Moon Halo

Together Again is the second album from Moon Halo, the musical project of vocalist Marc Atkinson and keyboardist Iain Jennings. Marc’s warm and emotive vocals have graced many fine solo releases, along with guest appearance on albums by Lee Abraham, Drifting Sun, Mandalaband and John Holden, amongst others…

Another reliably sublime effort from the Kings of Karelia, “Halo” further cements Amorphis as one of metal's most consistently excellent bands…

Employing a sinister blend of goth-metal and dark industrial rock, Germany's Lord of the Lost was founded in 2007 by vocalist/guitarist Chris Harms, who had previously fronted Hamburg-based gloom-rockers Philiae.

From Steinway & Sons' growing catalog of personal and beautifully recorded piano recitals comes this one from Chinese pianist Shen Lu, whose training includes stints in Beijing, Boston, and Cleveland. Chinese musicians are said to be seeking out American teachers as a way of adding freedom and originality to their thinking, and that seems to be what's happening here. Some might find more crackling versions of, say, Ravel's Miroirs than the one delivered here by Shen, but it fits in with the rest of the program in a way that keeps listeners absorbed to a degree than another instance of mechanistic virtuosity might not. The program maintains a theme of "impressionistic" depiction, filtering it through the East/West divide and through subdivisions of each.