Composition / Contemporary

"James Moore (b. 1979) is a composer with an eye toward the world of games and experimental theater. He’s an electric guitarist who’s willing and eager to treat his instrument as a playground, not a reverent, static tradition. He’s a tinkerer, a charmer, and a fella who’s always up for another round at the bar of wacky ideas and intellectual questioning. He’s excited for new and unexpected opportunities for collaboration, but always maintains a voice that seems to stay recognizably his own throu…

George Lewis (b 1952) combines an astonishing level of creativity with trenchant critiques of many traditional conceptions about experimental music. The four compositions on this album reference a wide range of ideas, from rhetoric in Ancient Rome to actor network theory, and the album's eponymous composition finds its grounding in the concept of the "assemblage," (or agencement in French) a pragmatic, material, non-teleological approach to composition. Among the album's compositions, Mnemosis (…

Lejaren Hiller (1924-1994) is, understandably, best known for his computer-assisted compositions and works utilizing electronics. The three pieces included in this collection span a crucial fifteen-year period in Hiller's career. The first was written two years before Quartet No. 4 for Strings, The ILLIAC Suite. The second work was written three years into his time as a music professor at the University of Illinois, while the final sonata in this collection was written during his second year at …

music for bowed string instruments consists mostly of music composed by Malcolm Goldstein (b. 1936) between 2018 and 2019 while living in Montréal, Québec. The impulse to compose this series came from Goldstein’s experience as a teacher and performer of Béla Bartók’s 44 Duos for Two Violins (1931). Whereas Bartók’s series features a clear progression to the pieces, gradually increasing in technical and musical complexity from beginning to end, music for bowed string instruments has no such seque…

Born in Michigan but for most of his life a true Californian, Robert Erickson (1917-1997) had a reputation as a maverick. His musical path was never a straight line, nor, really, a line at all but a landscape, with ranges of features rather than mere points of interest. He was a profound and original musical thinker who embraced the expressive possibilities of all music, from the Western classics and moderns of his own early education to Indian and Balinese traditions and all manner of contempor…

We want to fabricate a new music. We imagine a situation in which the sounding together of tones is never taken for granted, is continually renewed and reinvented. We know that the effect of any set of simultaneous tones, by means of the multiplication implicit in the harmonic series, totals much more than the number of notes played. A room can be made to vibrate with hundreds of frequencies by a single chord. We want to enter into a universe of harmony in which it becomes possible to hear into …

Rory Cowal is a distinctive pianist, one who draws liberally on classical chops, ample experience with improvisation, and a predilection for the new and uncharted. This makes him especially attractive to composers who wish to blur the boundaries between traditional styles and genres. A musical adventurer at heart, Cowal seems drawn to challenging and unusual projects. The eight pieces on this CD reflect this willingness to experiment, to not just play the same old (now canonic) warhorses of the …

Compositions performed by Bethany Beardslee and Lynne Weber (sopranos), Jerry Kudern and Robert Miller (pianos). The four works on this recording span a period of a decade and are among the best of Milton Babbitt’s output, tape and otherwise. Philomel, for soprano, recorded soprano, and synthesized sound, is one of the undisputed classics of electroacoustic music and this is its definitive recording. Two versions of Phonemena —one for soprano and piano, the other for soprano and tape— another vi…

The harp is a strange and compelling instrument that in its technological ancientness beckons composers and listeners alike to bask in its heavenly aura. Like hand drums and acoustic guitars, the immediacy of a harp's sound production demands an intimate, one-on-one relationship between listener and instrument/performer. This intimacy is why composers of all stripes write music for harp－it strips away habit and affectation. Its limits are challenges that distill the essence of a composer's style…

The intense individuality of Morton Feldman's (1926?1987) art and its 'painterly' aspect have tended to push his rich output of works into a zone all of their own, surrounded by a moat of stillness. This recording attempts the reverse process -- to bring his choral works (the previously unrecorded Chorus and Instruments, Voices and Instruments 1, Voices and Instruments 2, and The Swallows of Salangan) into a 'gallery' of other choir compositions of his times. Through the interaction with works o…

