isaac Brock’s instinct-first process, the album is both familiar and alien, warm and cold. It stretches across the band’s sonic history, from propulsive classics to stripped, raw moments, while carrying an undercurrent of mortality and loss that refuses easy optimism.

Bird And Diz is a spectacularly explosive, historically monumental, and masterfully synchronized bebop studio masterpiece led by the absolute twin titans and founding vanguard monarchs of modern jazz history, alto saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, reissued and digitally restored on compact disc in 1986 by Norman Granz’s premier archival preservation imprint Verve Records. Spanning over 40 minutes of breathtakingly intense, lightning-fast instrumental interactions across 13 total tracks—combining definitive master takes with priceless, insightful alternate session calculations—this high-fidelity restoration serves as an absolute pinnacle monument in mid-century African-American classical art archaeology. Originally recorded in New York City on June 6, 1950, this session captures the final historical studio reunion of Parker and Gillespie, executing the fierce, forward-thinking sonic blueprint they developed in the 1940s that shattered the big-band swing paradigm and established the complex melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic vocabulary of modern jazz.

Hopeful is a spectacularly vibrant, historically monumental, and masterfully synchronized contemporary electro-funk and nu-jazz studio masterpiece engineered by the legendary French instrumental vanguard collective Electro Deluxe, released in 2007 by the independent creative preservation imprint Such Production. Spanning over 62 minutes of deeply infectious, heavily syncopated organic-digital interactions across 13 definitive tracking alignments, this high-fidelity document serves as an absolute peak monument in mid-2000s European groove archaeology. Marking their sophomore studio ledger following the groundbreaking success of Stardown, the core rhythm engine of Electro Deluxe utilizes this expansive sonic laboratory to execute a fierce, forward-thinking blueprint that seamlessly fuses horn-driven old-school funk power with crisp synthesizer arrays, slick urban hip-hop loops, and soul-stirring vocal architectures.

Play is a spectacularly explosive, historically monumental, and masterfully synchronized contemporary electro-funk and nu-jazz studio masterpiece engineered by the legendary French instrumental vanguard collective Electro Deluxe, released in 2010 by their independent artist-led preservation imprint Collectif Soul Gang. Spanning over 67 minutes of deeply infectious, heavily syncopated organic-digital interactions across 14 definitive tracking alignments, this high-fidelity document serves as an absolute peak monument in early-2010s urban groove archaeology. Marking a grand, forward-thinking evolution in their sonic blueprint, the core rhythm engine of Electro Deluxe masterfully bridges explosive, old-school live horn-driven funk and classic jazz instrumentation with slick electronic sampling, boom-bap hip-hop breakbeats, and sophisticated acid-jazz matrices.