★Winter & Winter
Accordance
Now here's an oddity, an album of compositions for and by a pair of accordionists; and, with the exception of a forte-piano here and a bayan or melodica there, accordions are all you hear. Guy Klucevsek is the man who single-handedly brought the accordion into the jazz underground. He is also a composer of note having his works performed by many ensembles around the world, including the Kronos Quartet and the Arditti String Quartet. Alan Bern is well-known as the musical director of Brave Old Wo…
Schwarzes Madrigal
In composing a piano trio, I fulfilled a long-fostered desire. This is a genre which, like the string quartet tradition, can slightly intimidate any composer. I too waited patiently but anxiously to make my own contribution. The pre-history of the piece is closely tied to my Music Epic about the devil, La Trahison orale (Oral Betrayal), which I wrote in 1981-83. When conceiving this work, I had already decided to compose character pieces, relatively short numbers with a particular mood, which co…
The Mauricio Kagel Edition
This limited edition set is a 75th birthday celebration of the work of Mauricio Kagel, an Argentinian composer who has been based in Germany for many years and whose work is playful and uses unusual instruments and sounds in his pieces. It features a DVD of 'Ludwig Van', Kagel's 1970 film in which a resurrected Beethoven wanders around Bonn looking at places associated with his life. It features the work of a number of artists including Joseph Beuys.There are also two CDs of music featuring Kage…
Playback Play
Famous for his examination of unusual and exotic instrumental sounds, here Mauricio Kagel focuses on the most mundane of sound materials. While attending a music trade show, Kagel was taken by the many levels and orbits of sound activity emanating from the various booths and stages. In 'Playback Play' (subtitled 'News from the Music Fair, A Radio Piece') he has arranged a spatially sensitive tableau of crowd noises, sales pitches and fragments of the sort one hears in music store show rooms, alo…