The Silent Sea

One unknown place led to the realization of Across the Crystal Sea, an orchestral recording with Perez and a stellar quartet (bassist Christian McBride, drummer Lewis Nash, percussionist Luis Quintero and vocal stylist Cassandra Wilson on two tracks) performing with none other than arranger/conductor Claus Ogerman, whose work is synonymous with excellence. One who possesses an affinity with jazz as heard in his collaborations with Antonio Carlos Jobim, Bill Evans, Diana Krall, Michael Brecker and others.

The pop-minimalist music of Max Richter has been gaining followers beyond his native Germany and his residence of Britain thanks to some highly successful soundtracks and energetic promotion by the Deutsche Grammophon label, which recorded Exiles in 2019 and released it in 2021. Here, he is interpreted by the Baltic Sea Philharmonic and its conductor, Kristjan Järvi. Richter selected the group himself, and it was a good choice. The Baltic musicians have plenty of experience with the glassy, precise textures of minimalism, and they deliver accomplished readings. Exiles comprises 18 short sections with a simple pulse, slightly modifying – in classic minimalist fashion – a pattern laid out at the beginning.

Increasingly, and especially in a day and age where music is so widely and readily available thanks to advanced technologies, when a company or act wants to make a good box set, it had better deliver. To its credit, Beggars Banquet did just that with Rare Cult, an astoundingly comprehensive and entertaining collection that packs in 90 tracks over the course of six discs…

After almost two decades of hibernation under the ambient waves and dub currents of the Sargasso Sea, LSD announces the next installment of the seminal ‘Auntie Aubrey's' series, an Orb Remix Project. This 2 x CD compilation is a veritable smorgasbord of classic, new and unreleased labour-of-love remixes that span three decades yet still transcend space and time.

The Legendary Pink Dots exist in the fields of experimental and psychedelic music. The band is fronted by Edward Ka-Spel, who doubles as singer and chief lyric writer. Phil Knight (The Silverman), Erik Drost, and Raymond Steeg make up the current lineup of the band…

Mental Train: The Island Years 1969-1971 is a deep dive into the wild, wooly years before Mott the Hoople discovered glam. In other words, it's Mott the Hoople before they had anything resembling a hit but were still one of the hardest, heaviest, and weirdest rock bands to roam the land – and one of the most prolific, too. This six-disc box set covers a mere three years, but it was three years where they released four albums, piling up B-sides and other strays along the way. Mental Train rounds up what seems to be every surviving scrap and adds them as bonus tracks to Mott the Hoople, Mad Shadows, Wildlife and Brain Capers, and presenting two discs of non-LP material: a disc of unreleased music and a disc of live material…