★Another Timbre
Zamat
Three recent chamber works by the highly-regarded Slovakian composer Adrián Demoč. The title track 'Zamat' is a 10-minute quartet for clarinet, bass clarinet and cello, which uses slightly asynchronous Korean unisons throughout. 'Gebrechlichkeit' is a 25-minute string quartet., „...o protón jasu...“ is a new work lasting 30 minutes for two clarinets, viola and cello, commissioned by Another Timbre for this album.
Flowers of Emptiness
Eight chamber works by Canadian composer Linda Catlin Smith, beautifully performed by Apartment House. The album is structured around the first recordings of three of Linda's string quartets (tracks 1, 6 and 8), along with a short violin duo, a piece for clarinet, violin, cello and double bass, an early string trio, a very recent work for cello and piano, and a bass clarinet solo written for Apartment House regular Heather Roche. Together the pieces present a compelling portrait of the chamber m…
Dawnings
A double album with 5 major new works by the brilliant young composer Eden Lonsdale.
Disc One contains three pieces played by Apartment House:'Aurora' for solo cello'Dawnings', a 32-minute duet for clarinet and piano& 'Cloud Symmetries', a 34-minute piece for four violins, commissioned by Another Timbre
Disc Two contains concert recordings of two long works for larger ensembles:'Constellations' played by Oerknal at the Gaudeamus Music Week, 2023and 'Shedding', a piece for seven violas, commissio…
Curva Triangulus
'Curva Triangulus' is a superb composition from 2021 by Catherine Lamb, written for and played by Ensemble Proton, who are based in Bern, and have access to some of the unusual instruments used in piece, including arciorgano, baroque triple harp, lupophone and contraforte. More details about the piece can be found in Catherine Lamb's and Richard Haynes's sleevenotes, which are included as bonus items with the music.
Outermost Melodies
Double CD of percussion works by Jürg Frey, featuring definitive recordings of works composed between 1994 and 2022. Performed by Ian Antonio, with members of Talujon percussion ensemble on one track. Comes with a pdf of the cover artwork, plus jpegs of the photos used on the cover, and an interview with Ian Antonio about the music
Holde Träume, kehret wieder!
A double album consisting of two versions of Magnus Granberg's 2021 composition 'Holde Träume, kehret wieder!' The first version is for the Nattens inbrott quartet, for which the piece was originally written. The second version, with some extra parts added, is perfomed by Magnus Granberg's longstanding group Skogen, and is performed by a septet. Also includes high-quality jpegs of the superb artwork for the CD by Magnus Gramén, a pdf of the cover artwork and an interview with Magnus Granberg abo…
Control And Its Opposites
“Eighty minutes of trumpet/electronics and alto sax. Here, the length works in its favor. An advantage, oddly, to listening at home (and reading the back of the sleeve): You know it's 80 minutes long so you "read" it as such, as it's happening, sitting back a bit, seeking a wider focus. Wright gets nicely strident here and there, Coleman generally staying with breath tones early on, getting more vociferous later, Kasyansky hither and yon, doing a fine job integrating and coloring. There's a brea…
Meshes
Trombone, electronics and cello, the trio opts for a sparser, more irregular path, with perhaps a higher degree of difficulty. Two cuts, both emerging more or less unscathed, but somehow striking me as overly forced. Actually, it's a tough one for me to call; sometimes it has a searching quality that's very appealing, other times I hear it less as "searching" and more as "casting about". Again, I don't believe this series of discs are meant as statements or finished projects, more as snapshots; …
Loiter Volcano
The excellently titled Loiter Volcano was a constant source of somewhat surprising pleasure the first time I listened. "Surprising" because the general attack leans a bit more toward efi (I suppose "post-efi" has been appropriate for a good while) than I normally care for. But this mix of electronics, percussion and cello simply filled the space in a manner that held me rapt throughout. As with the other release featuring Dumont, it's partially about the textures and their creative deployment bu…
Centre Of Mass (For Cymbal And Resonant Objects)
Solo improvisation for cymbal and rotating objects
Scrub
A duo improvisation recorded in an exhibition space with several of Max Eastley's sound sculptures, and next door to a park where a firework display was taking place...
Dark Architecture
A duo improvisation recorded in an exhibition space with several of Max Eastley's sound sculptures, and next door to a park where a firework display was taking place...
A Life Saved By A Spider And Two Doves
As George Lewis recently said, it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish between improvised and composed music. It’s a distinction he would like to see dropped. For much of its length this delicately nuanced recording could quite easily be a formal electroacoustic composition, an impression strongly reinforced by the fact that Evan Parker sounds curiously unfamiliar in this new grouping. He’s well used now to working with electronics, but this was a first convocation of this quart…
Endspace
Duo improvisations recorded at Goldsmiths College in South London
Hum
Quartet improvisations for trumpet, flute, harp and bass clarinet
Tasting
Recorded live at the June 2006 Jazz à Poitiers festival this little gem features the work of two truly extraordinary musicians, both of whom are giants from a technical and creative point of view: Phil Minrton and Sophie Agnel, an unusual and very welcome pairing in that ceaselessly changing world which is the improv scene. The former is well-known, and has the weight of many years’ experience on his shoulders, but refuses to give up and continues indomitably to explore the outer possibilities o…
Wanderer
Trio improvisations with Sophie Agnel - piano, Bertrand Gauguet - alto & soprano saxophones and Andrea Neumann - piano frame, electronic devices
Mouth To Mouth
Four compositions by the US-Chinese composer:
'Of Monsters' - Ingrid Lee, piano Merima Kljuko, accordion'Cells' - Ingrid Lee & Rowan Smith, amplified snare drums'Bead Spit' - Ingrid Lee, piano, Max Kutner, electric guitar, Tony Gennaro, percussion'Another' - Eric KM Clark & Andy Studer, violins, Heather Lockie, viola, Meldoy Yenn, cello, Jake Rosenzweig, bass & Tony Gennaro, vibraphone
Spiral Inputs
Trio improvisations with Sophie Agnel - piano, Bertrand Gauguet - alto & soprano saxophones and Andrea Neumann - piano frame, electronic devices
The Middle Distance
Trio improvisations for two pianos and double bass