Recorded in the aftermath of King Crimson’s implosion in 1969, when two of its founding members unexpectedly quit the band, In The Wake Of Poseidon shares some similarities in approach and sound to In The Court Of The Crimson King and has been a firm favorite among fans of the band since it's initial release on 15th May 1970. It's an eclectic and experimental mix of bone-crunching riffs, Beatles-ish pop, tender ballads, soaring mellotron-drenched anthems and inscrutable atonal episodes. Highlights include Fripp’s savage guitar throughout Pictures Of A City and Greg Lake’s stunning vocal on the title track — his last with the group before his departure to form ELP. When In The Wake Of Poseidon was released in May 1970, it peaked at No.4 in the UK charts with one journalist proclaiming “If Wagner were alive today he’d work with King Crimson.”  The Devil's Triangle, Wessex Studio sessions 24th March 1970 and 6th April 1970 form part of the previously unreleased recordings from the In the Wake of Poseidon studio sessions in early 1970. Catfood and Groon are issued from Wessex studio sessions 3rd February 1970. All the original studio sessions from 1970 are being made available by download in 2020 to satisfy recent changes to copyright laws: all recordings must be released within the fiftieth year of their recording in order to continue to enjoy copyright protection.  This is the original 1970 stereo mix where Hi-Res format comes from, 30th anniversary remaster — by Simon Heyworth and Robert Fripp in September, 1999. The Hi-Res master is issued from the original album mixes. This edition of the album contains the single version of Catfood and it's B side Groon as additional tracks. © CM/Qobuz

It is hard to figure out what pianist Emmanuel Despax had in mind for the concept of this album. Its various titles offer three ideas: Après un rêve comes from the title of a Fauré song Despax transcribes for his program opener, plus there is "Belle Époque: Nights at the Piano." None of these is of much use; few pieces other than the Fauré are particularly dreamy, and the largest piece, Poulenc's Soirées de Nazelles, is from the nervous 1930s and nowhere near the Belle Époque in time or mood. As for "Nights at the Piano," that fits the Poulenc nicely but not the concluding Gaspard de la Nuit of Ravel, which is an imposing virtuoso concert work carrying none of the connotations of "Nights at the Piano." Really, Despax excels in none of these three ways but rather in a fourth: he hits on an intriguing mix of familiar standards and unusual works. Among the latter group are the Soirées de Nazelles, which Poulenc disclaimed and, perhaps for that reason, have been seldom heard. They are delightful pieces that bear titles describing qualities, like the numbers of a Baroque French suite, but actually seem to have been devised by Poulenc to describe members of a group of his friends, like Elgar's Enigma Variations. The result is a work that distills the hint of improvisation that pervades some of Poulenc's keyboard music and songs, and Despax gives it the right lively, spontaneous feel. The Nocturne, Op. 165, of Cécile Chaminade and the keyboard version of Henri Duparc's Aux étoiles are also nice finds. As for the more heavily trodden works, Debussy's Clair de lune is pleasantly moody, although no one would select this album for the rote Gaspard de la Nuit or the rather un-macabre Danse Macabre, Op. 40, of Saint-Saëns. For Poulenc lovers, however, this is an important find. © James Manheim /TiVo

Here, Daniil Trifonov brings us an exciting itinerary that mixes solo piano and concert performances with a challenging programme. Now fully mature, Trifinov intends to demonstrate how the Russian composers at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries were truly modern. The period is known in Russia as the “Silver Age” and corresponds with modernism’s “fin de siècle”. The Silver Age covers the whole range of fine arts, as well as haute couture, design and - of course - music and ballet.However, most of the programme comes from two composers who developed their modern sound outside of Russia. Stravinsky, who had long been considered a dissident, is now being reclaimed by Russian performers. None of his works (except those written when he was extremely young) were performed at the time in his home country. Having lost the score of his Concerto No. 2 in the turmoil of the 1917 Revolution, Prokofiev later rewrote it in Paris in a completely new style.Scriabin’s signature mystical vision that Daniil Trifonov talks about in the cover notes was not yet present in his Piano Concerto. This composition is a very romantic and rather academic early work written in the wake of Chopin, who was the young Scriabin’s idol.In addition to its great historical interest, this program is noteworthy thanks to Trifonov’s expressive playing in the solo pieces recorded at Princeton University in New Jersey, as well as in the two concertos conducted here by the ardent Valery Gergiev at the head of his St. Petersburg Mariinsky Orchestra. © François Hudry/Qobuz

