Cartola Viva Cartola

La Düsseldorf is Klaus Dinger's side project after the scission of Neu! in 1975. In this musical adventure, Dinger is accompanied by Thomas Dinger and Hans Lampe who also participated to the recording of the third and last Neu! The self titled album "La Dusseldorf" was released in 1976, venturing from avant-garde for concrete noises, manipulated sounds, pre-punk atmospheres. This album has a total disregard for musical convention, the musicians don't hesitate to mix without restriction a bunch of sounds taken from a great variety of musical styles (with pop accents, motoric "electronic" pulses, krautrock weird instrumentals and punk's eccentricity). After this original and diverse collection of experiments, the band recorded their second "Viva" in 1978…

A funky killer from this legendary European group - a record that's filled with as much funk and soul as the Latin elements you might have guessed from the title. El Chicles may have been a studio project, but they were a heck of a funky one - with hard drums, tight bass, and mixed-up Latin funky groove that was always pretty right on, no matter what the material happened to be! This cold little jammer from the early 70s features the group riffing hard on funky covers of "Viva Tirado", "Ode To Billy Joe", and "I'm A Man" - and grooving even better on the original tracks "Drug Bay" and the break-heavy "At Nee-Ko". There's some excellent organ in the mix, and the whole thing's packaged in a very cheesy cover.

The emergence of the cello as a solo instrument at the beginning of the 19th century encouraged composers to explore its melodic and sonorous potential, with compositions for two or more cellos becoming increasingly popular. Bernhard Romberg and Anton Kraft both had personal connections to Beethoven – their works offer inventive timbres, intimacy and substantial virtuosity. The world premiere recording of the sparkling Concertino by Kraft’s son Nikolaus completes an album of unique gems, influenced by Beethoven and Haydn, which helped to usher in the golden age of the cello.

For years, Manu Chao has been travelling the world to meet his fans in unusual venues, villages and small festivals. Elusive, but always accessible to those who cross his path, Manu now presents his new studio album Viva Tu, a collection of songs written at the heart of daily lives and struggles, and a fresh take on the state of the world, singing sunny, universal songs in Spanish, French, English and Portuguese, painting an unforgiving picture of social imbalances. The lead song ‘Viva Tu’, a heartfelt rumba dedicated to the daily life heroes, has already made its mark. The second single, ‘São Paulo Motoboy’, is a colourful, sunny ode to the two-wheeled delivery people venturing the Latin American metropoles every day. The album also features some memorable collaborations, including ‘Heaven's Bad Day’ with country legend Willie Nelson and ‘Tu Te Vas’ with rising French rapper Laeti.