Occam Ocean Vol. 2
There’s little argument that Éliane Radigue is among the most important composers working today. She a titan of the avant-garde, forever pushing into the unknown, bending the very notion of what music is, with the depths it can penetrate, into a singular territory, entirely her own. Until the early 2000s, Radigue’s deeply meditative works sprang almost entirely from an intimate relationship with her ARP 2500, but, over the years since, she has turned her focus to a remarkably collaborate way of …
Serenata I/Sonatine/Canteyodjaya/Zeitmasze
**Edition of 500. 180 gram vinyl** Fantôme Phonographique present a reissue of Serenata I/Sonatine/Canteyodjaya/Zeitmasze, originally released in 1958. The avant-garde composer and conductor Pierre Boulez was a titan of post-war experimental classical music. Born in the small cheesemaking town of Montrbrison in central France in 1925, Boulez studied at the Paris Conservatoire with the composer and organist Charles Messiaen and received private tuition from pianist Andrée Vaurabourg; after moving…
The Photographer
**2019 stock, reduced price** The Photographer is a chamber opera by world renowned composer Philip Glass, first performed in 1982 at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam. The story revolves around the life and work of photographer Eadweard Muybridge, the 19th century pioneer in photographic studies of motion and motion-picture projection. The centerpiece of the story is the trial for Muybridge's murder of the alleged real father of his child, an accusation Muybridge was indeed found guilty of. Remarka…
Among the Tarnished Stars / Quatuor pour la fin du temps
UK ensemble Apartment House performs two landmark works for the same instrumentation of violin, cello, clarinet and piano: Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps (1941) and Toronto based composer Linda Catlin Smith's Among the Tarnished Stars (1998). Released by Another Timbre in August 2019, this recording takes a fresh modern approach to the Messiaen, drawing out its experimental character, while revealing the sense of drama and intricate gradations of sonority in Smith's rich and mys…
Point/Wave
Point/Wave represents a rare confluence of precision and open inquiry, as Catherine Lamb’s composition for Cristián Alvear translates the enigmatic condition of sound into tactile experience. Commissioned by Alvear and realized on Another Timbre, Lamb’s score meditates on her signature just intonation, deploying the Secondary Rainbow Synthesizer to generate four environmental chords that breathe around the guitar’s modally tuned strings. The electronics hum and fade - reflecting timbral shifts f…
Windfell
British composer James Weeks (b.1978) presents windfell, an hour long composition for violin and voice written for and performed by Canadian violinist Mira Benjamin. Released by Another Timbre in May 2019, this extended solo work evokes the image of a violin alone on a remote hill, played only by the wind. Benjamin requested Weeks write a long duration piece for her. The challenge of making something for a single player over the span of an hour led Weeks to find ways to enrich the timbral and ha…
Shade / Gradient
**425 copies, 3-color letterpressed jacket with large 20-page booklet containing the full score and a lengthy interview with the composer** Catherine Lamb’s work is characterized by an insistence on what she calls the “interaction of tone”. Precisely tuned intervals, played slowly at subtle volumes, blend and generate a host of difference and combination tones, phasing, beating and aural illusions. Her ensemble and orchestral compositions have been performed in grand halls and d.i.y. spaces alik…
Music For Lock Grooves
**250 copies** SN Variations fifth release features two tracks in three parts each composed for lock grooves recorded onto acetate, percussion by Sam Wilson (Riot Ensemble / Actress) and violin performed by Aisha Orazbayeva. The tracks also feature the piano of Mark Knoop and the voice of Josephine Stephenson. A lock groove is one cycle of one groove on a record. This is 1.8 sec cut at 33rpm and 1.33 cut at 45rpm. Adrian Corker used the cutting lathe currently residing in the living room of The …
Three Realizations For Ensembles
Three compositions written by Francisco Meirino for ensembles. Utilizing pitch and timbre of traditional acoustic instruments Meirino’s unique compositional voice speaks out. Guiding the listener through tension and decompression, unease and malaise. Performed with Ensemble Vortex and Ensemble Phoenix in Basel, recorded during 2016-2019.Born in Spain in 1975, Meirino is active since 1994 (as Phroq until 2009) in experimental music and live performance. His music explores the tension between pro…
The Nigger Series
