Composition / All styles

180 gram exact repro reissue, originally released in 1969. Classic Harry Partch, and the kind of record that's a great introduction to his music. There's lots of Partch's weird invented instruments – like chromelodeon, diamond marimba, mazda marimba, cloud-chamber bowls, gourd tree, and the crazy "spoils of war". "The World of Harry Partch collects three of his best short pieces. 'Daphne of the Dunes' (1967) is a side-long update of 'Windsong' written for dance. The melodic segments are given mo…

* Edition of 500 * Marc Sabat's Gioseffo Zarlino is "the third in a series of pieces inspired by ideas in the history of music theory, which I seek to experience and unfold in a sounding world" (taken from the liner notes by the composer). In the piece, unfolding cyclically over 70 minutes, voices, strings, harp, and flute, weave through each other exploring a novel tonal space developed by the Renaissance Italian Composer-Theorist, Gioseffo Zarlino in 1558 and reinterpreted in the 21st Century …

2009 release ** "Denissow avoids postmodern clutter by putting critical distance between himself and the music - this is a fantasy. Jürg Henneberger and Hedwig Fassbender avoid the hard sell, keeping the make-believe sound world allusive and inscrutable. And they bring comparable qualities to one of the best Folk Song cycles around - a work whose charms have, arguably, been dinted by overfamiliarity but that has now been calmly reassessed."

Very rare private CD re-issue of Franca Sacchi's privately released artist's records from the mid 70's "Ho sempre desiderato..." and (one piece from) "Essere". "In the early 70's Franca Sacchi approached feminism thanks to the group Rivolta femminile and began a period of reflection that led her to repudiate formal research and to dedicate herself solely to improvisation as a method to manifest her deepest and most universal authenticity. She then shifted her attention from the organization of s…

*150 copies limited edition* A beautiful edition of only 150 glass mastered CDs in a clear poly sleeve with hand stamped cover and a 22 page full color booklet featuring photos, drawings, and text by Laura Steenberge, with additional text by Michael Winter, Rebecca Lane, and Catherine Lamb.   "In medieval chant, music seems to have come from elsewhere.  It is the angels that are singing, they said, like gourds  hung up for purple martins. By the time notation started coming  around, hundreds of …

A 64-minute piano solo composed in 2021, performed by Jack Yarbrough. "'Mine but for its sublimation' is about resonance, register, and touch. It is about where we lead ourselves when we trust ourselves. It is experiencing trust as a chain of clearings, a sequence of becomings, openings, centerings. It is about letting go; othering; finding presence through evaporation. Obliteration." - Timothy McCormack

Kory Reeder composed Homestead (2024)—a nearly hour-long string quartet in four movements with an interlude—during his residency as Artist in Residence at Homestead National Historical Park in Beatrice, Nebraska in 2023. As he explains: "As a fifth-generation Nebraskan, growing up on the native lands of the Chatiks si chatiks people (Pawnee), this project is a part of my process of learning, listening, and developing a relationship with the land and its stewards in my home state: a beautiful pla…

A 45-minute piece from 2024 composed by Ferdinand Schwarz in collaboration with AREPO ensemble.

A 50 minute solo for viola d'amore played by Marco Fusi. The piece was composed in 2022-2023, and has six movements.

*300 copies limited edition* Students of Decay presents "Kaivajaiset" by Finnish composer Niko-Matti Ahti. Best known for his work alongside his partner Marja as Ahti & Ahti, Niko-Matti has been an active participant in the Finnish underground since the late 1990s. "Kaivajaiset" is his first solo recording and was originally conceived of as an installation. Part horspiel, part musique concrete, it is a piece of music that draws comparisons to the work of pioneering avant-garde composers such as …

*300 copies limited edition* Patience is the debut full-length album by Sante Fe-based artist Theodore Cale Schafer. Alternately murky and narcoleptic and bristling with grit and light, this collection of eight pieces is a delicate play of contrasts. Impressionistic settings unfurl with an unhurried gait, opening with the dream-like disorientation of "Gold Chain" in which a degraded location recording gives way to a soft web of treated piano motifs. Schafer's compositions are sumptuous yet unfus…

2007 release ** "In Very Slow Disco Suite (2006), De Bièvre slows down a disco song from 120 bpm to 20 bpm. Against this languid harmonic background, three musicians play material that is dictated at random by a microcontroller. In this way, De Bièvre tried to guarantee the spontaneity of the performance."

2000 release (visible storage wear) ** "These ten singular compositions by Gregorio share one thing in common: a rare ability to express astonishing collages of sound, interspersed with outstanding individual improvisation, resulting in surprisingly accessible sounds that baffle as they fully absorb the listener. In an incisive essay the composer cites varieties of constructivism and concrete art as influences and wisely eschews the self-expression of so much of free improvisation in favor of ".…

1995 release (visible storage wear) **

*2024 stock* Erwan Keravec's 4th opus devoted to contemporary music, Goebbels/Glass/Radigue features a trio of contemporary music maestros. Evocative, minimal or sensitive, 3 very different ways of imagining music. Heiner Goebbels places the bagpipes in the mountains, then abruptly in an industrial landscape, all the while quoting Bach, while Philip Glass' music uses the repetition of 5 notes served by continuous breathing. Finally, Eliane Radigue brings the instrument closer to intimacy.

