Take songs from the Middle Ages and present them using the heavenly voices of three female singers plus a pair of musical-genre-crossing instrumentalists and you have the group Voxfire and their new modern-meets-medieval-mashup recording, FONTIS, on Orenda Records.

Naked Allies, a collaboration between jazz musicians from Dublin and New York City, is a new quartet that weds jazz with certain undercurrent of rock aesthetic, and unfettered improvisation with tenacious composition. Alternately intense and complex, then melodic and beautiful, there is a duality at play always here, with defined compositions giving way to poignant yet challenging solos.

NOICE presents a futuristic sonic landscape in a riling, cinematic album that plays out like a hypnotic space opera. In the face of our technologically exploding culture, Alexander Noice explores the elusive nature of identity and self-discovery amidst an increasing array of distraction and affectation.

Desert Music, the debut EP from Los Angeles percussionist Ben Rempel, is a fresh, inter-genre exploration of time at different scales. Through a combination of minimalist percussion compositions and improvisation by an ensemble of distinctive musicians, Desert Music reflects on the grand, hostile, fragile, and rough beauty in Southern California’s deserts.

Ghosts of Merced (A Four-Part Suite), by keyboardist and composer R Scott, is a musical love letter to his roots in the San Joaquin Valley and the vastness that is central California. It represents a much-traveled road from his birthplace of Merced, the gateway to the wondrous beauty of Yosemite, to the sprawling, dystopian allure of Los Angeles. Produced by Chris Schlarb and recorded at Big Ego Studio in Long Beach, California, Ghosts of Merced was created over six days during the winter chill of 2019 with an 11-piece ensemble including a drums/percussion duo, brass, piano/keyboards, string trio, vibes/marimba, woodwinds to create a wide and dynamic sonic palette.