Jacqueline Thibault (Laurence Vanay) often worked for other artists at the legendary Château d’Hérouville studio as arranger, keyboardist, co-composer, and assistant sound engineer. Between sessions she sometimes managed to record her own music. Several years after her two acknowledged masterpieces, “Galaxies” and “Evening Colours,” she was able to bring together the tracks for “La Petite Fenêtre” (The Little Window). As the 1970’s ended, trouble with the Château finances meant that again it was impossible for her to present her work to interested record labels. Instead, “I worked in another recording studio in Paris for fashionable artists,” she said, “and I managed after a time to resume and complete my unfinished songs”…

After his one-album stint at Asylum Records with Luxury You Can Afford in 1978, Joe Cocker was without a record label until 1981, when he signed to Island Records. Island head Chris Blackwell took him to the Compass Point studios in the Bahamas, where he recorded a 12" single, "Sweet Little Woman"/"Look What You've Done," released in May 1981, then continued working on a full-length album. When that album, Sheffield Steel, appeared a year later, listeners could be forgiven for imagining, during the instrumental portions, that they were hearing not a Joe Cocker disc, but rather a Robert Palmer record. The instrumentalists were the Compass Point All-Stars, led by drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare, and including keyboard player Wally Badarou and guitarist Barry Reynolds, and they maintained a steady tropical groove on most tracks that strongly recalled their work on Palmer's series of albums…

Keiko Matsui is well known for blending smooth jazz, new age and world music genres together to form a rather theatrical and dramatic fusion. This live album is in some ways both a "Best Of" and an improved master of her better work before the end of the 90s. The sound quality and production is excellent - kudos to both her husband Kazu (producer) and the mixing and engineering team because all parts sound clear, full and excellent.
In terms of melody, progressions, voicing and so on, Keiko doesn't break new ground, but in terms of arrangement, selection of instruments, and the 'feel' of the music she's manages to give her material an unique and enjoyable signature. This album brings that to the fore very nicely, with many of her more genre-defying pieces included…

Govinda start their activities in 1994, when original members of Keshava (Satya Mana, Pandit Ananda and Yasodanandana), that had some of their new age tracks released on Klaus Schulze label Innovative Сommunication” decided to change. Everything started when the three Keshava members met DJ Om, who was quite well known in the Los Angeles area, Balearic Islands and Barcelona, so they decided to start a new project, Govinda, along with the support of Indian and Sri Lankan singers, plus the singer/dancer "Chandra". The new project gets immediate interest, and Govinda release their first album "Selling India by the pound" and their first 12" single "Trascendental Ecstasy" which also includes a long and uptempo version of "Awaken"…

Mona Bone Jakon only began Cat Stevens' comeback. Seven months later, he returned with Tea for the Tillerman, an album in the same chamber-group style, employing the same musicians and producer, but with a far more confident tone. Mona Bone Jakon had been full of references to death, but Tea for the Tillerman was not about dying; it was about living in the modern world while rejecting it in favor of spiritual fulfillment. It began with a statement of purpose, "Where Do the Children Play?," in which Stevens questioned the value of technology and progress. "Wild World" found the singer being dumped by a girl, but making the novel suggestion that she should stay with him because she was incapable of handling things without him…

Thirteen years into their tenure, the Dave Brubeck Quartet was still able to mine the creative vein for new means of expression. Despite the hits and popularity on college campuses, or perhaps because of it, Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Eugene Wright, and Joe Morello composed a restless band with a distinctive sound. These eight tracks, all based on a tour of Japan the year before, were, in a sense, Brubeck fulfilling a dictum from his teacher, the French composer Darius Milhaud, who exhorted him to "travel the world and keep your ears open." The sketches Brubeck and Desmond created all invoke the East, particularly the folk melodies of Japan directly, while still managing to use the Debussian impressionistic approach to jazz that kept them riding the charts and creating a body of music that, while playing into the exotica craze of the moment, was still jazz composed and played with integrity…

Leading Science Fantasy author Michael Moorcock enjoyed a long collaboration with Space Rock kings Hawkwind eventually forming his own outfit Deep Fix to record this conceptual album in 1975. Featuring Members of Hawkwind and guitarist Snowy White, “The New Worlds Fair” was a stunning work inspired by Moorcock’s writings and was wonderfully conceived and delivered. The Esoteric reissue is remastered from the original tapes and includes 7 bonus tracks, 3 of which are previously unreleased. TIt an essential release for fans of Hawkwind, Moorcock and Science Fantasy.

Navigator are Tony Anderson, Kent Eskildsen and Jens Peschke from Kubusschnitt. So what we get here is certainly born from retro influences but with a decent dollop of their own inventiveness at the same time. Also involved as guests are two more of the Kubusschnitt boys, Ruud Heij who appears on almost half of the album plus Tom Coppens on the fifteen minute 'Leaves on the Line'. Indeed on this track you get effectively three quarters of Kubusschnitt.