Back catalogue: Modern Classical

Review: Rafet's You Are In The Embrace Of The History is a thought-provoking debut released on Research Records, where Daniel Rafet Grima delves into ambient and drone music with a sense of reverence for ancestral memory. Side-1 begins with the title track, a piece that carries an air of longing and introspection. The atmosphere is rich with layers of ambient sound and chamber music depths. The next song featuring DGrima, adds another dimension with its haunting, immersive quality. On Side-2, Iti's remix introduces a delicate piano melody and a subtle beat, infusing the original with a fresh, creative energy. In contrast, Kuniyuki Takahashi's remix takes a more abstract approach, deconstructing the track into an intriguing exploration of sound and texture. You Are In The Embrace Of The History is a meditative and deeply reflective work that resonates with both beauty and depth.

Review: Max Richter's latest work Sleep: Tranquillity Base first arrived on Deutsche Grammophon for World Sleep Day. Ot is a thirty minute work split across two parts and are inspired by the moon landings. It is music that "functions as a vessel that disconnects and travels through the body of work, allowing art to provide something which resembles peace within ourselves." It also comes with a couple of belting remixes from much loved contemporary innovators Alva Noto and Kelly Lee Owens. There is a reason Max Richter is so well revered and his music has had over three billion streams and this EP is one of them.

Review: Vrioon was the first ever collaboration album between Alva Noto and legendary synth man and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. 20 years after it became the first instalments of V.I.R.U.S.'s five records together it gets the full reissue treatment. The original tracks from the album are joined by an all new composition 'Landscape Skizze' which was laid down in 2005. The record is defined by alternate piano chords, lush electronic tones and quivering timbres that are delicate yet impactful.

Review: Since its initial release back in 2008, Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto's fourth collaborative album, UTP, has become one of the pair's most celebrated full-length excursions. There's a good reason for that, too. Recorded with the Ensemble Modern string section, it presents an impeccable, atmospheric and otherworldly blend of electronic ambience, high-minded abstract experimentalism, and modern classical that benefits greatly from the presence of variations on multiple tracks - a creative decision that makes it sound like a cyclical, subtly evolving trip through minimalistic, Reichian movements. Astonishingly, this is the first time the album has ever been available on vinyl, so we'd expect copies to fly out. Pre-order now to avoid disappointment.

Review: There have been some inspired link ups from Gigi Masin in the past few years, as the Italian ambient veteran enjoys a renewed appreciation and recognition from kindred spirits in the leftfield music community. Following collaborative albums with Jonny Nash and Greg Foat, Masin has been paired with Deepchord legend Rod Modell for this new album on Silentes sub-label 13. Modell has past form with Silentes, so he sounds right at home exercising his considerable gifts in the field of ambient dub techno, which billow out and unfurl around Masin's own glacial drift in mesmerising style on this stellar partnership. This is the highly limited, clear vinyl edition of Red Hair Girl At Lighthouse Beach.

Review: In a first-time collaboration, psychedelic trance godhead Simon Posford (best known as Hallucinogen and a founding member of Shpongle) teams up with fellow hippie and flutist Raja Ram (Ronald Rothfield) on a welling improvisatory record, Improvisations For Piano And Flute. Though both are highly esteemed artists in their respective micro-corners of the electronic music scene, Posford and Rothfield both depart significantly from their usually danceable ends for a living-room recorded set of ambiences. With a synth placed atop an antique Bluthner piano, Raj and Simon would join in after the other first begun playing, delivering a 44-minute effluence for the spontaneous soul.

Review: The product of an extended residency in the Swiss mountains, 'On Giacometti' is the Hania Rani's latest album, which focuses on the life and art of Swiss national treasure and sculptor Alberto Giacometti. Moving piano suites tempered by synth backings and ruinous ambiences are the names of Rani's game, all conveying the sense of peace exuded by the same Swiss mountains that struck Giacometti with divine inspiration. This is a black vinyl version with clear also available.

Review: After six years away, Rebelski returns to All Day I Dream with 'The Sirens', an EP that marks a compelling re-entry into the ambient fold. This collection of six tracks showcases the producer's ability to craft expansive soundscapes, each layered with intricate melodies, lush instrumentals, and hauntingly soft vocals. From the opener 'Cascading Waves' to the titular 'The Sirens', each track conjures an immersive atmosphere that feels simultaneously vast and intimate. 'Memory Loss' and 'Jupiter' continue this journey, pushing the listener into deeper introspection with their hypnotic rhythms and subtle shifts in tone. Side two offers even more to explore. 'Under Your Spell (feat Caroline Sheehan)' brings a delicate yet powerful vocal performance into the mix, perfectly complementing Rebelski's ethereal production. 'Polarity' follows, balancing soft textures with darker undercurrents. The EP closes with a Tim Green remix of 'The Sirens', which adds a touch of dancefloor energy while retaining the meditative quality of the original. Much like the otherworldly vibe that Rebelski has become known for, 'The Sirens' EP transports the listener to a realm where time and space blur, offering a serene yet complex auditory experience.

