Clear or Cloudy
With the passing of Gyorgy Ligeti on 12 June, 2006 at the age of 83 in Vienna following a lengthy illness, the musical world has lost a true maverick. An independent thinker, Ligeti charted a singular route in his music with the evolution of a voice that is hard to ignore. In this respect one is tempted to put him alongside figures such as Boulez, Cage, Stockhausen and Xenakis when considering the major shapers of late 20th century composition.
Berio / Xenakis / Dashow
Recital disc by violinist Tsjuji Mifune, featuring a trio of Iannis Xenakis pieces, plus an early 80s electro-acoustic piece by James Dashow, plus Luciano Berio’s “corale”.
Bruno Maderna Oboe Concertos
Italian composer Bruno Maderna was one of the most misunderstood and mistreated of the 20th century's composers -- particularly by his peers. His vast body of work, ranging from his early works (at ten) to his later, introspective statements, reveal a man genuinely in touch with the inner wellspring of his own creative language, but also with the defining tonal and timbral capabilities -- as well as the idiosyncratic natures -- of the instruments he wrote for and their larger role in the articul…
His Master\'s Noise - The Institute Of Sonology
His Master's Noise presents works produced in the Institute of Sonology (Instituut voor Sonologie) in Utrecht and in The Hague, Netherlands. The Institute of Sonology was founded in 1960 after the Laboratory of Natural Sciences (Natlab, Philips Industries, Eindhoven) had decided to shut down its small 'electronic' studio (which was existing since 1952 and where Varèse made his Poème Electronique). Initially called STEM, projects were set out for scientific and compositional research. This compil…
Music for Merce Cunningham
2008 repress, featuring a 24-bit Hi-Definition remaster; originally released in 1991. Volume 4 in the Music of Cage series. The first audio document between John Cage & Merce Cunningham. It includes a 55-minute piece called "Five Stone Wind" performed by David Tudor (live electronics), Takehisa Kosugi (amplified violin, live electronics, bamboo flute) and Michael Pugliese (clay pots and tapes) as well as a 19-minute version of the classic "Cartridge Music" (same 3 performers, "using phonograph c…
Film Scores: Neverwas Recording Archive Vol. IV
Philip Glass' score to the film Neverwas is the fourth release from the Philip Glass Recording Archive. Neverwas, a film starring Ian McKellen, Aaron Eckhart, Nick Nolte, Brittany Murphy, Jessica Lange and William Hurt, is a fantasy-mystery with a bold, playful and fantastical score by Philip Glass. The film never received wide distribution and was largely forgotten. The 53-minute film score (composed the same year the composer's celebrated music for The Hours) possesses some of Glass' most acce…
The World Upside Down
2004 repress. Branca's long anticipated foray into orchestral music. Recorded in Nov, 1990. Performed by The New York Chamber Sinfonia, 'The World Upside Down' is a masterpiece of bright, organic structures & tones tempered in the eerie darkness typified by Branca's best work...Sonically and emotionally boundless, seemingly comprised of interplanetary musics from the netherworlds, 'The World Upside Down's celestial nature will especially appeal to fans of Branca's crystalline 'Symphony No. 3' re…
Pléïades
Cheap mid-line pricing on these classic avant garde titles out of the Harmonia Mundi catalog. Pleiades is a percussion piece performed by Les Percussions de Strasbourg (vibraphones, marimbas, xylophones, etc.); richly defined, timeless music that will sound good for the rest of your life. "The whole source of this polyrhythmic composition is the idea of periodicity, repetition, duplication, faithful, pseudo-faithful, unfaithful copy... still greater variations of an even greater complexity, due …
Phlegra, Jalons, Keren, Nomos Alpha, Thallein, Naama, A l\'lle d
This Apex reissue includes two discs at a low price -- the Ensemble Intercontemporain (EI) performing three 1980s Xenakis works along with two solo works, and on the second disc, four pieces that X wrote for harpschordist Elisabeth Chojnacka. In general Xenakis excelled with large forces, an orchestra or large ensemble. It was his organization of sounds, chaos careening nearly out of control, yet somehow also moving purposefully, that was his genius.
