Tag Archive: Esoteric


Formed in 1969 by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown keyboardist Vincent Crane, Atomic Rooster forged a sound that blended proto‑metal heaviness with blistering Hammond‑organ riffs, explosive guitar work, and punishing drum patterns. Their music often brushed against what would later become doom metal, dark, powerful, and intense enough to shake the peace‑and‑love sensibilities of the era. Across seven studio albums released between 1970 and 1983, it becomes clear just how far ahead of their time they were, even as they frequently remained under the radar.
Compiled by Cherry Red’s Esoteric Recordings, this 2-CD set collects the band’s BBC sessions recorded between 1970 and 1981, including appearances on Radio 1, the Friday Rock Show,…

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Remastered 3CD boxset gathering together the three albums by Adrian Belew released by Atlantic Records between 1989 and 1992.
…The run of solo albums capped off a remarkable decade for Adrian Belew. In 1977, he was playing in a Nashville covers band called Sweetheart when Frank Zappa – acting on a tip-off from his chauffeur (naturally) – asked him to join his band. Zappa’s exacting standards and crack backing band added up to a crash course in experimental music and Belew flourished. The guitarist caught Brian Eno’s eye, who recommended him to David Bowie. When Bowie approached Belew after a gig in Berlin with an offer to join his band, Zappa was apparently furious. “Quite a guitar player you have here, Frank,” Bowie said, according…

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A founder of the jazz rock group Isotope, Gary Boyle embarked on a solo career in 1977 and recorded his debut album ‘The Dancer’ later that year. The recording sessions saw Boyle joined by such celebrated alumni as Robin Lumley, Rod Argent, Dave MacRae, Morris Pert and Simon Phillips. The resulting album was first released on Gull Records in 1978 and is now regarded as a classic in the jazz rock genre.
Boyle’s follow-up album was ‘Electric Glide’ and saw him joined by special guest guitarist Gary Moore (then with Colosseum II), along with contributions from Robert Awhai, Simon Phillips, John Giblin and Pete Jacobsen. ‘Electric Glide’ was met with acclaim and rightfully placed Gary Boyle among the great jazz rock players.

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Take a look at Thames & Hudson’s magnificently illustrated coffee table tome Off the Wall: Psychedelic Rock Posters from San Francisco, and among the phantasmagorical, hallucinogenic artwork promoting nights at venues such as the Fillmore, Winterland, Carousel and Avalon ballrooms, three names trailing clouds of lysergic glory occur more than any others – the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service. Yet although the Dead and the Airplane have become the stuff of legend, the other corner of the original San Fran acid-rock trinity has been rather forgotten. This 79-track boxset chronicling Quicksilver’s protean iterations over seven albums in the space of five tumultuous years – along with a generous helping of bonus tracks…

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…This expanded edition has been newly remastered from the original tapes and includes five bonus tracks and two additional discs featuring live performances recorded on the ‘Magic Is a Child’ tour at Hofstra University, Long Island and The Community Theater, Phoenix, AZ in October and November 1977.
Magic Is a Child was released in 1977, the debut for new Nektar guitarist Dave Nelson. Carrying on, though, from where their last set left off, Nektar’s fascination with shorter, punchier songs continued unabated, even while the keyboards continued to swell and the guitars shifted ever more toward the symphonic. Nektar’s brightening vistas were new, however, and a fatal flaw as far as their fans were concerned. They didn’t want…

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A landmark recording in British modern jazz. The 50th anniversary of Kaleidoscope of Rainbows by Neil Ardley. Newly remastered with new liner notes by Sid Smith.
This marvellous work completed a trilogy of works composed by Neil Ardley that had begun with The Greek Variations and continued with A Symphony Of Amaranths, works which were based on a sequence of notes that provided the basis for composition and improvisation.
Originally released in 1976, Kaleidoscope Of Rainbows was a series of pieces based on the five note scale of Balinese Gamelan music. The recording sessions featured contributions from such luminaries as Ian Carr (Nucleus), Paul Buckmaster, Barbara Thompson…

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Founded in Long Island, New York in 1969, Mountain were one of the most influential American rock bands of the late 1960s/early 1970s. Their musical style fused blues, hard rock and progressive influences and was anchored around the virtuoso guitarist Leslie West, the producer, writer and multi-instrumentalist Felix Pappalardi, drummer Corky Laing and keyboard player Steve Knight.
Taking inspiration from the legendary British band Cream, West had approached producer Pappalardi (who had worked with Cream and Jack Bruce) with a view to him producing West’s first solo album. The resulting album ‘Mountain’ was released in July 1969 and saw West backed by Felix Pappalardi on bass and keyboards and drummer N.D. Smart.

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Jethro Tull released their debut album in 1968, titled This Was. Shortly after the release, guitarist Mick Abrahams left the band to embark on his own solo career and play a more blues-based rock. Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull was leaning towards incorporating more folk and rock in their sound, leaving behind the blues influenced rock of their debut album. Although there were no ‘Mick Abrahams is God’ statements spray painted around London, he has always been recognized as one of the great guitarists of that era. He formed the band Blodwyn Pig, and they released their debut album in 1969. By 1970, following their second album, Blodwyn Pig had run its course and basically split. It is worth noting that both albums made the U.K. top 10 album charts and were…

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In 2012 he recorded several solo albums and began touring as a solo artist in Europe and the USA with his own band. Martin’s approach to live performances has seen him perform as an acoustic trio with Dan Crisp (vocals, guitar) and Alan Thomson (bass, guitar) and as an electric band with Terl Bryant also joining on drums, with both incarnations meeting with praise from both fans and critics.
This new album features a wonderful performance by Martin’s acoustic band recorded on 19 April 2025 at The Center For The Arts, Homer, New York and a marvellous set by his electric band recorded at the Woodstock Forever Festival in Germany in August 2024. Both performances feature Martin’s solo work and Jethro Tull classics.

