Back catalogue: Classical

Review: Hiroshi Yoshimura is having a moment. Originally released in the 1980s, this collection of environmental music from the Japanese musician and composer offers a tranquil listening experience, Yoshimura painting sonic landscapes that evoke the subtle beauty of the natural world. 'Over The Clover' unfolds with the gentle sway of leaves, while 'Flora' captures the delicate essence of blossoming flowers. Each track is a miniature portrait of nature's intricacies, from the unfurling of morning glories in 'Asagao' to the whispering breeze of 'Wind Echo'. 'Maple Syrup Factory' adds a touch of unexpected sweetness, a subtle shift in the otherwise serene palette. But this is more than just pretty soundscapes. Yoshimura's music invites active listening, revealing intricate details that might be missed on a casual listen. It's music that rewards close attention while simultaneously blending into the background of everyday life.

Review: Much to nerdy Japanese electronic lovers' delight, Temporal Drift reissued Hiroshi Yoshimura's Surround last year, and now carry on focussing on his work with the first-ever reissue of Flora, an overlooked gem in ambient music. Recorded in 1987 but unreleased until 2006, which was three years after Yoshimura's sad passing, Flora carries on in style where his acclaimed works Green and Surround left off. It's another sublime record that highlights Yoshimura's ability to explore the interplay between sound and ambience. He was a diverse talent who also created an album for museum playback, and composed a soundtrack for a contemporary fashion show.

Review: Reissued on Important Records comes Agartha, which forms part of a long wave of easy listening and new age music made popular in the 1980s and 90s. Meredith Young-Sowers joins a class of musicians, from Eliane Radigue to Steven Halpern, who made music as utilities for meditation. Young-Sowers' work, however, may share an aesthetic with these knowns, but otherwise nurtures an eerier vibe. Agartha was originally released in 1986 on cassette, and is made up largely of unnaturally sustained sine tone unfurlings laid in harmonic or minor keys, as if to decouple the unsettling atmosphere of the music from their meditative capacity. Though it sounds like it, the record is not aleatory, rather it is composed expressly to sound like it has been transmitted from an extimate point outside of human consciousness. No wonder it is named after a mythical land said to lie deep below the Earth's crust!