Genre-hopper extraordinaire Ryuichi Sakamoto's Smoochy album is one I find myself listening to from time to time always with a renewed sense of wonder. It's almost like I keep finding new things about it everytime I listen to it.

And this is a crucial album if you want to find out what this man's music is all about and how it got where it is today. In it are the seeds of everything he went on to do, be it his electronic explorations with Alva Noto, his acoustic albums with piano and strings, or even his ongoing romance with bossa nova and other latin american music languages. It's all here.

I'm going to leave you with one of my favorite tracks - Bibo No Aozora - one that has been reworked by him in multiple ways in the past and always successfully, which only goes to prove just how simple in their complexity his songs really are. And in this lies his greatest gift. Enjoy it.

If you haven't heard of this man, shame on you. But don't stress. Here's your opportunity to do so. And prepare to fall in love with one of the most beautiful male voices ever to grace a recording studio.

Ney Matogrosso is a brazilian artist with quite a long career on his shoulders and who's still going from strength to strength with every tour he undertakes. Yep, he's still touring and one of my biggest sorrows is never to have caught him live, even though he's been to my country many times. I'll try and reassess that the next time he'll be here. For sure!

Bandido is one of the many albums he recorded in the 70's after going solo (Secos e Molhados was his first musical project) and one that deserves to be better known. Combining popular and traditional brazilian music with a latin american twist, this album manages to seduce its listener and enchant us in a way very few can. I could choose any track to represent it here but right now I'm absolutely in love with his rendition of Gaivota (Seagull). So here it is.

I admit to having a strange ritual choosing my aural selections: frequently, I choose them visually. Confused? Don't be. I explain: for me, album artwork is almost as important as the musical contents. I cannot take them apart and I often times feel disappointed when a great album jacket doesn't correspond musically or vice-versa. This one here today is not the case, thankfully.

Headless Heroes is a project by a very eclectic New York combo headlined by singer Alela Diane who decided to assemble a collection of songs of famous contemporary songwriters and do some covers. The Silence of Love is the final result and it is beguiling. Since I'm not that familiar with the original versions, it was almost like hearing them for the first time ever, not even registering the fact that they are in fact cover versions.

I'm going to leave you with To You, my current favorite track of this, an album I'm sure I'll give a lot of spins to.