*2024 stock* An outstanding pianist and a remarkable composer, Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guébrou, now a Christian nun in a Jerusalem monastery, recorded her own piano solo works, seeped in Ethiopian culture. Their rich, personal poetry brings to mind Carlos d’Alessio’s «India Song». A rare curiosity indeed, with beautiful melodies and a charming interpretation.

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…

*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…

Pianist Masako Ohta and trumpet player Matthias Lindermayr are back on Squama with 'Nozomi', the follow-up to their 2022 debut 'MMMMH'.The Japanese title, which translates to ‘hope’, felt fitting, as the album was conceived during a time of personal loss for Ohta, during and after which music proved itself as a beacon of hope. The music on Nozomi unfolds gently, with Lindermayr’s airy tone and lyrical playing being wrapped in Ohta’s chordal backing that moves from tender to tense and back over t…

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.Werdo's  unique “Studio Reihe” series continues with Christian Wolff:  The works by Wolff recorded on this CD by the legendary pianists David Tudor and Frederic Rzewski and their …

2005 release ** "Bending the Tonic (2004), a work for ensemble that November Music commissioned De Bièvre to compose. In this work, a computer records all the audio signals of the musicians (except for those of the contrabass and percussion) and plays these signals back according to a fixed temporal system. The harmonic basis is formed by a stereotypical blues progression, that De Bièvre stretches over 144 measures. The title refers to the importance of the tonic in blues music."

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…

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…

2024 stock. "My intention … was to explore those situations in which a loss of orientation leads us more deeply into the moment itself. There is a certain aquatic feel to the music, in which the performers are joined with a complex and sonorous fabric of computer generated sound. […] The work is twenty minutes long, divided into three roughly equal sections. In the first, the primary aim of the performers is to match, submit to and intensify the taped sounds. The second, in which the synthesized…

2024 stock. This is a recording that explores the "extra"- ordinary potential of the CD not only as a carrier of traditionally recorded instrumental sound (CD 1), but also offering a different view through binaural encoding of the same materials spatialized (CD 2). - Please note: the binaural recording is only available as part of the 2 cd set. not as a downloadFirst you are presented with two solo compositions-Kokoro and Focus a beam, emptied of thinking, outward…-and the duo Process and Passio…

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…

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…

Katharina Rosenberger's Tempi Agitati, a vocal work for Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart that sets Petrarch's texts alongside madrigals by Willaert and Rore, using extended vocal techniques. Complete Petrarch texts are included.

Four late cello works by Horatiu Radulescu played by his widow Catherine Marie Tunnell, with Ian Pace at the piano: L'Exil Intérieur, Das Andere, Pre-Existing Soul of Then and Lux Animae. Recorded in 2018.

Second volume of the Horatiu Radulescu Edition: his complete organ works played by Christoph Maria Moosmann, plus Intimate Rituals III and Immersed in the Wonder II with cellist Catherine Marie Tunnell, all first recordings.

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…

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…

It was Ludwig Wittgenstein, another Austrian, who already in his debut work identified the borders: in his opinion, he wrote in the preface to his Tractatus logico-philosophicus, he had “essentially resolved” those problems accessible to rational thought, and precisely that would demonstrate “how little is achieved that these problems are resolved.” Even greater emphasis is lent to this insight in the famous sentence with which Wittgenstein closes his Tractatus not even a hundred pages later: „W…

*2025 stock* A comprehensive 2 DVD set of music and films by Olga Neuwirth (b.1968). Olga Neuwirth has worked in films as a composer, animator, writer and director since 1991 when she composed the music for the Quay Brother’s film “The Calligrapher.” Included on these DVD’s are “The Long Rain” “Canon of Funny Phases” “Durch Luft and Meer” “The Calligrapher” “Miramondo Multiplo” and others.

"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 harp," says Floraled…

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…

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…

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…

Ziúr lines up with The Tapeworm for an exclusive cassette-only release featuring Kenichi Iwasa, exploring the electroacoustic realms. Invited to perform solo at Tarek Atoui's performance series at Kunsthaus Bregenz in October 2024, Ziúr decided to write a new piece for the occasion. This composition, 'Turn Liquid Into Dust', was then performed within the framework of Tarek Atoui's 'Waters' Witness' exhibition as an 8-channel spacial audio piece, transmitting sounds through the installation's str…

*200 copies limited edition* Sullivan Johns is a composer and musician from the UK. He studied at Leeds Conservatoire and Leeds Arts University. His previous release, Assembled Parts (Rusted Tone Recordings - 2022), constructs a narrative on themes of loss, grief and memory using minimal drones and field recordings. Described by Bandcamp New and Notable as "Striking experimental compositions that conjure both childhood joy and icy terror”, pieces from Assembled Parts were Broadcast on BBC Radio …