Schonberg Pierrot Lunaire -- Cheap Imitation
Berlin's Reinhold Friedl is a practitioner of the inside-piano technique and founder and director of the Zeitkratzer and Piano-Inside-Out ensembles. His piece, Schönberg Pierrot Lunaire -- Cheap Imitation is exactly what the title says: an endless funny parody of Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire, a composition often taken far too seriously. At the same time, it is a compositional condensation of Schönberg's techniques, conducted in a genius way by trumpet player Franz Hautzinger from Vienna, a longti…
8
Helge Sten, Ståle Storløkken, Arve Henriksen and Jarle Vespestad celebrate 10 years as Supersilent, the groundbreaking quartet with their first studio album in almost 5 years. Their music lives in a no-man's-land between the genres, somewhere between rock, electronica, jazz and modern composition. Yes, we say composition because when listening it´s not far fetched to think it could have been, although everything here is improvised, as it has always been with Supersilent. With ”8” they have yet a…
Dodeka
It is with great joy and honour that we are able to celebrate our 30th release with a new album by one of the most distinguished personalities in Norwegian music. Not only that, Dodeka, meaning twelve in Greek, is a small sensation in that the twelve pieces presented here have never been available on record before. These compositions are made from the building blocks and basic elements from Nordheim´s work in Warszaw between 1967 and 1972. Considering the primitive working methods and the equipm…
Electric
Beautifully presented reissue of classic archival electroacoustic works, first released on now very obscure vinyl in 1974. Bright orange fold-out digipak, extensive booklet of notes package some of the most exciting, shimmering and crystalline electronic sounds to be unearthed in quite a while. Important and essential. Born in 1931 and highly active, Arne Nordheim is considered by most as the greatest living Norwegian composer, his chamber music, orchestral and various other work spanning a 40 y…
Photography Meets Music
Video version of the Yuji Itsumi book. Itsumi Yuji (photography); Ohkuchi Junichiro (piano); Imai Kazou (Live electroacoustic); Urabe Masayoshi (alto sax). Color; 80 minutes.
Beyond The Boundary Of Time
Beyond the Boundary of Time documents the last live performance of the legendary Revolutionary Ensemble before Leroy Jenkins's death in 2007. This recording was made of a performance on May 25, 2005 in Warsaw, Poland. In the 1970s, the Revolutionary Ensemble introduced New York to decided musical advances, many pioneered by Chicago's A.A.C.M. musicians. Ex-Chicagoan Leroy Jenkins, who played violin, of all unheard-of modern jazz instruments, had formed his concept from classical, swing, blues, a…
Point Conception
Point Conception is Daniel Lentz’s wild nine-piano tribute to the octave. It amasses and bubbles over with incessant streams of octaves (harmonic and melodic) that run the length of the keyboard. Through a “cascading echo system,” long-time Lentz Ensemble pianist Arlene Dunlap performs all of its parts.Presented with Point Conception (which was originally issued as a Cold Blue LP in the mid-80s) is Lentz’s previously unrecorded NightBreaker, a kaleidoscopic and explosive tour de force for four p…
Rocks Will Open
Loren Chasse is responsible for a whole host of vital albums. He was a founding member of the Jewelled Antler label and has sparked so many great moments from the likes of Thuja, The Blithe Sons, Softwar, and of course his main solo guise, Of. For years, this project has evolved into something of absolute magical grandeur. Rocks Will Open is the latest opus in Chasse's catalog. The music on this album is as organic as it gets. Each tone, each sound feels like it has been culled directly from the…
Low Cloud Means Death
For years, I've counted Tetuzi Akiyama as one of my absolute favorite guitarists. He's been cranking out great records for ages, honing his style and skill in every possible way. Add in Christian Kiefer, who has also put out a string of magnificent releases, and a talented drummer/percussionist in Kevin Corcoran (who has appeared on releases on Weird Forest and played in Antennas Erupt!) and you've got a recipe for something magical. Low Cloud Means Death is a series of sea-inspired improvisatio…
Aix
