You won’t be seeing Mark Knopfler in melodramatic newspaper headlines or on talent show panels. The much-travelled craftsman prefers to reside wherever the song takes him, from writing room to rehearsal space, recording studio to concert hall. He is, as tirelessly and inquisitively as ever, on the trail of some musical truth, just as he has been since the 45s of Ricky Nelson and Lonnie Donegan, or the playing of Hank Marvin and Duane Eddy, sent him down a path that led to 125 million record sales. That approach to his life’s work is how the title of his new, eighth solo album (not counting a myriad of collaborations, productions and film soundtracks) came into being. It’s the other half, if you like, of his typically acclaimed double set ‘Privateering,’ which graced top tens throughout Europe and beyond in 2012.

Founded in 1992, the New York-based Brentano Quartet is known for its interpretations combining perfect technique and matchless musicality. Those qualities are even more obvious in this series of late Beethoven quartets with this first volume bringing together the Op. 127 and 131. This pure crystal of intelligence and brilliance will doubtless constitute a milestone.

The Esoteric Antenna label is pleased to announce the release of "Transformation”, the excellent bold new album by the legendary Canadian Progressive Rock band FM. With its roots firmly planted in late Seventies progressive rock - complex rhythms, driving bass lines, soaring melodies - the music on Transformation is symphonic in scope with not one, but two violinists on board. Co-founder and bass player/keyboardist Cameron Hawkins is joined by drumming legend Paul DeLong (Kim Mitchell, Roger Hodgson), viola/mandolinist Edward Bernard (Druckfarben) and violin virtuoso Aaron Solomon on nine, brand new compositions mixed by world-renowned producer/engineer Terry Brown (Rush, Tony Levin Band, Fates Warning, Dream Theater)…

Colin Vearncombe will forever be preserved in pop aspic as the maker of 1987’s melancholy worldwide hit Wonderful Life – No 1 in Austria! – but he hasn’t stopped working, despite his not having breached the top 40 for 27 years. Blind Faith, his seventh album under the Black flag, is a marvellous little thing – a less temperamental, less self-regarding cousin to Scott Walker’s first four solo records. Like them, it’s steeped in European balladry, and filled with delicious arrangements – the swooping strings and jazzy shuffles of Womanly Panther are a delight. Vearncombe’s slightly frayed baritone is a perfect match to the music, steering it clear of pomposity, filling it with humanity, even when the regrets well up – “I am not the man you want me to be,” he sings on Not the Man, “Here comes the talking / Slamming doors you then have to throw open.” Pop stardom is a long way in the past for Vearncombe, but Blind Faith is an album by a man very much in control of his gifts.

The Pale Emperor is the ninth studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on January 15, 2015. The standard version of the album contains ten tracks, while the deluxe edition includes three acoustic versions as bonus tracks. Produced by Manson and newcomer Tyler Bates, who met through their mutual involvement in the TV series Californication, The Pale Emperor eschews the band's usual industrial rock genre in favor of a more sparse, blues-influenced sound. The album was released to generally positive reviews from contemporary music critics, with several writers referring to it as his best album in over a decade, and was ranked by several publications as one of the best albums of 2015. The album was also a commercial success, debuting at number eight on the Billboard 200 with the band's highest opening week sales since Eat Me, Drink Me (2007). It also topped the national albums chart in Switzerland, as well as Billboard's Top Hard Rock Albums chart. It went on to peak within the top ten in fifteen other territories.

The Orb virtually invented the electronic genre known as ambient house, resurrecting slower, more soulful rhythms and providing a soundtrack for early-morning ravers once the clubs closed their doors. Frontman Dr. Alex Paterson's formula was quite simple: he slowed down the rhythms of classic Chicago house and added synth work and effects inspired by '70s ambient pioneers Brian Eno and Tangerine Dream. To make the whole a bit more listenable - as opposed to danceable - obscure vocal samples were looped, usually providing a theme for tracks that lacked singing. The group popularized the genre by appearing on the British chart show Top of the Pops and hitting number one in the U.K. with the 1992 album U.F.Orb…

Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford in 1968. The band is considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, although their musical approach changed over the years. Originally formed as a progressive rock band, the band shifted to a heavier sound in 1970. Deep Purple, together with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, have been referred to as the "unholy trinity of British hard rock and heavy metal in the early to mid-seventies". They were listed in the 1975 Guinness Book of World Records as "the globe's loudest band" for a 1972 concert at London's Rainbow Theatre, and have sold over 100 million albums worldwide…

