Back catalogue: Classical

Review: This six-track release from the Musci archives offers up sounds that blend traditional instruments with synthesisers and electronics. It comes with remixes by Cut Hands and Nokuit and highlights the work of Roberto Musci, an Italian ethnomusicologist who has been active since the mid-80s. Musci's music gained renewed interest following the 2016 Tower of Silence compilation and got praise from legends like the late Ryuichi Sakamoto. It's dense, challenging, and unlike much else you will hear this year.

Review: The new Disney+ TV miniseries Agatha All Along sees Kathryn Hahn reprise her role as Agatha Harkness, a central superheroine and witch of the Marvel Comics universe. A sequel to the live-action miniseries WandaVision, Agatha All Along charts Harkness' travails of escape and persecution, in a contemporary magic realist narrative blending witch coven and superhero themes. Here the soundtrack to the new series appears in tasteful and fitting fashion and in LP format, featuring such well-chosen as 'Hava Nagila' by Traditional, 'Visions' by Plastic People, 'Season Of The Witch' by Donovan and 'Heads Will Roll' by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Review: Edvard Graham Lewis and Mark Spybey's collaboration fuses electronic rhythms, layered field recordings and ambient soundscapes into an album with striking depth and cohesion. Both artists bring decades of experienceiLewis from Wire, Dome, He Said and Spybey from Zoviet France and Dead Voices on Air. This project, however, ventures into fresh territory, blending experimental sounds with surprising grooves and sly hooks. Crafted remotely, each track unfolds a textured sonic landscape, offering listeners a unique glimpse into the creative synergy between two pioneers of boundary-pushing music.

Review: Kali Malone's The Sacrificial Code stands as a defining work of 21st Century minimalism, shaped by years of intensive study. Originally released in 2019, the album emerged from her time at Stockholm's Royal College of Music, where she explored sound, space, and alternate tuning systems under the guidance of organ tuner Jan Borjeson. Stripping composition down to its starkest form, she embraced canons and slow-moving harmonic shifts, slowly but surely stepping into a sound emphasising monumentality. Now, six years later, The Sacrificial Code is reissued via Ideologic Organ, featuring a new 2023 recording of the title track on a 16th-century organ. Malone's self-taught recording techniques bring out the instrument's spirant resonance, creating a time-dilating sound. Less mournful, more tranquil, the new version mirrors the concurrent transformations of music and listeners in step, over time.

Review: Starting at 'Dawn' and closing on 'Dusk', this is the arrestingly cyclical debut record from Polish multi-instrumentalist and composer Olga Anna Markowska. Deploying zither, cello, electronics and occasional wordless etheric voice, Markowska makes a slow work of the ethereal idiom, threshing her inspirations from a desire to "reconnect with (the cello), an instrument I've known intimately since childhood." For unexplained reasons, Markowska had to take time away from said extra luthier's limb for a limbo period of two years, in which new breathing space for creativity was to be found. The intense lulls and drastic highs heard here are a testament to this theme of reignition.

Review: The reissue of Moltitudine in labirinto, originally released in 2003, is a profound sonic exploration by ambient pioneer Gigi Masin and electronic artist Giuseppe Caprioli. This album merges Masin's signature subtle minimalism with Caprioli's raw electronic textures, crafting an intense and introspective experience. Moltitudine in labirinto draws listeners into a maze of sound that evokes hidden corners of the psyche, with low-frequency drones and looping motifs guiding the journey. Across nine movements, Masin and Caprioli create a cinematic symphony that feels simultaneously vast and deeply personal, channeling a 'harmony of the spheres' through restrained yet emotionally powerful soundscapes. The intricate structure and fluidity reflect a complex inner world, making each listening experience unique and meditative. For long-time fans, this vinyl reissue is a welcome revival of a work that remains a cornerstone of ambient and electronic music. Moltitudine in labirinto stands as both a historical document and a timeless exploration of ambient's expressive potential, an artful encounter of melodic finesse and electronic depth that feels as relevant and poignant today as it did upon its original release.