Third Degree is the third album from experimental rock outfit Flying Colors and follows 2014's Second Nature. Produced by the band itself, the album sees the group deliver a collection of classic prog-driven rock numbers, including the single "The Loss Inside."© Rich Wilson /TiVo

Judging from the way Dark Passion Play starts out, it's understandable to assume that it's some sort of opera aria. But hold tight, dear friends, because from out of nowhere metal guitar riffs come swooping in. That's Nightwish for ya -- a Finnish quintet that had been walking the line between symphonic and metallic for ten years by the time of this 2007 release. The album signals the arrival of new singer Anette Olson (who replaced longtime member Tarja Turunen), but for longtime fans worried that this lineup shuffle may alter the band's sound and direction, there's no reason to fret -- Nightwish are as bombastic and dramatic as ever. Understandably, there are quite a few similarities between symphonic metal and prog metal, and this is certainly the case on such tracks as "Bye Bye Beautiful," which contains a very Dream Theater-esque opening. Elsewhere, "Eva" focuses primarily on the vocal talents of Nightwish's new frontwoman, while the slow-building album opener, "The Poet and the Pendulum," proves to be a neat summary of Nightwish's style. Depending on which side of the metal fence you're on, Dark Passion Play is either a symphonic metal triumph or merely pretentious twaddle.© Greg Prato /TiVo

Béla Fleck wasn't done after his world music extravaganza Throw Down Your Heart, Tales from the Acoustic Planet, Vol. 3: The Africa Sessions. Those groundbreaking explorations led to the forming of this group and yet another collaboration, The Melody of Rhythm: Triple Concerto & Music for Trio, which teams him with cellist/bassist Edgar Meyer and the mighty Indian percussionist Zakir Hussain. The trio collaborates here with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra directed by maestro Leonard Slatkin. Fleck and Meyer had been playing together on and off for 26 years at the time of this recording, and had previously composed a double concerto for banjo and cello for the Nashville Symphony Orchestra in 2004. They were commissioned by the same orchestra to create a triple concerto in 2006. They decided on Hussain as a collaborator for this set, and performed "The Melody of Rhythm" with the NSO conducted by Slatkin. This is the debut recording of the work and it is augmented by other incidental music either inspired by the original piece or derived directly from it. The DSO, Slatkin's new home, recorded it in 2009. As for the music? What's not to like? Its three movements over 28 minutes are a spacious, wide-ranging, beautifully paced concerto with the trio interacting on its own quite intently and with the DSO not as individual instrumentalists, but as a group in dialogue with the orchestra. Jazz, Indian folk forms, classical music, Appalachian folk, progressive instrumental music, and something utterly new emerge for the listener. "The Melody of Rhythm" is preceded by three compositions. "Babar," which opens the set, is a wandering Eastern European folk song meeting near Asian folk forms. "Out of the Blue" is a work that combines elements of Gypsy swing, Indian classical music, and mountain blues. There are three pieces that follow the concerto as well; most notable among them is the haunting closer, "Then Again," with its high-neck modal explorations by Fleck answered contrapuntally by Meyer and covered in differing textures and tempos by Hussain. This CD is a stellar buy, because it showcases two entirely different faces of this group: one that plays a scripted work in the context of interacting with a much larger ensemble, and as what can only be called a new kind of improvising jazz trio that can work from a set composition and travel far and wide in sound, texture, and color. Bravo. © Thom Jurek /TiVo

