Composition / Avant-Garde

1994 release ** "From the Byzantine Alleluia that begins this ritual to the Scelsi Alleluia that brings it to a close, a circular program weaves a path through the world of Christian theology, Jewish tradition and alchemy, brought together by the universalist music of Giacinto Scelsi. Michael Maier was an alchemist composer whose three voice fugues speak of bizarre cures and spiritual unions. Veronika Krausas set a text by Quintan Ana Wikswo evoking the first female alchemist, Maria the Jewess. …

1989 release ** 20th Century piano music by Nikolai Roslavetz, Arnold Schoenberg, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciano Berio, Brian Ferneyhough, Sylvano Bussotti, Salvatore Sciarrino.

1991 release ** How well early, full notated, Cage is standing the test of time, especially the works for prepared piano and for percussion. The Perilous Night is a 12-minute prepared piano piece completed two years before Cage started his classic Sonatas and Interludes. The Perilous Night, which uses fairly elaborate preparations, is nothing like so well known, although included on Jeanne Kirstein's important 1970 CBS double LP. The connection between Cage and Jasper Johns was re-emphasized whe…

1990 release ** "Beautifully performed pieces from 1942 to 1985 by vocalist Joan LaBarbara with piano and percussion. Contains: A Flower (1950), Mirakus (1984), Eight Whiskus (1984), The Wonderful Widow of 18 Springs (1942) for voice and closed piano, Nowth upon Nacht (1984), Sonnekus (1985), Forever and Sunsmell (1942), Solos for Voice (from the Songbooks) #'s 49, 52, 67 (1970), Music for Two (by One) (1984)."

1991 release ** "Luis de Pablo represents the first post war generation in Spain, a lawyer, his music has graced all the primary festivals of new music in Europe, not so much the USA,nothing at all. He writes incredibly for strings in any genre there, solo, duets or trios. These pieces are more colorful mixtures of winds percussion,piano and strings and reveals a certain surface playfulness, an affinity for the dance gesture I think. The Notturnino has a kind of wispy arid flush of colours, ongo…

2015 release (RARE) ** "World premieres of new compositions by Iancu Dumitrescu and Ana-Maria Avram performed live with the Hyperion International Ensemble under the batton of Ilan Volkov at the 15th George Enescu Festival in 2015."

1992 release ** "'Rebonds' (I. Xenakis), 'Akea' (I. Xenakis), 'Epicycles' (I. Xenakis), 'Mania' (C. Tsoupaki), 'Concerto For Oboe And Chamber Ensemble' (D. del Puerto) - Machiko Takahasi (fl.), Ernest Rombout (ob.), Mark Dijcks, Ria Kleinjan (cl.), Jonathan Reeder, Stefanie Liedtke (bsn.), Fokke van Heel, Guillermo Zarzo (h.), Peter van Dinther (tp.), Willie Verdievel (tb.), Jan van der Sanden (tu.), Mifune Tsuji, Izumi Okubo, Paul Hendriks (vl), Susan Bierre (vla), Tadashi Tanaka (cel.), Thom d…

The history of American avant-garde music is a snarled knot, twisting through the decades, spanning genre, practice, and approach. Most narratives plant its origins within the post-war period, orbiting around John Cage, Morton Feldman, and those artists springing from the movements of Fluxus and free-jazz. American creative innovation issued unquestionable influence over the later half of 20th century, but the root of its radicalism was earlier, with its origins often misplaced. Rather growing f…

180 gram exact repro reissue, originally released in 1969. Classic Harry Partch, and the kind of record that's a great introduction to his music. There's lots of Partch's weird invented instruments – like chromelodeon, diamond marimba, mazda marimba, cloud-chamber bowls, gourd tree, and the crazy "spoils of war". "The World of Harry Partch collects three of his best short pieces. 'Daphne of the Dunes' (1967) is a side-long update of 'Windsong' written for dance. The melodic segments are given mo…

2009 release ** "Denissow avoids postmodern clutter by putting critical distance between himself and the music - this is a fantasy. Jürg Henneberger and Hedwig Fassbender avoid the hard sell, keeping the make-believe sound world allusive and inscrutable. And they bring comparable qualities to one of the best Folk Song cycles around - a work whose charms have, arguably, been dinted by overfamiliarity but that has now been calmly reassessed."

A 64-minute piano solo composed in 2021, performed by Jack Yarbrough. "'Mine but for its sublimation' is about resonance, register, and touch. It is about where we lead ourselves when we trust ourselves. It is experiencing trust as a chain of clearings, a sequence of becomings, openings, centerings. It is about letting go; othering; finding presence through evaporation. Obliteration." - Timothy McCormack

Kory Reeder composed Homestead (2024)—a nearly hour-long string quartet in four movements with an interlude—during his residency as Artist in Residence at Homestead National Historical Park in Beatrice, Nebraska in 2023. As he explains: "As a fifth-generation Nebraskan, growing up on the native lands of the Chatiks si chatiks people (Pawnee), this project is a part of my process of learning, listening, and developing a relationship with the land and its stewards in my home state: a beautiful pla…

A 45-minute piece from 2024 composed by Ferdinand Schwarz in collaboration with AREPO ensemble.

