When Opeth released Heritage in 2011 - the wonderfully indulgent, somewhat unfocused exercise in prog rock aesthetics - some longstanding fans were offended because the band had abandoned death metal. Truthfully, they had been exploring prog in fits and starts since 2005's Ghost Reveries. Pale Communion completes the transition, proving that Heritage was not only a next step, but a new beginning altogether. Vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt has obviously been listening to loads of prog in the interim - ELP's debut, Deep Purple's In Rock, early King Crimson and Eloy, National Health, U.K., Bill Bruford's early solo work, Pär Lindh, and even jazz fusion. Produced by the singer and mixed by Steven Wilson, Pale Communion states its ambitions outright. Opener "Eternal Rains Will Come" explodes with knotty, labyrinthine organ (from new keyboardist Joakim Svalberg) and Martin Axenrot's skittering, propulsive drums…

ACE O'DIAMONDS IS (NEARLY) HERE! Shipping mid-January… at last, the first ever release for Melanie’s early 1980s musical Ace o’Diamonds. Telling the story of Janey, daughter of wild west legends Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok, Ace o’Diamonds was sadly destined never to enter full production. And while a handful of the 30+ songs that Melanie wrote for the show would see release over the years, the majority exist only as rough demos, out-takes, cast demo recordings and live performances recorded at one of the play’s read throughs. And some were never recorded in any form. Pieced togeher over the course of a year spent delving into some very deep vaults, Ace o’Diamonds features, across 2 CDs, every song Melanie wrote for the play. Drawing upon every available source, disc one is based upon a 1981 copy of the script, and includes not only the songs, but also key pieces of dialogue, performed by Melanie in 1981, and Beau Jarred and Leilah earlier this year. Disc two then rounds up the best of the alternate versions, plus a number of songs that drifted in and out of the play as Melanie and writer Ed Kelleher saw fit.

A must for all Eurovision fans, the United By Music album features all the talented, somewhat quirky and occasionally bonkers participants from this year’s contest—because who doesn’t want to hear Europe’s finest (and most flamboyant) anthems all in one place? All 37 songs from the world’s largest TV music show contest are together on this official compilation. This 69th edition of the competition will take place in Basel, Switzerland, in May with the grand final hosted by Michelle Hunziker, Hazel Brugger, and Sandra Studer on Saturday 17th May.

First released in 1999, this well-played, superbly-recorded album makes a near-perfect single-disc introduction to the music of Einojuhanni Rautavaara (1928-2016), not only the most significant Finnish composer after Sibelius, but very probably among the finest of all later-twentieth century masters. Rautavaara is undoubtedly the greatest composer most people have never heard of, and that's a shame, though, one might hope, records such as this will go some way towards remedying so glaring an injustice.

One of most unusual Russian musicians, Arkady plays French horn, flugelhorn, alpenhorn and many more unusual wind instruments. A native of Moscow, at the age of six Arkady Shilkloper began playing brass instruments and studied flugelhorn at the Moscow Military Music Academy until 1974. From 1978 to 1985 he was a member of the orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre and the "Bolshoi Brass Quintet". With this world-famous ensemble and as a member of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra from 1985 to 1989 he undertook numerous worldwide concert tours. Alongside with that he started playing traditional jazz with double-bass player Mikhail Karetnikov and avant-garde jazz in saxophonist Sergei Letov's band Three O (1985-1990). Since the collapse of the former Soviet Union Shilkloper has worked independently both as a solo performer and, since 1991, with Alperin and Starostin in the Moscow Art Trio and in other formations…

Yotam Silberstein, one of the leading jazz guitarists of his generation, has gained acclaim for a sound rich in bebop and blues as well as musical folklore from South America, North Africa and the Middle East, giving his music an increasingly global thrust.

When it comes to quality live material, there's never been a better time to be a King Crimson fan than the 2010s. In addition to the exhaustive 40th anniversary boxes, there have been multiple releases from the 2014-2015 seven-piece band culminating with Radical Action to Unseat the Hold of Monkey Mind, a set that features every song performed on the tour in excellent audio and video quality.
The vast majority of the set was recorded in Japan, with other shows filling in on the songs that weren't performed there. Every show was recorded in high-quality audio and video with a multi-camera shoot, so there's no difference in quality. While the band doesn't improvise as extensively as they have in the past, a comparison of the solos shows that they aren't phoning in their performances, either…

With his 9th studio album, Moonlight Love Affair, Austria's Parov Stelar returns to his exploration of the love affair between electronic dance music and organic elements. Moonlight Love Affair is meant to represent a relationship in which there are no boundaries. Longtime fans will find familiarity in tracks like "Candy Girl" or "Dirty Mariposa" with their retro-chic aesthetics, while vocalist Mani Hoffman (of Supermen Lovers fame) ignites "Better Believe" and "Black Bird." "Toxic Lover" revels in the use of a sample from the now-ubiquitous Shangri-Las' song "Remember (Walking in the Sand)." As with his last musical efforts, the artwork is done by Parov Stelar himself, this time with a captivating piece entitled "I Can See Music, I Can Hear Art." Moonlight Love Affair shows all facets of the artist: raw and unvarnished, thereby vulnerable, powerful and beautiful.

