Aranysas From 2009 08

German musician Frank Dorittke, aka F.D. Project, is originally a guitarist from the Dinslaken-based band Imagine. He got interested in electronic music around 1991, and became influenced by the music of Tangerine Dream. The versatile and accessible music of F.D. Project is not that simply to depict as it’s influences range from Tangerine Dream to Mike Oldfield, at other occasions keenly blending elements from the Berlin School and guitar riffs. At times it can be melodic and up-tempo, then switching to captivating atmospheric textures and soundscapes.

Best-known for his 1970 hit "Spirit in the Sky," singer/songwriter Norman Greenbaum was born November 20, 1942, in Malden, MA. He began his musical career while a student at Boston University, playing area coffeehouses before relocating to the West Coast during the mid-'60s and forming a kind of psychedelic jug band dubbed Dr. West's Medicine Show and Junk Band…

A few disarming moments on “Octahedron” unfold slowly, with pockets of space and calm. Don’t be lured into trusting them. This album, the fifth studio release by the Mars Volta, employs stillness as a setup for all manner of disruption: sharply pealing riffs, phantasmagorical metaphors, convoluted song structures. In many ways it’s a typical effort from the guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and the vocalist Cedric Bixler Zavala, who make up the Mars Volta’s cunning and ever-agitated core. But that’s not to discredit the more measured side of “Octahedron,” a harbor for some of this psychedelic prog-rock band’s most alluring melodies and among its most coherent recordings…

It's an interesting idea to have seven symphonies by Franz Joseph Haydn performed by the Wiener Philharmoniker, but led by five different conductors. This recording offers Christoph von Dohnányi's No. 12 from 1991, Zubin Mehta's No. 22 from 1972, Franz Welser-Möst's No. 26 from 1998 and No. 98 from 2009, Nikolaus Harnoncourt's No. 93 and No. 103 from 2009, and Pierre Boulez's No. 104 from 1996.

Britain's leading female jazz singer Claire Martin returns with her new album A Modern Art. The album is a personal reflection of what it takes to be a musician in the 21st century and features two brand new self-penned tracks. The original and contemporary songs on A Modern Art are presented with a cool-edge, tinged with a touch of irony and razor-sharp wit. A Modern Art is inspired by the tragic death of pioneering jazz musician Esbjörn Svensson, who Claire pays tribute to with a heartfelt rendition of 'Love Is Real'.