Experimental music

Refree: El Espacio Entre review – Barcelona producer’s haunting minimalism

Worked up from two film soundtracks, this atmospheric concept album features piano, guitar, Monteverdi and radio static

Neil Spencer

28, Jan, 2023 @4:00 PM

‘Humanity hit a brick wall’: John Cale on the Velvets, Nico, Covid and a gun-ridden world gone bad

As he hits 80 and releases a softly raging album inspired by the ugliness of the pandemic years, the ever restless and eternally avant-garde musician unburdens himself

Chal Ravens

18, Jan, 2023 @4:09 PM

‘I want an indescribable feeling’: composer Kali Malone on her search for the sublime

The US minimalist, acclaimed for her organ works, on moving beyond the instrument, the science of sound – and taking inspiration from the mountain ranges of her Denver youth

Jennifer Lucy Allan

18, Jan, 2023 @3:30 PM

Mette Henriette: Drifting review | John Lewis's contemporary album of the month

The Norwegian saxophonist is joined by cellist, Judith Hamann, and pianist, Johan Lindvall, for her long-awaited second album

John Lewis

13, Jan, 2023 @9:00 AM

Rian Treanor and Ocen James: Saccades review | Ammar Kalia's global album of the month

The presence of James’ bow complements Treanor’s dense compositions, creating the latter’s most melodic and dancefloor-adjacent work to date

Ammar Kalia

06, Jan, 2023 @9:00 AM

DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ: the cheeky dance producer who’s been mistaken for Aphex Twin

The pseudonymous dance producer’s sample-dense beats cast a spell in the pandemic that’s set to last

Shaad D'Souza

04, Jan, 2023 @10:00 AM

New music for 2023: Nyokabi Kariũki, the Kenyan composer using field recordings to conjure Nairobi from afar

Kariũki’s intimate music summoned her home while she was stuck in the US during lockdown – and her darker new album delves into her experience of long Covid

Tara Joshi

03, Jan, 2023 @10:00 AM

New music for 2023: George Riley, the R&B songwriter and club kid who is switching on the joy

Her acclaimed debut album came out of a dark place – but the experimental London musician has a new lease of life for 2023

Christine Ochefu

02, Jan, 2023 @12:00 PM

The 10 best global albums of 2022

Musicians mixed the old and the new, with vocals from Indigenous American tribes and flute music from the ancient Mayan courts among the year’s album highlights

Ammar Kalia

29, Dec, 2022 @12:00 PM

Moin: Paste review – taking a craft knife to 90s indie

The band create sinewy post-punk grooves with layers of vocals, samples and drums in their most fully-realised album

Tayyab Amin

28, Dec, 2022 @8:00 AM

The 10 best contemporary albums of 2022

The year’s most cutting-edge sounds included ambient Americana, Ethiopia’s ‘honky-tonk nun’ Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, Alice Coltrane disciple Surya Botofasina and field recordings of goats eating mangos

John Lewis

27, Dec, 2022 @12:00 PM