Composition / Contemporary

*Restored and remastered from the original tapes* "My task is to allow the listener to penetrate deeper into the music. The music is wholly improvisational. It has no concept in the rational sense of the word. It’s concept is purely intuitive. It presumes The Law of Analogies: “As above so below. Man is the same as the Universe. The Universe is the same as Man.” ("Emerald Tablet” by Hermes Trismegistus"). This intuition is a kind of rephrased logic which uses many more symbols which contain not …

1990 release **

A prolific composer, performer, and author, Curtis Roads says he “pursues research in the interdisciplinary territory spanning music and technology.” He was Editor and Associate Editor of Computer Music Journal (The MIT Press) from 1978 to 2000, co-founded the International Computer Music Association in 1979, and was a pioneer in the development of granular synthesis. Roads developed the Creatophone, a system for spatial projection of sound in concert, as well as the Creatovox, an expressive new…

1994 release ** "The Arditti Quartet here performs all three of Kurtag's string quartets, along with Lutoslawski's one quartet, and Gubaidulina's second as well -- the recordings are from 1990. Kurtag's quartets are some of the finest of the 20th century, clearly fusing Webern and Bartok. What distinguishes Arditti's Kurtag from the Keller Quartet on ECM? (see my review). The AQ takes the tempos slightly faster. Not too fast, in fact I'd say if anything the KQ has slowed them down for dramatic e…

John Cage's first manifesto, written in 1937, was called The Future of Music: Credo, and the future it described was an "all-sound music" open to every kind of noise. This volume of Wergo's Edition John Cage follows that idea across three decades, from the prepared piano of the 1940s to the vocal and spoken works of the 1970s. Sonata XIII, from the Sonatas and Interludes, and Music for Marcel Duchamp are pieces for prepared piano, played by Peter Roggenkamp: screws, bolts and rubber placed betwe…

This work began life as a radio play in 1982, a commission from and for Klaus Schöning and Cologne’s WDR. Working on the principles of collage, Cage brought together 15 unlikely characters – Narrator, James Joyce, Marcel Duchamp, Vocoder, Erik Satie, Jonathan Albert, Mao Tse Tung (as a child), Henry David Thoreau, Rrose Selavy, Thorstein Veblen, Buckminster Fuller, Brigham Young, and Robert Rauschenberg – who speak together, their dialogue comprised of literal quotations, freely adapted historic…

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…

2016 release ** The four works on this CD, ranging in date from 2004 to 2014, form an integral part of Andrzej Kwiecinski’s creative development and at the same time demonstrate his particular affinity with music for strings. Umbrae (2004) for string quintet. Mural (2008-10) for string quintet. Luci nella noote V (2014) for four string quartet. Contregambilles (2014) for string quartet. After studying composition, musicology and Baroque singing (countertenor) in Warsaw, Kwiecinski moved in 2005 …

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 …

1990 release **  Syrinx – Claude DebussyDensity 21.5 – Edgard VarèseMusica Su Due Dimensioni – Bruno MadernaSequenza I – Luciano BerioDas Atmende Klarsein (Fragment)– Luigi NonoCarceri D'Invenzione II/b – Brian FerneyhoughCome Vengono Prodotti Gli Incantesimi? – Salvatore SciarrinoCanzona Di Ringraziamento – Salvatore Sciarrino

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…

A double CD with location recordings - recorded by Christophe Albertijn - of organ and carillon music plus a 32 page booklet of/for the unveiling of Katharina AW, a relational artwork by Joris Martens.

