New releases last two weeks: Classical

Review: This beautifully presented box set gathers all five albums from Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoti's V.I.R.U.S series, a collaborative project spanning five albums originally released between 2002 and 2011. Disc one (Vrioon) sets the tone, with Sakamoto's beautiful (and frequently effects-laden) piano motifs rising above glitchy minimalist rhythms and experimental ambient soundscapes. The albums that follow offer subtle shifts in their collaborative sound whilst retaining the same core artistic approach, with the pair frequently alternating between poignant, slow-burn minimalism and emotive, mood-enhancing ambient maximalism. Throughout, the pair beautifully balance hard-wired electronic experimentalism with classical musicality.

Review: Swedish composer Ellen Arkbro's Nightclouds is a deeply introspective and romantic turn that collects five solo organ improvisations recorded across Europe in 2023-24. Departing from installation-based compositions, Nightclouds explores slow, chordal improvisations rich in texture and atmosphere while drawing on sacred music, ECM jazz and minimalism. Along the way, Arkbro creates immersive soundscapes that balance austerity and emotional depth while shifting between meditative stillness and modernist tension with standout recordings like 'Morningclouds' and two variations on the title track. Through meticulous mic placement and tonal clarity, Arkbro draws you in with the intimacy and vastness of her sonic world.

Review: The Guy Ritchie-penned film The Gentlemen centres on Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey), an American in London whose luxurious lap founders on the back of a lucrative but prone marijuana empire. As he plans to retire and sell his business, a web of schemes, blackmail, and betrayal unfolds as rivals plot to seize his fortune. British composer Chris Benstead's soundtrack is elusive and sluicing, incorporating Charleston-inciting bass undertows, ticking clocks and finger-clicking inquests, as of a main character's paranoia threatening to make truly manifest.

Review: Ambre Ciel is a Montreal-based composer and singer known for her dreamy, spacious soundscapes. Drawing from impressionism, American minimalism and contemporary classical music, her work blends layered violins, piano and ethereal vocals in both English and French so is a sophisticated and stylish sound. Coming from a family of artists, she began with violin at six, later experimenting with pedals, loops and harmonies. Her debut album Still, There is the Sea marks a delicate yet bold entry into her sonic world and is a deeply personal, atmospheric journey shaped by strings, acoustic textures and voice. It's an imperfect beginning, as she calls it, but one brimming with intention and beauty.

Review: Originally released in 2015, this reissue returns to the stunning debut full-length from Canadian electroacoustic composer Sarah Davachi, who is rapidly becoming a big deal in the world of experimental sounds. Emerging from brief but acclaimed releases on labels like Important Records' Cassauna and Full Spectrum, this album marked her as a unique voice within the world of minimalist and experimental sound. Trained at Mills College, Davachi's work reflects a deep understanding of synthesis and acoustic instrumentation, with a focus on patience, atmosphere and tone over flashy modular theatrics. Rather than overwhelming the listener with density, Davachi builds a deep listening album full of impressive tracks. Vintage synths like the Buchla 200, EMS Synthi and Prophet 5 provide an enveloping tonal palette that reveal the composer's intent to create a more intimate, hybrid sonic language. The opening track 'heliotrope' unfolds like smoke rising into a high ceiling, shimmering with evolving harmonic detail. 'wood green' moves from near-silence to a radiant calm. An album of introspection and careful design in a world of maximalist electronics, a rare piece of compositional grace. Its return in reissue form feels not only deserved but necessary.

Review: A fourth full length from the Montreal-based enigma. Sarah Davachi's electroacoustic compositions have become the stuff of legend and hallucination-inducing live shows, refrains that bore into your mind then soul, detailed and complex ideas borne out in minimalist moods capable of taking listeners beyond themselves, out to somewhere completely new. Talk about a curveball, then. All My Circles Run features five totally unique compositions which all share one common trait - they eschew synthesisers and instead each focus on a different instrument. Hence the titles. 'For Strings', 'For Voice', 'For Piano', 'For Organ', 'Chanter'. But, although the record's core parts represent a different move for the musician, Davachi's incredible ear for subtly powerful sounds remains at the centre of the experience. So prepare to be blown away again. Gently.

Review: Longfound Norweigan friends Erik Skodvin and Otto Totland pair as Deaf Center, a duo whose name plays cleverly on the notion of good hearing depending on a core of silence. Resurfacing from such nucleic muteness after five years, their new pair of extended pieces, Reverie, finds a disquiet daydream drawn from a rare live set transmitted in October 2024 at Morphine Raum, Berlin. Their first publication since 2019, it sees them in the fullest unconscious "zone", improvising, responding, encircling each other in real time. Smears of timestretched piano abound on 'Rev', while 'Erie' shoots for overtonal tension on an implied, rippling lakeshore. The music is at once gargantuan and contained, revolutionarily collapsing binaries of big and small.

