Rocker Keith Emerson composed and performed a number of soundtracks for European and Asian films in the early '80s, yet few of those films ever reached American audiences, and most of the soundtracks made brief appearances in the import sections of record stores. The music Emerson composed for this suspense/horror film features him almost exclusively on piano, backed by an orchestra conducted by Godfrey Salmon, building upon his main title theme…

There are pieces of music that seek to tell us deeper stories. Others harness the talents of the players at their disposal in adventurous ways. Then there are the rare, generous works that make us think back to our roots as human beings and to our shared beginnings in the universe, that lift us in their melodies, rhythms and textures, that carry us with them.

Issued in 2007 on the 4AD label, THE BEST OF LISA GERRARD collects many of the finest tracks by the former Dead Can Dance vocalist/multi-instrumentalist. While the compilation includes a few tracks by that revered act, most notably the mystical "Yulunga (Spirit Dance)," a song that showcases Gerrard's striking voice, it primarily focuses on her solo work and film compositions, which both draw from music across the globe. On these pieces, Gerrard often collaborates with fellow Australian native Pieter Bourke, as on the passionate "Swans" and the expansive "Sacrifice," the latter from the INSIDER score. Although this anthology is a mere fraction of Gerrard's recorded output, it does serve as an excellent introduction to her impressive catalogue.

Swod is the recording project of Oliver Doerell and Stephan Wohrmann, two accomplished musicians who met in Berlin sometime in 1991. Oliver plays guitar, bass and all manner of electronics - he is also a long-time family member of City Centre Offices having recorded an album and an EP under the “Dictaphone” moniker in between composing and performing musical pieces for theatre, installations and film over the last few years. Stephan plays piano and drums, arranging an almost neo-classical structure within a recording that already sounds ghostly and cinematic. Translated as "go", "Gehen" (2004) represents a labour of love from two musicians experienced in the art of seductive and evocative music making…

Hearing the expertly constructed and deeply sensitive post-classical pieces featured on "Slumber Tides" (2006) it is difficult to comprehend that the musician is only a mere 18 years of age. Harking from the boredom filled lands of Greater Surrey in England, Haines quickly tired of school life and found himself immersed in music, and in a move indicative of the current trend of our disillusioned youth, became obsessed with the intrigue of experimental sound. Travelling through Europe whenever he could and sleeping on the floors of musicians he would contact by email he quickly built up a network of friends, most importantly in Oslo, Norway where he spent time with Deaf Center's Erik Skodvin (who also runs the Miasmah imprint)…

Flica is an electro-acoustic outfit produced by Euseng Seto from the evolving music scene of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Born in 1982, he begun his exquisite journey in conceptualizing and producing delicate home-brew music since 2005 with his first electronica duo project muxu with member Huat Liang. Having realized the need to explore further and experiment with his own music style, Euseng Seto started Flica in early 2007, solely crafting and producing music on his own. As a result, the subtle sounds that Flica creates are exceptionally melodic and uncomplicated, which perfectly mirroring his perceptions towards daily personal feelings on life and nature…

The New Composers who set standards in the Russian Techno and Ambient scene now collaborate with a man who invented Ambient music in the early 80ies, Brian Eno. The music varies between the piano - charme of a russian ballet studio, pure ambience and environmental music as well as 80ies electronic instrumental and 50ies "Fokstrot" music. Simply incredible how homogenous this mixture of different musical influences sounds and which kind of special atmosphere and sound this music out of Russia has.

Murcof was founded in early 2001 as a solo project of Fernando Corona in Tijuana, México. Murcof experiments with minimalistic electronic and classical music, exploring how digital precision and acoustic warmth can complement each other. The music is intended to reflect a digitalized way of interacting with the world, with each other and ourselves. It is meant to remind us that the end user will always be human, and that technology is a tool of expression and not an end in itself. Murcof's music is sparse, minimalist, sample-based electronica. A key element is the complex, and sometimes abstract, glitchy electronic percussion. Corona's recordings are more melodic and traditionally structured than many contemporary electronic musicians, and many recordings feature orchestral strings sampled from recordings of works by modern composers such as Arvo Pärt…

Nils Frahm releases a new double album, Old Friends New Friends, released by Leiter, the label he set up with his manager, Felix Grimm. The collection gathers together 23 solo piano tracks recorded between 2009 and 2021, almost all hitherto unreleased but, for one reason or another, omitted from previous albums and projects. Neither quite a new LP nor exactly a compilation, it offers “an anatomy of all my ways of thinking musically and playing,” Frahm says, adding with a smile, “Maybe I could say it’s an album I worked on for twelve years, and finally I have enough material?”

Marking a further progression in the overall Durutti sound, Without Mercy both an expanded lineup and sense of what could be done with Reilly's compositions. Consisting of a two-part full-album instrumental piece, Without Mercy integrates the slight hints of classical orchestration and accompaniment from Another Setting more fully via a slew of additional players. Besides the indefatigable Mitchell on percussion and Reilly on guitar, bass, and keyboards, performers on everything from viola to cor anglais and trumpet flesh out Without Mercy's sound to newly striking heights. Reilly's work on piano sets the initial mood for the song, a sound by now as intrinsic to Durutti's approach as his guitar work, capturing both tender beauty and deep melancholy just so…

Mixing classical and contemporary sound, Mario Batkovic seeks to explore the sonic possibilities of the accordion, without effects or loops, rather through a mutualist symbiotic relationship between man and instrument. Challenging, hypnotic and grandiose; Batkovic’s symphonic vision is unique and he has received widespread critical acclaim, including Rolling Stone magazine who voted his self-titled debut album in the Top 10 ‘Best Avant Albums of 2017’.

Mike Oldfield, watch out. This all-instrumental album, consisting of two long pieces ("Slow Dance Parts 1 and 2") that mix new age sounds with rock, crosses into territory staked out most successfully by the tubular bell-ringer, and comes off as sort of Windham Hill with a beat. This material features clarinet, oboe, flute, trumpet, harp, and percussion as well as guitar, and it does sort of resemble the spacy synthesizer interludes and bridges found as parts of the longer pieces on Genesis's progressive-era albums…