Bossa Nova translated as the "new beat" or "the new style", grew out of Rio De Janeiro in 1958. The instigators were a handful of artists with a desire to break from tradition, developing the samba rhythms with the influence of cool American jazz to find a music with such a warm soul and natural rhythm that no-one can help but tap and sway to its beat. Bossa Nova is palm trees swaying, it is like melting sugar in hot coffee, it is the setting sun and warm sand underfoot. It is the sound and beat of Brazil, it is one of the world's coolest musical styles and it remains to this day one of the world's great musical treasures.

The Café del Mar is perhaps most known around the world for its chill-out music compilations. The songs are described as balearic ambient, easy listening music. The collections of the music played at the café were first sold on cassette at the end of the 1980s. In 1994, the first official “Café del Mar” CD was released, which included works by world-renowned artists. Following the great success of the first release, a total of 18 volumes of the main compilation series have been published.

From its title, one might reasonably expect that this Australian compilation would contain some of the Ray Conniff Singers' best-known recordings, such as "Invisible Tears" and "Somewhere, My Love." It doesn't, but it what it does contain is even more surprising. Put simply, this 14-track album consists of seven songs each from two of the Conniff Singers' albums of 1968: the first half from Honey and the second half from Turn Around Look at Me. Versions of many of the big hits of the era – "Love Is Blue," "This Guy's in Love with You," "Mrs. Robinson," etc. – are included and performed with the choral group's usual earnestness as Conniff recreates the arrangements used on the original hit recordings. But the album title is confusing, to put it mildly.

At a time when Warp Records was known as "the premiere electronica label," along comes another album from this mostly acoustic quartet to drop some jaws with good old-fashioned musicianship. Richly accomplished for a sophomore full-length, Prince Blimey finds Red Snapper expanding rather than floundering for ideas. In a time where acid jazz was busy developing by artificial (sampled) means, Red Snapper's musical prowess became a force to be reckoned with, and many of the tracks here place heavy emphasis on the group's secret weapon: the rhythm section. On a drawing pad, many of these songs would look like pyramids, with the base (bass) end getting most of the emphasis and the top corner crammed with little harmonic afterthoughts. The double bass is essential to the success of these tracks, featuring Ali Friend growling, slinking, and sliding on the frets as confidently as Zeus with a thunderbolt in his hands. Similarly, Richard Thair keeps his drums in time with Friend – hopscotching, marching, and breakbeating from R&B club to jazz dub to acoustic jungle.

It might be a bit surprising that one of the most international chillout and lounge music approaches released on Elektrolux so far comes from Switzerland. On the other hand, this is just a logical consequence as it is the only European country with four official national languages. By their debut album “Yeki”, the Zurich-based musician Flavio Maspoli and DJ André Baumgartner aka Espresso Del Lago want to go beyond constricting frontiers, to take up all kinds of multi cultural influences and to transform them into something new. This approach would not be complete without the particular charm and soul of human voices. Indeed, the album opener "Sa Trincha“ with Spanish vocals by Monica takes its orignal aesthetics from the idea of Mediterranean chillout in a Cafe del Mar style…

Music is life. This is the artistic approach of the three members of the British-Belgian Ambient Jazz project Groovecatcher. With their Elektrolux debut, the U.K. producers Simon Cooper and Phil Webb and the Belgian singer Manuela Van Geenhoven have managed to release one of the highlights of the label's 10th anniversary year. Their After The Rain album is an intensive encounter of organic naturalistic Ambient pop and jazzy lounge sounds between Balearic Beats and mellow Drum'n'Bass. Groovecatcher's music takes you from a smoky jazz club in the heart of town to a secluded beach to catch the sunrise, from a street-corner to an ocean drive.

Astrud Gilberto, the Brazilian canary with the voice like honey and diction that defied belief, has been compiled many times on Verve, but rarely as well as on her entry in 2003's The Diva Series. A 21-track of her prime decade, the '60s, this one includes all of the classics associated with her: "The Girl From Ipanema," "Agua de Beber," "Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars)," "So Nice (Summer Samba)," and "Dindi." Not all of her LPs have been reissued on CD (in the States), so the compilers also added tracks that may surprise a few Gilberto fans, like "Eu e Voce" and "Canto de Ossanha (Let Go)."