Milan US Vinyl & CDs

Review: You might be more familiar with Bobby Krlic's long-established moniker, The Haxan Cloak, with two critically acclaimed studio albums already out under that name. Here, he steps out from behind the veil (ahem) for the latest example of just how far video game soundtracks are going these days. Returnal is a third-person shooter set in space, wherein players land on a distant planet in search of the White Shadow, a mysterious signal that has been emanating from the region.

Sadly, things don't go too well, as we wind up trapped in a time loop, really just wanting to go home and make some sense of what's happening. Krlic's score does that surreal and unnerving plot proud, moving between these huge, epic, Blade Runner-esque moments of stretched synth refrains to collages of eerie chimes and whispered abstract noises.

Review: The late great Ryuichji Salamoto has left us with a vast body of work to enjoy until the end of time and amongst the many highlights of his ground breaking catalogue was this album, Async. It was Ryuichi's first solo album in eight years at time of release in 2017 and fund him taking inspiration from "everyday objects, sculpture, and nature." Sakamoto said this was an album about making the sounds he most wanted to listen to and was made with the traditional Japanese idea in mind that, "less-is-more." It is full of field recordings and was recorded in New York City with a deep selection of unique acoustic and electric sounds.

Review: Canadian saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist and frequent collaborator of Arcade Fire, Bon Iver and most recently post-metal juggernauts Cult Of Luna; Colin Stetson isn't your standard film composer, nor is 2018's cerebral psychological family horror Hereditary your standard frightfest. Stetson's droning brass and avant-garde compositions may add layers of mercurial dread to filmmaker Ari Aster's bleak visuals but when isolated, the pieces take on entirely new life of caustic, crawling atmospherics which swell to nauseating degrees before spiralling into frenzies of twisted modern classical imbued jazz, complete with bursts of warped brass and psychotic strings coalescing into truly hellish soundscapes.