Review: Deaf Center's debut LP gets a 20-year anniversary reissue on CD, pairing the original 2005 album with 20 minutes of unreleased material from the same sessions. Originally out on Type, Pale Ravine marked the first full-length by Erik K Skodvin and Otto A Totland, who've since carved solo paths via Sonic Pieces. Drifting between chamber composition, shadowy electronics and the hiss of old tape, the record draws on their Norwegian roots and personal family histories. Grainy textures, ghostly pianos and wind-blown field recordings conjure a mood somewhere between forgotten reels of silent film and weather-worn Nordic folklore.

Review: Brian Eno's career has always been about explorationiof sound, technology and the emotional power of music. After pioneering ambient music, Eno has consistently sought out new ways to blend different genres and voices and his latest collaboration with Beatie Wolfe continues this tradition. Wolfe, a British-American artist with an innovative approach to music and activism, complements Eno's atmospheric world with her emotive, alternative vocals. Their work, recorded in London, moves seamlessly from the meditative to the experimental, with tracks like 'Big Empty Country' offering stark contrasts between the brightness of the day and the shadows of the night. This release is not only a nod to Eno's sonic experimentation but also a testament to his lasting influence as an artist who always seeks to connect art with broader societal issues, especially the environment.

Review: Brian Eno, a towering figure in ambient music and a master of sonic landscapes, has shaped the contours of modern music through his production collaborations with iconic artists like David Bowie, Talking Heads and U2. His latest work with Beatie Wolfe, a conceptual artist from Los Angeles, encapsulates a career of endless reinvention. Recorded in London, the collaboration weaves together the worlds of alternative vocals and ambient soundscapes. 'Big Empty Country' serves as a vivid contrast between light and darkiits day and night versions embodying the very essence of Eno's immersive, evolving sound. Much like his work as part of Roxy Music and beyond, this release is both forward-thinking and introspective, grounded in a shared commitment to environmentalism and artistic exploration. It's a meditation on space, sound and feelingian unbroken thread in Eno's enduring legacy of artistic expression.

Review: Brian Eno, legendary master of ambient music and Beatie Wolfe, the LA-based conceptual artist known for her innovative blend of the physical and digital, unite for a collaborative sonic exploration. Throughout 2024, the two artists recorded material that bridges the boundary between deeply personal emotions and universal experiences, creating an evocative soundscape. The work pulses with the distinctive energy of Eno's ambient prowess, while Wolfe's haunting vocals add a layer of intimacy. On tracks like 'Milky Sleep' and 'Hopelessly At Ease', the listener is swept into a dreamlike state where time feels suspended. These moments of calm are balanced by the more urgent, yet still deeply meditative, 'Suddenly', which sways between serenity and tension. The delicate interplay between light and shadow becomes even more palpable on 'A Ceiling and Lifeboat', where the quiet sense of stillness gives way to a profound sense of rebirth. There's a sense of movement throughout the releaseiparticularly on 'Breath March', where rhythm and texture converge with palpable energy. Eno's atmospheric layers create space for Wolfe's voice to become a thread, guiding the listener through these reflective, almost sacred-feeling sonic spaces, where every note invites introspection and feeling.

Review: Brian Eno and Beatie Wolfe join forces on a dual release infusing two distinct musical visions rooted in shared environmental concern. Their new joint release unfolds across two sides, with Luminal offering a vocal-led collection leaning into alt-pop ambiances and timbres, before Lateral rears itself in counterpart as a seamless ambient composition, making up a study in contrast and connection. Recorded in London, the project reflects Eno's lifelong exploration of mood and atmosphere, alongside Wolfe's ongoing push to blur the lines of digital innovation and tactile experience. The project builds the activist art works of Wolfe, a British-American concept artist based in Los Angeles, named by WIRED as one of "22 people changing the world," and tracks the expression of music beyond language or form.

Review: Producer and guitarist Yutaka Hirasaka enjoyed a peaceful career pitstop with Breath, one of many to top up the beatsmith and cassette artist's now towering discography, and which now comes released on vinyl for the first time. Hirasaka's approach to music covers ambient, beat-driven landscapes, a format which has led him both to immersive live performance work and commercial ends. The homely aesthetic of Hirasaka's sound is heard once more on the wordless, texturally unperturbed Breath, which clears our airways far better than any shop-bought nostrum ever could, be it via the deconstructed guitar pan-plays of 'Orion' or the marzipan piano maunders of 'Amaretto'.

Review: Jameszoo aka Mitchel van Dinther returns with a cinematic journey blending jazz and contemporary classical. Written for Dutch ensemble Asko Schonberg, percussion group HIIIT, and Jameszoo's trio, Music for 17 Musicians explores themes from his 2022 work Blind. Central is a self-governing player piano controlled by custom algorithms creating autonomous musical decisions which add a unique, experimental edge. The music reflects van Dinther's fascination with detaching composer identity to invite active, unbiased listening. It is packed with rich orchestration and smart electronic interplay that nods to Steve Reich's classic while pushing onto new frontiers.