Acustica
Composed between 1968 and 1970, Acustica, for experimental sound-producers and loudspeakers, is one of Mauricio Kagel's radical and extraordinary works, in which his constant search for ways of escaping from the restraints and conventions of traditional musical performance took him into a world of exotic instruments and almost surreal invention. The instrumentation for Acustica is a huge array of sound sources: there are folk instruments collected from around the world and from different periods…
Musique Pour Piano Solo
Mention "minimalism" and certain names will pop up, both within and outside of the classical world: Terry Riley, Steve Reich, John Adams. The most famous one, however, would be Philip Glass. Unlike most 20th Century composers, Glass has reached far beyond the concert hall: his work includes film soundtracks (THE TRUMAN SHOW, THE THIN BLUE LINE), multimedia presentations ('1000 Airplanes on the Roof"), and collaborations with pop/rock writers/performers (his SONGS FOR LIQUID DAYS album). With SOL…
Einstein on the Beach
First in a Glass Trilogy of operas about men who changed the world through the power of their ideas, "Einstein"'s sub-text is science. The opera is non-narrative in form, and the producer has two options: to reproduce the original Robert Wilson production (which exists on videotape), or to create a new series of stage and dance pictures based on themes relating to the life of Albert Einstein. Opera in four acts, composed in 1976. Remastered reissue of the original 1979 Tomato Music Company / CBS…
Analog
Unreleased recordings from the late 70s, performed by Glass (Farfisa, Yamaha & Hammond organs, Fender Rhodes piano, Arp synthesizer). New release which contains three seminal works in Glass's musical history. In the late 1970s, Philip Glass was asked by two film producers, Francois de Menil and Barbara Rose, to write music for a film they were producing. The film was Mark di Suervo, Sculptor and it was Glass's first film score, predating even Koyaanisqatsi. The score took its titles from the nam…
Collected Recordings
The collected Recordings by exceptional Greek composer Jani Christou. Included compositions ranging from the late 1940s until 1968. Each CD comes in a book cover, containing lots of information to each composition. Truly an amazing series of recordingsVolume 1:Phoenix Music for orchestra in five continous movements (1948-49, 11'20'')Six T.S. Eliot Songs for mezzo-soprano and piano (1955, 12'27'')The Strychnine Lady for solo viola (female), five actors, instrumental ensemble, tapes, various sound…
Mantra
1986 recording of this infamous piece (originally premiered in 1970), performed by Yvar Mikhashoff (piano) and Ole Orsted (electronics). Each of the sections comprises a microcosm from a different perspective. 'Mantra' is such a piece in that each of of its parts reflects itself, backwards, as in a mirror, standing on its head, elongated, compressed, twisted. It is super-redundant, pervasive, just like a bottle of Coke, that instead of a beverage produces the famous concept of 'Coca-Cola'... it …
Chromatophore
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Anthony Pateras is a composer/performer based in Melbourne who is as comfortable writing for full orchestra as he is performing in intimate improvisational groupings. Pateras represents the best in the new generation of musicians combining the spontaneity of improvisation with the formal logic of composition and for his second Tzadik CD, he has chosen an eclectic mix of ensemble pieces that blend instrumental virtuosity and electroacoustic sonorities in star…
Studies for Player Piano
The definitive recording of Conlon Nancarrow’s Studies for Player Piano, originally released on LP by 1750 Arch Records, newly remastered in spectacular sound, representing the most faithful reproduction of what Nancarrow heard in his own studio. This is the only available recording utilizing Nancarrow’s original instruments: two 1927 Ampico player pianos, one with metal-covered felt hammers and the other with leather strips on the hammers. The 4-CD set includes a 52-page booklet with the origin…
Doppio Coro / Artemisia / Triola / Cantate Pour Elle / Week-end
VERY LAST COPIES, long deleted masterpiece 'Doppio coro' (1993) for organ orgue, 'Artemisia' (1991), 'Triola ou Symphonie pour moi-même' (1977-78), 'Cantate pour elle' (1966) for soprano, harp and tapes, 'Week End' (1982), 'Luminétudes' (1968), 'Reflets' (1961), 'Dahovi' (1961), 'Lumina' (1968) for 12 strings and tapes.
Ho Khoom Pranam
an original copy of an awesome Scelsi LP, featuring Hô (1960) - Four melodies for solo voices. Pranam I (1972) - (In memory of the tragic loss of Jani and Sia Christou) for voice, 12 instruments and tape. Khoom (1962) - (Seven episodes of a story of love and death in a distant land) for voice and 6 instruments. Hô and Khoom were recorded in 1960-1962: Pranam I, in 1972.
The works of double bass
This disc contains the first complete recordings of Giacinto Scelsi's music for double bass. Volume 7 in Mode's acclaimed Scelsi Edition. Scelsi's infamous 'KO-THA I, II, Ill' -- for string instrument played lying on its back in a percussive manner -- is presented for the first time in an adaptation from the original for guitar by legendary bassist Fernando Grillo. Robert Black, internationally known as one of the leading bassists of our time, has also collaborated or performed with a diverse nu…