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Independent Music Recommendations - Sample on AMAZON
Hard to find good music these days? Here are some albums worth listening to. These recommendations are completely independent - AIM accepts no promotional fees or CDs whatsoever. The music rises or falls on its own merits. 'From the Collection' features old favorites. 'Honorable Mentions' are new releases that find their way into my collection and get played repeatedly. 'Discovery', AIM's highest distinction, is reserved for those rare occasions when new releases are among the best of their kind.

Willie Nelson - Stardust

The Great American Songbook has never sounded better. Every song in the original set of ten is timeless. The arrangements are simple and spare, not overblown or tied to an era. Willie Nelson finds all the music in each work and allows the essence to shine through.

Stan Getz - Bossa Nova

Jazz saxophonist Stan Getz' magical collaboration with composer Antonio Carlos Jobim and vocalist Astrud Gilberto still sounds fresh decades on. They nailed it. A version of the monster hit The Girl from Ipanema is on here.

             CD                           MP3

PFM (Premiata Forneria Marconi)

From Italy - the best art-rock band ever?

               CD                           MP3
 

               CD
 

Ray Lema / Professor Stefanov
and the Bulgarian Voices of L'Ensemble Pirin

Very successful Afro-Bulgarian fusion. Unique. You gotta hear it to believe it. A true adventure.

              CD

Trapezoid - Moon Run

This is folk music taken to a whole new level. Acoustic and string-band instruments abound, to be sure, but what comes across is soothing, evocative, and a cut above

              CD

 Schubert Impromptus

This piano music is very melodic, and exquisitely played by Alfred Brendel. A good introduction for people who think they won't like classical music.

Nightnoise -
     At the End of the Evening
     and
     Something of Time
 

These albums date from the late 1980s, but their timeless beauty never fails to soothe and revive. Flute, violin, piano, and synthesizer combine to yield a first-rate fusion of Irish and contemporary music. Inventive use of folk elements. Not to be missed.

Múm - Finally We Are No One

People use words like 'weirdsville' and 'creepy' to describe this electronica ensemble from Iceland, but Finally We Are No One struck me as sweetly naive, like a Rousseau jungle painting. To me, it's quirky, 'don't worry, be happy' music, coherently carried off with intriguing electronic effects. Maybe there's something more sinister lurking underneath (very apparent on the group's 2007 album Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy) but, then again, there were always tigers, their mouths dripping gore, hiding behind the leaves in those Rousseau jungle scenes.

 October Project

To call them a rock band from the '90s hardly does them justice. They deliver beautiful, complex melodies with gravitas, a level of seriousness that compels listening. The artistry and female vocals compare favorably to Renaissance, the art-rock giants of the '70s. 

Willie Nelson - Stardust

The Great American Songbook has never sounded better. Every song in the original set of ten is timeless. The arrangements are simple and spare, not overblown or tied to an era. Willie Nelson finds all the music in each work and allows the essence to shine through.