Review: This EP weaves a labyrinth of sound, where the absence of clear genre boundaries is the only constant. The opener leads with ambient pulses, before shifting into the hypnotic, bass-heavy swells of 'Infrasound Loop,' as if crossing into a parallel dimension. As it unravels, 'Submerged Reactions' builds a wave of evolving textures, quietly oscillating between glitchy abstractions and weighty drones. Throughout, the artists' mastery of subtle, complex layers remains apparent, each track a gradual immersion into its own sonic world. On clear vinyl, it's an intricate, immersive listen-complex yet fluid, intricate yet accessible, making it easy to lose yourself in the flow.

Review: Lorenzo Masotto is an Italian pianist and composer from a village near Verona who studied at the Conservatory F.E. Dall'Abaco and the Hochschule fur Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar. His music now returns to Whitelabrecs with his new album Earde which is inspired by the landscapes surrounding his hometown in Northern Italy and reflects the beauty of local nature and Masotto's travels through Iceland and the Dolomites. Recorded in a deconsecrated church to capture its natural acoustics, the album explores the deep connection between place, memory and creativity which gives rise to a meditative, harmonic experience.

Review: Buenos Aires-born but now based in Barcelona, Nicolas Melmann explores sound's social and poetic dimensions through what he calls "transdisciplinary projects." He is inspired by Erik Satie's "furniture music" and his compositions create spaces of calm and contemplation as evidenced here on this lovely new blue LP. Musica Aperta blends acoustic and electronic elements with rich harmonies where soft textures meet delicate raspiness and it is divided into three parts. Each one slowly immerses you in time while echoing Satie's concept, Arvo Part's minimalism and Phill Niblock's roughness. It is a calming and cathartic escape from the fast-paced of modern life.

Review: Yumiko Morioka's Resonance was originally released in 1987 on Akira Ito's Green & Water imprint. Album, artist and label would all trifect to help along the enviro-ambient sound of which Ito was to become a part. For its quiescent but heartrending chamber pianos, Resonance was known for its use mostly in documentaries and as background music for spas, which hardly befitted the weight of Morioka's actual achievement at the time. By 1994, Morioka had moved to California, where she had shifted her focus to family life, unaware that Resonance had gained a new following outside Japan via online platforms. In 2017, when Morioka learned of this, she was recovering from a devastating California wildfire that destroyed her home and belongings. Despite the tragedy, she returned to Japan, worked in commercial music, and later opened a chocolate shop in Tokyo. Resonance, recorded on a Bosendorfer grand, blends improvisation with calm, introspective beauty, influenced by both Japanese environmental music and Western composers such as Erik Satie. The album was remastered in 2023, preserving its serene quality.

Review: The makings of Murcof's new album Twin Colour were first germinated in 2020, shaped by the early days of the pandemic lockdowns. The first volume in a new multidisciplinary project between Fernando Corona (Murcof), his daughter Alina Corona, and his colleague Simon Geilfus, Twin Colour is born of less conception and more studio heuristics, though it draws many of its inspirations from some of the 80s material that Murcof had laid down at the start of his career. As such, an impressive combo of tape-hissed coldwave and modern, progressive ambient is heard here, straying from Murcof's trickier material for something much more roughshod, tawny and dramatic.

Review: It's been a long time since Halo: Combat Evolved revolutionised the word of first-person shooter video games. Graphically superior to anything that had come before it, the franchise also benefits from a spectacularly gripping storyline in which humans are outgunned and out-teched by a ruthless and uncompromising alliance of superiorly equipped alien races united as The Covenant. The titular Halo adds a kind of Prometheus air of uncertainty, as nobody really knows what it does until attempts to activate the galaxy-destroying weapon reveal something worse than death - a parasitic breed called the Flood. If all that was enough to blow everyone away in 2001, 2004 brought us to a whole new level of immersion in this future scape. Just like its predecessor, a big part of the impact was the visionary score by gaming soundtrack masters Martin O'Donnell and Michael Savatori. Now here it is in all its Gregorian chanting glory.

