Back catalogue: Classical

Review: Elliot Galvin is a leading figure in UK jazz with four solo albums that have topped year-end lists in respected media outlets. He is also a member of the Mercury-nominated Dinosaur and has collaborated with key jazz cats such as Shabaka Hutchings, Emma-Jean Thackray and Norma Winstone. Known for his improvisational prowess, his latest solo album taps into that skill once more and is an entirely improvised record that takes in quiet beauty like the opener, more theatric drama on 'Still Under Storms' and world jazz sounds on 'High & Wide'.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Creasing to corner of outer sleeve but otherwise in excellent condition***


Vikingur olafsson's interpretations of Philip Glass's piano works have captivated audiences worldwide. This recording marked a pivotal moment in olafsson's career, with the Icelandic pianist's perceptive and nuanced playing bringing a new dimension to Glass's minimalist compositions, capturing the composer's ability to transcend space and time. From the hypnotic repetitions of 'No. 20' to the ethereal beauty of 'No. 14', olafsson's performance is nothing short of mesmerising.

Review: To say there's a meditative quality to Golem Mecanique's third album would be like saying air is something we breathe. The nom de plume of French multi-instrumental Karen Jebane, the album title directly quotes the final comments made by Pier Paolo Pasolini in his last ever interview, given just days before his body was found on an Italian beach after being brutally murdered. "We are all in danger", he quipped. From what, or who, we are still trying to figure out, 50 years on. Siamo Tutti In Pericolo doesn't look to answer the great mystery of what happened to the great filmmaker and auteur. But it does look to feelings of tension, quiet unease, and opaque mystery for its incredibly atmospheric tomes. This is deep dive stuff, reliant on a combination of refrained notes, echoes, and sombre, spiritual voices inviting us to push through into some other state of consciousness. Whether that will shed any light on anything is, of course, the real question we need to answer.

Review: Grand River's (Aimee Portioli's) fifth studio album (her first after the brilliant In uno spazio immenso, her debut for Caterina Barbieri's label Light-years label) began as an installation in 2022. Having since evolved into multi-channel, 4DSOUND, and stereo formats, the record has bridged every hurdle to live performances it could possibly face. The 36-minute composition is divided into two parts: Portioli recorded various winds and transformed them via layering and pitch adjustments, fashioning the wind itself into an instrument. Going so far as to align the gusts to a 440hz reference and tuning particular instruments to windward passages, Portioli went with the wind, yet still wound up more alive than ever. Wind and synthesizers merge seamlessly, erasing the line between natural and human-made sound; silent until it meets an object, air currents produce an array of tones, from whispers, to roars, to melodies.

Review: Evgeny’s work on this release marks an exploration into the intersection of minimalist composition and cinematic storytelling, blending the intimacy of personal experiences with sweeping sonic landscapes. Living amidst nature, his creative process draws deeply from his surroundings, with each track inspired by a narrative of quiet, evolving moments. Adding trumpet to his usual mix of orchestral and electronic textures, Evgeny continues to refine his sound, maintaining the evocative qualities that first gained him attention. His subtle use of brass on pieces like ‘Hunter in Love’ adds emotional depth, while shorter tracks like ‘Prologue’ and ‘Epilogue’ exhibit his ability to encapsulate entire stories in brief yet powerful bursts of melody. With these compositions, Evgeny invites listeners into a world where stillness and fleeting beauty reign, offering a glimpse into the delicate balance between nature and music.

Review: Orange Marmalade was originally released in October 2021 after being recorded by Evgeny Grinko at the Funkhaus in Berlin. The title holds a double meaning as it nods to Alice in Wonderland, a book Ginko was reading during its creation, as well as to his nostalgic childhood memories of life back home where metal jars were filled with marmalade. Musically this one picks up off where The Naive Album left off in that it showcases a composer in utter command of his voice and own unique style. It captures a range of emotions from sorrow to joy, triumph to introspective solitude, all with sweeping orchestral moments adding to the scale and drama.

Review: "One might thus regard the Welsh rarebit as a Machine in which a process is applied to the conditioning and perception of the world of bread and cheese." Suffice to say, John White might not have had the same ideas about what constitutes Machine Music back in 1976 as you do today. This is also the first time we've ever managed to get a reference to Welsh rarebit into the first line of writing about a record, so everyone is learning something today. "The Machines" White refers to are the individual tracks themselves, all recorded between 1967 and 1972 and all comprising different combinations of a thing. Six pairs of "bass melody instruments" made 'Autumn Countdown Machine', different permutations of "the articulations 'ging, gang, gong, gung, ho!'" comprise 'Jews Harp Machine'. And 'Son of Gothic Chord' is crafted from the sequential chord progression of four keyboard players, spanning an octave. Conceptual experimental and wildly imaginative stuff on the borderline of electronica, abstract, mathematical and something otherworldly.