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6 Duos (Wesleyan) 2006
On 6 Duos (Wesleyan) 2006, Anthony Braxton and John McDonough turn a teacher–student bond into a finely wired brass–reeds colloquy, shuttling between Braxton systems, McDonough themes, open improvisation and Sousa with disarming clarity and wit.
Indian Summer
On Indian Summer, Eddie Johnson lets his late‑era Chicago tenor glow with undimmed warmth, spinning swing‑era lyricism and speech‑like nuance over a veteran quartet that treats time as something to lean into, not chase.
All Music
Recorded in Chicago in 1976, All Music catches Warne Marsh in lucid, late-middle form: a cool-toned tenor moving with dry wit and quiet daring through Tristano-school material, buoyed by Lou Levy, Fred Atwood and Jake Hanna’s alert swing.
Snurdy McGurdy And Her Dancin' Shoes
On Snurdy McGur dy and Her Dancin’ Shoes, Roscoe Mitchell launches the Sound Ensemble with a volatile mix of abstraction and groove, folding AACM rigor into slyly funky frameworks that keep tilting from tight forms into open risk.
Hal Russell NRG Ensemble
On their 1981 debut, NRG Ensemble, Hal Russell and his much younger bandmates detonate a joyous, combustible mix of free jazz, skewed swing and dada humour, turning multi-instrumental chaos into a sharply etched group identity.
Generation
On Generation, Hal Russell’s NRG Ensemble collides with Charles Tyler to turbo‑charge its already volatile chemistry, turning multi‑author charts into a raucous, shape‑shifting suite of free‑jazz blowouts, sly grooves and side‑eyed melody.
Procession of the Great Ancestry
On Procession of the Great Ancestry, Wadada Leo Smith threads trumpet history and civil rights struggle into a lean, glowing suite where dedications to Davis, Gillespie, Little and Eldridge sit alongside blues testifying and a closing hymn for Martin Luther King Jr.
Circumstantial
On Circumstantial, Ira Sullivan returns to Chicago after fourteen years away, sounding both relaxed and razor‑sharp as he trades easy, hard‑won wisdom with a seasoned hometown rhythm section and a fiery young guitarist at his side.
The Magic Of Ju-Ju
Opening with the 18+ minute track of the same name, Archie Shepp’s ‘The Magic of Ju-Ju’ takes on a fevered pace as the centrepiece of this date from 1968. Shepp lets loose from the beginning as he’s joined by Beaver Harris, Norman Connor, Ed Blackwell, Frank Charles and Dennis Charles, all on percussion. The initial pace never dissipates throughout the title-track’s run. The additional tracks on Magic of Ju-Ju are a departure from the first, sitting more in a traditional realm. The album is a va…
Earle Brown Contemporary Sound Series Vol. 2
3-CD Set. Recorded between 1960 and 1973, the original eighteen LPs that comprise Earle Brown's legendary Contemporary Sound Series have been highly sought after in the secondary market since 1978 when they were discontinued. These rare and historically important recordings of international avant-garde music have been carefully digitized and remastered by the Earle Brown Music Foundation. Volume two includes music by Nono (Polifonica-Monodia-Ritmica), Bruno Maderna (Serenata No. 2), Luciano Ber…
Earle Brown Contemporary Sound Series Vol. 5
Three discs, three distinct worlds - each one a landmark. Vol. 5 of Earle Brown's Contemporary Sound Series may be the most dramatically varied installment in the entire programme, arcing from the handmade electronic circuitry of four American mavericks to one of the great piano sonatas of the 20th century, and closing with the golden tone of the most celebrated flutist of the post-war avant-garde.
