Zio Crocifisso is a musical project founded 2021 by Dario Magri (Yokoano, Sho), Paolo “SKE” Botta (Yūgen, SKE, Not a Good Sign) and Matteo Serenelli (The Appetizers), a trio with a multifaceted sound that has found fertile ground in the instrumental avant-prog realm, with influences ranging from King Crimson, Tool, Melvins, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Zu and Poil. The band made their debut in 2024 with the digital EP “Campana di Legno” and, after enrolling bassist Fabio Malizia (Orbe), thanks to a cross-genre, sinister and musically dynamic proposal, played live in both typical rock and cinema/animation contexts. In 2025 new material was ultimately recorded and, combined with the tracks of the previous EP, contributed to the final realization of “Campana di Legno + Trappola per Topi”.

Excelling at the art of blues balladry demands that a musician possess great feeling but also great control. No surprise then, that one of its greatest practitioners, Nancy Wilson, has both traits in abundance. Save Your Love for Me: Nancy Wilson Sings the Great Blues Ballads is one in a loose series of three Capitol compilations to compile her late-'50s and early-'60s prime, the others focusing on the Great American Songbook and the torch song.

Vivaldi’s sonatas op.5 appeared in 1716 and have some special features: The opus is declared as the second part of his op.2 and contains four solo sonatas and two trio sonatas, which was rather unusual at that time. In order to present their works to the audience, the 18th century composers tried to supply the title pages of the scores with as precise and detailed description of the contents.

Soft Ffog is a Norwegian progressive jazz-rock band celebrated for its exceptional virtuosity and high musicianship levels. The band combines intricate jazz improvisation with rock elements, creating a dynamic and engaging listening experience that showcases precision and creativity. On their second album Focus, the band is more progrock than ever. The Soft is Ffoggier and the Ffog is softer. Highly influenced by 70s underground heroes like Camel and Focus, sprinkled with that old jazz dust, this new record should satisfy all you 70s nostalgics with a jazz tickle out there!

Singer & multi-instrumentalist Nad Sylvan returns with his 5th studio album, Monumentata. The 8 tracks represent Sylvan at his most vulnerable and personal, with a collection that covers a diverse range of topics and styles from dark and heavy prog to pop and R&B. The album sees Nad joined by a stellar cast of musicians that includes Tony Levin (King Crimson), Randy McStine (Steven Wilson), Nick Beggs (Steven Wilson), Jonas Reingold (Steve Hackett), Lalle Larsson (The Flower Kings), Mirko De Maio (The Flower Kings), Joe Deninzon (Kansas), Marco Minnemann (The Aristocrats), Felix Lehrmann (ex-The Flower Kings), David Kollar (Steven Wilson), Sheona Urquhart, Jade Ell & Neil Whitford. The album will be available as a Ltd CD Digipak, Gatefold transp. green LP & as Digital Album.

Having a famous last name may have gotten him in the door, but James McMurtry has built his own proud career. "South Texas Lawman" is the kind of finely detailed, electric guitar-led midtempo rock tune that the exceptional storyteller is an expert at catalyzing. He tells the story of an old school cop who's up on charges for roughing up suspects and eventually decides on suicide. "I used to be young, I used to understand/ I used to be strong as any man/ I used to be bold, nobody bothered me/ I can't stand getting old, it don't fit me." Recent history and current events provide fertile ground for a pair of effective protest songs:

Few contemporary composers have enriched the choral repertoire quite like Gabriel Jackson, and this recording from the Choir of Canterbury Cathedral is a luminous testament to his singular voice. Rooted in the grand traditions of English sacred music yet infused with a distinctly modern harmonic palette, Jackson's writing revels in soaring treble lines, shimmering textures, and a deep affinity for space and resonance. Under the direction of David Newsholme, the Choir delivers these works with a compelling combination of precision and fervour, illuminating the rich polyphony of Ave maris stella, the jubilant energy of Praise ye the Lord, and the grandeur of the Coronation Canticles. The Cathedral's organ, resplendent in Canterbury Concertos, emerges as a protagonist in its own right. This is music that both honours tradition and expands its boundaries, performed with eloquence and authority.

In the Baroque era, European society turned its gaze to foreign countries in the Orient, with Persia exerting a particular fascination that was not necessarily anthropological in nature.Foreign countries and figures made it possible, for example in Montesquieu's famous Lettres Persanes (1721), to express and disseminate the new Enlightenment ideas, such as criticism of absolutism, under the guise of the exotic. However, music was less philosophical or anthropological; Persian themes tended to provide a special "kick" in opera or instrumental music.

wiss pianist Kathrin Schmidlin specialises in works by female composers. In 2021, she released the album Frauenstimmen, followed by Opus 1 feminin in 2022, both with Claves Records. These recordings earned her international recognition: Frauenstimmen was included in New York classical radio station WQXR’s list of The Best Albums of the Month. Opus 1 feminin was named Album of the Week by MDR, among other accolades.