Review: Samuel Reinhard's latest release, Movement, feels like a deep dive into the possibilities of space, texture, and repetition. Known for his intricate chamber compositions, Reinhard steps into electroacoustic territory, crafting a piece that's as much about what isn't there as what is. The title track 'No. 1', at a staggering 20 minutes, unfolds at a near-glacial pace. Piano notes decay as they meet fragments of cello, bass flute, double bass, baritone sax, and harp - all contributing to a sonic landscape where time feels stretched. The minimalist arrangement isn't about creating immersive soundscapes but rather letting each note breathe, decay, and be accompanied by the physical actions that produced them. It's a stark reminder that silence, or near-silence, can be just as powerful as sound. In keeping with his usual method, Reinhard uses a predetermined system to arrange these instrumental recordings. It's not the grand layering of instruments into a single cohesive whole, but rather the augmentation of subtle textures, crafting a free-floating counterpoint. There's no rush to move from one point to the next, leaving listeners to focus on the resonance of each note, the breath that fills an instrument, or the bow held in mid-air. As with previous releases on Hallow Ground and Prasens Editionen, including names like Lawrence English and Kali Malone, Movement is an exploration of perception, duration, and attention. Reinhard has produced a suite that manages to evoke both stillness and motion - a paradox that's central to his compositional style.

Review: Finish dub techno powerhouse Joachim Spieth welcomes UK artist Rhubiqs to his well-regarded Affin label for a debut appearance that sinks you into a widescreen world of ambient lushness. His Aegis of Silence album takes cues from divergent sounds like post-rock and soft ambient as well as drone and even modern classical. It's an ever-shifting soundscape with smeared pads and nostalgia dreams, half-remembered thoughts and a sense of mood that ranges from escapist and blissed out to more ominous and paranoid.

Review: Exiles might be one of the most powerful and beautiful albums you'll hear all month, or maybe throughout 2021. It's Max Richter doing what he does best, channeling feelings from instruments and conjuring a kaleidoscope of vivid images in the process. In this case he's helped along no end by conductor Kristjan Jarvi and the Baltic Sea Philharmonic, with the finished product recorded in Tallinn, Estonia, and a contemporary classical masterpiece worthy of any record collection.

Richter's die hard fans will recognise some of his early works here, re-read and re-treated by the full orchestra. But then part of this album is also the soundtrack to Sol Leon & Paul Lightfoot's ballet, 'Singuliere Odyssee', a particularly mesmerising score that stands up with or without the associated performance. Dive in, then, and prepare to be overwhelmed.

Review: While he was already building an impressive reputation for his distinctively atmospheric take on modern classical, it was arguably 2006's Songs From Before full-length that really put Max Richter on the map. A decade on, that set - his third, for the record - is being given the reissue treatment. Widely praised at the time, it was Richter's first to feature a narrator, in this case the distinctive tones of progressive rock legend Robert Wyatt. His readings seemingly float above Richter's superb piano, and the subtle accompaniment of a string quartet. Richter has always shown a light touch, and it's this trait that makes Songs From Before such a beguiling listen.

Review: Spring has sprung, and for many, Vivaldi's original 'Spring' composition might have just as quickly sprung into the minds of most classical heads. But perhaps most of y'all didn't see this one coming. We were bowled over on hearing news of Max Richter's electronic recompositions of Vivaldi's 'Seasons' 10 years ago; there hadn't been a proper vogue for electronic resources of classical music since Wendy Carlos did 'Switched-On Bach'. Now it gets another 'alternative rendering' (keyword: rendering); performed by an ensemble that almost entirely consists of Black, Asian and ethnically diverse musicians, we hear yet another futuristic take on a stone cold classic, with Richter himself playing a vintage '70s Moog.

Review: Originally released way back in 1969, Terry Riley's "A Rainbow In Curved Air" album remains one of the minimal maestro's most significant works. Crafted using overdubbing techniques, the three-movement title track features Riley playing layer upon layer of electric organ and electric Harpsichord motifs to create a hypnotic, Indian style raga. It was hugely influential at the time - inside and outside of the emerging minimalism scene - and later influenced the ambient and ambient house movements. Here it gets the audiophile reissue treatment, with the title track once again being joined by original flipside "Poppy Nogood & The Phantom Band" - a trippy wig-out in which Riley pays tribute to soprano saxophonist John Coltrane over more hypnotic, fast-past organ refrains.

