The German-born English transplant Johann Christoph Pepusch was an older contemporary and colleague of George Frederick Handel, and he is best remembered for arranging the music of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera. His involvement in London's music scene also led him to compose his own works for the stage, such as the masque Venus and Adonis, a vehicle for two of the leading sopranos of the day, Jane Barbier and Margarita de L'Epine.

At the beginning of the 2000s, a new wave of music spilled into the cocktail bars and lounge music was born. The band DePhazz quickly became the insider tip darling of television and radio editors, who liked to put the band's retro-electronic sounds on heavy rotation among their lifestyle and news reports and thus enveloped the entire nation in an aesthetic carpet of sound. Through numerous samplers such as "Buddha Bar" or "Cafe del Mar", songs like The Mambo Craze reached the whole world.

Two classic easy-listening albums by Paul Mauriat and His Orchestra, originally released in 1984 and 1990 on the Philips label, together on one CD and remastered from the original analogue stereo tapes for Vocalion's trademark crystal-clear sound. French composer/conductor Paul Mauriat is a classically trained musician who decided to pursue a career in popular music. His first major success came in 1962, as a co-writer of the European hit "Chariot." In 1963, the song was given English lyrics, renamed "I Will Follow Him," and became a number one American hit for Little Peggy March. Mauriat is best remembered for his 1968 worldwide smash "Love Is Blue."

SBB is one of the most important Polish bands of the seventies. This band, rightfully listed in the eclectic progressive genre, mainly plays a hybrid of symphonic prog, space/atmospheric prog and fusion.

After trying her hand at writing her own vintage-inspired material with 2014's Into Colour, singer Rumer returns to her core inspiration of covering classic '60s and '70s pop with 2016's sophisticated This Girl's in Love (A Bacharach & David Songbook). Produced by her husband and longtime collaborator Rob Shirakbari at Capitol Studios, This Girl's in Love finds Rumer applying her supple vocals and soft-focus aesthetic to songs written by the legendary team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. While Rumer has most certainly sung many of these songs in live settings, it's surprising, given her association with the time period, that she's never actually recorded any of this material in the past.

One of the most respected and praised guitarists in modern music returns with a monster new album featuring 12 powerhouse blues rock masterpieces! Known for his upside-down left-handed playing as well as his deeply expressive, soulful vocals, Gales draws comparisons to both Jimi Hendrix and blues legend Albert King! Guest appearances by renegade Zakk Wylde (of Ozzy Osbourne and Black Label Society) and master of the Strat, Eric Johnson, make this album Gales most rock oriented release to date!

Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic release live recordings of Beethoven's complete symphonies and his concerto with Alexis Weissenberg, which he recorded in Japan from November 13 to 18, 1977, in a limited edition box of 6 CDs.
The latest 192kHz 24bit remastering without artificial equalization delivers powerful and clear sound. It is a treasure-like record that allows you to enjoy Karajan's true magic and the Berlin Philharmonic's skills, which are difficult to detect in studio recordings.

When you've got a good thing going, as Russian-born Israeli cellist Mischa Maisky did with his first two solo cello albums, Meditation and Adagio, why not continue? So here is his third collection of lovely and well-loved classical themes, most of which are specially arranged for cello and piano, several by Maisky himself. Included are Debussy's Clair de lune and Saint-Saëns's Allegro appassionato.

For this 2016 Hyperion release, cellist Steven Isserlis and the Philharmonia Orchestra under Paavo Järvi present a moving album of cello concertos by Edward Elgar and William Walton, along with Gustav Holst's Invocation and Imogen Holst's The Fall of the Leaf, a five-movement suite for solo cello. The program creates a profoundly pensive and even autumnal feeling, and Isserlis' tone is by turns reflective, lyrical, and poignantly elegiac, appropriate to the selections. The melancholy nostalgia of Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor colors the album's mood from the outset, and notwithstanding passages of intense virtuosity, the rich but subdued sonorities of his burnished orchestration contribute to its brooding quality.

This is the 3rd and final album in a 3 CD set originally released on Txt recordings by Lee Norris and Matt Hillier as 'Plank and Ishq' and continues the journey through the land of the 'Crows An Wra' and mythical landscape of cornish radiophonic oscillations and Henge like vista's. Surfice to say its a fairly odd work at times, at other times light and floaty like a cornish opiate cream tea and dream like, detached, we cant use that word enough. The music was conjured from a mental space of freeform experimentation and fluid like acts of non conformity. It suits late night headphone excursions well and is its own work, something different and one for the collection, unique and a genuine work of art in some respects maybe as its uncontrived and seeks to just exist for its own sake.

Collections of Baroque keyboard music are often focused on famous French and German composers, so there's comparatively little available on CD of English harpsichord music of the 18th century, aside from recordings of works by Henry Purcell and George Frederick Handel. Considering the rarity of its material, Sophie Yates' 2016 album on Chaconne, The Pleasures of the Imagination, holds a certain appeal because its selections haven't been dulled by excessive anthologizing. While some of the composers' names may ring a bell, such as John Blow, Jeremiah Clarke, Thomas Arne, and Johann Christian Bach (the "London Bach"), their contributions here will be unknown to most listeners, while William Croft, Maurice Greene, and Richard Jones are known only to specialists in the period.