A 50 minute solo for viola d'amore played by Marco Fusi. The piece was composed in 2022-2023, and has six movements.

*300 copies limited edition* Students of Decay presents "Kaivajaiset" by Finnish composer Niko-Matti Ahti. Best known for his work alongside his partner Marja as Ahti & Ahti, Niko-Matti has been an active participant in the Finnish underground since the late 1990s. "Kaivajaiset" is his first solo recording and was originally conceived of as an installation. Part horspiel, part musique concrete, it is a piece of music that draws comparisons to the work of pioneering avant-garde composers such as …

*300 copies limited edition* Patience is the debut full-length album by Sante Fe-based artist Theodore Cale Schafer. Alternately murky and narcoleptic and bristling with grit and light, this collection of eight pieces is a delicate play of contrasts. Impressionistic settings unfurl with an unhurried gait, opening with the dream-like disorientation of "Gold Chain" in which a degraded location recording gives way to a soft web of treated piano motifs. Schafer's compositions are sumptuous yet unfus…

Moving is the abstract translation of long travels through the southern US into music for pedal steel guitar, chamber ensemble, organ, and electronics. The live performances of Moving feature 5 video projections with video art by Chaz Underriner which form the basis of the design of the CD. Moving particularly focuses on waterways in the south, including recordings from Blue Springs in Florida and the Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana, the largest wetland and swamp in the US. Chaz Underriner (b. 1…

Idiosyncratic, large-scale and in its fundamental disposition one of a kind, Florian Weber’s Imaginary Cycle, conceived for the unique instrumentation of brass ensemble and piano, is a hybrid of multiple musical languages that seamlessly blends the harmonious with the oblique. Here Weber presents a cycle in four parts, plus an opening and an epilogue, in which the German pianist is joined by a group of four euphoniums, a trombone quartet as well as flautist Anna-Lena Schnabel and Michel Godard o…

Katharina Rosenberger's Tempi Agitati, a vocal work for Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart that sets Petrarch's texts alongside madrigals by Willaert and Rore, using extended vocal techniques. Complete Petrarch texts are included.

Four late cello works by Horatiu Radulescu played by his widow Catherine Marie Tunnell, with Ian Pace at the piano: L'Exil Intérieur, Das Andere, Pre-Existing Soul of Then and Lux Animae. Recorded in 2018.

Second volume of the Horatiu Radulescu Edition: his complete organ works played by Christoph Maria Moosmann, plus Intimate Rituals III and Immersed in the Wonder II with cellist Catherine Marie Tunnell, all first recordings.

Adrián Demoč writes "gentle and soft, non-violent music." The Slovak composer, based in Spain, reduces chamber music down to near-monody—single melodic lines articulated through subtle timbral shifts and microtonal deviations. Zamat, his fourth Another Timbre release, presents three chamber works where Apartment House navigates music that moves "back and forth on the spot between a handful of notes." The title track—zamat means "velvet" in Slovak—deploys clarinet, bass clarinet, viola, and cello…

This album contains three works by Seamus Cater, including his creative response to the work of Alexander John Ellis (1814-1890), who presented a paper 'The History of Musical Pitch' to the Royal Society in 1880. Ellis was a mathematician, collector, philologist and musical enthusiast, who spent a lot of time measuring the exact frequencies of contemporary and ancient musical instruments, and so is remembered as one of the founders of comparative musicology. Two of the pieces on the disc are 're…

A 45-minute single movement piece for shō, Hammond organ and cello, exploring ways of combining the differing tuning systems inherent in the instruments.

A 75-minute piece for septet in nine movements by the young Texas-based composer.

Six pieces developed by Johnny and Keir from music by Hildegard van Bingen and Orlando de Lassus. Three violin duets, + three tracks for violins and the voice of Celeste Oram.

A concert-length work for pipe organ, piano and percussion, created by the composer and the GBSR Duo (Siwan Rhys and George Barton) at the recent Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Wonderfully brooding music, beautifully played.

*300 copies limited edition. In process of stocking* Block Gifts is a collection of three works for organs composed by James Rushford between 2015 and 2018. Using harmonium, portative organ and electric organ, each piece is linked by Rushford’s idiosyncratic combination of strict intervallic systems in different tunings (Werckmeister, quarter-tone, equal temperament), and haptically-informed rhythmic and expressive freedom. Creaks, stutters and sweeping fingers on keys become instrumental sounds…

Two-CD set of works by Gerald Eckert, mostly for orchestra and often with live electronics, performed by Ensemble Reflexion K and the norddeutsche sinfonietta, with the composer as cellist and conductor.