Just Asked whether he would describe his music as “Sound for the sake of sound,” James Tenney (1934–2006) replied, “It’s sound for the sake of perceptual insight—some kind of perceptual revelation.” This release aptly demonstrates Tenney’s deep exploratory fascination with the nature and potentialities of aural perception. His attraction to these topics was simultaneously intellectual and sensuous, and its musical products at once invite both sustained reflection and the most immediate of corpor…

Closing the achingly long four years wait since her last full-length, the American composer/percussionist Sarah Hennies returns with “Motor Tapes”, her second release with New World Records. Comprising three astounding new pieces, made in collaboration with three acclaimed ensembles - ensemble 0, Talea Ensemble, and Ensemble Dedalus - that simultaneously encounter her moving into new uncharted territory, while remaining rooted in her singular practice, exploring musical, sociopolitical, and psyc…

Just when you think you are grasping the breadth and quality of the music of Julius Eastman (1940 - 1990), a recording such as Julius Eastman: The Zürich Concert shows up, and you have to go back and reassess his work and wonder what will show up next. This recording is from a 1980 solo seventy-minute improvisatory concert in Zürich, a cherished cassette made by a friend of Eastman's, who recently realized its uniqueness and decided that he should share it. The Zürich Concert was performed on Oc…

2024 Stock. First volume of solo piano compositions by Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru, finally back in print.  Born to an aristocratic family in Addis Ababa in December of 1923, Emahoy spent much of her youth and young adulthood studying classical music in Europe. She returned to Ethiopia in the 40s, where the war interrupted her musical studies. In 1948 during a church service in Ethiopia, she found her faith and began years of religious training.  Throughout her physical and spiritual journeys, Ema…

From beloved composer Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru, a revelatory new album of piano pieces, unreleased or virtually inaccessible until now!  Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru is a true original – an Ethiopian nun whose recordings have funded orphanages back home since the early ’60s. Her compositions and unique playing style live somewhere between Erik Satie, Debussy, liturgical music of the Coptic Ethiopian Church, and Ethiopian traditional music. It is some of the most moving piano music you will ever he…

First reissue of Walter Zimmermann's solo piano work Beginner's Mind, played by Herbert Henck and first released in 1978 on Beginner Records. The CD adds Abgeschiedenheit, after Meister Eckhart, released for the first time.

1991 release ** Nebojša Jovan Živković plays total percussion music by himself, Maria Ptaszynska, Johannes Kotschy, Markus Halt, John Christie Willot and Robert Schumann.

1987 release ** Includes recordings of: Toshimitsu Tanaka-Two movements / Minoru Miki – TIME / Dmitri Schostakowitsch – Polka & Oportunist from his Ballets Nebojsa / J. Zivkovic – Drei Phantastische Lieder, Tensio, Strah*Ctpax

1996 release ** "The works on this recording are recently composed flute pieces by six distinguished senior American composers from the generation born in the fist quarter of the 20th century (1900-1926). All of the works have been written by these composers at age 65 or older - autumn rhythms and all represent a new departure for each. Four of the works are for the one keyed wooden baroque flute - the flute for which Bach and Mozart composed their flute music. The instrument is now enjoying a r…

1997 release **

1988 release **

Two live 1983 performances of John Cage conducting Atlas Eclipticalis with Winter Music at Seattle's Cornish Institute, first issued on LP in 1986, with a bonus disc of the 86-part Atlas Eclipticalis and Winter Music for 20 pianos.

1994 release ** "Zeitgeist is an oddly comprised quartet with two percussionists, a keyboardist, and a woodwind player. Here, they perform four pieces by Frederic Rzewski written between 1984 and 1993, works rather different in character than the neo-romantic piano pieces for which he's better known. "Wails" derives influence from Greek theater, particularly Aeschylus, employing steel drums, sopranino saxophone, and bass clarinet in a very dance-like piece full of reedy twirls and light rhythms.…

1995 release ** Contemporary music for organ by Arvo Pärt, John Cage and Giacinto Scelsi.

