Alaska From The Yukon 2015 From Land From Sea

According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the disintegration of the Soviet Union has been the biggest political disaster of the twentieth century. And in this he is not alone. Many Russians long for the security of the Soviet Union and the territories that belong to it. They want Russia to revert to the world stage. The annexation of the Crimea in February 2014 therefore increased Putin's popularity in his own country.

In 2009, and after 22 years in prison, a former ETA's terrorist named Santi is released due to the Parot Doctrine (a polemic judicial resource to liberate activists and terrorists according their sentences and years in detention). Santi travels a little town of Cabo de Gata, Almería (south to Spain) to meet Emilio, a friend and former cellmate.

Some bands feel a need to reinvent themselves every once in a while, and for Sea Power, all it took was to lop the "British" off the first part of their name. Though the reason behind the change was a desire to separate themselves from a rising tide of toxic nationalism in Great Britain, the result seems to have also put a spring in their step. While their more recent catalog includes releases where they scored a documentary film (2013's From the Sea to the Land Beyond), penned music for a video game (2021's Disco Elysium), and re-interpreted their songs with the help of a brass band (2015's Sea of Brass), 2022's Everything Was Forever is a powerfully effective summation of what they do best: making music that that's long on thunder and atmospherics, and built on a melodic foundation of widescreen grandeur. Everything Was Forever has all of that, and it also rocks – "Transmitter" has a tough, throbbing pulse and some gnarly guitar to go along with the massed vocal choruses, "Doppelganger" is a speedy charge through a cloud of well-focused anger, and "Two Fingers" offers some high-grade energetic snark as they play on the multiple meanings of the titular expression.

Year 2015 marks the 150th Anniversary of the birth of Jean Sibelius (1865–1957), often entitled 'Finland’s national composer'. The fourth album on Ondine by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir is dedicated to the complete works for mixed choir by Jean Sibelius. The award-winning choir, one of the finest of its kind internationally, is conducted here by one of the leading Finnish choir directors, Heikki Seppänen, who has conducted a large number of professional choirs in Finland and abroad. The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir’s releases on Ondine have been a critical success: the first release was given an ‘Editor’s Choice’ by the Gramophone Magazine and ‘Disc of the Year’ by the renowned German weekly Die Zeit.

Brazilian Luiz Moretto moved to Portugal in 2000 working with Lisbon’s African communities; he has worked with saxophonist Alípio C Neto almost a decade. The Vampire Squid from the deep sea (Vampyroteuthis Infernalis) is a metaphor of the actual components not included in the production of the mainstream aesthetics of modernity. It represents the forces under the human flows in a perception of all events occurred on the surface, creating a blend of magnificent and tragic encounters amongst different people and cultures producing unique musical expressions. The compositions are inspired on rhythms of Afro-Brazilian music giving the necessary freedom for intense improvisational interplays. It was Alípio’s idea to invite experienced musicians from within the Italian free jazz culture, namely Francesco Lo Cascio, Gianfranco Tedeschi and Marco Ariano, whose combined experience and creativity pervade the music.

On this second volume of The Rough Guide To Latin Rare Groove, we’ve gone deeper to unearth even more treats for collectors of obscure, funky, tropical dance music. While taking the ‘rare groove’ genre too seriously can get you accused of snobbery or being a nerd, there is something to be said for the thrill of discovery and sharing something new, especially if it’s old and made of vinyl (even better if it was never originally released to begin with). So proceed without shame, dear digger. Just because ‘rare groove’ owes its name to the 1980s London club scene, where it was used to describe obscure soul, funk and jazz, doesn’t mean the movement is just some passing fad or even entirely new to Latin music fans – quite the contrary.

'Ultimate… Movies' four-disc set, celebrating some of the biggest movie hits of all time. Features 72 classics, from Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Judy Garland, Simon & Garfunkel, Celine Dion, Sarah McLachlan, Van Morrison, Johnny Cash, Survivor, Kenny Loggins, Dolly Parton, Carly Simon, Billy Ocean, Herbie Hancock, Bob Dylan, Henry Mancini, John Barry, and many more!

The style in which the Finnish composer Sebastian Fagerlund composes might be described as ‘magic realism’, combining elements of surrealism with factual narrative. Drawing upon the symphony orchestra’s full spectrum of colours, the music reflects not only the traditions of impressionism, modernism and post-minimalism but also reveals the composer’s acute ear for other genres, from cool jazz to ambient music. An earlier recording of orchestral works by Sebastian Fagerlund was described in BBC Music Magazine as displaying 'boundless technical resource at the service of a considerable imagination'. These qualities, and his receptivity towards different musical traditions Fagerlund shares with Pekka Kuusisto, to whom the violin concerto Darkness in Light is dedicated. The title of the work is a subtle reference to a quote from author Haruki Murakami’s novella Firefly: ‘Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it’. The disc closes with the orchestral work Ignite, composed for and performed here by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, under its chief conductor Hannu Lintu.