Presses Universitaires de France and Fr�meaux & Associ�s offer this biography of Ali�nor d'Aquitaine, analyzed and explained by Martin Aurell, professor of history of the Middle Ages at the University of Poitiers, Director of the Center of Higher Studies of Medieval Civilization and director of Cahiers de civilization m�di�vale. Martin Aurell portrays an exceptional woman with many facets. Ali�nor d'Aquitaine (1124-1204), Queen of France and Queen of England, a formidable political woman, mother of eleven children, patron of arts and letters, remains one of the greatest female figures in Western history. Separating the myth from the real, Martin Aurell allows us to see this complex personality that went through the twelfth century and whose death marked the end of the Plantagenet Empire.

Lucian, a prolific writer of the second century AD, was born in Samosata, on the eastern edge of the Roman Empire. In the True Stories, one of his most famous works, he invites the reader on an extraordinary journey. Between fantasy and pastiche of the great literary and mythological references, the True Stories can be seen as the first science fiction story in Western literature, with a lasting influence on many authors from the Renaissance to the present day. The second text, Contre l'inculte qui ach�te de nombreux livres (Against the uneducated man who buys many books), presents the satirist Lucian, denouncing with biting irony the vanity and stupidity of a Syrian from the court of Marcus Aurelius who confuses the appearance of knowledge with true culture. Denis Podalyd�s puts all his verve at the service of these texts and reveals all their flavor. Audiobook, in French.

For it's fourth opus, the most badass string quartet in France's young guard revisits standards written by some of the monuments in jazz, namely Mingus, Ellington, Coltrane, Monk and Shorter. And this four-piece is probably one of the most relevant around when it comes to artistic experiment based the material that belongs to our heritage. Here the RP Quartet shows it's increasing maturity as it closes in on the essentials of it's art, and Poney Jungle is a wild, powerful musical horse ride that clears every obstacle with sincerity and brio.

Produced by Andre Benichou, this record is the result of an encounter between Pedro Ibanez, the great Spanish classical guitarist, and Vadim Avdeev, the director and arranger of Boris Alexandrov's Red Army Choir. This collaboration between two universes combines the Iberian guitar and the Mediterranean traditions with the power and rigor of a Russian choir evoking the collective soul of the great peoples of the north.

Classical Music

“Springtime” is a celebration of the renewal, tranquillity and intoxication in a vocal jazz whose influences carry soul, spiritual and Latin nuances. This album marks the consecration of Annick Tangorra not only as a singer but also as a songwriter and composer. In the company of Mario Canonge, the man behind the splendid production of this album, plus Tony Rabeson, Thomas Bramerie, but also Alain Jean-Marie, Arnaud Dolmen et Adriano Tenorio as guests, Annick Tangorra gives us an album that is a master-class in finesse, elegance and sensuality. Augustin BONDOUX

(3-CD set) Everybody knows Karol Wojtyla… without knowing it. For Karol Wojtyla and Pope Jean-Paul II are only one and same person. His poetry and theater works have been published under various pen names between 1950 and 1979 in the Polish catholic press of Cracow. His works reveal and express this curious mixing of the divine call and the encounter between art and faith, literary and religious expression, poetic and Holy Scripture. Actor Andrzej Seweryn, also from Poland, and a member of the prestigious “Comedie Francaise”, reads Karol Wojtyla’s poetry in this 3-CD set – in French.

Presses Universitaires de France and Fremeaux & Associates offer this biography of Francis I, analyzed and explained by Pascal Brioist, professor of the universities, specialist of the intellectual and scientific history of the Renaissance. The evocation of Francis I awakens in us the school memories of portraits of Clouet or Titian, the Battle of Marignan or the stay of Leonardo da Vinci Clos Luc�. But beyond the agreed images, who exactly was this patron king? What were his political enterprises? Pascal Brioist details the biography of the great man, his education, his training, his practices of power and his inclination for the arts. A destiny that takes shape against a backdrop of national construction (the linguistic unification of France), European events (the wars of Italy, the beginnings of the Reformation, the rivalry with the Habsburgs) and world history (the New World race).

