Handelszeitung 2019

Neo-classical metal band Edguy were formed in Fulda, Germany in 1992 by then-students Tobias Sammet, Jens Ludwig, Dominik Storch, and Dirk Sauer. Although they were only 14 at the time, the young bandmembers worked on original material, and by 1994 they had released two demos…

Am I Blue? Offers a marvellous cross-section from the best of one of the finest of all jazz-styled vocalists, the pioneering Ethel Waters (1896-1977). Starting out as a blues/vaudeville singer (known as “Sweet Mama Stringbean”), the black American singer, entertainer, and later accomplished actress on stage and screen, became one of the era’s most accomplished and sensitive interpreters of popular songs…

The Hammond organ, named after its inventor Laurens Hammond, debuted in 1935 as a cost-effective electro-acoustic alternative to the gigantic pipe organs mainly installed in churches. Among Hammond’s first customers were George Gershwin and Count Basie. Jazz pianists like Basie, Fats Waller, Wild Bill Davis and Milt Buckner were the founding fathers of the instrument’s international conquest, which led across all styles of popular music, from jazz to progressive rock, with its heyday in the 1960s and '70s…

When Duster were recording their space rock mini-epics on wobbly four-track in a makeshift San Jose home studio in the late '90s, it's likely they weren't imagining that their records would someday be fetching exorbitant prices and that a classy reissue label would someday issue a box set. No doubt they were just having fun making music, expressing themselves, and exploring sound for its own sake, but history has a way of taking strange turns, and in 2019 the Numero Group's Capsule Losing Contact was released. The lavishly packaged set gathers the two albums (1998's Stratosphere and 2000's Contemporary Movement) and one EP (1999's 1975) they released for Up Records and adds the Transmission, Flux EP, the Apex, Trance-Like single, and a handful of rare and previously unreleased tracks. The collection finally restores the music of Duster to people who can now afford to own it and every fan of slowcore, lo-fi space rock and unassumingly brilliant indie rock should plunk down their money and get this set.

The album series "Die Einlassmusik" from Schiller started in 2004. The music is exclusively composed for the regular live tours from Schiller and is played there as pre-show introduction to make the waiting time for the audience more pleasant. All albums are (officially) only sold at the merchandising area of each concert and the online Schiller Shop.

The Noisemakers, Bruce Hornsby's regular backing band since 2002, aren't credited on 2019's Absolute Zero, which should be an indication that the album is a bit of a departure from the other records he's made during the 21st century. While the Noisemakers haven't avoided adventure, Absolute Zero feels as if it was made without any regard to boundaries, either in terms of style or approach. Such fearlessness is evident from the outset, when the record kicks off with a dexterous rhythm suitable for a vintage post-bop session, but it's too reductive to call Absolute Zero an odyssey into straight jazz.

Esoteric Recordings is pleased to announce the release of a 4 CD clamshell boxed set that gathers together all the recordings made for the classic “Potatoland” album by SPIRIT. The album was born in 1973 following the release of guitarist Randy California’s “Kaptain Kopter and the Fabulous Twirlybirds” album (made shortly after his departure from Spirit)…