Back catalogue: Classical

Review: Kali Malone's The Sacrificial Code stands as a defining work of 21st Century minimalism, shaped by years of intensive study. Originally released in 2019, the album emerged from her time at Stockholm's Royal College of Music, where she explored sound, space, and alternate tuning systems under the guidance of organ tuner Jan Borjeson. Stripping composition down to its starkest form, she embraced canons and slow-moving harmonic shifts, slowly but surely stepping into a sound emphasising monumentality. Now, six years later, The Sacrificial Code is reissued via Ideologic Organ, featuring a new 2023 recording of the title track on a 16th-century organ. Malone's self-taught recording techniques bring out the instrument's spirant resonance, creating a time-dilating sound. Less mournful, more tranquil, the new version mirrors the concurrent transformations of music and listeners in step, over time.

Review: The reissue of Moltitudine in labirinto, originally released in 2003, is a profound sonic exploration by ambient pioneer Gigi Masin and electronic artist Giuseppe Caprioli. This album merges Masin's signature subtle minimalism with Caprioli's raw electronic textures, crafting an intense and introspective experience. Moltitudine in labirinto draws listeners into a maze of sound that evokes hidden corners of the psyche, with low-frequency drones and looping motifs guiding the journey. Across nine movements, Masin and Caprioli create a cinematic symphony that feels simultaneously vast and deeply personal, channeling a 'harmony of the spheres' through restrained yet emotionally powerful soundscapes. The intricate structure and fluidity reflect a complex inner world, making each listening experience unique and meditative. For long-time fans, this vinyl reissue is a welcome revival of a work that remains a cornerstone of ambient and electronic music. Moltitudine in labirinto stands as both a historical document and a timeless exploration of ambient's expressive potential, an artful encounter of melodic finesse and electronic depth that feels as relevant and poignant today as it did upon its original release.

Review: This EP weaves a labyrinth of sound, where the absence of clear genre boundaries is the only constant. The opener leads with ambient pulses, before shifting into the hypnotic, bass-heavy swells of 'Infrasound Loop,' as if crossing into a parallel dimension. As it unravels, 'Submerged Reactions' builds a wave of evolving textures, quietly oscillating between glitchy abstractions and weighty drones. Throughout, the artists' mastery of subtle, complex layers remains apparent, each track a gradual immersion into its own sonic world. On clear vinyl, it's an intricate, immersive listen-complex yet fluid, intricate yet accessible, making it easy to lose yourself in the flow.

Review: Lorenzo Masotto is an Italian pianist and composer from a village near Verona who studied at the Conservatory F.E. Dall'Abaco and the Hochschule fur Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar. His music now returns to Whitelabrecs with his new album Earde which is inspired by the landscapes surrounding his hometown in Northern Italy and reflects the beauty of local nature and Masotto's travels through Iceland and the Dolomites. Recorded in a deconsecrated church to capture its natural acoustics, the album explores the deep connection between place, memory and creativity which gives rise to a meditative, harmonic experience.

Review: Buenos Aires-born but now based in Barcelona, Nicolas Melmann explores sound's social and poetic dimensions through what he calls "transdisciplinary projects." He is inspired by Erik Satie's "furniture music" and his compositions create spaces of calm and contemplation as evidenced here on this lovely new blue LP. Musica Aperta blends acoustic and electronic elements with rich harmonies where soft textures meet delicate raspiness and it is divided into three parts. Each one slowly immerses you in time while echoing Satie's concept, Arvo Part's minimalism and Phill Niblock's roughness. It is a calming and cathartic escape from the fast-paced of modern life.

Review: Japanese artists Yumiko Morioka and Takashi Kokubo unite for a journey through blended piano, atmospheric synth and nighttime field recording. Both Morioka and Kokubo are pioneers of Japanese new age import, with the former lyricist, pianist and composer trailblazing with her sole 1987 album Resonance and the latter composer and musical environmentalist responsible for a string of geometrically-charged, fantastical LPs from 1980 onwards. Morioka herself makes a welcome return to music after taking a staunch step back to raise her family in the late 80s; her music has since been quietly cherished, and now Gaiaphilia evidences her not-lost ivorian flair, with her piano melding blissfully with pop-out sea- and soundscapes.

