Iain Ashley Hersey Nomad

Three guitars, three voices, that’s the 18th edition of Ruf’s Blues Caravan which will take off in mid-February 2023. Thus carrying on a tradition which was established in 2005 when Thomas Ruf, founder of internationally operating German record company Ruf Records, came up with the idea for this kind of package tour and with Sue Foley, Candye Kane and Ana Popovic sent three of his artists on the road together for the first time. This time the line-up will consist of Texan bluesrocker Ally Venable, Chicago-born Berlin resident Will Jacobs and Ashley Sherlock from Manchester in the UK.

Winner of the 2018 ROSL Annual Music Competition Gold Medal, saxophonist Jonathan Radford returns to ROSL to celebrate the launch of his debut album The Saxophone Craze with pianist and 2011 Annual Music Competition Keyboard Winner Ashley Fripp.

Roderick Williams and Iain Burnside complete their survey of Schuberts song cycles with this recording of Winterreise. Composed in the late 1820s, towards the end of Schuberts tragically short life, Winterreise (Winter Journey) is a setting of twenty-four poems by Wilhelm Müller and describes a traveller leaving the town which was the home of the object of his unrequited love, to embark on a long journey, through a chill, wintry landscape, which ends in near-suicidal despair. This recording represents the culmination of a project that started back in 2015, when Williams accepted the challenge to prepare and perform all three song cycles in one season at the Wigmore Hall in London. Turning this challenge into a shared learning experience, Williams lead workshops and study days as well as numerous performances in a variety of venues. As in the case of the previous instalments (Schwanengesang and Die schöne Müllerin), also recorded at Potton Hall, Suffolk, Roderick Williams is accompanied by Iain Burnside, who plays a Steinway Model D.

A reduction in personnel rarely results in a broader musical expanse, but that's just what happened to Food, since trumpeter Arve Henriksen and bassist Mats Eilertsen departed in 2004. Molecular Gastronomy (Rune Grammofon, 2008)—Food's first duo recording, though the use of guests fleshed the group out to a trio—was Food's most accessible album to date, without sacrificing any of its inherent risk and sound of surprise. Quiet Inlet—Food's first for ECM, and featuring Austrian guitarist Christian Fennesz on three tracks and Norwegian trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer on four—follows Molecular Gastronomy's path, but remains equally traceable to earlier albums, including Food's quartet swan song, The Last Supper (Rune Grammofon, 2005). Even as a duo, Food generates a lot of sound. Strønen, in particular, combines bastardized drum kit, hand percussion and technology into a distinctive soundscaping approach, from pulse-driven to textural; spatially ethereal to jagged and dense. Ballamy's more economical playing is equally key in establishing a group sound, and based on its performance at Punkt 2006, Food could easily have continued on as a duo, but increases the unpredictability quotient by introducing a third player to the set.

A reliable traditionalist with a penchant for bittersweet songs of heartbreak and loss, Ashley Monroe pulled a complete 180 for her spectacular new album, Rosegold, riding the joyful emotional wave that followed the birth of her son to create her most ecstatic, blissed-out collection yet. Written and recorded over the past two years, the record finds the Grammy - nominated Nashville star pushing her sound in bold new directions, drawing on everything from Kanye West and Kid Cudi to Beck and The Beach Boys as she layers lush vocal harmonies atop dreamy, synthesized soundscapes and sensual, intoxicating beats.

Cellist Ashley Walters' first solo album features performances of six contemporary works for cello by composers Luciano Berio, Nicholas Deyoe, Wolfgang von Schweinitz, Andrew McIntosh, and Wadada Leo Smith.

Recognised as rising stars of their generation, pianist Ashley Wass and the Tippett Quartet join forces to present two contrasting yet equally engaging British piano quintets. Conceived on a grand, expansive scale and influenced by Celtic music, with all manner of harmonic and instrumental colours exploited to super effect, Arnold Bax’s Quintet is arguably a precursor of his later symphonies.