A superior Brazilian jazz singer, Ana Caram takes a slight detour on this CD, stretching her repertoire while mostly still performing in a style influenced by bossa nova. One does not get to hear such songs as "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You," "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head," "Smile," and "As Time Goes By" in a bossa nova setting that often. Also unusual is that Michel Freidenson plays all of the instruments other than the reeds (which are performed by Lawrence Feldman), and most of his electronic instruments sound real enough not to be an issue. The focus throughout is on Caram's lovely voice and she excels on this material, showing that it really is not what you sing but how you sing it. Recommended.

We’re pleased to announce Throw Down Your Heart: The Complete Africa Sessions, a new comprehensive film and music set documenting Béla Fleck’s transcontinental exploration of the banjo’s roots. The Complete Africa Sessions, out March 27, compiles the 2008 documentary film Throw Down Your Heart; its soundtrack, Tales From the Acoustic Planet, Vol. 3; and the outtakes collection Throw Down Your Heart: Africa Sessions Part 2, Unreleased Tracks. Plus, it includes a brand-new album with kora master Toumani Diabaté entitled The Ripple Effect (also available to purchase individually on 180-gram, 2-LP vinyl).

This five-LP box set (which has been reissued on CD) contains nearly all of Stan Getz's classic bossa nova sessions, five wonderful yet diverse LPs (Jazz Samba, Big Band Bossa Nova, Jazz Samba Encore, Stan Getz/Laurindo Almedia, and Getz/Gilberto). The cool-toned tenor is heard on his groundbreaking collaboration with guitarist Charlie Byrd (which resulted in the best-selling "Desafinado"), is showcased with a big band arranged by Gary McFarland (introducing "No More Blues" and "One Note Samba"), stars in recordings with guitarists Laurindo Almeida and Luiz Bonfa, and is heard at the famous meeting with composer/pianist Antonio Carlos Jobim, guitarist João Gilberto, and singer Astrud Gilberto, which resulted in the major hit "The Girl From Ipanema." This essential set finishes off with three previously unissued performances from a 1964 Carnegie Hall Concert, concluding with a remake of "The Girl From Ipanema." These recordings stand as proof that it is possible for good music to sell.

Bossa Nova translated as the "new beat" or "the new style", grew out of Rio De Janeiro in 1958. The instigators were a handful of artists with a desire to break from tradition, developing the samba rhythms with the influence of cool American jazz to find a music with such a warm soul and natural rhythm that no-one can help but tap and sway to its beat. Bossa Nova is palm trees swaying, it is like melting sugar in hot coffee, it is the setting sun and warm sand underfoot. It is the sound and beat of Brazil, it is one of the world's coolest musical styles and it remains to this day one of the world's great musical treasures.

With this amazing album, Dead Can Dance fully took the plunge into the heady mix of musical traditions that would come to define its sound and style for the remainder of its career. The straightforward goth affectations are exchanged for a sonic palette and range of imagination. Calling it "haunting" and "atmospheric" barely scratches even the initial surface of the album's power. The common identification of the duo with a consciously medieval European sound starts here – quite understandable, when one considers the mystic titles of songs, references to Latin, choirs, and other touches that make the album sound like it was recorded in an immense cathedral.

The debut full-length from Jambinai, originally released in February 2012, is a challenging and compelling affair that won them the prize for "Best Crossover Album" at the 2013 Korean Music Awards.

South Korean trio Jambinai sound less like a band than a force of nature, fusing the full dramatic range of post rock dynamics to Korean folk roots to create an exhilarating, vivid and unique fusion. 'A Hermitage' is Jambinai's first album for Bella Union, recorded in MOL Studio in the South Korean capital Seoul, where the trio also made their 2010 EP 'Jambinai' and 2012 album 'Différance'.

When the three founders of Jambinai decided to, “communicate with the ordinary person who doesn't listen to Korean traditional music,” few outsiders anticipated an extra-ordinary fusion with metal, post-rock and noise. “Most people expect Asian traditional music to make something smooth for yoga or meditation,” says band spokesman Lee Il-woo. “We wanted to break all of that.”

The Light of the Spirit is one of Kitaro's best CDs. Perhaps it is because Mickey Hart co-produced, or perhaps Kitaro asked Hart to co-produce because it is so good. It doesn't really matter if either of those is the reason; this is just an awesome CD. Kitaro's specialty has always been the symphonic synth and this is no exception. He augments that synth with several guest musicians on a variety of ambient instruments. This is truly ambient music, albeit on the new age side of that style. The vocal accompaniment by Lynn Ray and Jeannie Tracy counts as instrumental as well. The sound design treats the wordless vocals as an extra sound to incorporate. David Jenkins contributes a smoking electric guitar that gives this rock & roll textures as well. This disc stands proudly with work by Constance Demby, Vangelis, Suzanne Ciani, and Dean Evenson as some of the best adult contemporary instrumental new age music.

In the liner notes to these carefully packaged reissues, all four of the Incredible String Band principals– co-founder Clive Palmer, core duo Mike Heron and Robin Williamson, and Elektra records executive Joe Boyd– offer their insights in separate essays. Three of them mention the smell of patchouli. Such were the times, certainly, but the ISB are loved equally by avant-garde musicians, psychedelia enthusiasts, and those slightly dweeby young gentlemen who hang around music shops on college campuses. The reissue of their first four albums probably put to rest any notion that the ISB were a properly great band, releasing just one true classic, but they were rarely anything less than brave, inspired, and profoundly weird.