Back catalogue: Modern Classical

Review: zake has to be one of the most prolific musical creators out there right now, but even more remarkable than the amount of music he puts out is the fact that it is all so unwaveringly good. This time he has worked on a record with From Overseas: Demain Des L'aube comes on his own Past Inside The Present label on lovely opaque maroon vinyl and is another deep dive into his personal vision for ambient. All eight tracks pair devastatingly impactful synths that convey real melancholia with a gently persuasive sense of movement. They sweep up and around you, stretch out to infinity and leave a last impression on your heart.

Review: Barely a week seems to go by without us hearing from zake, the US ambient producer who is hugely prolific and also unwaveringly creative with each new project. For this latest in a long line of many essential albums on his own Past Inside The Present label he links with From Overseas for the sublime sounds of Demain Des L'aube. This is a 160-gram audiophile vinyl version that sinks you deep into his widescreen and sweeping crepuscular synth work. It is delicate and spare but hugely impactful and never less than utterly comforting, even when the moods can be heavily introspective.

Review: Limpe Fuchs is most known for being something of a percussive genius. Here though she surprises in all the right ways with a trip into her classical roots and a pair of tracks played on the piano. Though her musical journey has been vast, recorded piano performances have been rare. Yet, on this 45rpm, she defies both time and anticipation, delving deep into the piano's soul. With rhythmic finesse honed as a percussionist, each keystroke bears her unmistakable imprint. Join Fuchs on this captivating late exploration of the piano world and you will be savouring every note of a distinct and unfiltered artistic encounter.

Review: Japanese vibraphonist and marimba player Masayoshi Fujita returns with Migratory, his masterful new solo album, on which his sonic explorations into the unknown continue. Forming part of a nascent uptick of albums exploring ideas of freedom in movement and displacement, Fujita's record sonically documents and expresses a return to his native Japan with his wife and three children, fulfilling his lifelong dream of living and composing music in the midst of nature after remaining resident in Berlin for 13 years. After this move, Fujita set about converting an old kindergarten into a music studio, and, perhaps adjoining his own experience of raising children, found himself composing Migratory in part through the dialogue formed of the ideaistic relationship of early childhood, movement and settling. Selectively mixing bird ambience, electronics and, of course, his patented vibraphone, Fujita's record is a melancholic but no less arresting one.

Review: Legend has it that around 1997, The Future Sound of London decided to make an album that combined the electronic and broken trance-inducing acid the outfit were already renowned for, and progressive rock. As work continued, a decision was made to go full psyche rock, and the result was The Isness by The Amorphous Androgynous. Had the original idea come to fruition, the hybrid sounds therein might be similar to Life In Moments. Originally released in 2015, this record is one of those very special instances in which you're presented with something that genuinely sounds new. Of course, there's plenty owed, too, with moments definitely nodding to the likes of Sabres of Paradise, slow mo dark room chug and other leftfield dance. On the whole, though, the combination of late night jazz, otherworldly electronica, tripped-out space rock, ambient and movie-esque scores is pretty incomparable.

Review: While legendary composer and jazz soloist Harry Manfredini has handled the scores to the vast majority of entries into the Friday the 13th horror franchise, it would be the ironically titled Part VII: The New Blood that would see producer Fred Mollin brought in to provide unique cues to counterweight Manfredini's compositions. With only Mollin returning to score the following eighth instalment, this score provides the only torch passing intersection between the two uniquely brilliant composers, while this pressing lands on "psychokinetik splatter", echoing the film's plot of a young telekinetic girl going to war with the hockeymasked Jason (for those not up on their Camp Crystal Lake lore).