Without Brian Eno, Roxy Music immediately became less experimental, yet it remained adventurous, as Stranded illustrates. Under the direction of Bryan Ferry, Roxy moved toward relatively straightforward territory, adding greater layers of piano and heavy guitars…

Johann Forkel, the biographer of J.S. Bach, numbered Müthel among the most remarkable of Bach’s pupils. Another of the great chroniclers of 18th century music, Charles Burney, described Müthel's works as 'so full of novelty, taste, grace, and contrivance, that I should not hesitate to rank them among the greatest productions of the present age.’ In Müthel's five concertos for keyboard and strings we nevertheless meet a distinctly individual composer, displaying sophisticated rhythms and harmonic playfulness. Presenting them on this set of two CDs, the young Polish harpsichordist Marcin Świątkiewicz makes his début on BIS. He is supported by his compatriots in the acclaimed period band Arte dei Suonatori, who clearly relish the often intricate and always eventful orchestral parts.

On this recording, the Britten Sinfonia's Associate Leader Thomas Gould directs the ensemble in Dmitry Sitkovetsky's beautifully realized and heartfelt arrangement for strings of Bach's great keyboard work, the Goldberg Variations. Sitkovetsky penned the transcription in 1985 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Bach's birth. It was inspired by Glenn Gould's remarkable 1981 recording of the work, and the transcription is dedicated to Gould's memory.

The Black Codex is a musical series in 52 episodes conceived by multi-instrumentalist, composer & producer Christiaan Bruin (SKY ARCHITECT, Adeia, Nine Stones Close, Mayra Orchestra, Chris). Originally released on a subscription basis where one new episode, with lyrics and artwork in PDF format, was released every week during 2014. In the course of 2014 physical editions were announced and eventually the whole series was released on 4 double CD’s packaged in a mini-album sleeve. Subsequently the four double CD sets where released as one package in this boxset with the addition of a 68 page booklet with all the lyrics and artwork created for this project.

Since the late '80s, Irish singer/composer Enya has become the most unlikely of international stars, delivering lush, Celtic-driven pseudo-classical odes in her signature Wall of Sound vocal style, rarely granting interviews, never touring, and generally taking as much time as she wishes between albums. Bucking odds and industry trends, her popularity has remained steadfast, allowing her to become the best-selling Irish solo artist of all time. Following 2008's snowbound And Winter Came, her silence stretched to eight years – the longest of her career – before the mists once again parted to reveal her eighth album, the evocatively titled Dark Sky Island.

Phenomenal first solo studio disc by this amazing gifted guitarist/vocalist from Denmark who is best known as the prolific leader/founder of the awesome power trio: Blindstone. Includes 10 tracks of outstanding, world-class, powerful, killer, retro-sonic, blues-based, total heavy guitar excellence that lands down hard with exceptional musical brilliance. Martin J. Andersen has arrived & landed rock solid to the core as a solo artist and has achieved true guitar rock greatness on the aptly titled, amazing beyond belief Six String Renegade disc. From start to finish, Andersen kicks our asses hard with his brain-damaging brand of high-voltage, electrified, guitar rock riffage/mojo. An excellent mix of vocal + instrumental tracks, the Six String Renegade disc finds the axemaster exploring his Blindstone + deep hard rock musical roots which always land with an ever-loving, vintage, blues-based, guitar rock vibe.

Black-Forest-born Arno Haas released his debut album Magic Hands in 2013 receiving high accolades by critics. His sophomore album Back To You is scheduled for release on October 22, 2015 on Mochermusic. The album starts full throttle with the title song Back To You. Perfectly arranged by Tom Saviano supports the brass group saxophonist Arno Haas. A treat for fans of cultivated jazz music with the emphasis on horns.

Michael Head, former frontman of the Pale Fountains and current co-leader along with his brother John – who is also a Strand – of Brit pop outfit Shack, turns in a stellar chamber pop performance with Magical World of the Strands. Head, who is no stranger to either classy, baroque pop or neo-psychedelia, has composed an album of gorgeously illustrated songs that are lushly orchestrated by a standard rock quartet augmented by a flutist (Leslie Roberts) and a string quartet. The result is an album that, while little known, is a classic, a masterpiece of modern chamber pop.