Back catalogue: Classical

Review: After a six-year hiatus, acclaimed pianist Zhu Xiao-Mei returns with a personal and truly masterful recording of J.S. Bach's English Suites which completes her journey through Bach's piano works. This release marks a milestone in her extraordinary career and reflects years of preparation and a deep, daily relationship with Bach's music. Zhu Xiao-Mei's interpretation reveals the suites' rich subtleties and timeless essence, all of which are shaped by her dedication to living closely with each piece. Despite pandemic challenges and a meticulous search for the perfect piano, this recording captures her authenticity and the wonderfully contemplative nature of Bach's music.

Review: Past Inside the Present label head and ambient powerhouse zake aka Zach Frizzell has collaborated with several of his renowned peers over the years, not least From Overseas aka Kevin Sery and James Bernard. Their collaborative album Flint showcases them all their peak with an immersive blend of their own sounds making for a rich soundscape full of subtle depth and warmth. Beginning with 'Conifer,' the record evokes autumn's crisp air with understated drones and field recordings while the title track layers electronics, bass and guitar into a lush, Fripp & Eno-inspired sound. Together with other widescreen standouts like 'Fir' and 'Thistle' they create a beautifully cohesive and reflective ambient trip.

Review: zake has to be one of the most prolific musical creators out there right now, but even more remarkable than the amount of music he puts out is the fact that it is all so unwaveringly good. This time he has worked on a record with From Overseas: Demain Des L'aube comes on his own Past Inside The Present label on lovely opaque maroon vinyl and is another deep dive into his personal vision for ambient. All eight tracks pair devastatingly impactful synths that convey real melancholia with a gently persuasive sense of movement. They sweep up and around you, stretch out to infinity and leave a last impression on your heart.

Review: Barely a week seems to go by without us hearing from zake, the US ambient producer who is hugely prolific and also unwaveringly creative with each new project. For this latest in a long line of many essential albums on his own Past Inside The Present label he links with From Overseas for the sublime sounds of Demain Des L'aube. This is a 160-gram audiophile vinyl version that sinks you deep into his widescreen and sweeping crepuscular synth work. It is delicate and spare but hugely impactful and never less than utterly comforting, even when the moods can be heavily introspective.

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: It is now six years since Past Inside The Present label head zake dropped this debut album and in that time he has put out a steady, high-quality stream of sounds that have furthered honed in on ambient perfection. This latest album to start off 2025 is Caelum, an eight-track collection which features two versions of four originals, with the second half being Slow Blink Decayed takes that rework the first four cuts. It's another immersive work of frayed analogue synths, sweeping soundscapes, delicate drones and ambient beauty.

Review: zake has written a new album to get 2025 underway in his usual prolific fashion, and it comes as both a triple CD set with the same tracks in different versions, but also as this special vinyl release with five different pieces from his Caelum series, limited to just 200 copies. As you would expect from this most masterful ambient leader, this is another immersive work that blends shifting synthscapes with melancholic chord work, beautiful keys with more lingering feelings of sadness. Another triumph if you ask us.

Review: Wind Rust is the debut collaboration between zake (Zach Frizzell) and Almost Silent (Guy Teixeira). True to their signature sounds, it's a melange of ambient drone with elements of weather, erosion and decay. Teixeira used the Lyra-8 synth to generate natural, living sound textures while Frizzell deconstructed his stems through random selection creating a unique, evolving soundscape. The four tracks feature tactile, organic elements, like 'Thence' with its powerful string and field recording interplay and 'Dross' where synth harmonies build and vanish. Closing track 'Quell' crescendos with chaotic intensity. In capturing the essence of nature's unpredictable forces, Wind Rust makes for an arresting listen.

Review: eve is the debut collaboration between Past Inside the Present label head zake and Benoît Pioulard captures the serene magic of a quiet December night. Spanning four side-length tracks, the album grew from a decade of sound fragments all layered up "like family album photos." zake shaped the sonic base while Pioulard added textures with guitar, voice, dulcimer, melodica and synths. The title track evokes a wintry stillness with low swells and turntable crackles, while 'Frost' drifts on reverent vocals and shimmering drones. 'Pine' conveys forest mystery and 'Slept' closes with haunting loops and a delicate resolution like snowfall on an open field.

Review: Stay With Me is an album by Past Inside The Present label head zake and T.R. Jordan from back in 2022. Now it has been revisited for a series of remixes by Dotlight and extra synth and field recording additions by zake that have all been pressed up to 180 gram purple vinyl. It is a work of immersive ambient beauty, with slowly shifting soundscapes defined by the most subtle of synth wisps, but each conveys a great feeling. Dutch guitarist Dotlights brings gentle beats to the likes of 'Infinite Sound' that add downtempo depths and late night romance to the already soothing original sounds.

Review: In early 2023, zake and dotlights, long-time admirers of each other's work, connected over their mutual appreciation for, Stay With Me, the album released in summer 2022 by zake and T.R. Jordan. Inspired by that, dotlights - a Dutch guitarist and beatmaker known for his work with Chillhop Records and Memoir Music - began reworking the original stems with his signature lo-fi beatmaking and Balearic guitar touches. zake then collaborated on the project to incorporate new synths, field recordings, and tape manipulations. The result is a gorgeously escapist album with subtly uplifting melodies and plenty of laidback and blissed-out beats.

