Entertainment is illusion. It is our leela, not that of the gods. And its face is the performing artist, whether musician, singer or actor. Artists add their magical ingredient to those of others, something of their creative and passionate selves to the labour of many. Without recording technology you’d have no sound, and without a market, there’d be neither musician nor public.

Music is composed of a myriad forces, aesthetic, social, and material which feed into each other. There are the performers of course, then the people who make the medium they use – the media makers. There is also a group not very well known to the general public – music historians. Go to them. They have many interesting things to say and will deepen your listening pleasure in unexpected ways.