The first disc is Electric Sound, the only album the Sonic Arts Union ever released as a group. Or…
Silence Beyond Time
*2024 stock* “Between stood and still stands for the simultaneity of things that are really mutually exclusive” (Peter Michael Hamel, 2005). “Originally we wanted to call the project B.A.C.H.,” Peter Michael Hamel re-calls, when, in 1970, they were looking for the most unusual name possible for a extremely unusual formation. “Naturally we chose in it in part in allusion to the immortal baroque composer of that name, but above all the letters stood for “Between All Chairs.” That’s exactly how we …
Fluxus
2025 stock Three rather meditative pieces from the repertoire of "Ars Acustica", but nevertheless: Fluxus! The New York-born artists whose radio plays are collected on this CD, Philip Corner, Alison Knowles, and George Brecht, have appeared together in performances, and they are also connected by their relationship to John Cage's aesthetic, by work with chance operations, and by Zen. Explaining Fluxus is like wanting to hold a river in your hand.
Komposition Für Streichquartett / Komposition Für Violine / Disappearing Musics
2025 stock Jakob Ullmann's career can be measured by the obstacles placed in his path. It was in the teeth of these obstacles that he learnt his craft: they have left their mark on his artistic stance, and the fact that he ultimately overcame them proved the rightness of his approach. For a number of reasons, Ullmann's works failed to blend into the musical landscape of the former state of East Germany. Avoiding peremptory gestures and unalterable laws, his restrained scores seemed strange and a…
Etudes Australes
*2022 stock* 'Etudes Australes was composed specifically for Grete Sultan, so this album is among the definitive recordings. As an indeterminate piece for solo piano (okay, well, a "duet for two hands"), this sounds very similar to Music of Changes, Winter Music, etc. Here, though, Cage generates indeterminacy by turning once again to using star charts as tools of composition, as he did previously in the wonderful Atlas Eclipticalis.
In a way, I find the piano to be more suited to star charts th…
Und so weiter / Music Promenade
With the legendary “Studio Reihe Neuer Musik” series, Wergo created a trademark of advanced contemporary music in the Sixties of the past century already. On the occasion of its 50th anniversary, the label now releases these highlights of 20th-century music history in an excellent sound quality on CD for the first time.In "Und so weiter pour piano électrique et bande magnétique", the piano and tape sounds become interwoven in a complex dialogue. "Music Promenade. Mixage originale“ – created in t…
Hesse Between Music (Dichtung & Musik)
*2024 stock* Produced in 1974 by Joachim-Ernst Berendt, this synthesis of Hermann Hesse’s writing with Peter Michael Hamel’s music, of spirituality and art, of sitar and church organ, of meditative sounds and jazz rhythms, of silence and passion remains unique today and in the meanwhile it has obtained a legendary reputation. Further releases of the formation Between from the 1970s are re-released as cds on the Intuition label: "Einstieg - Re-Entry", "And the Waters Opened", "Silence Beyond Time…
Musica Da Camera
*2022 stock* The Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki used to write chamber music even as a student in Krakow. He was writing the chamber music works for himself, then already an accomplished violinist, and his fellow students (The title "Sonata for Violin and Piano" from 1953 has only recently been published.). A specialty of these early works are Penderecki's inventions with which he altered the sound of the stringed instruments, indeed almost to the point of being completely unrecognizable. W…
Kammerkonzert / Ramifications / Lux Aeterna / Atmosphères
*2022 stock* These pieces (mostly recorded within a couple years of Ligeti writing them) are superb in that unsettling way of most of Ligeti's music. The "Kammerkonzert" is amazing - one of the best things I've heard of his. It's great to hear the harpsichord and Hammond organ in this context and unique in modern music. The uniqueness is really just Ligeti's style and the instruments don't matter so much, whether it's the giant orchestra used for "Atmospheres" or the choral effects in the most f…
For Philip Guston
*2022 stock* Performed by Julia Breuer (flutes), Matthias Engler (vibraphone, marimba, glockenspiel, tubular bells), Elmar Schrammel (piano, celesta). Recorded 2007. One of Feldman's classic long-term late works, written in 1984. Wergo is proud to present Morton Feldman's four-hour-long trio For Philip Guston, performed by the ensemble Breuer-Engler-Schrammel. Feldman disagreed with those who regarded his works since the 1970s as being too long. 'In music, it's very difficult to distinguish betw…