The Harp of New Albion is hypnotic piano recording conceived and performed by minimalist composer Terry Riley. The inspiration for this is the myth of the legendary harp, left behind in 1579 on the shores of Nova Albion, later known as the San Francisco Bay. As the fable goes, a Native American medicine man found the instrument and placed it on a cliff, where winds played it. Riley adapted ten movements for The Harp of New Albion to a specially tuned piano on which he improvises each movement. Harmonics drift and float around repetitious phrases, creating an almost orchestral sound which is very similar to the effects created by La Monte Young on his Well Tuned Piano. The Bösendorfer grand piano resonates through the Academy of Music in Munich, Germany, where this majestic performance was captured. Released as a double-CD set, this recording makes for a startling introduction to the work of one of America's most renowned and influential minimalist composers.© TiVo

During the second half of the 19th century, a French school of trumpet playing was established, with French musicians and composers at the forefront of the instrument’s musical and technical development. As a result, it was entrusted with a more prominent role within the orchestra and soon also as a solo instrument. On the present recording, Håkan Hardenberger – who like so many other leading trumpet players studied in Paris – presents some of the fruits of this development: five important French works composed between 1944 and 1977. With the support of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Fabien Gabel – who incidentally began his career as a trumpet player – Hardenberger opens the programme with Henri Tomasi’s Trumpet Concerto. Often performed and recorded, it here appears for the first time with its original, longer ending, reconstructed from a newly discovered manuscript. Another rarity is the version for trumpet and orchestra of Florent Schmitt’s Suite, a work which is more commonly heard with piano accompaniment. Rather more frequent in concert are André Jolivet’s Concerto and the Concertino in which Hardenberger is joined by his regular chamber music partner Roland Pöntinen as co-soloist. The most recent work here is Onze Lieder by Betsy Jolas, a work which has a special resonance for both soloist and conductor as it was written for their trumpet teacher Pierre Thibaud. © BIS Records

7 (out of 10) - "...Making Irish jigs go `Oi!' like nobody since the Pogues on RED ROSES FOR ME in 1984, DO OR DIE is all-for-one/one-for-all boy bonding....They rock like infantry grunts wishing they were back on the block....Their pennywhistles meld into an anthemic Clash roar, and even their power chords feel like flags waving."© TiVo

The way that social media's thirst for conflict can be detrimental to artistic expression has been such an intensely examined subject that an entire hip-hop concept record about it seems like a gimme. But it's a subject worth trusting Rollie Pemberton to get to the core of. ROLLERCOASTER is Cadence Weapon's followup to 2021's Parallel World, his Polaris Music Prize-winning examination of social justice through a Black Canadian perspective, and it's like zooming in from that record's wide-scope interrogations of his dystopian alienation into a specific portion of the digital world that amplifies its stress effects. This is a subject that has the potential to be bluntly trenchant, even kind of obvious, at least in the midst of a discourse saturated with tech-skeptical unease. But sometimes the obvious statements are what you need to hear the most: that an utter dependence on tech has blurred our ability to differentiate between its benefits and its detriments ("My Computer"), that the pressure to live up to the mercurial expectations of a parasocial audience can be paralyzing ("Press Eject"), that it's created a mutated type of media which also doubles as a dysfunctional mode of human coexistence you can't just touch grass to escape ("Blue Screen"). It's not all condemnation, at least; "Exceptional" and "Lexicon" capture the vanishing but still-achievable thrill of taking advantage of the internet's open-ended resources to define yourself on your own terms, even if some of those terms come from other people's precedents. ROLLERCOASTER also comes across a bit more like a nuanced examination than a smash-your-phone gripe session in part because while the beats maintain a consistently pulse-manipulating sense of futurist hip-hop/dance fusion, they also sprawl everywhere: Machinedrum's serrated electro adding a nervous twitch to "My Computer"; Bartees Strange's transhumanist voice and nervous-rattle ambient-soul rhythms haunting "You Are Special To Me"; Jacques Greene's frenetic, glitchy IDMR&B embodying both the anxiety and the defiance driving "Exceptional" and "Sting"; Harrison's reflective, melancholy jazz keys underpinning the exasperated disillusionment of closer "tl:dr." And as straightforward and familiar as his lyrical sentiments are, it's the urgency and the distortion and the underlying tension in Cadence Weapon's delivery that makes it easy to feel their weight, until it almost seems like he's replicating the queasy, nervous itch in the brain that comes with an endless stream of ambient doomscrolling negativity. © Nate Patrin/Qobuz