Back catalogue: Classical

Review: Ekin Fil's drone-pop consternations emerge through vaporous tones and forlorn, distant songs, as if plucked from a dream. These pieces exist on their own accord, moving with an internal logic of emotional heaviness that transcends mere shoegazing ambience. Her compositions evoke the fragmented etherealization of Elisabeth Fraser's voice from a forgotten David Lynch scene, acting as an ASMR trigger for Proustian recollection - profound, hidden, and desolately sad. The Helen Scarsdale Agency has had the pleasure of witnessing Ekin's continued growth as a composer, releasing seven of her magnificent, under-the-radar gems. Her slow-burning, dejected ballads draw from a deep well of sorrow, with varying frequencies and intensities of bitter light poking through - loves lost, a world broken. While not hopeless, her music acknowledges the considerable hardships we face. Sleepwalkers embraces familiar metaphors of narcolepsy and the unsettled state between sleep and wakefulness. Yet, it stretches into new territories with compositions paralleling Tim Hecker's gravitation soft-noise in 'Stone Cold' and slow-motion serialism in the ambient crawl of 'Gone Gone.' Recommended for fans of Grouper, Rafael Anton Irisarri, A.C. Marias, and Carla dal Forno.

Review: It's not always easy to keep up with the output of the relentlessly prolific Flaty, a core tenet of Moscow's Gost Zvuk as well as pursuing his own endeavours. From hard-edged experimentalism and dub-scuffed glitch to oddball ambient and wayward techno, he's a truly original spirit, and his new album continues that trend with yet another dimension to his sound. Intuitive Word is imbued with a strong pop and RnB slant which bleeds into the sample sources and the strong sense of melody, but still this remains a leftfield, compelling release for those with an experimental appetite. Quite how Flaty has squared off these contrasting forces is hard to express, but take a listen to 'Intension' with its tripped out beat and synth arrays shot through with vocal licks and you begin to get the picture. It's dope as hell and oh so sweet on top, like nothing else out there right now.

Review: RECOMMENDED
Even the most determinedly understated chin-strokers will likely have emitted a squeal of delight when this one was announced. Everyone's favourite electronic producer-cum-contemporary composer (or vice versa?) releasing his latest works of art across two media - namely an album on cult hero label Erased Tapes, and a movie available on highbrow streaming service Mubi.

This is the audio, and while nobody who caught the video when it was available to view on-demand could argue this is just as powerful on its own, the solo sound is still an intoxicating and compelling ride. 'The Dane' is classy piano bliss, '#2' sits in the big room electronica end of things, 'Fundamental Values' is a scatty, broken ambient journey to the edges of drum 'n' bass, 'Enters' opens on long, ambient refrains.

Review: In 2018, Nils Frahm initiated the "Encores" series: a trilogy of EPs exploring different aspects of his musical world. Here, those sets get gathered together on vinyl for the very first time. Listened to in sequence, it sees the Berlin-based pianist and composer offer up solo acoustic pieces for piano and harmonium (tracks 1 to 5), before layering up piano, processed field recordings and complimentary instrumentation on a suite of sublime ambient tracks (6 to 9). The final section of the album - originally "Encores 3" - sees him flip the script entirely, working almost exclusively with a combination of modular and analogue synthesizers and electronically processed voices. That the collection hangs together as a coherent album despite these stylistic shifts is testament to Frahm's abilities both as a performer and producer.

Review: Coming from a classical piano background, Nils Frahm has certainly turned into one dark dude! Having already released plenty of works on a myriad of labels, he lands on London-based Erase Tapes with what is probably one of his wildest pieces of music to date. Spanning 12 tracks in total, Frahm goes from joyful odes to the piano over to psychedelic synth improvisations to what sound like intricate tape manipulations, nutty drum-machine programming and a bag full o'field recordings. If you're into the idea of Tchaikovsky on some serious amounts of stimulants then look no further, this guy is shaping the way pianos are played...

Review: Unheard Of Hope - one prominent tine of the holy trinity / label supergroup known as TAR/MM/UOH - specialises is that all-too-rare subsection of music, the avant-garde. Theirs is a seedier aesthetic, preferring the more traditional, yet grimmer and demurer ends of this hotly contestable musical "approach", and perhaps emblematic of this is the latest record by Guatemalan cellist and vocalist, Mabe Fratti. Out on every format - tape, CD, vinyl - Sentir que no sabes ("feel like you don't know") hears Fratti's crystalline vocals glint like life-giving liquids, and sound too to effuse from the same fruitful source as its watershed cello lows and occasional blossomy arp-pop structures (ballad 'Pantalla azul' is by far the poppiest moment). The evident confidence brought to the record lends it an element of surprise, too, when we discover that it is entirely thematically rooted in doubt. In the words of the artist, this is a record born of the "moment when you feel you don't know anything and you are soft like jello and any fork can go through you." When one finds strength in permeability, one embraces what is normally registered as a pure antagonism, and all seemingly rigid particulars are changed for ever.

Review: Mabe Fratti's fourth solo album in five years, Sentir Que No Sabes, captures a range of emotions while exploring relationships and the actions that follow. It is direct and poppy and approachable but also reveals a rich emotional depth while remaining, as Fratti describes, "groovy." Written and recorded with her partner, the multi-instrumentalist Hector Tosta who also produced and arranged, the album emerged from an intense and detail-oriented process in their home studio. Tosta was joined by drummer Gibran Andrade and trumpetist Jacob Wick to expand the sound and in amongst longer pieces the album's short instrumental interludes, like 'Kitana' and 'Elastica I and II,' set the tone and mood for the record overall.

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: 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.