Bon Scott was so compelling as the howling front-man of AC/DC that it’s nearly impossible to imagine the more tender pop vocals of his earlier years. Compiled here are twenty-two tracks that Scott recorded with his earlier groups, The Valentines and Fraternity, in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Highlights include an Everlys-ish take on Phil Spector’s “To Know Him is to Love Him,” a soulful version of Arthur Alexander’s “Every Day I Have to Cry,” covers of the Small Faces, Soft Machine and Steppenwolf, and songs from the Easybeats’ Vanda & Young. Hints of Scott’s distinctive tone can be heard, but the material, vocals and arrangements are drawn from the pop, rock and soul music of their times, rather than the hard-rock of AC/DC. By the time the Scott joined Fraternity in 1970, his more familiar bluesy phrasings began to emerge, but not yet with the full-blown leer he’d bring to AC/DC. Diehard fans will enjoy hearing Scott’s evolution towards his famous style, as will those interested in late ’60s pop and early ’70s blues-rock.

Emmanuele Baldini was born in Trieste, Italy. After studies in his hometown, he furthered his violin training in Geneva, Salzburg and Berlin, studying conducting with Isaac Karabtchevsky and Frank Shipway. From an early age, Baldini garnered prizes from countless international competitions, and has performed as a soloist or recitalist across the globe. He has performed in all the major European concert halls, in addition to those in Latin America and especially in Brazil, where he has lived since 2005.

One of the world’s premiere concert violinists, Anne Akiko Meyers has been celebrated throughout her nearly three-decade career for her exceptional musicianship, charismatic presence and creative diversity. On this release, Meyers is joined by long-time collaborator Reiko Uchida on piano and the young harpist of the Paris Opera, Emmanuel Ceysson. Seasons…Dreams is anchored by Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 5 in F Major, Op. 24, “Spring.” This sets the stage for a series of lyrical pieces inspired by songs and poems which take us on a journey through the seasons and into reverie. Meyers presents familiar songs in unique arrangements and unexpected melodies mixed with traditional classical works. “I love the interchange of sound, the feeling of being a chameleon,” says Meyers of her constant exploration of different textures and sounds.

Grantstand is an album by American jazz guitarist Grant Green featuring performances recorded in 1961 and released on the Blue Note label. The Allmusic review by Steve Huey awarded the album 4 stars and stated "if you're looking for Green the soul-jazz groovemaster, Grantstand is an excellent place to find him".

On Ravenchild, Maddy Prior teamed up again with keyboard player Nick Holland and multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockley, whose arsenal included Uilleann pipes and low whistle, as she had on her previous album, Flesh & Blood. The centerpiece of the album was a six song suite dubbed "In the Company of Ravens" (also the title of the first song), a series of Prior originals concerning the carrion birds who give the word "ravenous" its meaning. This was sometimes gritty stuff, as Prior described the birds' eating habits, though their mating habits were far more inspiring. The album also contained a three song suite, "With Napoleon in Russia," tracing that famous historical defeat. Then there was "Rigs of the Time," a condemnation of contemporary media culture set to a traditional melody, and the album concluded with what Prior herself described as the eerie traditional song "Great Silkie of Sules Skerry." The music and Prior's singing could be haunting, but Ravenchild was an album of disquieting material, whether the subject was aviary, historical, or contemporary.

On this recording of The Seven Words, the Rosamunde String Quartet offers a compelling rendition of one of Haydn's most complex compositions. The Seven Words was originally composed for a full orchestra as a series of seven adagios, which were meant to be interludes during a congregation's meditations on the last seven words of Christ on the Cross. Haydn struggled with a way to compose seven connected pieces of music that were solemn and yet varied enough to keep the listener from getting bored. The members of the Rosamunde Quartet are technically brilliant as they demonstrate the composer's solutions to this musical puzzle. Even though the tempo is slow, they never let the music become ponderous or oppressive. But to Haydn, The Seven Words was more than just an aural conundrum. He felt the composition was perhaps his most sacred work, and the quartet plays this music with reverence for the composer's spiritual intentions. This is a profound piece of music, and the Rosamunde does it justice on each of its many levels.

Bob Dylan and the Band both needed the celebrated reunion tour of 1974, since Dylan's fortunes had been floundering since Self Portrait and the Band stumbled with 1971's Cahoots. The tour, with its attendant publicity, definitely returned both artists to center stage, and it definitely succeeded, breaking box office records and earning great reviews. Before the Flood, a double-album souvenir of the tour, suggests that these were generally dynamic shows, but not because they were reveling in the past, but because Dylan was fighting the nostalgia of his audience - nostalgia, it must be noted, that was promoted as the very reason behind these shows. Yet that's what gives this music such kick - Dylan reworks, rearranges, reinterprets these songs in ways that are still disarming, years after its initial release…