Review: Certain Path is a serene, piano-driven album by collaborators zake (aka label head Zach Frizzell), From Overseas which is Kevin Sery and City of Dawn aka Damien Duque. This reflective collection of seven pieces invites deep contemplation with tender piano motifs and subtle drones creating a meditative atmosphere. Opening with 'Where Time Slows Down,' the album blends delicate melodies with layered guitar textures. Inspired by Frizzell's wife, the title track offers heartfelt emotion, while 'Avec l'aide de Vincent' honours a close mentor. Throughout, the artists employ nocturnal recording sessions, field recordings and analogue treatments to craft an introspective, evocative listening experience.

Review: Past Inside The Present label head and ambient powerhouse zake and Tyresta follow up their recent and well-received The Worlds We Leave Behind with Jade, a companion album that expands on previous themes in three long-form tracks. It's a deep blending of pregnant drones and delicate details that is typically organic and analogue. 'Jade No. 1' layers analogue textures that make for a comforting, melancholic embrace, while 'Jade No. 2' features more fractured melodies and natural sounds that bring a sense of peace and calm. The third cut, 'Waiting For the Light,' is a lofty one with soft synths and orchestral gravitas that with the other two pieces make for a contemplative and reflective listen.

Review: Mutant has worked in collaboration with Milan Records and NEON to offer up this premiere physical edition of the OST for LONGLEGS which features music by Zilgi. The score accompanies Osgood Perkins' chilling thriller about an FBI agent hunting a brutal serial killer. To match the film's nightmare-like intensity, Zilgi crafted a dark and eerie soundscape using unsettling synths, warped instruments and subtle sound design. Sound designer Eugenio Battaglia contributes two tracks in collab with Zilgi and the result is a haunting, dissonant mix of electronics and rock that adds up to a spine-tingling experience that lingers long after the music fades.

Review: Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk reimagines the war film as a tense, near-wordless "single-take" experience. Set during the 1940 evacuation from the beaches of Dunkirk, the film captures the claustrophobic chaos faced by Allied forces encircled by German troops. German composer Hans Zimmer's score centrally shapes the film's pressure-cooker atmosphere, as a ticking motif sampled from Nolan's own pocket watch circumvolves a Shepard tone, never ceasing to up the audiovisual tension. This limited edition release of 500 hand-numbered copies on dark green vinyl includes liner notes from Nolan himself, offering insight into the film's sonic and structural design. More than just a soundtrack, Dunkirk was marked out as a landmark in psychological intensity through sound, precision-engineered for immersive listening.

Review: Hans Zimmer is out in a class of one when it comes to the most accomplished soundtrack designers of his era. He is behind plenty of the biggest Hollywood hits from Dune to Gladiator and now he releases part two of his acclaimed 2019 album. It blends the grandeur of symphonic music with the intensity of cinematic composition across 17 reimaginings of his most iconic soundtracks into epic orchestral suites. Highlights include a stirring cello-led 'Final Ascent' from No Time to Die, a serene 'A Time of Quiet Between the Storms' from Dune II, and a lush romantic suite from The Prince of Egypt and much more all performed by the Odessa Orchestra & Friends and the Nairobi Chamber Choir.

Review: In many ways its weird that Hans Zimmer has only won two Oscars - Best Original Score for The Lion King and 2021's Dune remake, alongside four Grammys. Before we reel off a fraction of the movies he's soundtracked, allow us to clear our throat. OK, let's do it - Gladiator, Inception, Blade Runner 2049, Interstellar, The Dark Knight, The Last Samurai, The Rock, we could go on and on. But while Zimmer is often associated with big budget, big screen spectaculars, he's also scored a slew of more intimate films. Like the Jessica Tandy, Morgan Freeman and Dan Aykroyd comedy drama classic, Driving Miss Daisy. Showcasing a more human side to his oeuvre, the five original tracks here are beautiful, sweet, tender, and truly moving. Meanwhile, the addition of Eartha Kitt's seminal Christmas anthem, 'Santa Baby', and Louis Armstrong's timeless 'Kiss of Fire', elevate the package.

Review: With its vast emotional and sonic 'scapes, this special soundtrack spans an epic 100 minutes over just nine tracks all of which offer a perfect snapshot of Hans Zimmer's signature bombast and thunderous drums. These extended pieces feature sweeping arpeggiated synths, vocal chants and rumbling bagpipes and the moods range from ethereal to ominous, wistful to sorrowful, often building into massive, dramatic crescendos, sometimes even within a single cue. Zimmer's masterful compositions create a truly epic listen and reaffirm his status as one of today's greatest living composers.

Review: German-born composer Hans Zimmer towers over the modern movie soundtrack world. He is one of Hollywood's most in-demand names thanks to his uncanny ability to make emotive, absorbing and moving scores that captivate your mind even without the accompanying pictures. Sony are celebrating his considerable skills with this limited edition but vast quadruple album on nice heavyweight 180g vinyl. It takes in eight sides of music from his most notable works including Lion King, The Last Samurai, The Pirates Of The Caribbean, The Dark Knight and more.

