In 1972, one of Jamaica's most popular and successful singers, John Holt, teamed up with British-born record producer, Tony Ashfield to create a style of reggae aimed at appealing to music listeners of all ages and colours throughout the world. By combining Jamaican rhythms with sophisticated western arrangements, the pair succeeded in their aim, producing an album that exceeded all expectations. ‘The Further You Look’ set the standard for what later became widely known as ‘pop reggae’ and quickly became a must-have album for a broad spectrum of record buyers, selling in vast numbers amongst both black and white communities.
“Now I know there is a God in heaven!”, exclaimed Albert Einstein when he heard the young Yehudi Menuhin play the violin. Not only was Menuhin an extraordinary musician, he lived through – and helped to shape – a momentous period in history. The Warner Classics catalog contains 70 years’ worth of his recordings and this 3-CD collection, Yehudi: The Art of Menuhin, provides a fascinating perspective on his achievements: Menuhin was a man of ideals who changed the world through music.
Norwegian pop trio A-ha has had their catalog revamped and repackaged a number of times since their inception in the 1980s, but 2016's Time and Again: The Ultimate A-ha brings their canon of hits up to date with the inclusion of material from each of their ten studio albums. The first disc of this set is generally concerned with their hits, beginning, appropriately, with the sunny synths of "Take on Me" and winding chronologically through the years to the sweeping orchestral ballad "Under the Makeup" from their 2015 LP Cast in Steel. The expected tracks like "Touchy!," "The Living Daylights," and their lush cover of the Everly Brothers' "Crying in the Rain" are all included alongside later-era cuts like 2000's "Summer Moved On," which was a number one hit in their home country. The second disc in the set is dedicated entirely to alternate mixes and remixes of their hits, some of which hold some historical value like Jellybean's previously unreleased 1986 remix of "Cry Wolf" and Justin Strauss' rare dub mix of "You Are the One."
I've Always Kept A Unicorn is the best album that Sandy Denny never made. This 40-Track set captures Sandy at her most intimate as she runs through stripped down arrangements of songs with Strawbs, Fairport Convention, Fotheringay, The Bunch and from her four solo albums. Exclusive to this set are three demos from the original recording sessions for the 1972 Bunch album, Rock On including a beautiful duet with Linda Thompson on Phil Everly's "When Will I Be Loved" and Buddy Holly's "Love Made A Fool Of You" and "Learning The Game".
“The Anatomy of Melancholy” is the second co-operation of the German multi-instrumentalist and composer Carl Oesterhelt, and jazz-saxophonist Johannes Enders. Oesterhelt – drummer with the band F.S.K. – has been making appearances as theatre-musician at the Münchner Kammerspiele, the Thalia Theater Hamburg, and the Schauspiel Köln, as well as festivals like the Ruhrtriennale, or the Festwochen Wien. His composition in between classical music, new music, and pop is faced with the academically trained Johannes Enders, who has a professorship for jazz-saxophone at Leipzig University. After a recommendation from Coltrane-bassist Reggie Workman he studied in New York with Dave Liebman and Jerry Bergzoni before he, in the 1990s, founded the Tied & Tickled Trio with the Notwist-members Micha and Markus Acher, Andreas Gerth, Caspar Brandner, and Ulrich Wangenheim. He also performs with his own quartet, with Rebekka Bakken, amongst others.