This is the second single from Nathan Fake‘s forthcoming album Evaporator, due for release on 20 February on InFiné. Although called Slow Yamaha, it features a musical depiction of evaporation at the end.
What’s the music like?
Hypnotic, and ultimately compelling. The start is deceptive, with a minimal approach but gradually the track develops and the horizons start to shimmer, with lovely warm synthesizers starting to dominate.
Big blocks of sound surround the listener, so that when the music disappears in a puff of air at the end the effect is similar to the sensation of taking off.
by Ben Hogwood, photo courtesy of Wikipedia (c) Dutch Simba
There was only one way Arcana could sign off for Christmas 2025 – with a tribute to the sadly departed and much-missed Chris Rea.
Before the inevitable finale, I wanted to share a couple of favourites from his considerable collection of excellent songs – this beauty from 1983:
The song Josephine has become something of a Balearic anthem, and is a sun-soaked beauty:
Speaking of sunshine, I had to include On The Beach, another dreamy song that proved versatile enough to be worked into a late 1990s trance hit:
And of course, finally, the ubiquitous Driving Home For Christmas, one of the staple Christmas songs with its wistfulness, charm…and patience!
With many thanks to all Arcana readers this year for your input and support, as well as gratitude for our fine writing contributions from John Earls and Richard Whitehouse. Arcana will return in the first full week of the New Year, but for now have a wonderful and peaceful Christmas, and all very best wishes for 2026 when it comes.
Ben Hogwood, editor, Arcana
Published post no.2,758 – Wednesday 24 December 2025
Charles Webster And The South African Connection’s new LP is a keenly anticipated set of work between the UK deep producer and the cream of the crop from South Africa. In a recent interview, Webster traces its roots:
“In 1997 when ‘Better Day’ by Presence came out, it was a hit on the radio in South Africa”…while “in England, it wasn’t on the radio at all”.
Webster boosted his profile in South Africa with a clutch of remixes, helping create a blueprint for a regional take on the deep, soulful house genre.
The press release documents the outcome of the project: “After the instant high of the project coming together so quickly and the collaborators all gelling effortlessly with Charles, Allan confesses that “there were moments where Charles was refining it, and I was thinking, how are we going to find this common thread between all these musical styles. Charles said don’t worry, this is what I do.”
What’s the music like?
Typically for Charles Webster, this is cool deep house music but with something extra. The Atmos Blaq collaboration Free is just that, an effortless piece of music with an airy trumpet break at its core, introducing The Artist, notable for Bokani Dyer’s vivid storytelling.
Many Blessings and the nippy A Journey channel the spirit of Matthew Herbert, while retaining Webster’s signature shuffle and liquid bass, while Film Me, From The Hill and Rain are classy downtempo numbers. The latter is especially evocative with its liquid guitar and sparkly vocal from Bokang Ramatlapeng.
Soweto Sunrise is a sultry beauty, but if anything Bakulindele is even better with its punchy organ riff and meditative vocal. Qiniseka, meanwhile, is magnificently brooding, and the rolling beats and cool keyboards of Part Two prove the ideal match.
Does it all work?
It does – the quality threshold is extremely high throughout!
Is it recommended?
Very much. Quality oozes from every pore of this record, which will up the winter temperature with its hot weather grooves and winsome, soulful vocals. Highly recommended!
Listen / Buy
Published post no.2,757 – Tuesday 23 December 2025
Small Treasures presents a typically inventive programme compiled by pianist Sarah Beth Briggs. In it she presents works by a trio of inseparable Romantic composers, with late-ish Robert Schumann, lesser-heard Clara Schumann and very late Brahms, his final compositions for solo piano.
Complementing these are thoughts from two members of Les Six, Germaine Tailleferre and Francis Poulenc – with the bonus of a cheeky encore from Mozart.
What’s the music like?
