Albert Hude

The reissue of a great, classic, wonderful Spanish progressive album. Feliu is a guitarist who plays only Spanish guitar, while Joan Albert, the leader of the equally great Musica Urbana, performs on acoustic piano, Fender Rhodes piano, clavinet and Moog synthesizer. Recorded in 1977, released on Edigsa and always hard to find, it is reissued here from the master tapes for the very first time! Musically very active and intricate and filled with great melodic passages, yet also very stripped down and open, allowing the listener to really get inside and hear all the details. Then, on the last track, Murica Urbana and guests join them for a rocking finish!

Cray found himself in some pretty intimidating company for this Grammy-winning blues guitar summit meeting, but he wasn't deterred, holding his own alongside his idol Albert Collins and Texas great Johnny Copeland. Cray's delivery of Muddy Waters' rhumba-rocking "She's into Something" was one of the set's many highlights…

The fourth of d'Albert's twenty operas, "Die Abreise" ("The Departure") was premiered in 1898 at Frankfurt. In a single 40 minute act, its story is very slender indeed. A man (Gilfen) suspects his wife (Luise) of being unfaithful to him with a friend (Trott) so pretends to go away on a journey. Returning "unexpectedly" he finds Luise rejecting the advances of Trott who is summarily ejected. A reconciliation between Gilfen and Luise ensues.

Although they might not admit it, fans of the late Stevie Ray Vaughan have been waiting for the next Stevie Ray to rise out of the blues-rock circuit, and while countless hotshot guitar slingers certainly have dressed the part, few if any of them have that same mixture of explosive skill and hard-earned soul. New England's Albert Cummings might just be the guy who can do it, though. Calling him the new Stevie Ray wouldn't be fair, certainly, but Cummings, a carpenter from Williamston, Massachusetts, has that same explosive, soulful and emotional tone that made Vaughan so special. He also is somewhat of an "aw, shucks" kind of guy, with very little show-biz about him, but when he picks up that Fender Stratocaster, sparks fly. True to Yourself is Cummings' debut with the Blind Pig label, and working with Double Trouble bassist Tommy Shannon is sure to draw parallels with Vaughan, but Cummings, although his guitar tone and attack are definitely similar, is a much more grounded songwriter, and there is somewhat of a domestic veneer to these tracks.

Albert Marcoeur, French multi-instrumentalist/composer, was born on December 12 1947, in Dijon, France. During his formal education of clarinet at the National Academy of Music and Dance of Dijon, Marcoeur actively participated in many straightforward college rock 'n roll bands. Closing an end to his formal training Marcoeur's musical visions had gravitated towards the experimental facets of music, wishing "to do nothing else but make my own music". In 1970, the realisations of Marcoeur's 'unclassifiable' forays found their conception, marking the being of studio life. It was to be another four years until the release of his first self-titled album, which still ranks as his greatest recording to date. Loosely classified as proto-RIO chamber-rock, the album lays down several RIO foundations (much like Robert Wyatt's, "The End of an Ear"), later to be picked up by the likes of Aksak Maboul…

Scots-born composer Eugen d'Albert established his career in Germany, considered himself a German composer, and his 21 operas (written in German) are saturated with the musical language of Germanic post-Romanticism. Der Golem (1926) came from late in his career, and while its Frankfurt premiere was considered a success, it has not held the stage. This MDG recording comes from a first-rate production at Theater Bonn in 2010. The opera is skillfully written, but the recording confirms the judgment of history: Der Golem is just not an especially compelling piece, either musically or dramatically.