With the first Rammstein album you hear, it's hard not to be slightly amazed by the sheer chutzpah of it all. The German lyrics, the prog rock tendencies, the classic metal guitars, and the ridiculous basso profundo vocals - you either fall for it, spurn it, or are utterly bemused by the extremeness of it all. Unless you're a fanatic, it wears a little thin the second time around. And for most listeners, Mutter, the group's third album and sequel to their inexplicable commercial breakthrough Sehnsucht, will be the second time around since it's their first release since becoming a high profile act. Thing is, if you've heard that record, you've pretty much heard Mutter, since all the trademarks are in place, without much noticeable variation. Yes, there are slight differences, chief of which is the cleaner production, which streamlines everything so the guitars don't seem as heavy, the songs not as epic, and the whole enterprise not as ridiculous…

Sir Arthur Bliss (1891 – 1975) was an excellent conductor of his own music, but he sadly made only a limited number of commercial recordings. SOMM celebrates the 50th anniversary of Bliss’s death with a 2-CD set of important archive performances, all but two of which he didn’t record commercially, making them of particular interest.These live performances, mostly recorded at the BBC Proms and not previously made available, are skilfully remastered by long-time SOMM collaborator and executive producer, Lani Spahr. At the invitation of Edward Elgar, Bliss wrote a new work for the Three Choirs Festival in 1920. He was inspired by a book on heraldry to compose a full-scale symphony incorporating symbolic meanings associated with primary colours. Hence, the four movements of A Colour Symphony are Purple, Red, Blue, and Green. The performance issued here is with Bliss conducting his 70th birthday concert at the Proms in 1961. For his 75th birthday concert at the Proms in 1966, Bliss conducted his Piano Concerto, commissioned by the British Council in 1939. Bliss and his younger brother served during World War I, and Kennard was killed at the Battle of the Somme.

SOMM Recordings is pleased to release Clarinet Concertos, four works for solo clarinet and wind orchestra, including two world-premiere recordings. The soloist is the English clarinettist, Peter Cigleris, who enjoys a wide and varied career and is in great demand as a soloist and chamber musician. His burgeoning career as a clarinet soloist has taken him to Festivals in Spain, France, the Netherlands, and the U.S. Recently, he was invited to perform in Győr, Hungary for the European Clarinet Festival, which led to a special invitation from the Győr Symphonic Band to record four hugely enjoyable concertos for clarinet and wind orchestra. These are conducted by László Marosi, the world’s foremost authority on Hungarian wind music, and Ferenc Szabó, the founder of the Györ Symphonic Band.

This 4CD set brings together eight of jazz vocalist and pianist Sarah Vaughan's finest albums from the 1950s, a period often regarded as her best.

The title track employs "Shaft"-like guitar licks, but the similarity ends there: It's a lame attempt at disco done in by Ike's lazy singing and irritatingly banal lyrics. But it's the LP's only sore point. Ike returns to his roots on "Your Loving Is Much Too Strong," a slow, romantic ballad that he and his girls, Hot Buttered Soul Unlimited, make you feel. "Rock Me Easy Baby," a slinky, syncopated shuffle, has more groove appeal than the vaunted "Groove-A-Thon," mainly because Ike constructs it for maximum soul appeal by running it for more than eight exquisite minutes. The uptempo happy-in-love ditty "We've Got a Whole Lot of Love" showcases HBS' sterling voices. Ike shows a different side on the soft, longing "Wish You Were Here," whose horn arrangements and backing vocals are simultaneously enticing and titillating. After a weak opening, the album settles into a comfortable groove, ending splendidly with "Make a Little Love to Me."

Recently awarded the prestigious Brahms Prize of theSchleswig-Holstein Brahms Society, Kent Nagano andthe Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, of which hewas principal conductor from 2015 until 2025, performthe last two symphonies by the Hamburg-borncomposer, recorded in concert.The most personal of Johannes Brahms's foursymphonies, the Third is both heroic and deeplytroubled; moreover, all four movements end quietly.After the heroism of the First Symphony and thepastoral flavours of the Second, the Third Symphonyreveals Brahms at a crossroads: the youthful impulsesare now reined in and the mood is more one ofprofound reflection on life and death. The theme of theslow movement has been adapted many times and evensung by Frank Sinatra under the title of 'Take My Love'.