Composition / Contemporary

We are delighted to announce the latest project by acclaimed pianist and composer Masako Ohta, My Music Garden, a luminous and intimate journey into the poetic world of sound. Masako Ohta is celebrated for her sensitive performances and her ability to transcend borders between classical, contemporary, and improvisational music. With My Music Garden, she invites listeners into a personal landscape of reflection and discovery, where every note blooms like a flower in a musical garden.   The progra…

Piano is an album of three pieces, 'A Luca Marenzio ll', 'Ma fin est mon commencement', and 'Gebrechlichkeit', written by Slovak composer Adrián Demoč between 2018 and 2023. 'Ma fin est mon commencement' and 'Gebrechlichkeit' were written with three performance options in mind: specific instrumentation, open instrumentation with a similar quality of timbre and register, and a "monochromatic polyphonic" instrument, preferably the piano. 'A Luca Marenzio ll' was originally written as 'A Luca Maren…

Jürg Frey’s unique compositional approach places him at the cutting edge of contemporary classical music while simultaneously maintaining a touch of impressionistic/romantic aesthetics in its roots. Since the late 90's, Frey started to work with 'lists' as a basis of his compositions, sometimes words, sometimes chords, from which he developed and organized the musical materials. In recent years, Frey's focus on 'lists' has extended more toward the connections of items with each other, forming me…

This is French composer/pianist Melaine Dalibert’s fifth solo album since 2015, all featuring his own compositions. This time, the album consists of melodically structured song pieces, an area that Dalibert has been exploring in the last couple of years as a new compositional approach outside his signature algorithmic method of composition. This series of eight short pieces appeal in a new way from his previous music, and shows his maturity as a composer. Dalibert wrote all eight pieces in 2019 …

2017 release ** "Observing Objects is in stark contrast to Voice with Piano in several ways and it helps expand the picture of Houben and her music. Once again, she is featured both as performer and composer, this time playing in the company of Samuel Dunscombe on bass clarinet and Rebecca Lane on bass flute, on recordings dating from May 2017. Ingeniously, the album consists of two versions of the title piece, the first with Houben on organ, the second on piano, each one lasting about twenty-ni…

2008 release ** archipelagos and nachtstück allow hearing to take place:partials are alluded to and unfold,merging into multifaceted, richly coloured harmonies.music happens all by itself, seemingly uncomposed –like the sound of the aeolian harp, its strings set in motion by a passing wind.

2017 release ** "Recorded in March 2016, Voice with Piano is true to its title. It features Houben as performer and composer, performing three of her compositions, playing piano alongside soprano Irene Kurka. The disc opens with the three-part "Adagio" with text by the Belgian Felix Timmermans (1886-1947), sung in the original Flemish. So, non-Flemish speakers will not get the literal meaning of the words but, thanks to Kurka's expressive singing, their drama and emotion is all too clear. The pi…

2007 release ** von da nach da55 images for three performers (2005)not all of the 55 images have to be played during a performance.the performers make a selection and play them in any order.on this cd 17 images appear and disppear."image" might mean: a musical image.but also: a scenery, a situation, a place.

2004 release ** dazwischen for organ (2000)a very low tonea very high airy soundonce in a while a tone in between, a noise in betweenorgan sounds, organ noisesroom noise, ambient noise...once in a while a sound in between:between music and non-musicimmer anders for organ (2002)the organ: a wind instrumentair flow – throughout the roomsometimes almost imperceptibly softmore noise than sound, almost just the air flowingdifferent coloured air streamsdifferent coloured silences between

2007 release ** ein liederbuch13 songs – to be played in free order, all or in small groups, or just a single song.the tromba marina sings – and dances.it sings – and moves in varying tempi:andante sostenuto, allegro ma non troppo, adagio, allegretto moto, comodo, adagissimo,allegretto quasi andantino, molto moderato, largo… dreisätzig the tromba marina can be so many things.a kettledrum, a bass drum, percussion: timpano;a small trumpet, a piccolo trumpet - with melody and accompaniment: clarino…

