Leftfield charts

Review: The debut album from founding members Jason Kohnen and Gideon Kiehrs, the Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble (now a sextet) was originally conceived as a means to realise imaginary scores for classic silent films, such as Nosferatu and Metropolis. Often made and played together with fragments from these films to help intensify the impact of the audio, each song here is a brooding noir slinker, not lacking in its heady supply of drum brushes, trombone drones and chromatics. The album is also a semi-synthetic affair, with Kiers providing synths, visuals and sequencing on this romantic yet mildly creepy 2xLP - a reissue of the original from 2006.

Review: Egor is the fourth album released by The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation. The group is an experimental offshoot of The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, and in 2011 they recorded this four-track monster at the DOM Theatre in Moscow. Taking a more avant-garde approach compared to their principal project, the album deals in nervy ambient passages where texture takes precedent over melody, albeit still performed by a rich troupe of performers. The live session featured Charlotte Cegarra on vocals, Eelco Bosman on guitar, Ron Goris on drums, Sarah Anderson on violin, Hilary Jeffery on trombone, Jason Kohnen on bass and Gideon Kiers on electronics.

Review: Named in honour of an experimental silent movie of the early 1920s, Polish duo Nanook of the North are a unique proposition: a collaboration between composer/violionist Stefan Wesolowski and electronic musician/guitarist Piotr Kalinski that defies easy categorization. Heide, the pair's second album, was recorded pretty much in the middle of nowhere, and its' musical blend of effects-laden ambient electronics, simmering strings and acoustic guitar motifs was reportedly inspired by "wildness and untamedness". It's a genuinely brilliant, ultra-atmospheric affair that uses repetition magnificently (a nod, we'd argue, to American minimalism) and benefits from guest contributions from mezzo-soprano Margarita Slepakova.

Review: Belgian-German band Dictaphone are back with a fifth album that follows on from their highly acclaimed last full length ARP70. One again here leader Oliver Doerell is joined by partners Roger Doring on clarinet and saxophone, and Alex Stolze on violins. The band continue to explore their notion of morbid instruments with an old tale machine and shadowy bass clarinet adding to the many layers of intriguing and mystery. The tracks here are ghostly and spooky, with 10 different journeys into sombre musical darkness that are never austere, but always fascinating. Timely, minimal and unusual, this is a quietly compelling masterpiece.

Review: Take it from us - you want to get to know Denovali Germany on an intimate level. The label has been putting out tearjerking contemporary classical and far-reaching electronic compositions since 2005, lays claim to its own festival of forward thinking music and generally doesn't put a foot wrong. Home to the likes of Electro Guzzi and Les Fragments De La Nuit, it's an imprint and then some, to put it mildly.

Dalhous' The Composite Moods Collection is another one for the ages - the kind of album that you're bound to come back to for years because each play through seems to reveal new layers and elements that may not have presented themselves immediately. While for the most part this is all ambient, there are elements here that take us into much more muscular and ferocious ends, from 'Everything Is Bleeding' to the cinematic tension of 'Open As A Glade Unfolding'.

Review: Denovali presents the second cooperation album by Italian composer, arranger, producer and guitarist Eraldo Bernocchi, in collaboration with Berlin-based Japanese violinist, composer, electronic producer and Tangerine Dream member Hoshiko Yamane. Bernocchi and Yamane have come together here for the second time after finding inspiration in the Japanese concept of "sabi" - an aesthetic that celebrates the beauty of impermanence and decay. It is often associated with the simplicity, austerity, and solitude found in nature, and is said to evoke a sense of melancholy, nostalgia, and reverence for the passage of time. The record, to match, is a unique blend of electronic and acoustic music, with Bernocchi's pulsating textures and Yamane's haunting treated violin melodies weaving together to create a captivating and emotional sonic landscape.