Review: To celebrate Hans-Joachim Roedelius' 90th birthday, this limited edition 4xLP set presents unreleased material from his two-track Revox tapes (1968-80). Known for his work with the Echolette tape delay and Farfisa organ, these recordings showcase the creative process behind Roedelius' beloved Selbstportrait records. While not an exhaustive retrospective, 90 captures hypnotic, minimalist cycles that rival contemporaries like Terry Riley. This release is a fitting tribute to a legendary artist, offering an intimate portrait of his innovative sonic journey.

Review: A quadruple box set spanning recordings made between 1968 and 1980 on two-track Revox tape, these previously unreleased works showcase the hypnotic cycles and textural explorations that define kosmische musik. Using his signature Farfisa organ and Echolette tape delay, the pieces evoke the spirit of Roedelius' Selbstportrait series and collaborations with Dieter Moebius and Michael Rother. Rather than a strict retrospective, 90 feels like a timeless sound journey, blending cascading minimalist loops with the organic warmth that has inspired generations. Tracks are unnamed and unmoored from chronology, allowing the listener to experience them as fluid expressions of Roedelius's artistry. The music recalls the meditative brilliance of contemporaries like Terry Riley, while firmly rooted in the experimental ethos of early German electronic music. Released to celebrate Roedelius's 90th birthday, this collection is both a celebration and a rediscovery, offering a vivid portrait of a visionary artist. 90 is a masterclass in innovation and introspection, essential for fans of kosmische and beyond.

Review: Claire Rousay proves that ambient can be radical. Her sublime style and surreal sonic scapes take up two sides of vinyl here on this new album Everything Perfect Is Already Here. 'It Feel Foolish To Care' is awash with mellifluous harps and found sound recordings, shakers and distant sounds of nature. It's a beautiful place to be, wherever it is. The second side is another 15 minute gem, 'Everything Perfect Is Already Here' that again finds Rousay as arranger and bandleader. Her strings here are more tortured and pained to start with before falling away to reveal twitchy synthetic sounds and abstract electronic textures.

Review: Claire Rousay's The Bloody Lady is a reimagined score for Viktor Kubal's 1980 Slovak animated film, based on the story of Elisabeth Bathory, a noblewoman accused of heinous murders. Known for pushing boundaries in experimental and ambient music, Rousay crafted the album after moving to LA, blending granular synths, piano, and field recordings into 11 evocative tracks. This new composition, commissioned after a coincidental visit to Bathory's castle, was first performed live at Videodroom/Film Fest Gent 2023. The score mirrors the film's darkly whimsical tone, shifting between delicate melodies and menacing undercurrents. Inspired by the heart's rhythmic pulse, central to the plot, Rousay's use of subtle, everyday sounds complements the film's folk tale narrative. The multilayered nature of Kubal's animation, with its mix of fairytale simplicity and deeper moral ambiguity, resonated with Rousay, who explored these themes through her sonic landscapes. This album stands as both a tribute to Kubal's legacy and a distinctive artistic statement. By leaving space in the soundtrack, Rousay invites deeper engagement with the story, reinforcing its timeless themes of love, destruction and humanity.

Review: E Ruscha V aka. Secret Circuit returns with Seeing Frequencies, adding to the foundations laid on his 2022 album Thinking A View. Placing his obscure CocoQuantus synthesizer at the forefront of his arsenal, the artist importunes us to "close our eyes and see the frequencies", hankering after a synaesthetic experience in koscmische and organic ambient. We find ourselves first thoroughly aurally embedded, past the point of no return, in 'Submersion', which pits faint textural scratch-airs against risen bloop tones, which scatter about the grain-delayed side mix like icy afterthoughts. 'Feel' scopes out the ASMR potential with a similar but glitchier sophomore, while the album's development later takes the form of 'Infinite Wheel' and 'Embolic Chamber', which take the form of increasingly stalagtital ice caves and folded-in bass invaginations respectively. From there, there's many more to go, though we find ourselves thoroughly immersed in a tremulous mood record, from which we find it hard to divest ourselves.

Review: The unique voice of Arthur Russell was taken away from us all too soon after he was diagnosed with HIV in 1986, but it was in that year that he also dropped his career-defining classic 'World of Echo'. That's the only solo album he produced but he managed to make plenty more music in his final years. This album, Picture of Bunny Rabbit, features nine previously unreleased performances recorded during that same special era and have been taken from two unique test pressings. These are dramatic, exceptional cuts as you would expect from this cult hero.