Back catalogue: Classical

Review: It's 2025 and we're writing about the music from a video game. It's 2025, and this isn't the first time we've written about music from a video game. And it won't be the last. The difference is, in 2025 writing about the music from a video game is barely even worth commenting on, with symphony halls hosting live concerts celebrating the best sounds from playable worlds and everything from sweeping orchestral overtures used in epic adventure franchises to chip music accepted into relative degrees of the mainstream. Enter Akira Yamaoka, whose contributions to the pantheons of tunes have helped lay the foundations for taking video game music seriously in its own right. Breaking the mould not just for computer games but specifically survival horror tones with his first Silent Hill score, as you would expect, by the third instalment of the scariest series to ever grace a console this is a finely tuned process, in the best possible way. Eerie but cool, poppy but experimental, ambient, electronic, lofi-rocky and utterly absorbing as a standalone listen.

Review: The music from Michael Ondaatje's Booker Prize and 12-Oscar-winning film encompasses the original score by Gabriel Yared with the haunting vocals of Marta Sebestyen and Fred Astaire. It is a story which has successfully made its mark on every medium that counts a - a classic to beat all classics. It's a cathartic journey that explores identity, fidelity, and fate amid the chaos of World War II. Shot against the majestic backdrop of the Northern Sahara and Italy, Yared's score blends Hungarian folk tunes, baroque themes, and romantic orchestration and mirrors the emotion of the film's characters without relying on visuals. Period tracks by Fred Astaire, Ella Fitzgerald and Benny Goodman complement the emotional depth of the story.