2007 release ** calme, silence, solitude for piccolo solo, quelques riens for mauritius flute and moments musicaux for bass flute constitute a trilogy, composed by eva-maria houben for flutist anne horstmann.they may also be performed individually.the mauritius flute is a traverse flute made of speckled bamboo.its seven holes are burned into the wood.the scores of this trilogy contain the note: "hector berlioz abgehört" ("upon listening to hector berlioz").the titles allude to  french composer h…

2007 release ** voiceswhat is music made of?of voices.and what is a voice?a sequence of sounds and silences, with its own  consistency.perfectly self-contained: each voice voicing a world.and what is a world?a proportion: a specific distribution of movement and repose.perfect repose, incessant movement.in between: the infinite plurality of possible worlds.writing voices means:to traverse this universe of possibilities, one voice at a time, that is: from world to world.to dwell in worlds, in spac…

2006 release ** I like that which is the extremely refined sound of a note made by an instrument. I find the sound of a note to be a very extraordinary, elusive and indefinable experience. I like the sound of one note next to another, or at the same time as another. The decisions to be made, from all the myriad array of sounds of notes, from all the potential possibilites of how to present and experience these sounds, is what draws me into the process which results in the making of a piece. I wr…

2004 release ** "Another joint production by Edition Wandelweiser and Radio Bremen testifies to the originality of the Japanese composer Makiko Nishikaze. Her idiosyncratic diptych pianopera l & II (2002), with its unpredictably alternating sound structures, follows no discernible logic, yet its musical structure never seems arbitrary, so that the music, despite the great aesthetic distance, certainly seems related to Luigi Archetti's CD discussed at the beginning. It is the varied penetration i…

2004 release ** Few composers have the self-control seen here to allow the silence that surrounds all we do to be so present, to bring to the forefront that which is covered by all of our daily activities, only present when we let ourselves realize the stillness at the base of all action, all sound. The regular presence of notes in calme étendue (oboe) provides for the listener a feeling similar to that of a light on top of a lighthouse as it regularly turns in the night – a feeling of grounding…

2005 release ** this piece uses 17 tones in whole-numbered proportions to a virtual fundamental of G'' (25Hz).the piece is a kind of analysis of the overtone region from the fifth to seventh partials and the corresponding regions one and two octaves above (10th to 14th, 20th to 28th partials).the tones are played and recorded during the first three parts and played back as samples at specific times.as many as 28 tones may sound simultaneously.the flute sounds are amplified, which allows us to he…

2009 release ** "In case you're surprised to find a Tom Johnson album on Wandelweiser – after all, I reckon there are more actual notes on Counting Keys than on the rest of the albums released on the über-redux label put together – it's worth remembering that Tom Johnson and Wandelweiser prime mover Antoine Beuger know and greatly respect each other's work. This collection of four pieces spanning nearly three decades of Johnson's career is one of the composer's more accessible (though no less ri…

2014 release ** "Beethoven’s fifth symphony begins with that now-iconic but aphoristic “short-short-short-long” musical motive about which so much has beenwritten and said, a radical statement for string melody without harmonic accompaniment.  On his 2008 composition “Song 2,” for bass flute, Wandelweiser composer Anastassis Philippakopoulos essentializes the very concept of a similarly constructed four-note phrase, presenting each gesture in isolation, long silences allowing for listener recont…

2013 release ** "The Chord Catalogue is sort of a sister to Music for 88. It is also an examination of pianistic possibilities done with a focus so tight that obscuring any intrinsic aesthetic qualities in the execution seems to be the intention. (Also like Music for 88, Johnson recorded the piece for Phill Niblock’s Experimental Intermedia imprint). Beginning with “The 78 Two-Note Chords” (the section titling further eliminates risk of artistic suggestion), the set of pieces exhausts its way th…

2015 release **  "The pieces by Anastassis Philippakopoulos that guitarist Chaz Underriner "reinterprets" here were written for instruments other than his own: flute (Song 6, which Wandelweiser Editions published earlier under the composer's name on Songs And Piano Pieces), string section (Song 8, which Underriner performs with three other guitarists: Armin Abdihodzic, Greg Dixon, and Robert Trusko), and bass clarinet (Song 9). Three songs that follow one another discreetly, moving slightly unde…

