Back catalogue: Classical

Review: After five years apart, Italian composer Eraldo Bernochi and Japanese violinist, electronica producer and current Tangerine Dream member Hoshiko Yamana return with a sequel to their much-loved 2020 album Mujo. Described by the pair's label, Denovali, as "a deeply cinematic experience", Sabi cannily combines the slow-burn, trance-inducing synthesizer sequences of Tangerine Dream, the intergalactic electronic expressiveness of ambient techno, the thematic movements of modern classical, Yamana's emotive violin motifs and the spaced-out ambient iciness often associated with Geir Jensson's Biosphere project. It's a genuinely brilliant album all told, with the pair smartly sashaying between hazy melancholia, string-laden creepiness and picturesque aural colour.

Review: Further Selections from the Electric Harpsichord is a profound rediscovery of Catherine Christer Hennix's early masterwork, offering a mesmerising, never-before-heard recording of her 1976 opus. This long-lost piece, originally debuted at Stockholm's Moderna Museet, further solidifies Hennix's unique contributions to minimalism, combining precise just intonation with electronic experimentation. Like her contemporaries La Monte Young and Pandit Pran Nath, Hennix's work transcends traditional boundaries, using carefully retuned synthesisers and feedback loops to create a hallucinogenic soundscape that manipulates time, space and perception. Released shortly before her passing in 2023, this recording stands as the most comprehensive version of The Electric Harpsichord to date. Extending the previously released 26-minute fragment, this new edition spans 47 minutes, immersing listeners in sustained, shimmering waves of sound. Henry Flynt, who championed Hennix's work in the 1970s, described the music as "hallucinogenic/ecstatic sound environments" and this recording lives up to that description. The spellbinding oscillations and drones, accompanied by Hans Isgren's sheng, evoke a deeply meditative and otherworldly experience. Hennix's polymathic background in mathematics, poetry and philosophy enriches the composition, making it as intellectually rigorous as it is emotionally transformative. A landmark of minimalist music that will excite new audiences, reaffirming Hennix's lasting influence on experimental sound and the transcendent potential of her artistry.

Review: Aussie composer Cat Tyson Hughes is an experimental artist whose new album Crossing Water on Past Inside The Present marks her debut long player. It comes after she's been involved with several other projects and offers a fragile and delicate mix of subtle instrumentation and rich voice textures imbued with an array of lovely field recordings. These are superbly patient and slow-burn tracks that really have a cathartic effect as nature and natural sounds permeate each composition. The melodies take your mind away as the freely structured, minimal arrangements really make you take note.