Gandalf - Gandalf (1968)

Gandalf's self-titled album has some attractive baroque-psychedelia with a spacey air, though its quality depends very much on the standard of the material. Generally they're better the more they rely on the slightly weird and spacey production, as on "Scarlet Ribbons" and their cover of Tim Hardin's "Hang on to a Dream." On tracks like "You Upset the Grace of Living" there's a nice balance of melody and quasi-classical keyboards on the cusp between pop, progressive rock and psychedelia. "Can You Travel in the Dark Alone," one of the few originals (by Peter Sando), is nice, harmonic sunshine pop with a slightly experimental feel, along the lines of some of the better things being done by Californian cult figures like Gary Usher and Curt Boettcher at the time. Other selections are nothing special, however.

Maxophone - Maxophone (1975)

One of the most prominent Italian progressive rock groups of the '70s, this album was recorded in 1973 and is an outstanding document of the era. 

Reissued here for the first time, the original has long been a sought-after album in progressive rock circles and is often name-checked alongside early Genesis, Cressida, and Area. Maxophone was inspired by classical music in their prog maneuvers, and the band featured three prominent avant-garde classical performers -- Mauruzio Banchini, Sergio Lattuada, and Leonardo Schiavone -- in their ranks. These musicians matched with the rock trio of Roberto Giuliani, Alberto Ravasini, and Sandro Lorenzetti made for a unique combination. Exploring a myriad of influences, they succeeded in creating a music of composites that was entirely unique. The group mixed classical, folk, and traditional with avant-garde, rock, and even Neapolitan traditional music. An eclectic mix that has many similarities to the more prominent Italian progressive rock group Area, with whom they often toured. Formed in Milan, the group lived a short career, producing this sole album before splitting. The album is reissued here by the archivist label Akarma in an authentic representation of the original album. A version of the album was recorded in English for the 

American market, but has fallen through the gaps, and we have this single album in Italian to ponder the heady activities of the European progressive rock scene.

Sam Brown - 43 Minutes (1993)

43 Minutes is the third studio album from English female singer-songwriter Sam Brown. It was released in 1993 by Brown's own label, Pod Music.

43 Minutes peaked at No. 132 on Australia's ARIA Charts. "Fear of Life" was released as the album's only single, and reached No. 135 on the ARIA Charts. In 2019, a remastered edition of 43 Minutes was reissued on CD through Pod Music.

Brown began writing 43 Minutes in 1991, during which time her mother was dying of cancer. Once writing was completed, Brown's label, A&M Records, provided the singer with £11,000 to demo her new material, with recording taking place in the summer of 1992. When presented to A&M, the label 

raised concerns over the material not being commercial enough. They requested Brown record a cover version of a song with hit potential and include it on the album, but Brown refused and split from the label. She told the Windsor Star in 1994: "I made a creative decision that I'd rather have artistic fulfillment than financial success."

Brown then looked at releasing her new material independently. She bought back the rights from A&M, and worked some more on the existing recordings. 43 Minutes was released in 1993 through Brown's own label, Pod Music, and through All At Once Records in Europe. The initial release 

sold 4,000 copies, and Brown embarked on a 22-date UK tour in early 1993 to promote it.

Speaking of the album, Brown told Staines and Ashford News in 1992: "Musically it's very different to what I have done before. It's all piano with other instruments and quite mellow." She added in 2000: "43 Minutes is the first album that really represents me. It's not directly about my mother's death, but it is a whole piece and very fierce. It really homed in on what I thought, what death chucks up at you."

Marsupilami - Marsupilami (1970)

Marsupilami were an English progressive rock band active in the early 1970s. Their name was taken from a famous Belgian comics character created by Belgian artist André Franquin.[1] In 1969, the band toured with Deep Purple, and played at the opening of the Isle of Wight Festival when King Crimson withdrew. They released two albums, Marsupilami (1970) and Arena (1971), on Transatlantic Records. The albums were reissued on Cherry Red Records in 2007. The band briefly reunited for gigs in 2011.

Jefferson Airplane - The Roar of Jefferson Airplane (2001)

The Roar of Jefferson Airplane is a compilation of songs by San Francisco rock band Jefferson Airplane without the ubiquitous "White Rabbit". 

"The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil" is followed immediately by "The House at Pooneil Corners", thus making a suite from the two similar and related songs originally released on separate albums.

Gamma Ray - Skeletons and Majesties (2011)

Skeletons & Majesties Live is the fourth live album of the metal band Gamma Ray. The album was recorded during Gamma Ray's 2011 concert in Pratteln (Switzerland) and contains acoustic renditions of the songs Rebellion in Dreamland and Send Me a Sign as well as the guest appearance of ex-Helloween and current Unisonic vocalist Michael Kiske on 3 tracks.

It was released both as an audio CD as well as a DVD on 30 November 2012.

Goran Bregovic - Karmen with a Happy End (2007)

Bosnian composer Goran Bregovic is fairly familiar even to a broad swath of Western audiences that do not know his name: his high-energy, rather anarchic music was featured in the film Borat, and he provided the zany quasi-Romani soundtracks for the films of Bosnian Serb director Emir Kusturica. In the 2000s decade he composed several more extended works that are "classical" only their greater length and reconciliation of a diversity of elements -- the basic sound of Bregovic's music continues to be characterized by blaring brass bands playing minor-mode gypsy-inspired tunes (Bregovic himself is not of Romani descent). This disc, like others by Bregovic, serves admirably as party music; his brass pieces sustain high energy over unusually long stretches. It's also quite an accomplishment, however, to adapt this language, however loosely, to the story of Bizet's Carmen and to a somewhat dramatic presentation: Karmen...with a Happy End is billed as an opera and is performed as one, although the sequence of events instead brings to mind the freewheeling structure of Kusturica's films and their wandering gypsy troupes. The modeling on Bizet is loose; there are no bullfights but rather a musical duel at the end. Carmen (here Karmen) does indeed start out working in a tobacco factory, and a few minor characters are taken from Bizet, but the story takes a new turn with the appearance of a Rumanian mobster named Ceausescu who forces Karmen into prostitution. Worrying too much about the correspondences with Bizet (there are a few purely musical linkages as well) is not the way to enjoy this score; inviting a large group of friends over to sample Eastern European hard liquor and listen to the disc is better.