Les Informatici ed

In 1641 Monteverdi made this masterpiece based on Homer’s Odyssey for a public opera house in Venice. It has more characters than you can shake a stick at – presumably one reason why William Christie chose to direct it from the harpsichord – so it needs a cast that has strength in depth. Luckily, these performers from the 2009 production at the Teatro Real in Madrid are superb. Christine Rice gives us a finely-paced Penelope, full of complexity beyond the merely stoical, and with a dark voice that signals restrained fury as well as painful neglect.

The English pop-rock singer/songwriter's first hits compilation, +-=%x Tour Collection gathers two dozen of Ed Sheeran's biggest tracks in one easy package. Reaching all the way back to his 2011 debut single, "The A Team," from his first album, +, the set (also known as The Mathematics Tour Collection) continues chronologically through his career and each hit-filled studio album (including his non-arithmetically titled No. 6 Collaborations Project). Non-album tracks such as "I See Fire" (from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug soundtrack) and "Lay It All on Me" (from British electronic group Rudimental's 2015 LP We the Generation) make this a solid grab for those listeners who only have his main catalog. Viewed as a single entity, +-=%x Tour Collection is an indisputable example of Sheeran's hit-making prowess and impact on 2010s mainstream music, so much so that this collection doesn't even include all of his platinum hits.

The English pop-rock singer/songwriter's first hits compilation, +-=%x Tour Collection gathers two dozen of Ed Sheeran's biggest tracks in one easy package. Reaching all the way back to his 2011 debut single, "The A Team," from his first album, +, the set (also known as The Mathematics Tour Collection) continues chronologically through his career and each hit-filled studio album (including his non-arithmetically titled No. 6 Collaborations Project). Non-album tracks such as "I See Fire" (from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug soundtrack) and "Lay It All on Me" (from British electronic group Rudimental's 2015 LP We the Generation) make this a solid grab for those listeners who only have his main catalog. Viewed as a single entity, +-=%x Tour Collection is an indisputable example of Sheeran's hit-making prowess and impact on 2010s mainstream music, so much so that this collection doesn't even include all of his platinum hits.

Ed Sheeran has announced details of his new album ‘=’ (Equals), confirmed for release on 29th October through Asylum Records. ‘=’ - the fourth instalment in Sheeran’s symbol album series - is Ed’s most accomplished work yet; the evolution of an artist who continues to tread new ground. A body of tracks that were made over a four-year period following his seminal ‘÷’ (Divide) album era, thematically, ‘=’ finds Ed taking stock of his life and the people in it as he explores the varying degrees of love (‘The Joker And The Queen’, ‘First Times’, ‘2step'), loss (‘Visiting Hours’), resilience (‘Can’t Stop The Rain’) and fatherhood (‘Sandman’, ‘Leave Your Life’), while also processing his reality and career (‘Tides’). Sonically, ‘=’ encapsulates Ed’s versatile musical palette, spanning signature, guitar-led tracks and world-class balladry to weightier, euphoric production moments, as first showcased on this summer’s emphatic comeback track, ‘Bad Habits’.

The band's wildly energetic and seriously soulful CD Jump Start is jam-packed with Lil' Ed's incendiary slide playing and rough, passionate singing, as the ragged-but-right Blues Imperials cook like mad alongside him. It is a tour-de-force of untamed slide guitar, rock solid rhythms, heartrending ballads and authentic deep blues vocals. Williams wrote or co-wrote 13 of the album's 14 songs, ranging from the non-stop boogie blast of "If You Were Mine" to the heart-on-his-sleeve honesty of "Life Is A Journey" to the bouncing and jazzy "Jump Right In" to the swaggering, autobiographical "Musical Mechanical Electrical Man." The album overflows with the band s full throttle drive and is fueled by Lil' Ed's love of both serious blues and good time fun.