★Orange Mountain Music
Film Scores : Jenipapo
Philip Glass’ original score to Monique Gardenberg’s 1995 political thriller “Jenipapo”, starring Henry Czerny, brought Glass another opportunity to composed against the backdrop of the Brazilian landscape and the tumult of political upheaval. The story of the film follows a reporter in his search to track down an influential priest who has gone silent during a political battle over Brazil’s forests. Glass’ score reflects the political implications of the film as well as the vast canvas against …
Orchestral Music
The second release to be drawn from Orange Mountain Music's Philip Glass Archive series, this disc - if you hadn't guessed - focuses on the composer's orchestral works, namely his compositions Days And Nights In Rocinha and Persephone. The former of these was inspired by the titular neighbourhood in Rio De Janeiro, best known for its celebrated samba school. Accordingly, the piece is redolent of a Latin American influence, opening with a languid romantic melody only to eventually augment itself …
How Now/Strung Out
"Every new musical language requires new performance skills. Works such as HO NOW and STRUNG OUT were, in effect, pieces written to develop these skills which include stamina, sustained concentration, and an ability to play continuously in an easy and relaxed manner." - Philip Glass
Einstein on the Beach
Widely credited as one of the greatest artistic achievements of the 20th century, this rarely performed work launched its director Robert Wilson and composer Philip Glass to international success when it was first produced in Avignon, France in 1976, with subsequent performances in Europe and in New York at the Metropolitan Opera. It is still recognized as one of their greatest masterpieces. Now, nearly four decades after it was first performed and twenty years since its last production, Einstei…
Rework
One of America’s greatest ever composers gets the remix treatment. What is it with remix albums this week - are they back? Anyway it’s always an odd thing the remix album, basically it’s just an excuse for the great and good to strut their stuff and do something decent on a high profile record.It’s a mixed bag of collaborators from Tyondai Braxton to Cornelius to Beck (who gets an entire side to himself) to Johann Jonannsson to Peter Broderick (still no doubt weeping from our review of his recen…
From The Kitchen Archives No. 5 - Pianos in The Kitchen
The 5th volume from NYC's The Kitchen performance center focuses on piano music from performers Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Charlemagne Palestine, Anthony Davis, Harold Budd, and Dennis Russel Davies. Pianos in The Kitchen brings together select concert recordings of solo piano works performed at The Kitchen from 1976 through 1983, including works from the 1976 Bösendorfer Festival and the 1983 series of benefit concerts that supported the purchase of a new Steinway Baby Grand piano for the…
Music in Twelve Parts
A milestone! Music in Twelve Parts, written by Philip Glass between 1971 and 1974, is a deliberate, encyclopedic compendium of some techniques of repetition the composer had been evolving since the mid 1960s. It holds an important place in Glass's repertory - not only from a historical vantage point (as the longest and most ambitious concert piece for the Philip Glass Ensemble) but from a purely aesthetic standard as well, because Music in Twelve Parts is both a massive theoretical exercis…
Another Thought
"During his lifetime, classically trained composer, cellist and disco legend Arthur Russell studied and performed with a wide variety of musicians and artists including The Flying Lizards, David Byrne, Rhys Chatham, Ali Akbar Khan, Allen Ginsberg, John Hammond, Peter Gordon, Jon Gibson, Jerry Harrison, Garret List, Frank Pagano, Andy Paley, Leni Pickett and Peter Zummo. In 1979, Russell, working under the name Dinosaur, wrote and produced Kiss Me Again -- the first disco single to be released by…
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…
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…
Portraits
Philip Glass's A Musical Portrait of Chuck Close is the product of many years of friendship between two important artists of our time. Pianist Bruce Levingston's performance of this new release serves as a tribute to the profound influences Philip Glass and Chuck Close have had upon one another's work. Since meeting in the 1960s in the SoHo Artists community of lofts and studios, Close has continually created portraits of Glass. The piece is a musical depiction of the spirit of Chuck Close and t…
From The Kitchen Archives No.3: Amplified: New Music Meets Rock
From the Kitchen Archives Vol. 3. Amplified: New Music Meets Rock, 1981-1986 is the third release in a series of CDs compiled from The Kitchen's archive that documents historic concert recordings at The Kitchen from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s. While the first two releases, New Music, New York 1979 and Steve Reich and Musicians, Live 1977 focused on major figures of new and experimental music from The Kitchen's first decade, Amplified moves into the early 1980s, representing a vocabulary th…
From The Kitchen Archives - New Music New York 1979
Founded in New York in 1971, The Kitchen is internationally known as a leading center for video, music, dance, performance, new media and literature. Orange Mountain Music has begun the restoration of audio reels from performances at The Kitchen with the goal of producing a series of CDs entitled From The Kitchen Archives. New Music, New York 1979, the debut release in this series, is a two-disc set offering re-mastered recordings from the landmark concerts of 'New Music, New York: A Festival of…
From The Kitchen Archives No. 2: Steve Reich and Musicians, Live
Steve Reich, one of the foremost composers of our time and an important 'first generation' minimalist composer has performed at The Kitchen Center for the Arts many times during his career. The Kitchen, an interdisciplinary organization known for its commitment to experimental work, has an archive of audio and video recordings that cover its three-decade existence. Orange Mountain Music in collaboration with The Kitchen's curators has found several wonderful recordings and among them are these m…
From The Kitchen Archives No.4: Composers Inside Electronics
From The Kitchen Archives No. 4: Composers Inside Electronics continues a series of CD releases featuring recently discovered audio recordings of concert performances at The Kitchen dating from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. The electronic innovation of the time is illustrated here by tracks from David Tudor, John Driscoll, Phil Edelstein, Martin Kalve and Bill Viola." All recordings from this CD are from 1977/78. The Kalve piece is from 1978 and is performed by John Driscoll, Martin Kalve, T…
Music With Changing Parts
a seminal masterpiece, Philip Glass' Music with Changing Parts is representative of an exciting new generation's interest in one of the most important composers of our time. Icebreaker is considered by many to be the United Kingdom's leading new music ensemble. The 13-piece group, which tours extensively, has been an active champion of many of today's most important composers. Philip Glass' 1970 score for Music with Changing Parts has been part of the group's touring repertoire for years. This r…
Music 4 Hands
Orange Mountain's new release Music 4 Hands presents new transcriptions for two pianos written and performed by Dennis Russell Davies and Maki Namekawa. Featured compositions are Philip Glass' 'Six Scenes from Les Enfants Terribles' and Steve Reich's 'Piano Phase.' Glass and Reich were leaders of a new music revolution in New York City in the 1960s and '70s that included Terry Riley, La Monte Young and Meredith Monk. In the years since then, the two composer's careers and music have greatly dive…
Alter Ego Performs Philip Glass
During the 1960s and '70s, Philip Glass established himself as a leading artistic voice by creating a new musical language in the downtown loft spaces of New York's Soho district. Forty years later, Glass' early revolutionary music continues to appeal to younger generations as evidenced by Orange Mountain Music's latest release, Alter Ego Performs Philip Glass. 2006 marks the Italian new music ensemble Alter Ego's 15th anniversary as an ensemble. Across Europe, they are widely recognized as pion…