Stunt
Issued in 2008 as the first installment of a three-part series, Stunt marks a striking departure for Giuseppe Ielasi. Best known up to that point for the patient ambient and electroacoustic work on labels like Häpna and 12k, Ielasi sets aside guitars and field recordings here in favour of a single tool: one turntable, and a large pile of vinyl records.
The six pieces collected on this 12" were assembled over three months from short segments, loops, and longer improvisations drawn directly from t…
Hardcore Chambermusic
1995 release ** The “Hardcore Chambermusic” album is a music publishing phenomena that has taken Switzerland by storm, in which Koch-Schütz-Studer sampled and compressed hundreds of pieces of music from sources as diverse as Bela Bartok and Luciano Berio to Public Enemy and Bob Marley to create something revolutionary and altogether new."
Tenga Nina
This album is somewhat a departure for French drummer Jacques Thollot. Gone are the uncompromising free jazz experiments of the 60s and 70s - but not forgotten. He is clearly able to channel them in order to profit a more structured environment which betrays a renewed interest for the melody. The set features a core quartet comprised of pianist Tony Hymas, guitarist Noël Akchoté, and bassist Claude Tchamitchian, with special guests trumpeter Henry Lowther on a couple of tracks, and Thollot's dau…
The Child God
Bun-Ching Lam was born in Macao and holds a Ph.D in composition from the University of California at San Diego. She is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships including most recently the treasured Rome Prize for Composition. For her second Tzadik recording, she has assembled some of the greatest traditional music performers of China and matched them with some of New York's most creative instrumentalists in creating a beautiful and lyrical meeting of western art music and Chinese troubad…
Voices of Anxious Objects
Tzadik's Lunatic Fringe series continues with the work of manic visual artist and master of musical mayhem, Ken Butler. Performing on hybrid instruments of his own creation, Ken has been performing to enthusiastic audiences everywhere from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the Pink Pony bar, accompanied by the intoxicating rhythms of Seido Salifoski and Stomu Takeishi. Ken Butler's music is a delightful anecdote to the humdrum sounds of today's popular stylings. Rubberband trumpet, double axe ce…
Museum of Dannys
The hero of last year’s Self Indulgent Music collection is back by popular demand accompanied by his quirky band of kooks and renegades: Museum of Dannys is a compendium of Cohen’s best work from the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, and features his now-legendary underground hits "Suicide"—"Ranting in the Street" —"I’m Not Me"— and "Judgement Day." Arrangements as creative as Esquivel, lyrics as real as Dylan, hooks as catchy as Brian Wilson. Danny’s unique blend of astral projections, bad tacos, Satanism …
Self Indulgent Music
Tzadik is proud to introduce you to three exciting new artists. This special CD release is a passport to their unique worlds of sound. Danny Cohen and Mike Boner both hail from California, Horse Cock Kids are based in Cologne but they all share an intense passion for their own self-indulgent fantasies. Songs about sex, degeneracy, puberty, loss of identity, truth, love and boredom from three of the most howlingly original songwriters you have ever heard. This is what Tzadik's Lunatic Fringe seri…
Horse Tricks
Mark DeGliAntoni, the talented sampler magician for the pop group Soul Coughing studied composition at the Manhattan School of Music and released his first recording in 1995 on the Avant label as part of the experimental composer collective Rough Assemblage. Horse Tricks is his first solo release and features many of his acclaimed musical colleagues in a variety of musical contexts showcasing the wide range of Mark's compositional interests. From instrumental trip-hop and rhythm tracks to ambien…
Fired City
Composer, theoretician, inventor and instrument builder Frank Denyer is a legendary figure in the Harry Partch/Scelsi tradition. His music is utterly unique and intensely personal, often requiring specialized new instruments of his own design and radical playing techniques. Fired City presents six of his most dynamic compositions in definitive performances supervised by the composer himself. Having worked closely with Denyer for many years, The Barton Workshop is unsurpassed in this repertoire a…
Soul Machine
Fima Ephron, the dynamic bassist for the psycho-semitic-avant-klez-band Hasidic New Wave steps out on his own for yet another new approach bringing Jewish music into the 21st Century. Soul Machine blends Jewish scales and sensibilities with jazz/rock fusion via Weather Report and late Miles. Boasting an incredible lineup of downtown’s newest jazz stars, Fima’s colorful program also features a moody remix collage by the talented composer/performer David Torn.
