Acclaimed fiddler, singer, and songwriter Laura Cortese releases Lucky Water, her first album in six years,. Nearly a decade after relocating to Belgium, Cortese channels the profound shifts of marriage, motherhood, and dual citizenship into a collection that moves fluidly between chamber folk, roots rock, and indie pop.

The trio of French pianist Samuel Lercher, who resides in Portugal, presents Life Is an Epic Journey, their new album to be released on Jazz Family. Alongside bassist André Rosinha and drummer Bruno Pedroso, who form one of Portugal's finest rhythm sections, Samuel Lercher continues his exploration of the boundaries between jazz, classical music, and traditional Portuguese music in this new work.

Heinz Holliger, a doyen of the Swiss music scene, and the Basel Chamber Orchestra are recording the complete symphonies of Robert Schumann. The first CD is set for release in November on the Prospero Classical label. It will feature Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 61, and Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major ”Rhenish”, Op. 97.

Mind Games was meant to be a return to form for John Lennon, after an instantly dated protest album that felt didactic and cold. He seemed to be back on track with its opening Top 20 hit title song. But the rest of Mind Games could be a strangely ruminative and often mid-tempo, with a shaggy studio approach. Mind Games: The Ultimate Collection makes it clear who fans should blame: The producer. After three straight projects with co-producers Phil Spector and Yoko Ono, Lennon took over those duties. He clearly couldn't place enough distance between himself and the material to make the best choices for these songs. An outside voice might have encouraged him to continue work on some tracks, or to toss one or two aside.

This album was a pleasant surprise. When I decided to give up my long tours across Europe, I thought that the album *The Road Well Travelled* would be the last in my discography. However, Günter Pauler from Stockfisch Records had other plans: he reminded me of the two concerts I’d given in Northeim in 2023, and that he’d recorded both evenings – the songs and the stories.

The first of two x 2LP sets that examine the influence and expression of the underground jazz that evolved in California and surrounding states during the latter part of the 20th century.

NCM Klassik, a domestic label specializing in classical music, is releasing pianist Ju Hee-sung's second solo album, *Franz Schubert: Impromptus*. Following her first solo album in 2018, which featured Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 29 "Hammerklavier" and No. 17 "Tempest," this album, which has been prepared over a long period, includes the complete works of the two collections of impromptus, D.899 (Op.90) and D.935 (Op.142), composed by Schubert in 1827, the final year of his life.

When Be Bop Deluxe's first album was released during the glam rock wave in 1974 and the band (then comprised of Bill Nelson and Ian Parkin on guitars, Robert Bryan on bass, and Nicholas Chatterton-Dew on drums) turned up on the back of the record cover in heavy makeup, it was viewed as being in the David Bowie mold, which certainly took in Nelson's thin but confident tenor vocals and the uptempo rock approach, and even ballads like "Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape" that sounded a lot like Bowie's "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide." But it was already obvious that Nelson was an unusually lyrical guitar slinger, and in fact the tunes often took a back seat to his sometimes jazzy, sometimes metal-ish excursions. He was, as he sang, "an axe victim," but at the same time, Be Bop Deluxe's musical identity was uncertain.

This is one of the better late-era Renaissance albums from the original continuity of the "mark II" lineup of the group (which is the one everyone knows). It's also something of a step up from the two preceding albums, with lush, melodic passages, beautiful lyrics, and some splendid playing by all concerned. Moreover, it rocks pretty well too, songs like "Secret Mission" being one of the better showcases for the group's rhythm section, as well as offering Annie Haslam in a glittering, dramatic showcase for her vocals. Azure d'Or would probably compare very favorably with the group's early albums, but for two major changes in their sound – the emphasis on the use of the synthesizer, which is a departure from the piano that was prominent in their earlier work, and the extended instrumental passages, which aren't all that interesting and change the focus of the band's music somewhat. Still, the overall sound is compelling, and when Haslam gets a piece of music into which she can sink her teeth, such as "The Flood at Lyons," the results are breathtaking.

Released in November 1972, their fourth album was mainly recorded at Strawberry Studios in Stockport with the epic ‘Moonwater’ being recorded with a full orchestra at Abbey Road studios. The record was their final album for EMI’s Harvest label and featured pieces such as ‘Summer Soldier’, ‘One Hundred Thousand Smiles Out’ and ‘Delph Town Morn’. Upon its completion the album release was marked by an appearance by Barclay James Harvest with BJH Symphony Orchestra conducted by Martyn Ford on the BBC Radio One programme In Concert. This highly memorable appearance being the only professional live recording of the band with an orchestra. Aside from premiering new tracks from ‘Baby James Harvest’, the recording also featured classics such as ‘Mockingbird’, ‘Galadriel’, ‘The Poet’, ‘After the Day’ and ‘Dark Now My Sky’.

Things had changed for Be Bop Deluxe by the time of the group's fourth album. The band that turned up in glam rock regalia on its 1974 debut, Axe Victim, was in suit and tie on the cover of Modern Music in 1976. Inside, the band's transformation into a sophisticated pop group seemed complete. Arrangements were still ornate, but the songs were dominated by their highly imagistic lyrics, and as often as not, Nelson was borrowing ideas from the Beatles. It didn't quite work, despite pleasant numbers such as "Orphans of Babylon" and "Kiss of Light," perhaps because a true pop sensibility requires a gift for simplicity that Nelson has never exhibited. The album charted high in England and made the Top 100 in the U.S., but it was Be Bop's peak, not its breakthrough.

Guitarist/leader Bill Nelson has always had his head in a space that's defined by the 1950s World's Fair idea of the future - a world of monorails and strange machines. This is particularly evident here, with Nelson's affection for Japan competing for space with paeans to electrical communication. At times charming and even romantic, at other times outré, Drastic Plastic marked the end of the band and hinted at Nelson's musical experiments to come.

Adding keyboard player Andrew Clark to make Be Bop Deluxe a quartet, Bill Nelson finally found a balance between his virtuosic guitar playing and the demands of pop songwriting. The arrangements were still busy, but the humor of Nelson's music was on display as never before, and the songs frequently were catchy. For the first time, it began to seem that the group had a future beyond serving as a foundation for Nelson's splashy guitar work, as Be Bop Deluxe charted in the U.S. and the U.K. and even scored a Top 25 British hit with "Ships in the Night."

Futurama is the second album by the band Be-Bop Deluxe, released in 1975 and generally classified musically as a progressive rock album. After the line-up of Be-Bop Deluxe changed, the band recorded the album with founder member Bill Nelson (guitars, keyboards and vocals), Charlie Tumahai (bass and backing vocals) and Simon Fox (drums). The album was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales and produced by Roy Thomas Baker, who also produced Queen.

In a new duo collaboration that defies conventions and background, Midori Takada and Jakob Bro took up residence in Tokyo’s Avaco Studios to record their first album, あなたに出会うまで / Until I Met You.