"That now on the organ or instrument of all instruments, in the churches, so respectable and excellent much and great is held: that makes the unspeakable and exceedingly great art, which therein is and is conceived." (Michael Praetorius 1619)
Many North German composers brought the great richness of this instrument to its highest splendor: besides Michael, his namesake Hieronymus Praetorius, Buxtehude, Tunder, Weckmann, Leyding, Druckenmüller, Hanff and Bruhns founded the North German Organ School between the 16th and 18th centuries. Dirk Trüten plays the organ of the Catholic Church in Dübendorf, Switzerland, built by Bernhardt Edskes in 2014.

Considering the tight run of albums since the first part of the Gullvåg Trilogy in 2017 – three double and a single album in less than four years – the 16 months wait for Ancient Astronauts must feel like an eternity for the fans. Much of the music continue in the manner of the band’s popular long form “N.O.X.” suite from “The All Is One” (2019) album, including “Mona Lisa/Azrael” and “Chariot of The Sun”, the latter clocking in at 22 minutes, being the band´s longest instrumental track to date.

"I was trying to find where I fit musically again. I wasn’t really sure if it was Americana or if it was Country or if it was Rock – I was all over the place with my songwriting and my career. Ironically enough, COVID really gave me a chance to just turn my brain off a little bit and stop thinking. When I came out on the other side I found not only a renewed sense of my music and wanting to get out and play again, but I found a renewed sense of self. I really felt I found who I wanted to be as a writer, as a singer, as an artist…"

Following the release of Netflix’s inspiring documentary short ‘Hold Your Breath: The Ice Dive’, Galya Bisengalieva presents her official soundtrack, out on July 22nd.

Progressive Rock Band SiX BY SiX release their self-titled debut album featuring members of Saga, The Greg Kihn Band & Saxon. On more than 45 minutes of prog-influenced heavy rock Robert Berry (vocals), Ian Crichton (Guitar) and Nigel Glockler deliver a very strong musical statement. The signature guitar sound of Saga-Guitarist Ian Crichton provides the final touch to an all-around harmonic longplayer.

Electronic pop trailblazers, Röyksopp, release the second part to their expansive Profound Mysteries project, Profound Mysteries II.

Physical Thrills, Silversun Pickups’ sixth studio album and the follow-up to 2019’s Widow’s Weeds, is produced by Butch Vig (Nirvana, Garbage, Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, Foo Fighters) and mixed by Billy Bush. Physical Thrills spans through an eclectic mix of distorted synths, pop-tinged danceable tunes, pared-down ballads, and a collection of “dream shanties” melodies that are all interconnected with each other into a cohesive body of work. Features “Scared Together” and “Alone on a Hill”.

Love Notes, a brand-new album of eleven tracks with vocals and piano by Monty Alexander, is set for release on August 19th, 2022. The collection represents the culmination of Monty’s decades-long desire to record a vocal album after releasing 75 piano projects over the course of his illustrious, critically-acclaimed career.Said Monty, “My desire was emboldened ever since one of our great Jazz vocalists, Carmen McRae, heard me sing a tune at the end of a concert and told me “Don’t stop singing!”, admonishing me like a loving aunt would. That was back in the 1970s so it took me fifty years, and a century later, but I am glad to finally introduce Monty the vocalist, and this collection of love songs.”

Group Theory: Black Music is a stunning new statement from South African drummer and composer Tumi Mogorosi. Standing in the lineage of South African greats such as Louis Moholo-Moholo, Makaya Ntshoko and Ayanda Sikade, Mogorosi is one of the foremost drummers working anywhere in the world, with a flexible, powerful style that brings a distinctive South African inflection to the polyrhythmic tradition of Elvin Jones, Max Roach and Art Blakey.

Experimental psych-punk institution Oneida returns with Success, the band’s most guitar-centric, rocking album in decades. Long straddling the gray area between the NYC punk/psych/rock community and the art/experimental world, the music of Oneida is celebrated for its mix of abstract, atmospheric sounds and pulsing, hammering anthems. Success finds the band getting to the core of what makes minimal rock music so good - songs pared back to beat and melody with a limited number of guitar chords. If a song or two gets ripped in half later by a corrosive guitar solo, well, what did you expect? This is Oneida.

On Heartmind, Cass McCombs enters the double-digit-album phase of his career, a quantitatively rarified place for any songwriter; rarer still, though, is the fact that he does not yet seem to have settled into a qualitative sound or pattern, of singing the same thought twice (or perhaps even once).

Seine enorme Ausdruckskraft macht ihn zu einem der bedeutendsten Countertenöre Italiens. Raffaele Pe, 1985 in Lauden geboren, brilliert in großen Barock-Rollen unter Stardirigenten wie René Jacobs oder Jordi Savall.

As a result of the First World War and the October Revolution, countless artists from Eastern Europe came to Paris, among them especially many Eastern Europeans who could build on an interested public and in some cases already well-established contacts.

A House of Call is a cycle of invocations, prayers, poems and songs for large orchestra. It incorporates recordings of sounds and voices from all over the world collected by Heiner Goebbels during his travels, research, and chance encounters.

With this complete recording of the string chamber music of Walter Braunfels, the Cologne Minguet Quartet pays tribute to this composer who, in the period between the two world wars, had a decisive influence on the educational potential of young musicians, especially in Cologne.