The Watchman
Active for over a decade, New York cellist Erik Friedlander is finally receiving due recognition, not just as a musician, but as a composer of note. These works display his unique take on Radical Jewish Culture - sweeping melodic lines (reminiscent of cantorial singing) in instrumental arrangements that are both adventurous and traditional. Friedlander's first album, Chimera, was released on Avant in 1995. He has performed and recorded with Framework, Joe Lovano, Myra Melford, Dave Douglas, Fred…
Being and Time
Norman Yamada is a brilliant young composer who has worked with Anthony Coleman, Marc Ribot, the Crosstown Ensemble, the Agon Orchestra and was previously heard on the Avant CD by Rough Assemblage. Being And Time, the first CD dedicated to his compositions for small ensembles is an atavistic exploration of rock gestures, ambient noise and today's post-modern malaise. A unique compositional statement from a new generation of genre-busting musical thinkers.
KOVED - A Tribute to Martin Weinberg
Whether singing in Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino or French, Zahava Seewald is one of the most accomplished and soulful vocalists in the modern Jewish music scene. Following up on her very successful Tzadik debut Abi Gezint!, her latest recording takes a traditional klezmer repertory into a dynamic world mixing gypsy violins and Kurt Weill cabaret. Dedicated to the creative arranger/performer Martin Weinberg, whose premature death robbed Jewish music of one of its guiding lights, KOVED is a passionate …
Fragments - Modern Tradition
Naná Vasconcelos' Fragments - Modern Tradition presents a stunning collection of film scores by the world's foremost Brazilian percussionist, whose virtuosity is matched only by the originality of his compositional vision. Released on Tzadik in 1997, the album ranges from his trademark solo music to ensemble pieces featuring some of his favorite collaborators, weaving together award-winning film music that bridges traditional Brazilian rhythms with contemporary experimental approaches. Juvenal d…
TZ 7038
Gisburg's newest Tzadik recording couples two masterful compositions onto one disc. Her heartfelt opera for solo voice about the ups and downs of doomed and obsessive love is one of her most personal and striking compositional statements to date, a powerful combination of stark emotional content, minimalist melody and narrative charm. "Anna" shows Gisburg's profound command of classic instrumental writing - a lush and dramatic string quartet performed by the brilliant Cassatt Quartet.
Tunnel - Funnel
Daniel Goode (1936), composer and clarinetist, was born in New York, studied philosophy, and then music with Henry Cowell, Otto Luening, Pauline Oliveros and Kenneth Gaburo. He is director of the Electronic Music Studio of Rutgers University, and co-director of the DownTown Ensemble, which he co-founded in New York in 1983. Tunnel-Funnel, composed in 1985 is one of his most ambitious and exhilarating works. It was premiered in 1988 by the DownTown Ensemble conducted by David Gilbert, repeated at…
Flying Sparks and Heavy Machinery
Annie Gosfield's second amazing CD for Tzadik takes acoustic and electric music into dynamic new realms. Factory sounds…improvisation…lush sonorities…junk percussion…twangy guitars…classic minimalism…delicate harmonics…odd drones…rock…sirens…string quartets…driving rhythms…ambients…noise…complex structures…jack hammers and more from one of downtown's most interesting composers.
O Little Town Of East New York
Shelley Hirsch is a marvelous performer with remarkable vocal talents, charm and a wicked sense of humor. She is one of the best-knownimprovisers of the Downtown New York City scene, performing with virtually every major experimental artist in New York and Europe, but has thus far released only two albums of her own music (both released only in Europe). An award-winning radio play and Hirsch's most ambitious work, O Little Town Of East New York is a semi-autobiographical musical suite about grow…
Memories Are My Only Witness
A beautiful CD of quirky instrumentals from the hip mind of Yuka Honda, co-founder of the pop band Cibo Matto. Combining a wry sense of humor with wit, elegance and impeccable taste, Yuka’s charming instrumental miniatures cross all musical borders hypnotizing you with funky breakbeats, heartfelt melodies and nostalgic soundscapes. Recorded at her home studio and featuring longtime associates Duma Love, Timo Ellis, Bill Ware and Dougie Bowne, this is a breakthrough project for Yuka Honda, who is…
Riff and Transfiguration
It is truly an honor for Tzadik to release on its Composer Series a CD of music by Lee Hyla, one of America's most important composers of concert music. Concentrating on his dynamic music for piano, this exciting CD presents a fascinating sextet for hammered dulcimer, clarinet, piano and strings, and three solo piano compositions performed by Stephen Drury, Mia Chung and Judith Gordon, three of today's most acclaimed virtuosos. An exciting adventure into a new world of sound, space and texture f…