Review: Marking the beginning of Austro-Bohemian romantic-era classical composer Mahler's deep engagement with themes of resurrection and transcendence, Symphony No. 2 stands as his first fully personal statement in the form. Claudio Abbado's recording with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra remains one of the most striking interpretations available; spanning the breadth of Mahler's vision, from the luminous serenity of the softer passages to the thunderous force of its climaxes. This new edition revisits the original four-track tapes, offering a freshly remixed and recut version.

Review: Pianist Rachel Grimes is Rachel's and their sophomore album Music for Egon Schiele was originally released in 1996 on Quarterstick Records as a live score for a theatrical production about the titular Austrian painter. The performance of it was premiered in 1995 by Chicago's Itinerant Theater Guild with Grimes and two string players. The music is intimate and emotionally rich material that is stripped down to chamber pieces that rise and fall with real intensity. More focused than their debut Handwriting, this album blends melancholy, romance and beauty into a deeply affecting narrative that lingers long after the final note.

Review: SoiSong, the collaborative project of Ivan Pavlov (CoH) and Brit industrial music royalty Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson (Throbbing Gristle, Coil), was a brief but enduring exploration of electronica's least charted realms. Coming to in 2007, the duo fused Pavlov's raw digital landscapes and Christopherson's dark, whimsical touch, bringing a bold debut and stark break from convention, blending artificial vocals with live drums, jazz noir with tropical textures, and synthetic sounds. The boundaries of genre are brushed up against, with tracks like 'Dtorumi' and 'J3z' pushing the limits of post-90s electronic experimentation. A new mix of 'Lom Tum Lai Kwee', meanwhile, adds a hallucinatory grandeur, while the closer, 'Ti-Di-Ti Naoo', evokes transformations from rehearsal to performance.

Review: Mark Springer - long a restless force in post-punk, free jazz and modern composition - joins Neil Tennant for a cool-headed meeting of minds, fusing Springer's jagged piano suites with Tennant's metrical lyricism and raw delivery. The pair orbit very different creative poles: Springer, known for his time in London punk funksters Rip, Rig and Panic, often works in extremes; whereas Tennant brings a crisped, measured sensibility honed over decades of pop songcraft. Here they land somewhere unexpected, in a padded set of chamber-style pieces for piano, quartet and quintet, wrapped in a dry mist of vocals trading in reflection, dislocation and dream logic.

Review: The Eyes Wide Shut soundtrack was released in 1999 and weaves together haunting classical pieces, jazz standards and eerie original compositions by Jocelyn Pook. Her track 'Masked Ball' stands out as a chilling centrepiece that add to the film's surreal and unsettling mood. The inclusion of Chris Isaak's sultry 'Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing' and Shostakovich's haunting 'Waltz 2' deepens the psychological tension. The album was nominated for a Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media so was essential to the film's mysterious atmosphere. Pook's work, paired with Ligeti, Liszt and jazz legends still stands up as a great mix of seduction and suspense.

Review: One of the flagship albums by Aaron Funk aka. Venetian Snares (alongside Songs About Cats, Higgins Ultra Low Track Glue Funk Hits 1972-2006, Winnipeg Is A Frozen Shithole and The Chocolate Wheelchair Album), Rossz Csillag Alatt Szuletett marks itself out in his sonography as a breakcore album which, aside from its lobotomising breaks, features mostly classical strings and brass. Gloomy and melancholic, the album's title translates from Hungarian to "Born Under A Bad Star", i.e. "cursed from birth", and the record transmits a superstitious chain of influence, with track 3 covering Budapest composer Rezso Seress' 'Gloomy Sunday', which was said to have inspired the suicide of the original musician's own girlfriend. Renditions of Mahler, Stravinsky, Paganini, Prokofiev and Edward Elgar all follow in morose but energetic fashion, demonstrating the Canadian IDM artist's quirkily sized collection of drill bits.

Review: There are immersive experiences that inspire artists to do great things. Then there's Aboutface heading to the Wampis Territory, in the Peruvian Amazon, to live with the local community, learn a little of how they live and their relationship with the Lungs of the Planet, capturing field recordings collaboratively with those people, and trying to articulate their world through an electronic-organic deep dive album. After you've got over the jealousy about how life-changing that trip was, let's focus on the fundamentals. This is seriously escapist stuff that seems to have been made using every root, branch, and animal encountered during those weeks. The synthesised elements are audible, but take a backseat to what was and is actually there. Or here. Quite unlike anything we've heard this year, it's a stunning way to raise awareness and support for Indigenous-led conservation and initiatives trying to stop illegal deforestation and ecocide.

Review: Released way back in October 2001, the Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone soundtrack became an instant classic. It was composed and conducted by the legendary John Williams and features iconic themes like 'Hedwig's Theme' and introduces multiple character and setting motifs that shaped the musical identity of the series. Many of these leitmotifs returned in Chamber of Secrets and beyond, with 'Hedwig's Theme' becoming the franchise's signature melody and appearing in all eight films plus the Fantastic Beasts spinoff. The score earned Williams an Academy Award nomination and was certified gold in both Canada and Japan. It's a magical, enduring piece of cinematic music history.