Aix is the latest work from Italian artist Giuseppe Ielasi and the follow-up to 2007's August (12K 1044). With Aix we see Ielasi building his layered, atmospheric music around rhythmic grids. Most of the time these are quite irregular and the pulses are not necessarily stable or clear. Where his previous work approached sound in a linear fashion Aix imposes a strong vertical development with the aforementioned grid and a production consisting of ons and offs, employing as much improvisation as I…
More Arctic Hysteria / Son of Arctic Hysteria
...The later years of early Finnish avant-garde. Another incredible volume, following the inspiration and eye-opening 2001 CD Arktinen hysteria -- Suomi-avantgarden Wsipuutarhureita. Perfectly packaged document of more utterly obscure electronic mayhem and theatrical intoxication, presented as near-high-art. Now covered are the 1970s and 1980s. 34 artists. Featuring a lavishly illustrated leaflet of 20 pages. Compiled by Jukka Lindfors. Featuring Jimi Tenor, Läjä Äijälä and early Mika Vainio (Pa…
Mexico
Along with the two records by Nurse With Wound favorites Moving Gelatine Plates, Ergo Sum's weird and wonderful album Mexico is an unusual portal into the intense creativity of early 1970s French music. True, the bands are not musically similar; yet these three albums are distinguished not only by their instrumental richness, but by their unceasing sense of adventure. We'd go so far to say that Ergo Sum presents one of the most distinctive experiences in a rock idiom (apart from Zeuhl music jugg…
Canaries on the Pole #2
Jacques Foschia (eb & bass clarinet), Christoph IRMER (violin), Georg Wissel (prepared alto & tenor saxophones, objects) and Mike Goyvaerts (percussion, objects, toys). Recorded in 2008.
Ordinary music vol.3
#1 for string trio & double bass. Nikolaus Gerszewski (violin, composer), Ernesto Rodrigues (viola), Guilherme Rodrigues (cello) and Hernâni Faustino (double bass). Recorded in 2008 at Goethe Institut, Lissabon.
Blinzeln
Birgit ULHER, trumpet. Heiner METZGER, sound table. Recorded 2007 in Hamburg. Born 1961 in Nuremberg, she studied the visual arts, which still have an important influence on her music. Since moving to Hamburg in 1982 she has been involved in free improvisation and experimental music. Since then she has “established a distinguished grammar of sounds beyond the open trumpet” (jazzdimensions.de). She performs solo, with dancers, working ensembles, and one-time collaborations with musicians from aro…
Till My Breath Gives Out
The magic i.d. is a berlin-based quartet exploring the juncture of song forms with abstract music. The band, consisting of margareth kammerer, christof kurzmann, kai fagaschinski and michael thieke, formed in summer 2005 after previously being connected via smaller groupings and projects. till my breath gives out is their debut release, and consists of six intricately constructed gems, each with its own individual shape, painstakingly sequenced to form a record that becomes more than the sum of …
Gamut
Seymour Wright, alto saxophone. Eddie Prévost, roto toms. Recorded at Trinity College of Music, Greenwich, England on 2nd April 2008. Recording and mastering Sebastian Lexer. CD booklet image photograph by Paulo Wright. Notes Seymour Wright and Eddie Prévost respectively.
Music for nitrous oxide
This of course, was our first cd release from all the way back in 1994. Robert Ovetz (Ultrasound) mentioned this guy Adam who was doing amazing 4-track stuff at home. I think the name of the tape he gave me was called “Ombudsman”. The success of this release was a nice surprise and certainly having Joel at Cargo champion it, who was just getting Kranky going as well, certainly put us both out there. Ultimately, SOTL ended up at Kranky and are still making amazing recordings for them. Many say th…
Blackheath
Alexander von SCHLIPPENBACH, piano. Eddie Prévost, drums. Piano solo, drums solo and then a duet. Recorded at a concert given at Blackheath Halls, London, England on 30th March 2008. Recording and mastering Sebastian Lexer. Notes by Christoph Wagner. Cover artwork Myah Chun.
Rot
Udo SCHINDLER, soprano saxophone, bassclarinet. Margarita HOLZBAUER, cello. Harald LILLMEYER, electric guitar. Udo SCHINDLER, soprano saxophone, bassclarinet. Margarita HOLZBAUER, cello. Harald LILLMEYER, electric guitar. Udo Schindler studied flute on conservatory and architecture on university. starting as guitarist + saxplayer with rock and rockjazz. after moving to munich, performing free jazz, experimental and improvised music, Neue Musik, compositions for stage- and radio-play, lyric-publi…