In a word, lovely. Briggs is a strong communicator, and finds the personal heart of Schumann’s Waldszenen – which is actually quite a Christmassy set of pieces. She particularly enjoys the intimacy of character pieces like Einsame Blumen (Lonely Flowers) and the delicate but rather haunting Vogel als Prophet(The Prophet Bird), beautifully played here.
A tender account of Robert’s Arabeske is a welcome bonus, an intimate counterpart to the more extrovert Impromptu of Clara. Written in c1844, the piece floats freely on the air in Briggs’s hands. By contrast the Larghetto, first of the Quatre Pièces Fugitives, inhabits a more confidential world, one furthered by a restless ‘un poco agitato’. The Andante espressivo, easily the most substantial of the four, is more serene, and it is tempting to draw a link between this and the mood of Robert’s Traumerei, from Kinderszenen. The Scherzo with which the quartet finishes is charmingly elusive, with clarity the watchword of this interpretation,
Poulenc’s Trois Novelettes are typically mischievous and elegant by turn, spicy harmonies and bittersweet melodies complementing each other, before Tailleferre’s Sicilienne, a charming triple-time excursion with a bittersweet edge.
The Brahms Op.119 pieces are serious but have plenty of air too, and the final majestic Rhapsody is grand but not over-imposing, Briggs resisting the temptation to go for volume over expression.
Does it all work?
It does – and the album is easy to listen to the whole way through, the lightness of the Mozart Eine Kleine Gigue complementing the Brahms at the end. Some of the classic recordings of the Brahms and Schumann pieces arguably find more angst, but these finely played accounts are a treat, especially in context.
Is it recommended?
It is. Rather than visit a playlist on your go-to streaming service, you can just put this album on to create a very satisfying recital. Small Treasures, indeed – as is Sarah’s dog, who joins her on the album artwork!
Listen / Buy
You can listen to Small Treasures on Tidal here, while you can explore purchase options on the Presto website
On 16 January 2026, Johnston will give the world premiere of Joseph Phibbs’ Cello Concerto at the Barbican with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Clemens Schuldt. In 2021,Johnston previously premiered Joseph Phibbs’ Cello Sonata, partly based on an Elizabethan pavane found in the archive of Hatfield House.
Phibbs (below) says about the work:
“This concerto is in five movements, the first and last scored for cello and strings only. The work opens softly with a short Invocation – a type of prayer – which leads without a break to an ebullient and at times abrasive Aubade, the cello moving from its lowest to highest range. The subdued central Elegy hones in on the celebrated lyrical qualities of the cello, before an agitated Notturno presents an unsettled, ever-shifting dialogue between the cello and orchestra, with a virtuoso cadenza featuring towards its close. A short Vocalise, adapted from a sonata Guy commissioned several years ago, ends the work on a note of resolution.
As one of the very finest cellists of his generation, I wanted to bring out Guy’s extraordinary expressive qualities as well as his dazzling technical prowess. The result was music which is often lyrical and emotionally direct sitting alongside that which is harder-edged, and at times frenetically virtuosic.”
This concerto appearance is part of a wider cello odyssey to record the major British cello repertoire. Following the digital release of the Bliss Cello Concerto with the RLPO on Onyx Classics in July 2025, Guy recorded Tavener’s The Protecting Veil with Britten Sinfonia in St Sophia’s Greek Orthodox Cathedral in October 2025 to be released on Signum in 2026. Early 2027 will see a physical release of the Britten Cello Symphony coupled with the earlier recording of the Bliss Cello Concerto with the RLPO on Onyx Classics. Also to be released in 2027 are recordings of Walton’s Cello Concerto and Barber’s Cello Concerto with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
The 2025-2026 season coincides with Johnston’s returns to the Royal Academy of Music as a Professor of Cello. This role will see him offer bespoke tuition to cello students throughout the year. Johnston started out as a professor at the Academy in 2011, later becoming visiting professor. The appointment follows Johnston’s recent relocation back to the UK following his tenure at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, from 2018 to 2024.
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