Lubomyr Melnyk – Corollaries

Complex, sparse and beguiling, the new album by celebrated avant garde neo-classical composer Lubomyr Melnyk is a delight from start to finish. Melnyk's technique, influenced by and developed in response to the 1970s minimalist movement, is called Continuous Music – a sequence of delicate, tightly interlocking piano arpeggios, flowing and collapsing into each other with no pauses, create a subtle and moving tapestry of sound and texture.

Augmented by occasional strings, plucked guitar and snatches of vocals, his compositions have the delicacy of spun sugar or refracted sunlight. Recorded in incredibly vivid detail – listen carefully and you can hear keys being struck, piano wires vibrating – the result is an intimate, hypnotic performance with an enthralling beauty and intricacy. A particular highlight, Pockets of Light is everything Cinematic Orchestra have ever tried to achieve compressed into 12 minutes of sublime wonder. If Classic FM played the likes of Melnyk instead of endless bloody Vivaldi, perhaps we'd be getting somewhere.