Review: Dune: Part Two has been met by rave reviews form both critics and cinema goers and there is no doubt that yet another epic soundtrack from Hans Zimmer has helped contribute to that acclaim. His work is another masterpiece that perfectly complements the epic saga's grandeur. Building upon the thematic motifs established in the first installment, Zimmer's score transports listeners to the vast, mystical world of Arrakis. With its sweeping orchestral arrangements and haunting electronic textures, the music evokes a sense of awe and intrigue and Zimmer's mastery of cinematic storytelling shines through every note as he captures the emotional depth and complexity of Frank Herbert's universe. From the thunderous percussion of battle sequences to the haunting melodies of desert landscapes, this is a sci-fi soundtrack essential.

Review: Hans Zimmer is really in a class of one for his scoring work. Dune: Part Two is another sweeping masterpiece that perfectly complements one of last year's finest films. Zimmer's talent for both contemplative and epic themes shines through while blending beautiful love themes with bold, powerful battle cries that immerse listeners in distant, captivating worlds. Collaborating with illustrator Greg Ruth, known for his work on Dune: Part One and The Dune Sketchbook, the team aimed to merge the epic with the intimate here and do so with aplomb on a double 140g coloured vinyl in a quadruple fold-out sleeve.

Review: In Dune: Part Two, Hans Zimmer's score builds upon the epic saga with powerful bombast and intricate themes. The enchanting love motif and thrilling action sequences showcase Zimmer's talent, enhancing the film's atmosphere to unparalleled levels, ensuring an unforgettable cinematic experience. Standout pieces include are the gorgeous love theme for Paul and Chani, introduced in 'Beginnings Are Such Delicate Times' with romantic woodwinds and soaring synth. Zimmer's ability to craft a rich world in sound is evident throughout, with eerie vocals and deep brass setting an ominous tone in tracks like 'Eclipse' and 'Harvester Attack.' Action sequences like 'Worm Ride' and 'Ornithopter Attack' include intense percussion and bursts of Paul's motif. The album balances foreboding dread with hopeful themes, culminating in a triumphant victory in 'Kiss The Ring.' Zimmer's themes weave together seamlessly, with the House Atreides theme transformed into a beautiful love theme and the 'Holy War' motif evolving into Paul's Victory theme. Part Two's score is a triumphant step-up from the first film and a soundtrack that is equal to the amazing visual appeal of the film it supports.

Review: Let's face it, Hollywood director Christopher Nolan broke the mould with his re-envisioning of Batman. Taking things closer to the original comic books, themselves forced to 'go soft' by censors in the early-1950s, his films payed direct tribute to the saga's direction from the mid-1970s onwards. A trilogy of movies that were visually arresting, tonally dystopian, and viciously unhinged. It's not clear if we'll ever get a superhero (or anti-hero) film series of that class and calibre again, the world on screen so immersive you quickly feel like a Gotham native. A big part of that universe-building comes through the music, which enlists two of the greatest names in the history of soundtracks to help weave the tales. Hans Zimmer has composed for more than 150 films, James Newton Howard in excess of 100. This compilation of their shared caped crusader efforts proves why they're so well respected.

Review: Twilight of the Gods features one of many evocative soundtracks from Hans Zimmer, Omer Benyamin and Steven Doar. Between them, they bring a sweeping cinematic scope to an epic narrative with their usual sense of masterful scoring. Zimmer and his collaborators blend orchestral intensity with atmospheric depth here to enhance the mythic tone of the story. From haunting melodies to powerful crescendos, this soundtrack captures the emotional gravity and grandeur of the gods' twilight moments and each track layers intricate instrumentation that pulls listeners into a vivid, immersive world that echoes the film's themes of fate, power and destiny.

Review: Bethesda Game Studios and Laced Records team up to bring the music of Bethesda's latest video game release, Starfield, to a deluxe vinyl edition. The anticipated follow-up record to titans in the open world genre, such as Fallout and The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim - also developed by Bethesda - the 2023 game makes ample use of orchestral scoring and motifs, befitting of the interstellar sci-fi genre it operates in. Suitably, they chose composer and producer Inon Zur for composition duties; Zur's deft electronic palette weaves astrally through orchestral and classical traditions, bringing several centuries' worth of musical convention into a single OST, backed by the Budapest Film Orchestra.

Review: Bethesda Game Studios and Laced Records have teamed up to release the Starfield soundtrack on deluxe vinyl. Music is central to Bethesda's games and composer Inon Zur has worked with the studio since Fallout 3 in 2008. For Starfield, Zur crafted a blend of orchestral and electronic sounds to capture the vastness of space and human curiosity. Influences range from John Williams and Vangelis to Debussy and John Cage, and it was all recorded by the Budapest Film Orchestra. The score features sweeping melodies, cosmic textures and Aeralie Brighton's vocals which help bring it to life in HD sound.