After-Image traces composer Lila Meretzky’s exploration of memory, color, and time through chamber, vocal, and electroacoustic works, culminating in luminous studies for strings and percussion inspired by personal and historical narratives.

Feldman and Tobias Hume (performed by Luciana Elizondo and Guy Vandromme).

1994 release ** Contemporary music for winds by Alessandro Solbiati, Pietro Borradori, Ruggero Laganà,Massimo Ambrosini, Claudi Scannavini, Paolo Aralla, Umberto Bombardelli, Cristina Landuzzi.

1990 release ** 20th Century percussion music by Hans-Günter Brodmann, Bertold Hummel, Maurice Ohana, Werner Heider, Steve Reich.

1994 release **

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

1992 release ** "This audite recording pits percussion sounds from Europe and the Far East against each other, creating exciting contrasts. Significant twentieth-century Japanese composers place the marimba at the central point of their compositions and incorporate strongly extra-musical impressions in them. In Dream of the Cherry Blossoms, Keiko Abe was inspired by the blossoming of cherry trees celebrated annually in Japan; the work borrows elements from a traditional folksong. Akira Miyoshi's…

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)."

*2025 stock* It has been eighteen years since the Homburger - Guy Duo recorded an album together with a percussionist as a third partner. All these years ago we were joined by the revered Swiss percussionist Pierre Favre. On this recording we work together with another Swiss percussionist - the unique and endlessly creative Lucas Niggli who originally developed his art by studying with Pierre. The music then consisted of baroque masterpieces as well as contemporary compositions that fulfilled ou…

2011 release ** Works for flute and percussion by Petros Korelis, Jacques Di Tucci, Roger Lersy, François Rosse, Alain Féron, Giacinto Scelsi, Yoshihisa Taira, Jean-Yves Naviner.

1990 release ** "The 'Gruppe Neue Musik Berlin' (Berlin New Music Group) represents an interesting aspect of Berlin's recent musical history: unlike comparable ensembles in other German cities, it is not, and has never been, committed to a unified style or to any one school. Although an organised, creative group, improvisation remains a permanent element. The cooperative project's aim is to facilitate performances outside the avant-garde music establishment, while preserving a high standard of i…

1998 release ** "Wendy Mae Chambers (b 1953) is known for the scope and originality of her works, typified by large and unusual instrumental combinations. In Chambers’s own words, Twelve² is a voodoo tone poem in eleven movements for twelve percussionists. Each movement is about 4 minutes in length. The last movement is 4'33" of lots of sound (in tribute to John Cage's 4'33" of silence). Voodoo drumming [calls] forth Cage’s spirit and the bells, chimes, and gongs [celebrate] ... celestial qualit…

1986 release ** "Ondekoza (鬼太鼓座, Ondekoza) ("demon drum group"), sometimes referred to as "Za Ondekoza", is a Japanese troupe specializing in taiko drumming. Founded in 1969 by Den Tagayasu, Ondekoza was influential in the rise of the kumi-daiko (group taiko) style of taiko. Not a taiko player himself, Tagayasu helped transform taiko from a festival-based music form to a virtuosic performance art performed on stage. Ondekoza's performances in North America in 1975 was the first exposure for many…

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…

Evis Sammoutis’ music is a dynamic fusion of physicality, virtuosity, and cultural depth. Drawing on his Cypriot roots and diverse training, his compositions explore tactile soundscapes, poetic contrasts, and neurological aesthetics. Works like Echopraxia and In Darkness challenge conventions of imitation and vulnerability, while Rhymes and Engravings evoke intricate structures and materiality. Inspired by literature, visual art, and the expressive potential of sound, Sammoutis crafts music that…