Travelling Willburys

Iconic British band Ozric Tentacles have announced ‘Travelling The Great Circle’, an expansive new hardback book release, featuring remastered music from one of the bands most creatively thrilling and acclaimed periods.

Fruit of the fusion of three musicians, their voices and their strings, Trio Zéphir has been wavering among cultures and sound territories for more than a decade. Nourished by world music but also classical music and jazz, the Trio is exploring new sensitive areas, those that erase the instrumentalist for the benefit of a music full of raw emotion. Together Delphine Chomel (violin), Marion Diaques (alto) and Claire Menguy (cello) compose a music which goes far beyond the boundaries of a classical Trio. For this new album they have chosen to find their inspiration in their favorite field: the theme of travelling by train and its consecutive poetic dreaming world.

Its lengthy incubation process notwithstanding, V.V. Brown's clever debut album, Travelling Like the Light, is as genuine, natural, and deep as mishmash throwback pop can get. There are a couple contemporary moments, like "Shark in the Water," featuring strummy verses and a surging chorus, but the album mostly shoots forth nods to R&B and rock & roll of the '50s, '60s, and '70s that are relentlessly playful, whether the lyrics reveal tears, daggers, or butterflies. Brown, an English songwriter who has written hits for the Pussycat Dolls and Sugababes, is bound to provoke comparisons with Janelle Monáe for her retro look and boundless energy, but she's closer to being the child of Kirsty MacColl and the sibling of Jazmine Sullivan, messing with pop traditions as she courts and reprimands with a large, youthful voice that positively dances.

Roxette's 2011 comeback album, Charm School, was so successful – it hit number one in both Germany and Switzerland and was awarded gold certification in several countries and platinum status in Germany – that the band didn't wait too long before recording a new album. Released in March 2012, Travelling is the group's ninth album and a sequel of sorts to its 1992 album Tourism, sporting the same subtitle: Songs from Studios, Stages, Hotel Rooms and Other Strange Places…