Ltd Repress available. 2LPs in bundle, Color Vinyl. 180gr Audiophile pressing. Including printed inner sleeve housing a Nagaoka anti-static record sleeve, plus an original insert that functions as Obi. Housed in a fold-out outer sleeve. It’s little wonder that Julius Eastman (who died in 1990 under unexplained circumstances), remained the supreme underground composer. He was Afro-American and gay, a composer who rocked the cerebral world of process music with his explosions of free improvisation…
Barricades
**500 copies** This album contains LA-based composer Michael Pisaro's recent composition Barricades, a 63-minute piece for piano and electronics. Consisting of thirteen studies (piano pieces, some with electronics) and two electronic interludes, the piece is performed by Israel-based pianist Shira Legmann, with Pisaro on electronics. Legmann's clean, supple yet solid piano sounds, employing a wide dynamic range, add a sense of organic life to the composition. Her whispery nuances and mysterious …
Lettres et Replis
**500 copies** This album contains six pieces written by French composer / artist Bruno Duplant, all composed and realized by Dutch pianist / composer Reinier van Houdt. Duplant's scores Lettres (pour Reinier van Houdt) (2017) are three letter-form scores personally addressed to van Houdt containing letter sequences distributed across the page. Trois replis d'incertitude (2018) are also three letter-form scores but with the notion of 'repli' (meaning 'fold' in a Deleuzian postmodern baroque sens…
Cheminant
**500 copies** This is French composer / pianist Melaine Dalibert's third solo piano album, following his well-received 2018 album Musique pour le lever du jour and 2017 album Ressac. Cheminant contains a diverse array of Dalibert's unique compositions for solo piano, ranging from the up-tempo rhythmic Percolations performed masterfully by Dalibert's right hand, to the slow, prolonged meditative Music in an octave and Cheminant, to the kaleidoscopic Étude II with the repetitive hammered chords, …
The Claviorganum and the Violin
**250 copies** This is the first published recording of Michel Samson since his unparalleled work with Albert Ayler’s quintet in the late 1960s. Samson’s violin playing is outstanding. His great exuberance and ecstasy, all sliding through an interlocking sadness. The collection on this LP holds numerous 17th-Century works of the Italian baroque, performed by Michel Samson and his wife, Rebecca. It showcases some of the earliest music composed for the violin as a featured soloist. Rebecca accompa…
Canto
**300 copies** Jon Mueller is a multi-faceted percussionist, presenting his latest body of work in Canto for gongs, voice, and percussion. In his solo work that spans two decades, Mueller has embarked on a lengthy exploration of the timbres, the dissonance, and the physicality of repetition from his array of percussive instruments. Gongs had long been a part of his repertoire, but here on Canto he addresses their specific sonic attributes in conjunction with extended vocal techniques bolstered t…
A Porthole (I)
**300 copies on aqua blue vinyl** French modern-classical quartet Astrïd return with the first part of a new release entitled A Porthole. Conceptually the two records work in unison, focusing on portholes into the abyss, with part one delving into the depths of the deep sea. The tracks are named after various strains of seaweed, the artwork depicting dark waves and uncertainty. Part two will follow in a year time and will turn its attention to the night sky and constellations. A Porthole continu…
Arc
Recorded in May 2018, Arc is a Bertrand Denzler’s composition performed by string ensemble CoÔ. Founded by Félicie Bazelaire, CoÔ is a string ensemble bringing together string players of ONCEIM (Orchestre des Nouvelles Créations, Expérimentations et Improvisations Musicales, created and directed by Frédéric Blondy). CoÔ aims to build new directions in instrument research, and create a new repertoire for bowed strings. Félicie Bazelaire works with musicians who are composers and improvisers such …
Flores
**2021 stock** Flores, like any other work of Maria de Alvear, deals with the ideal of inner freedom. This is not a mere claim, it is manifested in the shape of the piece itself. Written in the author's typical mixture of composition and notated improvisation, the text leaves a certain scope to the seven instrumentalists as to the elaboration of the rhythm and at times also the intonation. The score has almost no directives for the parts of the two singers: what and how the singing is performed …
Raga Virga (Live At Montalbâne 17.6.2011)
**2019 stock* * Indian Dhrupad songs meet the chants of Hildegard of Bingen: this extraordinary encounter took place in 2011 at the Montalbâne Festival. It was a successful experiment in a concert that linked together two worlds that at first glance have nothing in common. But this is deceptive, since both musical worlds follow the rules of modal music and can thus lay, intertwine, and harmonize wonderfully with one another. And both worlds come from the context of contemplation in monasteries a…