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This 1972 classic captures saxophonist Paul Winter and his ensemble at the height of their improvisational powers. Winter was one of the first artists to incorporate such exotic instruments as the sitar and tabla into his music and the result was memorable chamber jazz-folk played in the wonderfully experimental, post-hippie way only Winter and his merry band could. The title track, one of guitarist Ralph Towner's compositions, became famous for its pensive melody and soaring soprano sax. "Whole…
In 1988 the first issue of these recordings of Gran Torso and Salut für Caudwell was awarded the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Record Critics' Award); and neither compositions nor recordings have lost any of their value up to today. In Gran Torso, Lachenmann tried to explore the “mechanic and energetic conditions of sound production”. This resulted in singular, unusual sounds which simultaneously exploded the barriers of audibility, playing technique and sound as such. The guit…
Peaked-out duo recordings from one of the founders of the form and his ever adventurous, cello-torque-ing protégé. Recorded live in November 2007 at Chicago's famed Hideout destination, Brö and brother FLH combine for the first time ever in this penultimately intimate configuration. Although 'Braindog' (as we affectionately refer to these hypnotic tones around here) was recorded in an ultra-industrial urban warehouse district, the resulting music is über-organic, almost onomotopaeic at points. C…
FINLLY RESTOCKED! For the last 40 years the Logos Foundation in Gent has featured, produced and supported a vast programme of experimental music. One of its most distinctive projects is the massive robot orchestra - a huge and growing array of invented instruments - all of them Goldbegeresque physical constructions that produce internally generated acoustic sound, programmed and played through computer driven mechanical processes... Here they have been programmed to play a broad concert o…
with Steve Swell: trombone Jemeel Moondoc: alto saxophoneWilliam Parker: double bass Hamid Drake: drum set - This is an album to be cherished, because it reaches back and incorporates styles from swing to post-modern free jazz; and because the playing of Steve Swell and the members of his quartet are as near-perfect as you are likely to find; and because the melodies capture the imagination with a complex beauty that hooks into the inner being of soulfulness. It encompasses a unity of elements…
Before the epigones take over the stage we are given a chance to hear out Bach himself: the unfinished four-voice Contrapunctus XIV from the Art of the Fugue marks the starting point of Andreas Grau's and Götz Schumacher's remarkable exploration of the Bach cosmos. In the Berlin autograph of the Contrapunctus XIV the place where the score breaks off is marked by an inscription: "At the point where the name BACH is introduced in the countersubject to this fugue, the composer died." Even though fr…
"Musica Viva 06" is another excellent release from the German Col Legno label, which specializes in the avant-garde. This disc includes three live performances -- the original 1981 recording of "Ais," featuring the incredible baritone voice of Spyros Sakkas, a new recording of "Troorkh," a trombone concerto, from 2000, and (drumroll please...) the world premiere of "Anastenaria," also from 2000, with the inimitable Xenakis champion Charles Bornstein conducting. As it turns out, "Metastas…
One of the biggest finds in total Kraut electronic underground in the recent years. Crack in the Cosmic Egg asks: Does this exist? Yes it does! A Student of Eimert, Reinhold Weber produced several records of his own, two between 1969 and 1971, both of which are total weird and wild electronic, handmade, pre-synthesizer. Topped with crazy German language monotone lyrics. For fans of Cluster, Eimert, Stockhausen and people generally interested in the weird side of music. The second LP of his will …
Recorded in Roma in March 1981. It was recorded in five days, a day per body section. No tracks were re-recorded or added to after their day. Each was immediately after recording. No tracks were pre-planned, all tracks are invented directly onto the tape.
Their first label release in many years & represents their most polished work to date. One of the most enigmatic, mysterious, & defiantly anti-commercial groups to emerge from the NYC loft scene during the '90s. Incorporating elements of folk, drone, psychedelia, free jazz, noise, & just about everything else, NNCK has nevertheless carved out a distinctive sound despite the seemingly random component elements.
Today, the piano concertos by Béla Bartók are regarded as works of classic modernism and are considered suitable even for conservative audiences. Musica Viva, the concert series for contemporary music in Munich, included the piano concertos in their program back in 1957, a time when it was by no means a matter of course to hear this music in established concert halls. The man at the piano was one of the greatest of his trade: Géza Anda, a fervent and uncompromising advocate of Bartók's oeuvre, w…
Alfred Otterstaetter began playing music in the late '70s, releasing homemade tapes and records under different band names. Blumen des Exotischen Eises LP was released in '86 in the quantity of 100 copies on his Dead Eye Records. It was recorded between '83 and '85 and consisted of spontaneous music, some of it played by Alfred alone on different instruments with overdubs, and some with friends. Some tracks have early '70s open-air spaced out feel, others -- more heavy hypnotic Teutonic sound. O…
Back in stock: Irreverent, psychosexual and always fascinating, Ferrari's work manifests itself in texts, instrumental textures, electroacoustic compositions, reportings, films, theatre, etc. It is an honor for Tzadik to release two of his most important works from the 1970s, recorded under the supervision of the composer himself. 'Place des Abbesses,' the first electro acoustic portrait work realized at his home studio in Paris, 1977, is an evocative portrait of a small square between The Sacre…
Second one in the guitarimproseries (first one was Shifts). This Finish guy is pretty young but has a distinctive feel towards his guitarplay. Excerpts from his talents could be found on the Killa 7\\"s but here he is operating alone on his selfbuild guitar and other \\"soundlabs\\". It\\'s dark and quiet with lots of floating, hissing and inspired contructions. Every now and then a melody pops up which brings together the harmony between impro and a \\"listenable\\" experience. As for guitarpla…
Released just days after his death on January 14, 1999, this CD ranks as one of his best and most memorable, with groovy non-stop percussion sharing space with smooth backgrounds.
An opera? An anti-opera? A monodrama? Whatever it may be: Neither (1977) marks the meeting of the kindred artistic souls of Samuel Beckett and Morton Feldman.
“Art can give us a sense of the infinity of existence, the singular unity of all beings and phenomena as the apparent dualism between the inner and the outer is dissolved. Art can allow us to experience what it means to be alive. It can lead us back to our own sensuality, spirituality, and emotionality - to the very core of our selves,” said Caspar René Hirschfeld. This distinctive conception of art also informs Hirschfeld’s compositions, which are probably best described as objects of immediate…
Sound-track to the prize-winning movie. The Necks break with convention here and put several shorter pieces on one CD. All gems and all pared back to the reiterative imperfection that is the Necks' unique and glorious signature. This a band that seems to be coming into its golden age. Prodigious music and highly recommended.
Rhapsodic, lyrical, virtuoso, and, in the end, even amusing: all these attributes come to mind as Cerha's violin concerto is finished off with a charming punch line.