Nicolás Melmann (born in Buenos Aires and now based in Barcelona) explores sound's social and poetic dimensions through transdisciplinary projects. Drawing inspiration from Erik Satie's concept of "furniture music," Melmann's compositions transform the listening experience into havens of calm and contemplation. Música Aperta is a fusion of acoustic and electronic sounds, rich in beautiful harmonies, where carefully soft elements interplay with delicate raspiness. Made up of three parts, the musi…

2007 release ** "Reinhold Friedl’s “Schoenberg Pierrot Lunaire Cheap Imitation“ is exactly what the title says: an endless funny parody of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, a composition often taken far too seriously. At the same time, it is a compositional condensation of Schönberg’s techniques, conducted in a great way by trumpet player Franz Hautzinger from Vienna, a longtime-member of zeitkratzer; sung by the soprano Marcus Weiser, who succeeded already in Berlin as a singer under the name Mark …

2025 stock ** ""Marcin Masecki, an outstanding Polish cross-genre pianist, composed the new work inspired by famous composition of Frederic Rzewski and invited another pianist Piotr Nowicki to perform it. Marcin Masecki (born 1982 in Warsaw) is an avant garde pianist. His father was a clarinetist who started playing musical games with him at age 3 and by age 7 Marcin took up piano. He began playing at clubs at age twelve and by the time he was fifteen, he had his own trio. In 2005 he won the mai…

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)

2006 release ** "Savage Altars alternates rather abruptly between spooky and harrowing sections of rhythmic choral chanting and drop-dead gorgeous interlocking scalar passages that almost seem to float in suspended bliss. Its structure is somewhat episodic: one section begins and ends, followed by the next section, and so forth, which creates the feel of an unfolding procession or ritual (and does so more effectively in its concise 20 minutes than John Taverner's bloated The Veil Of The Temple d…

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)

'Frames that lean, pictures that roam’ is a collection of instrumental works by Ailie Ormston for tape, electric guitar, cello and double bass. This ensemble of instruments achieves a complex sound ranging from fully electronic (tape) to fully acoustic (strings), with the guitar occupying space in-between. The freeing of fixed material is the common thread throughout these six works – riffs and motifs are established before being reinvented and reimagined, bending and twisting within the bounds …

1993 release (RARE) ** "This disc, which brings together recent works with two pieces from 1981, allows for a very interesting journey. It is here with Bernard Noël, a relentless questioner of our language, that these Mémoires d’oubli open. With a philharmonic orchestra at its best, which is not always the case when playing contemporary music, the singer Helen Merrill and Bernard Noël himself bring to life a text that goes from simple phonemes to a beautiful poem on the theme of the face. Instru…

1999 release **

1990 release ** Music by young French-Italian composers or performers of contemporary music: Griffith Rose, Enrico Correggia, Fabrizio De Rossi Re, Giulio Castagnoli, Mauro Cardi.

1989 release ** Chamber works: Louis Andriesses, Hoketus; Elliott Carter, Enchanted Preludes, Espirit Rude, Esprit Doux; Karlheinz Stockhausen, Dr. K Sextet; Michael Torke, The Yellow Pages; Rand Steiger, Quintessence; Arthur Jarvinen, Egytian Two Step. Personnel: Erika Duke, Lorna Elder, Arthur Jarvinen, Amy Knoles, Robin Lorentz, Gaylord Mowry, James Rorig, Rand Steiger, Dorothy Stone, Tony Holmes, Teresa Tunnicliff.

2025 stock ** Flute player Michelle Zurria plays music by Gyorgy Kurtag, Salvatore Sciarrino, Heinz Holliger, Toshio Hosokawa, Peter Ablinger, Yan Maresz, Pierre Jodlowski,  Mary Jane Leach,  Giuliano D'Angiolini, Laurence Crane, Noah Creshevsky, Beat Furrer, Howard Skempton, Michel Van der Aa. "It is not so much the case of choosing more or less appropriate sounds, to decorate the house, as it is a case of 'building new universes with new sounds'. Composer Salvatore Sciarrino comments, without …

2008 release ** Lohengrin, Salvatore Sciarrino's "azione invisibile", is both a gloss on Wagner's opera and a sly debunking of it. It was conceived by its composer as an opera with action invisible, for one singer/actress who assumes all the charactersn Sciarrino's monodrama, based on one of Jules Laforgue's Moralités Légendaires, episodes from the story are viewed through the distinctly jaundiced eyes and ears of Elsa, the woman Lohengrin marries and then deserts. A single voice narrates and ta…