2015 release ** "The tromba marina is a huge single-stringed instrument, played with a bow. For "in memory of james tenney", in four parts, Möller and Maldfeld each wrestle with one such beast, using instruments from the 17th and early 18th centuries. And f it's grain you want, step right up--this thing, especially Part I, sounds like the bow is severely serrated, close to being able to saw wood. A huge rumble that encloses myriad tones high to low. Think of an Eliane Radigue cello piece with yo…

2013 release ** "True, there are 24 pieces contained on this disc, which range in duration from 2:00 to 3:45, but in part due to the large amount of silence in which the single notes are swathed and also because the composition are "of a piece", the recording reads almost as a continuous work. The preludes seem to consist of sets of two to five notes, generally, perhaps always, in a rising pattern and very often diminishing as they appear, purely struck, with incredible gentleness, so much so th…

2005 release ** music that allows sounds to sound:to die away, completely, into silence sounds thought from their end:not moving forward, but drawing back. this creates space, expanse, a delicate serenity:silence - and what it shelters - becomes audible. this is singing with the ears:barely more than silence. a singing which not only makes,but becomes space: a space for worlds. phrases are also sounds:unfolded, laid out as a path. sound paths that come into being first when followed,invariably t…

2005 release ** “select a sound of one or three tones within the range of an octavedistribute the pitches between the keyboards (use each pitch only once)select 3 – 31 stops from principals, flutes and reeds and distribute them evenly between the keyboards (do not use mixtures)play the pitches and hold the keys down (e.g. with lead weights)push the stop very slowly until you hear a change – then stop the movement, listen for a while and pull  another register in the same way  for a long time, on…

2010 release ** "Arrayed neatly, but in dislocated sequence, across clean white pages using a standard music notation software, the material of Tim Parkinson's piano pieces suggests anonymity. Traces of other musics may be suggested by some of the material, though the focus for the performer is on projecting the sounds without the clutter of imposed interpretative rhetoric. In so doing both composer and performer declare themselves and this beautiful music is revealed."

2009 release ** "Two sets of pieces written for the duo Contour (Stephen Altoff-trumpet, Lee Forrest Ferguson-percussion), a potentially unwieldy combination. Frey's "22 sächelchen" (small things) is rather just that, 22 miniatures lasting 32 1/2 minutes that vary from quiet reductionism to outright fanfares. I guess some of the latter sort are a bit...shocking, at least in a Wandelweiser context. But there are also oblique references to jazz (the mute in #11), processional music (the tympani in…

2007 release ** Fold in; fold out: the breathing of the accordion. On this CD the accordion unfolds in a very special way, unusually close to the instrument. Four works, four worlds that seem to know each other; refer to each other like a greeting from far away.Hearing John Cage's ,,Cheap Imitation" played on accordion gives you the impression of folk music from an unknown, probably non-existent country. This music comes from nowhere, goes nowhere, is forever on its way.....Like ,,Sam Lazaro Bro…

Documentation '20 Years Inventionen', CD III. The string quartet 'sei-jaku' by German composer Klaus Lang, documented on this CD, was performed on 6/30/2002 in the Großer Sendesaal of the SFB Berlin by the Arditti String Quartet during the festival Inventionen 2002.

The album Nagual by Matt Choboter is a sonic ritual that dissolves the boundaries between composition and improvisation, tradition and innovation. Drawing on just intonation, Balinese tuning systems, and South Indian rhythmic theory, Choboter and his ensemble craft a vivid, shape-shifting musical world—at once ancient and otherworldly. Nagual resists the comforts of familiar forms, embracing ambiguity, sensory multiplicity, and intuitive collective listening. This music does not follow a path—it…

Celebrating Meredith Monk as composer, these Piano Songs give us a world at once playful and earnest. Written or derived from work composed between 1971 and 2006, the pieces inhabit Monk’s unique universe, as played by two of new music’s most distinguished interpreters, pianists Ursula Oppens and Bruce Brubaker. These pieces are ‘songs’ because they have strong roots in Monk’s pieces for voice, and because they are direct, specific, and imagistic. Meredith Monk on composing for two pianos: “I de…