*2022 stock* It may come as a surprise but one of the leading creators of keyboard music in the twentieth century is a composer by the name of John Cage. Cage’s reputation is so deeply associated with the avantgarde, with chance music, graphic notation, performance art, technology and Zen Buddhism that is early, conventionally-notated music for percussion ensemble and keyboards is sometimes neglected. Or was until recently. In the last few years – with the advent of performances and recordings l…

*2022 stock* Wergo presents Moton Feldman's compositions For Franz Kline · For Frank O'Hara · De Kooning · Piano Piece To Philip Guston. Performed by Ensemble Avantgarde.

György Ligeti's only opera, Le Grand Macabre, is an entertaining, taut piece of musical theatre that sits somewhere between parody and ominous seriousness, between clowning and wisdom. Based on Michel de Ghelderode's play and set in the imaginary land of Breughelland, it follows Nekrotzar, alias the Grand Macabre, who has not only ambitions to suck blood but apocalyptic visions: he wants to bring about the end of the world personally, and fails. Ligeti himself said its bizarre, exaggerated music…

This is Phill Niblock's third release on the Touch label. Phill Niblock is a New York-based minimalist composer and multi-media musician and director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation born in the flames of 1968's barricade hopping. He has been a maverick presence on the fringes of the avant garde ever since. In the history books Niblock is the forgotten minimalist. His influence has had more impact on younger composers such as Susan Stenger, Lois V. Vierk, David First, and Glenn Branca. T…

1993 release ** "Sur cette gravure, Irmela Nolte propose un beau jeu allié à une technique nécessaire quant à ce répertoire, agile, au service des œuvres regroupées ici et dont l’on n’entend pas outre mesure son souffle ni sa respiration. Un panorama intéressant, avec 2 des 4 pièces en solo (1,3) et l’autre moitié où la flûte sera aidée d’un autre dispositif (synthétiseur en 2, bande et enregistrements préalables en 4) qui diversifie les procédés et rompt une monotonie possible dans ce genre de …

1989 release ** Marubatoo (13:05) John Wyre Fauna (13:17) William CahnCymbal (11:55) Bob BeckerRain Tree (11:10) Toru TakemitsuRemembrance (9:36) Robin Engelman "This is a fine collection of pieces performed by one of the premier percussion ensembles in the world. The Canadian quintet Nexus approaches the notion of the percussion ensemble with an ear for innovation and a discipline for virtuosity. Nowhere is this clearer in this disc than on the album's centerpiece, "Cymbal," by group leader Bob…

1999 release ** "In 1950 Henry Brant began to write spatial music of a particular kind in which the planned positioning of the performers throughout the hall, as well as on stage, is an essential factor in the composing scheme. This procedure, which limits and defines the contrasted music assigned to each performing group, takes as its point of departure the ideas of Charles Ives. Brant's principal works since 1950 are all spatial; his catalogue now comprises nearly 100 such works, each for a di…

2009 release ** "Japan-for-U.S. CD reissue of Varèse Sarabande LP configuration (VX 81060), featuring contemporary, avant-garde classical performances, recorded live at Tokyo's Nissei Theatre in 1966 by the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Seiji Ozawa and Hiroshi Wakasugi, featuring performances of the works of nineteen separate composers, of which four were selected for this particular release. The packaging features an eight-page booklet with liner notes "based upon notes by Kun…

2004 release ** Let no-one say that Henry Brant, America’s senior experimental composer, doesn’t have a sense of humor. If Charles Ives had been into Monty Python it would not have reached the heights of epic grandeur and inspired lunacy heard on this second volume of Henry Brant works. Here are three concertos: a triple concerto for Oberlin College’s zaniest, a violin concerto for Daniel Kobialka (violin wizard of the San Francisco Symphony), and a double bass concerto for Lewis Paer (who has r…

1990 release (RARE) **  Ionisation (1933) Edgar Varèse 5:58Trio (1936) John Cage 3:56Canticle (1939) Lou Harrison 4:13Polifonica Monodia Ritmica (1951) Luigi Nono 8:50Gloria E Morte (Words By Marco Luzzi) Guido Facchin 1978 11:21Concerto Da Camera(1986) Roberto Beccaci 9:43Pavone, Mulo, Volpe (1987) Saverio Tasca 5:00Il Respiro Della Notte (Liric By Elena Budini) Luigi Celeghin (1989) 3:55Omaggio A Giocando Duchamp Vinci Leonardo Alfredo Tisocco (1975)

1989 release **  This compact disc contains excerpts from the following releases, recorded between 1976 and 1986. 1. NEXUS RAGTYME CONCERT (UMB DD2) 2. MUSIC OF NEXUS (NE01) 3. NEXUS AND EARLE BIRNEY – 3 record set – (NE 02, 03 & 04) 4. CHANGES (NE05) 5. NEXUS PLAYS THE NOVELTY MUSIC OF GEORGE HAMILTON GREEN (NE 10273)