Karen Ashbrook

Gianandrea Noseda continues his survey of Italian orchestral music with a disc of works by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, which is the Chandos March Featured Release. Wolf-Ferrari was the son of a German painter and his Italian wife and although acknowledged as an Italian composer, he was perhaps better known in Germany. Wolf-Ferrari achieved his greatest success with a string of operatic works, especially Il segreto di Susanna. The recording includes orchestral excerpts from five operas, together with the Suite-Concertino for bassoon and orchestra.

2014 solo album from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs front woman. Recorded in 2006 and 2007, the record is an intimate collection of lo-fi, bedroom recordings in the vein of Karen's Oscar-nominated 'The Moon Song' from the Spike Jonze movie Her. Karen O is an Indie rock legend and New York City icon. She's a three-time Grammy nominee with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who have released four studio albums to incredible critical acclaim. Notorious for their stellar live performances, the band has played countless festivals including Glastonbury, Coachella, Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo and has curated it's own All Tomorrow's Parties festival. YYYs have a loyal Global following, which means an instant built-in interest for this release.

Karen Beth's first album, The Joys of Life, is probably one of the most obscure LPs to make the Billboard Top 200 (where it peaked at number 171) in the late 1960s. In retrospect, it's a little surprising that the record even got that high, not because of any flaws in the music itself, but because the record's not too commercial or radio-friendly, even as it reflected late-'60s trends in folk-rock, the emerging singer/songwriting movement, and psychedelia.

MOTHER – a word that evokes associations – memories – emotions. Which mother do you think of? A loving mother with a newborn baby in her arms. Intimacy. A despairing mother in deep grief over a lost life. Emptiness. Through words and music our lives are woven together with Mary's life and perhaps we sense that a mother's pain and sorrow, a mother's strength and endurance, a mother's warmth and love are the same now as they were two thousand years ago.

Americana literary songsmith Karen Jonas's sixth LP, The Restless is a dark alt-country exploration of vulnerability. Each song is a confession that lands somewhere between nostalgia and doom. This mix of playful longing and earnest heartbreak crescendos into B-side opener "Rock the Boat," which leaves Jonas prepared to walk straight into a river. The Restless is a visceral experience: you can feel the "lace and velvet" and taste "the bite of bourbon" on your lover's tongue.

È possibile imparare a essere felici? È possibile superare dolore e difficoltà e trovare, nonostante tutto, il proprio percorso di vita e un senso di soddisfazione e appagamento? È questo che si è chiesta Karen Guggenheim dopo che, nel 2013, suo marito è morto improvvisamente in pochi giorni a causa di un’influenza. Travolta da quel lutto tragico e imprevisto, Karen ha deciso di reagire al dolore ed è partita dalle avversità per cambiare la propria vita e intraprendere un sorprendente percorso di “crescita post-traumatica” che l’ha portata, tra le altre cose, a fondare il World Happiness Summit, diventato in pochi anni il più importante evento mondiale sulla felicità..

Based in the East Bay, vocalist Karen Marguth found her calling in jazz while living in Fresno, CA through the early 2000s. California's Central Valley sustains a surprisingly thriving jazz community and it was there that Marguth earned national renown with her four jazz albums, featuring the tight circle of musicians she surrounded herself with. Until features her interaction with two Fresno groups, along with a third, representing her latest collaborators from the Bay Area.

Ambitious, smart, and magnetically retro, The Rise and Fall of American Kitsch will charm you with dazzlingly quirky storytelling, stellar performances, and an adventurous Americana soundscape. It's nuanced enough that you'll want to soak it in with front-to-back listens, and fun enough for a road trip soundtrack. With American Kitsch, Karen Jonas is clearly on the rise.