To sonically modify sound, not as a composerly or listenerly injunction but as a condition of its possibility: such is the task of Elizabeth Hoffman. Hers is not merely a music of the "verb" - that composers "do" something or "perform" something on the sonic. Hers is an "adverbial" music. Above all, adverbial music modifies - sound, yes, but more fundamentally the space in which sound appears and the temporality that it solicits as it vanishes, always. Adverbial music, reticently and generously,…

*75 copies limited edition* On Not here but somewhere, the Japanese ambient guitarist crafts freeform soundscapes that feel less composed than discovered. Each track unfolds like a whispered conversation between emotion and environment — guitar lines ripple like wind over water, subtly shifting direction, as if carried downstream by a current of pure intuition. The result is a quietly enveloping odyssey, where every piece becomes a new place, felt more than defined.

EM Records is proud to present 8 Automated Works, the first full release by Componium Ensemble, an "indeterminate chamber music" ensemble helmed by Spencer Doran of Visible Cloaks. The project is inspired by the long history of automated musical instruments, beginning with the ancient Greek Archimedes and further developed by the Banū Mūsā brothers in 9th century Baghdad, who "first perfected the concept of a programmable, automated musician: a mechanically controlled flute which used hydraulic …

In intensive collaboration with the Swedish ensemble Lipparella, which specializes in creating contemporary repertoire for baroque instruments and countertenor, these 10 timeless contemporary songs were created. Peter Söderberg, the founder of Lipparella tells: "After having met by chance at the Ultraschall Festival in Berlin in 2019, Walter Zimmermann and I started discussing whether it would be possible to perform some of his music by Lipparella. After suggesting some already existing works, w…

* 2021 Stock * Sais. is a piece about cows. Cows are a topic quite familiar for a composer who lives in an Austrian mountain village at 1000 metres hight. He finds them right in front of his door. The cows that are grazing on a juicy green under a bright blue sky - so we might imagine - are one side of the trio. Within the 100 page long score we meet them in the shape of a line of overtones. Just as natural as the life of a cow on an alpine meadow is the musical material that builds SAIS. as a s…

A pivotal 1970 minimalist composition by Philip Glass, performed by the Dedalus Ensemble. This 2LP edition captures the piece’s layered, psychoacoustic magic—where pulse, texture, and harmonic shimmer meet.

Veiled Erosion, the debut album by Anqi Liu, invites listeners into a world of spectral nuance, cultural memory, and fragile connection. Her music breathes through thresholds—between noise and tone, breath and bow, self and other. In the closing Etude for Friends, Liu renders friendship as a sonic practice: intimate, unstable, and quietly transformative. Drawing from Mongolian long song and microtonal chamber traditions, she composes sound as a site of listening, learning, and being-together. Ve…

A Bridge Between Spaces traces a decade of Andrew Greenwald’s singular compositional journey—across rigorously constructed sonic terrains and into freer, more intuitive musical dialogues. Drawing from two major violin cycles and culminating in the expansive title work, this album captures a shift from analytical exploration to expressive openness. With sound worlds that feel both extraterrestrial and deeply human, Greenwald’s music invites us into a landscape where metaphors fail and sound speak…

2002 release (RARE) ** Transfigured Wind III (1984) for flute, ensemble, and tape / Ambages (1965) for flute / Mistral (1985) for chamber ensemble. "Pierre Boulez was widely praised as an innovator for his Rèpons when he premiered it at IRCAM in 1981. This is a piece where a computer samples the live sound of a chamber ensemble, recalculates it to a programmed algorhythm and then scatters the sounds back out into the hall. Not to knock Boulez, but American composer Roger Reynolds had been workin…

1996 release (light storage wear) ** Gianfranco Pernaiachi’s Abendland is a solitary and profound piano solo meditation on sound and silence. The piano hints, rings out and whispers. The sound is crystal clear; essential and like a prism that divides sound into mysterious harmonics and distant resonances. "Abendland“ is a work of great musical poetry, a musical meditation by a composer warranting close attention.