De l’art d’induire en erreur
The music of Fabien Lévy thrives on ambiguity, paradox and sonic illusion. With a deep interest in cognitive perception, he creates complex textures where clarity meets mystery, virtuosity blends with playfulness, and every composition becomes a daring exploration. Influenced by spectralism and his mentors Grisey and Risset, Lévy embraces musical allusions – from visual arts to world traditions – creating pieces that challenge and transform the listener’s perception. Whether through kaleidophoni…
The Living Mountain
*2025 stock* Austrian composer Thomas Larcher’s new album features premiere recordings of three strongly contrasting works. The Times has hailed Larcher’s music as a world “of haunting landscapes and dreams, stylistically disparate but fused by the composer’s astonishing ear and quizzical attitude to traditional forms”, a description borne out by the compositions here. The Living Mountain, for soprano and ensemble, draws upon the memoir of the Scottish poet and nature writer Nan Shepherd. Unerzä…
Bending The Tonic (Twice)
2005 release ** "The author's premises: `Bending The Tonic is a 12²-bar blues or what happens if you read Schönberg while listening to Bukka White`. We have already talked about Guy De Bièvre, a musician who commutes between Belgium and New York, reviewing the excellent “Manhattan [linear, circular, lateral]”, a portrait of the historic district of the `Big Apple` based on ambient recordings. On the surface, and when listening, this new creation, a composition performed by an instrumental group,…
In Resonance With Elsewhere
"Composer-performer & visual artist Charlotte Hug: Shaman of contemporary music. Reflections on her solo-album «In Resonance with Elsewhere». This fourth solo album by Charlotte Hug presents the distilled version of a composition commissioned by the Ruhrtriennale in 2022. On that occasion, Hug performed in a huge former machine hall and created various acoustic-imaginary spaces with Son-Icons (expansive Visual-Music on semi-transparent paper, usually painted on both sides with both hands and lon…
Moving
Moving is the abstract translation of long travels through the southern US into music for pedal steel guitar, chamber ensemble, organ, and electronics. The live performances of Moving feature 5 video projections with video art by Chaz Underriner which form the basis of the design of the CD. Moving particularly focuses on waterways in the south, including recordings from Blue Springs in Florida and the Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana, the largest wetland and swamp in the US.
Chaz Underriner (b. 1…
Zahra Fugues
2009 release ** "Part two of the epic, numerology-inspired Tetralogy series, Zahra Fugues is Frank Rothkamm's first all-acoustic release since his Chamber Ensemble, which dates back to 1984. These 26 individual pieces, all in the fugue form, are the results of the composer's experiments with the Steinway Model M grand piano that resides in Zahra's apartment in Manhattan. Rothkamm demonstrates that he knows his way around a piano, crafting his counterpoint-fuelled missives as effortlessly as most…
How Do I Know If My Cat Likes Me
Inspired by minimalistic icon La Monte Young and guitarist Allan Holdsworth, Nightclouds is a powerful collection of jazz pieces for solo pipe organ. Over long improvisation and shorter compositions, Swedish composer and installation artist Ellen Arkbro employs her usually epic chord structures and adds in a more self-reflective tone than previously.
Pieces Of Africa
Laurie Anderson and Kronos Quartet's Landfall, inspired by her experience of Hurricane Sandy, is the first collaboration between the iconic storyteller/musician and the groundbreaking string quartet, who perform together on the recording. Landfall juxtaposes lush electronics and traditional strings by Kronos with Anderson\'s powerful descriptions of loss, from water-logged pianos to disappearing animal species to Dutch karaoke bars. The Washington Post calls it "riveting, gorgeous."