The original soundtrack of Timgad shines with all the mischief and good humor present in Fabrice Benchaouche's much-praised humanist social comedy. Its intoxicating theme can be found here in several forms, all o fthem striking. Ludovic Beier (winner of the 2007 Francis Baxter Award from French Rights' Society SACEM), explores this universe and its prestigious associates - Sanseverino, Thomas Dutronc, Toots Thielemans, Angelo Debarre and others - and proves how rare a composer and arranger he is. He adds a ''world music'' touch to this soundtrack, borrowing not only from the sounds of the Middle East and Andalusia, but also from jazz and Latin music, while the presence of a string orchestra provides a density and groove that echo the great film scores of the 60's and 70's, especially the music of Claude Bolling, Vladimir Cosma and Lalo S.

Le Pere Goriot was written in 1835 by French novelist and playwright Honore de Balzac as part of his novel sequence La Comedie humaine. The plot, set in Paris in 1819, follows the intertwined lives of three characters: the elderly Goriot, a mysterious criminal named Vautrin, and a young student named Eugene de Rastignac. This work is widely considered to be Balzac’s most important novel. The characters that appear in this novel had appeared in his earlier works as well, a trademark technique utilized in much of Balzac’s fiction. He wrote the first draft of the book in just forty days, then published it first as a serial in the Revue de Paris between December and February. The novel version was released in March 1835. The novel in its entirety is read here by award-winning French actor Bruno Putzulu, who has performed both on screen and on stage.

Playing with trumpeter Michel Bonnet in Mem'Ory are some of the greatest New Orleans-style musicians around (as heard in such bands as Pink Turtle, the Haricots Rouges, Claude Bolling Big Band etc.) And for more than a decade, the Mem'Ory band has been paying tribute to the great Kid Ory (and his Creole Jazz Band) on stages all over the world. Ory pioneered jazz, but Mem'Ory doesn't play covers: they play ragtime like their hero would be if he were still here today. Besides, the great trombonist never recorded most of this material! Mem'Ory and their music have all the savour of that avant-garde style, and all the power of that timeless music. This is vintage material of today - together with it's fire and swaying accents - played with all the dynamism of a band whose members are the music's best current representatives.

(2-CD set) The glorious moments of operetta between the two wars glow with names such as Yvonne Printemps, Andre Bauge, Marcelle Denya, Roger Bourdin, Ninon Vallin, Urban, Edmee Favart, Georges Milton... At last we may enjoy them reunited in this boxed-set. Includes a 40 page booklet with both French and English notes.

From the banks of the Marne to the Mississippi Delta, the fiery and provocative music concocted by Dominique Cravic and Didier Roussin (working under the band name Les Primitives du Futur) was inspired by the years when pop music in Paris - the music played in dancehall's called Bals-Musettes - was intermixed with the music of many cultures. The sound is traditional, with tints of jazz and beguine, rocked by gypsy and Italian accents. This release combines Cocktail d'Amour, the group's first album (which established the band's international reputation) with Blues story & the New Blue 4, which features exclusive tracks taken from Dominique Cravic's personal tapes.

In a civilization determined by nearly 2,000 years of Judeo-Christianity, the prisms of analysis have become common to thinkers, philosophies and judgments, forming blinders to the exercise of reason. Michel Onfray, through this homage to popular wisdom and the teachings of nature, proposes to escape from it. Empirical and pragmatic knowledge is placed at the heart of reflection in order to question our relationships with nature, with the life it makes possible, and with the animals that populate it. This second set of Cosmos begins a post-Christian work of building a wisdom armed with reason, a reflection that goes beyond philosophy to include art and the sacred, but also the rhythms and breaths of nature.

This is the second volume of Fremeaux's collection about the History of Sexuality. Co-published with famous publisher "Presses Universitaires de France," this collection delivers historical lectures on sexuality studies by the best specialists of different periods. These private lessons are told, explained, and analyzed by Sylvie Steinberg, Gabrielle Houbre, and Christine Bard, all historians. Michel Foucault's work has emphasized the cultural character of all sexuality, variable in space and time, and it's dependence on religious, scientific, and political discourses and issues. This release aims to provide an accessible and lively account of historiographical developments. He tackles all the cultural constructs of sexuality, the specificities of each historical period and their significant evolutions.