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Official 5CD box set featuring all of the surviving British radio and television appearances by the legendary Strawbs between 1966 and 1984.
The roots of Strawbs go back to 1963 when Dave Cousins and Tony Hooper founded the bluegrass duo The Strawberry Hill Boys. The first Strawbs’ album was issued in May 1969 and saw the band embark on a wonderful career which produced a series of classic albums. Dave Cousins was the visionary, gifted musician and songwriter at the helm of many line-ups of the band which at various times featured such notable members as Ron Chesterman, Tony Hooper, Rick Wakeman, Richard Hudson, John Ford, Blue Weaver, Dave Lambert, Chas Cronk, Rod Coombes, and John Hawken. Cousins’ musical vision…

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Halfway to the Stars gathers all the recordings made by Jack and his band The Cuicoland Express between 2001 and 2003. Includes the albums ‘Shadows In The Air’, ‘More Jack Than God’ and the double album ‘Live at The Milky Way’, recorded at The Melkweg in Amsterdam in October 2001, along with the concert video ‘Live at The Canterbury Fayre’, recorded in 2002.
‘Shadows In The Air’ was Jack’s acclaimed 12th studio album and saw him reunited with Eric Clapton on re-recordings of two Cream classics, ‘Sunshine Of Your Love’ and ‘White Room’, along with other notable guests including Dr. John and Gary Moore.
‘More Jack Than God’ was his next studio album and featured new material…

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Newly remastered 4CD box set by Peter Hammill featuring his first four studio albums issued on his own label, Fie! Records, between 1992 and 1996. Peter Hammill first came to prominence as the founding member and voice of the legendary progressive rock group Van der Graaf Generator.
Alongside his work with Van der Graaf Generator, Peter Hammill has enjoyed a long career as an innovative and ground-breaking solo artist. In 1992 he established his own label, Fie!, to handle his solo work, beginning with the release of the acclaimed ‘Fireships’ that year. A more introspective work, the album was labelled in the original liner notes as “Number 1 in the BeCalm series” and received much critical praise thanks to songs such as ‘I Will Find You’, ‘Curtains’ and ‘Gaia’.

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Esoteric Recordings present the release of Gemini – Pieces for Piano, a brand new album by Ant.
Gemini – Pieces for Piano was recorded between October 2022 and October 2025 and features what Ant describes as the best of the keyboard compositions he has written since the release of his previous solo piano album Soirée in 1999. The title of the album comes from a piece of the same name that Ant wrote for the celebrated pianist Martha Argerich, who premiered the work in duet form in 2018. Gemini – Pieces for Piano includes Ant’s solo version of the track. Anthony Phillips has stayed the course, having long mastered the art of the quiet overachiever. While many of his contemporaries have settled into a predictable cycle of nostalgia, ‘Ant’ continues to operate as a singular moodsmith.

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Clearlight was formed in 1973 and was the vision of gifted pianist and composer Cyrille Verdeaux. The first work to appear under the Clearlight name was ‘Clearlight Symphony’, recorded in 1973 and 1974 and first issued by Virgin Records in early 1975. The album was notable for featuring Gong members Steve Hillage, Tim Blake and Didier Malherbe. The follow-up album, ‘Forever Blowing Bubbles’ was recorded in the summer of 1975 and featured a full band formed by Verdeaux and former King Crimson violinist David Cross guesting among others.
1977’s ‘Les Contes du Singe Fou’ was recorded with a full band who now included former Magma violinist Didier Lockwood and was a fine fusion of jazz, psychedelic…

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First released in October 1974, the album was a conceptual piece based upon the theme of a travelling circus and was recorded at Chipping Norton Studios in England. The studio had been the location of the recording of the band’s previous album ‘Remember The Future’, issued in 1973. For Down to Earth the band opted for a more direct approach to their music and sessions saw contributions from a horn section and legendary vocalist P.P. Arnold.
By the time ‘Down to Earth’ was released in Europe, ‘Remember The Future’ had become a top twenty US hit and the band travelled to the States to embark on a successful tour. A second US visit followed in the spring of 1975 to promote ‘Down to Earth’. The band enjoyed huge success…

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Formed in the 1980s, IQ is comprised of Martin Orford, Paul Cook, Mike Holmes, Peter Nicholls, and John Jowitt. This prolific band has released 14 albums, beginning with 1983’s Tales From the Lush Attic. They followed two years later with The Wake and Living Proof was also released in 1995. The next year saw the group release Nine in a Pond Is Here and Nomzamo came out in 1987. It was two years before they would release another disc, Are You Sitting Comfortably? and after another two years, IQ released J’ai Pollette D’arnu. 1993 saw the release of Ever and it would be three years this time until the world would see another album by IQ, Forever Live, released both in standard form and as a box set. The following year the group released Subterranea and Seven Stories Into ’98…

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