Imaginary Cycle (Music For Piano, Brass Ensemble And Flute)
Idiosyncratic, large-scale and in its fundamental disposition one of a kind, Florian Weber’s Imaginary Cycle, conceived for the unique instrumentation of brass ensemble and piano, is a hybrid of multiple musical languages that seamlessly blends the harmonious with the oblique. Here Weber presents a cycle in four parts, plus an opening and an epilogue, in which the German pianist is joined by a group of four euphoniums, a trombone quartet as well as flautist Anna-Lena Schnabel and Michel Godard o…
Piano
1994 release ** "Ivo Janssen recorded these works more than 30 years ago. The album presents music by Dutch composers written between 1964 and 1991. Janssen plays these pieces with great authority. "Men Go Their Ways", by Ton de Leeuw,consists of 5 movements and is inspired by a Haiku poem. It is dedicated to Xenakis. I think the piece would be best heard in a resonant, small concert hall in which the delicate reverberated effects could come alive more effectively than over speakers. The movemen…
Musica Per Percussione
2008 release ** "Among contemporary composers I may be the one who is most determined to conserve links with the past generation whilst still being set upon the constant acquisitions of the new. Tradition, modernity, respect for formal classical values, the search for new sounds: these are constants in my idiom which strives to maintain a balance between the different factors. Some critics have seen in my works a stylistic coherency that is remarkable in the context of contemporary music, charac…
Musica Da Camera
2019 release ** "Among contemporary composers I may be the one who is most determined to conserve links with the past generation whilst still being set upon the constant acquisitions of the new. Tradition, modernity, respect for formal classical values, the search for new sounds: these are constants in my idiom which strives to maintain a balance between the different factors. Some critics have seen in my works a stylistic coherency that is remarkable in the context of contemporary music, charac…
Musica Per Chitarra, Pianoforte E Orchestra
2019 release ** "Among contemporary composers I may be the one who is most determined to conserve links with the past generation whilst still being set upon the constant acquisitions of the new. Tradition, modernity, respect for formal classical values, the search for new sounds: these are constants in my idiom which strives to maintain a balance between the different factors. Some critics have seen in my works a stylistic coherency that is remarkable in the context of contemporary music, charac…
Chamber Works for Strings
Felipe Lara’s Chamber Works for Strings redefines the ensemble as a resonating body, where strings become vocal cords and bows breathe sound into existence. In Corde Vocale and Tran(slate), the quartet is not a polite conversation but a raw, elemental force – organic, urgent, and monstrous. Sonare unfolds in processional waves, while Archi elastici stretches time to its breaking point, embodying breath itself. With Postcard and Prisma, Lara explores dialogue and divergence. Across these works, t…
Spirit
Danish composer and multiinstrumentalist Anders Lauge Meldgaard and the innovative string trio Halvcirkel are thrilled to announce the release of their collaborative album, Spirit. This extraordinary fusion of acoustic and electronic sounds will be available on March 20th, 2025, on vinyl and digital platforms through the Copenhagen-based experimental label År & Dag. Spirit invites the listener to experience an intricate interplay, where melodic lines and creative textures from the string players…
Darklight
2017 release ** "Music by: Nils Frahm, Clint Mansell, DJ Tiësto, Max Richter, Roberto Cacciapaglia, Joe Hisaishi, Vladimir Martynov, Ólafur Arnalds and Floraleda Sacchi. Already renowned for her interpretations of John Cage and Philip Glass, on #Darklight Italian harpist Floraleda Sacchi working solo with acoustic and electric harps, electronic devices and ambient recordings, her compelling interpretations expose the enigmatic quality of the compositions. "People often ask me why I play the har…
Der Maurer, Vol.1
2010 release ** "A multifaceted personality and artist in ethics, as well as aesthetics, Enrico Gabrielli has collected in the space of a few years what an average independent musician collects in a lifetime. Specifically, a series of important collaborations with the major world (Afterhours, Vinicio Capossela, Niccolò Fabi, Morgan), esteem and excellent feedback for shared projects (Mariposa and Calibro 35) and a status as a third-party arranger universally recognized in the Italian musical env…
Inner Journey
2025 stock 1998 release. Inner Journey contains works by William Duckworth, Thomas Buckner, Jacques Bekaert, David Wessel, and Somei Satoh - united by their themes of the quest for self-knowledge. Composed of fragments from the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry Miller, Gertrude Stein, and Thomas McGrath, William Duckworth's text reveals the multiple perspectives of an unknown couple whose post-modern love story emerges. Thomas Buckner's improvisation, "Inner Journey", is dedicated to the spiri…
Popofoni
This 2CD is a reissue of the holy grail of Norwegian free-jazz and electronic music, Popofoni, released by Sonet in 1973. It features compositions by Arne Nordheim, Terje Rypdal, Kåre Kolberg, Gunnar Sønstevold and Alfred Janson played by an extended Jan Garbarek Quintet.
The Popofoni-project was initiated after a heated debate on Haagen Ringnes’ TV-show Åpen Post in autumn 1969, which dealt with the subject popmusic. Standing on one side you found the defenders of pop, actress and singer Eli…
For Renstemt Klaver
Though the piano arrives on stage without a player, it is not alone. Mounted on steel bars within the instrument are electronic magnets, one per piano key, that have been connected by a thicket of wires—reminiscent of monstrous braces, as though the instrument were suffering youth under orthodontic siege. The magnets come down to the strings, and, as they vibrate at the strings’ own frequencies, the instrument speaks. Wobbling yet fulsome tones suffuse the room, sounding almost nothing like thei…