Review: The makings of Murcof's new album Twin Colour were first germinated in 2020, shaped by the early days of the pandemic lockdowns. The first volume in a new multidisciplinary project between Fernando Corona (Murcof), his daughter Alina Corona, and his colleague Simon Geilfus, Twin Colour is born of less conception and more studio heuristics, though it draws many of its inspirations from some of the 80s material that Murcof had laid down at the start of his career. As such, an impressive combo of tape-hissed coldwave and modern, progressive ambient is heard here, straying from Murcof's trickier material for something much more roughshod, tawny and dramatic.

Review: In the right circles,, Martin O'Donnell and Michael Savatori are living legends. Working with the iconic US video game company Bungie Inc, the pair put their names on the map - or maybe maps? - by creating soundtracks to a number of high profile titles, either as a duo or individually. O'Donnell is arguably the better known, or at least has the bigger online persona, but both composers deserve plenty of credit. Halo: Combat Evolved was the first title in what is now a huge and genre-defining first person shooter franchise, and the score reflects the emergence of video game music as an integral part of the on-screen action. O'Donnell and Savatori's efforts to ensure instrumentation dramatically changed with events in the game, which is by nature relatively non-linear, was a revelation. While their efforts to separate these into individual suites foresaw the rise of playable stories as films in their own right.

Review: It's been a long time since Halo: Combat Evolved revolutionised the word of first-person shooter video games. Graphically superior to anything that had come before it, the franchise also benefits from a spectacularly gripping storyline in which humans are outgunned and out-teched by a ruthless and uncompromising alliance of superiorly equipped alien races united as The Covenant. The titular Halo adds a kind of Prometheus air of uncertainty, as nobody really knows what it does until attempts to activate the galaxy-destroying weapon reveal something worse than death - a parasitic breed called the Flood. If all that was enough to blow everyone away in 2001, 2004 brought us to a whole new level of immersion in this future scape. Just like its predecessor, a big part of the impact was the visionary score by gaming soundtrack masters Martin O'Donnell and Michael Savatori. Now here it is in all its Gregorian chanting glory.

Review: Laced Records and Halo Studios partner up to bring the epic soundtracks of the original Halo trilogy to vinyl for the first time, remastering and revamping 83 original scores from Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 3. the music that defined a franchise is thus ethered in perpetuity. Weaving orchestral elements, prog rock, drum corps marches, and heavy metal, Halo presents a perfect bottling of angst and militancy; owing to its popularity with a certain teen gamer cohort, Halo 2's score especially made history as the first video game OST to chart on the Billboard 200. Now, each soundtrack is presented in its own sleeve with custom artwork, and comes in a collector's box adorned with a debossed Halo logo and silver laminate finish.

Review: In celebration of Arvo Part's 90th year, his latest release showcases the Estonian composer's continued exploration of minimalist, spiritually charged sound . Part's work has always sought to blend the sacred with the secular, and this collection of new renditions brings forward the timeless resonance of his choral and orchestral compositions. Opening with 'Littlemore Tractus,' based on John Henry Newman's reflections, the piece sets the tone of quiet, introspective change that permeates the entire work. His music, a dialogue between sound and silence, invites profound contemplation, with the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir under Tonu Kaljuste's direction offering nuanced, deeply attentive performances. Compositions like 'Vater unser,' showcase Part's ability to transform liturgical text into transcendent musical experience. There's an undeniable spiritual gravity in pieces such as 'Cantique des degres' and 'Sequentia,' where strings and vocals weave in delicate yet forceful patterns, revealing a steady undercurrent of renewal. The rich textures in these works evoke both a longing for and a reconciliation with the past, capturing Part's life-long exploration of sacred music's dialogue with the world. The album culminates with 'Vater unser,' an evocative reworking that brings together choir, strings, and piano, offering a meditative close to an album that is as much about reflection as it is about the continued forward momentum of Part's artistry. Recorded in Tallinn's Methodist Church, this latest chapter is a continuation of the Part-Eicher partnership that has defined so much of his career, expanding the legacy of albums like Tabula rasa and reinforcing Part's place as one of the most significant voices in contemporary classical music of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Review: Deep Valley is a new collaborative work by Australian artists Seaworthy aka Cameron Webb and Matt Rosner and they came together for it during a week-long residency at Bundanon Art Museum in New South Wales. The property which was gifted to the Australian public by artists Arthur and Yvonne Boyd in the 1990s offers a unique landscape along the Shoalhaven River and is surrounded by sandstone cliffs and diverse wildlife. Drawing inspiration from Boyd's belief that "you can't own a landscape," Deep Valley combines the inspiration of that setting with environmental recordings, guitars, piano, and electronic processing all of which aim to highlight the transient nature of ecosystems and encourage you to reconnect with the sounds of nature.