Review: In the right circles,, Martin O'Donnell and Michael Savatori are living legends. Working with the iconic US video game company Bungie Inc, the pair put their names on the map - or maybe maps? - by creating soundtracks to a number of high profile titles, either as a duo or individually. O'Donnell is arguably the better known, or at least has the bigger online persona, but both composers deserve plenty of credit. Halo: Combat Evolved was the first title in what is now a huge and genre-defining first person shooter franchise, and the score reflects the emergence of video game music as an integral part of the on-screen action. O'Donnell and Savatori's efforts to ensure instrumentation dramatically changed with events in the game, which is by nature relatively non-linear, was a revelation. While their efforts to separate these into individual suites foresaw the rise of playable stories as films in their own right.

Review: The full 83 track suite from the original Halo trilogy of video games is here, bringing you an exemplary score befitting of one of the most acclaimed Arcadian future combat shooter game series in the world. Now you can figuratively "don" your very own sonic Spartan supersoldier suit, as the game's trademark musical motifs - mystical Gregorian choral chants, missionary orchestral movements, gloried verging-on-prog upswells and downturns - are laid in pristine electronica-augmented fashion, by composers Martin O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori and C Paul Johnson. The midpoint of the record marks a highlight, where the Halo 2 soundtrack heard a long list of A-list musician collaborators, marking a heavy metal and nu-metal sojourn.

Review: Laced Records and Halo Studios partner up to bring the epic soundtracks of the original Halo trilogy to vinyl for the first time, remastering and revamping 83 original scores from Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 3. the music that defined a franchise is thus ethered in perpetuity. Weaving orchestral elements, prog rock, drum corps marches, and heavy metal, Halo presents a perfect bottling of angst and militancy; owing to its popularity with a certain teen gamer cohort, Halo 2's score especially made history as the first video game OST to chart on the Billboard 200. Now, each soundtrack is presented in its own sleeve with custom artwork, and comes in a collector's box adorned with a debossed Halo logo and silver laminate finish.

Review: In celebration of Arvo Part's 90th year, his latest release showcases the Estonian composer's continued exploration of minimalist, spiritually charged sound . Part's work has always sought to blend the sacred with the secular, and this collection of new renditions brings forward the timeless resonance of his choral and orchestral compositions. Opening with 'Littlemore Tractus,' based on John Henry Newman's reflections, the piece sets the tone of quiet, introspective change that permeates the entire work. His music, a dialogue between sound and silence, invites profound contemplation, with the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir under Tonu Kaljuste's direction offering nuanced, deeply attentive performances. Compositions like 'Vater unser,' showcase Part's ability to transform liturgical text into transcendent musical experience. There's an undeniable spiritual gravity in pieces such as 'Cantique des degres' and 'Sequentia,' where strings and vocals weave in delicate yet forceful patterns, revealing a steady undercurrent of renewal. The rich textures in these works evoke both a longing for and a reconciliation with the past, capturing Part's life-long exploration of sacred music's dialogue with the world. The album culminates with 'Vater unser,' an evocative reworking that brings together choir, strings, and piano, offering a meditative close to an album that is as much about reflection as it is about the continued forward momentum of Part's artistry. Recorded in Tallinn's Methodist Church, this latest chapter is a continuation of the Part-Eicher partnership that has defined so much of his career, expanding the legacy of albums like Tabula rasa and reinforcing Part's place as one of the most significant voices in contemporary classical music of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Review: This new one from our favourite US ambient outlet takes the form of a selection of long-form compositions from artists who are close to the label. As such it's a perfect reflection of its signature sound - deeply immersive soundscapes, slowly shifting synths and meditative moods made with a mix of hardware tools, guitars, pedals and even baritone vocals. It's named after a Norwegian term for warmth and intimacy, which certainly plays out from the evolving loops of 'A Whisper' to the textured melancholy of 'Canaan' and the reverberant drift of 'Coronation Ring'.

Review: Deep Valley is a new collaborative work by Australian artists Seaworthy aka Cameron Webb and Matt Rosner and they came together for it during a week-long residency at Bundanon Art Museum in New South Wales. The property which was gifted to the Australian public by artists Arthur and Yvonne Boyd in the 1990s offers a unique landscape along the Shoalhaven River and is surrounded by sandstone cliffs and diverse wildlife. Drawing inspiration from Boyd's belief that "you can't own a landscape," Deep Valley combines the inspiration of that setting with environmental recordings, guitars, piano, and electronic processing all of which aim to highlight the transient nature of ecosystems and encourage you to reconnect with the sounds of nature.