Schmidt has weaponised a lifetime of ideas to pull you into this journey, creating a brilliant, unpredictable landscape where ambient field recordings and stark piano architecture collide to reveal something profoundly haunting.

It certainly beats a lot of what masquerades as tech death these days, and provides all the requisite thrills and complexities.

With all of their background and musical experience and knowledge, Haslinger & Wittman successfully turn their concept on Mallarmé into music that is both complex and understandable at the same time.

Decades later, the power of this performance remains undiminished, proving that truly great heavy music never loses its impact.

It may not stick strictly to the genre expectations, but contains enough to satisfy those who like their music very atmospheric.

Some artists regard light and dark as opposing forces to be reconciled. The better ones know they were never separate to begin with. Amelia Baker, the multi-instrumentalist behind Cinder Well, is one of the latter.

Howard Rankin has documented a remarkable chapter in Solstice’s history with sensitivity, warmth, and an obvious affection for both the musicians and their audience.

Like good painters and applying the techniques of minimal modern classical composers, the duo are able to make those seemingly minute changes in the main theme create a change that works.

Tom doesn’t simply recreate the Canterbury sound; he re-imagines it through his own creative lens, balancing technical brilliance with genuine heart and imagination.

By fusing different elements together, Stormkeep have made themselves one of the more exciting black metal bands hailing from the US. Leaving aside the usual USBM tropes they lean towards a much more European slant.

It’s a concert experience that leaves you wanting to return immediately, discovering new details with every listen and wondering where King Crimson might have ventured next had the journey continued.

There’s a gravity to it but not in the way which makes it pompous or overbearing. It just feels natural, and maybe it’s that which makes it have such an impact each time you listen.

The craftsmanship is undeniable, the vision fully realised, and the Livingstone sisters make it clear: this journey is only beginning, and it’s one you’ll want to revisit again and again.

There’s something genuinely exciting about hearing Lost in Kyiv strike out for new pastures rather than settle into cookie-cutter post-rock. 

Part avant-garde, part free jazz, and part contemporary classical music, Mountain Call is among the most ambitious projects in Miroslav Vitouš’s distinguished career.

Mourir don’t overstay their welcome, but they call for a level of commitment albums in this vein rarely earn from me. This one did, snapping back and stinging exactly as much as I needed it to.

It is one of those albums that unveils its subtleties with every new play, making Izzy Oram Brown rightly stand close to the top of the current singer-songwriter crowd.

Can music be beautiful if, instead of emotion, it offers the listener emptiness? At first glance, The Moth sounds like slowcore, but it does not quite behave according to the genre’s rules.

Bridge to Resolution is not an easy listen, but it isn’t meant to be. It’s a stunning, ominous, and deeply personal debut, revealing a side of Shane Embury that has long existed beneath the surface.

Witchsorrow have turned a cult following into something bigger as the songs on The Devil And All His Works are monetised and perfectly executed examples of prime doom metal.

It all gives her music that specific, individual touch needed to make her music work and ultimately be a drawing factor for listeners.