Alex Jones

The relationship between Alex Harding and Lucian Ban has been long and fruitful. Their combination of elements of improvisational music have helped the pair develop a unique musical language that transcends the expectations of the jazz genre. Their new recording, Blutopia, highlights their attuned rapport while allowing their music to unfold with their own singular ensemble, propelled by the tuba stylings of the great Bob Stewart.

The first concert streamed live in DSD from the US, Walk The Sky captures a historic concert from vocalist Jenna Mammina and guitarist Alex de Grassi. Both extremely talented musicians in their own right, together Jenna and Alex created something more than just the sum of their parts. Alex’s fingers effortlessly blend dense jazz harmonies with rugged blues licks on “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” and Jenna channels her own pain (from learning of Prince's death hours before we went live) into a cover of "King of Pain" by The Police. Originally broadcast in DSD128, Walk The Sky was recorded to DSD256 at Skywalker Sound by Leslie Ann Jones and Cookie Marenco then mixed using our proprietary analog stage methods at Blue Coast Studios to DSD256.

At the time when neo soul is booming with innovations, guitarist and songwriter Alex Scheuerer is releasing his second album featuring singer Najwa Ezzaher (The Voice). "The French Jukebox", a cover album, pays tribute to the French classics by revisiting them with touches of Neo Soul. A Franco-Swiss musician, Alex Scheuerer was strongly influenced by French chanson, the poetry of which, and evocative nature of its word he particularly appreciates. From Aznavour to Gainsbourg, Johnny and Françoise Hardy, he revisits 10 timeless titles, mixing them with the music he discovered in London, Neo Soul Jazz.

Although the Sensational Alex Harvey Band showed off plenty of sonic firepower on studio outings like Next and Tomorrow Belongs to Me, they were always at their most ferocious in the concert arena. As a result, Live is an especially rousing and engaging addition to the group's catalog. Since the set list is almost entirely composed of time-tested favorites, it also one of their most consistent albums. The album's contents are taken from a single night's performance at the Hammersmith Odeon, and this gives it a sonic coherence that other live albums rarely capture. A totally committed performance from the band seals the album's appeal with its thrilling combination of heavy metal bombast and tight arrangements that carefully deploy keyboard shadings to flesh out the guitar-heavy sound.