2025 stock ** "British compositions dominate Lush Laments for Lazy Mammal. Both Gavin Bryars (born in Yorkshire, 1943) and Laurence Crane (born in Oxford, 1961) belong to the classic experimental scene in England, a scene that developed in the wake of the conceptual New York School music in the 1960s. The Englishmen draw inspiration from composers such as Cage and Feldman, as well as from earlier cult figures such as Eric Satie, who anticipated genres such as minimalism and ambient as far back a…

2000 release ** "“To awaken the ear well” was one of the goals of Luigi Nono in his last creative period, the 1980s and 20th century. Between pianissimo and complete silence, the listener is invited to unexpected sound adventures. Tense intensity with a sparse expression goes together with the breaking of clear coherence in a very concentrated and targeted manner. As one of his first works, the Variazioni from 1950 derives its substance from Arnold Schönberg, his posthumous father-in-law. The us…

1992 release **  Felix Werder - Three Night Pieces Op. 121 (1972)    Klaus Hinrich Stahmer - König Wiedehopf (1981)    Frank Michael - Trio Op. 58 (1985)    Wolfgang Hildemann - Suoni Serale XI/XII (1989/90)    Klaus Hinrich Stahmer - Hallo - Georg Philipp! (1981)    Wilfried Jentzsch - Paysages FI G Für Flöte Und Computerklänge (1984) Flute, Alto Flute, Piccolo Flute – Hanna PatzeltFlute, Bass Flute, Alto Flute – Winfried Meier-EhratFlute, Piccolo Flute, Bass Flute – Frank MichaelGuitar – Andre…

1991 release **

1990 release ** ""In illo tempore" composed 1979 and recorded June 3-4, 1983 at WDR, Köln, Germany. "Je vis - Je meurs" composed 1979-80 and recorded November 15-16, 1984 at WDR, Köln, Germany. "Nomos protos" composed 1986-87 for piano, flute, clarinet, trumpet, horn, posaune, percussion, two violins, bratsche, cello and double bass. Recorded April 23, 1988 at Nedeltschev Sound-Studio."

1989 release **

1992 release (RARE) **  Aurel Stroe: L'Enfant et le Diable (Voix, instruments, percussions)Camille Roy: Discontinuo (Violoncelle, piano)Jean-BaptisteDevillers: Ucello le poil (Voix, percussions, instruments) Ensemble Aleph

1992 release **  Luciano Berio: DuettiBruno Maderna: WidmungGyörgy Kurtag: Eight Duos Maryvonne Le Dizès (Violin)Christophe Poiget (Violin)Michel Cerutti (Cymbalum)Alain Damiens (Conductor)

1991 release (VERY RARE) ** Rarely performed Italian contemporary compositions for guitar by Bruno Maderna, Goffredo Petrassi, Franco Margola, Carlo Mosso, Lorenzo Ferrero, Gilberto Bosco, Heitor Villa Lobos, Giulio Castagnoli, Fabio Vacchi, Daniele Bertotto, Davide Ficco.

1989 release ** Jeroen van Dijk - De tijd betrapt 11:54Chiel Meijering - Zou het pijn doen  09:09Huub de Vriend - Reggae 04:05Hans de Jong - Diaspora 07:02Charles E. Ives - Overture and March 1776 03:21.Dolf de Kinkelder - De Verloedering 2 13:29Mauricio Kagel - Fünf Märsche um den Sieg zu verfehlen 07:43

Huge Tip! Fame di Vento is Manuel Zurria's latest work. A triple CD to evoke the many suggestions and projects that have taken place in recent years, full of collaborations, of the Sicilian flautist. Fame Di Vento is also an idealized homage to Alighiero Boetti, a nomad by culture and vocation. In his footsteps, Manuel draws on the most diverse cultures, from the Lithuanian mystics to India and Sicily, from just-intonation to European-style minimalism. As he has already done in the past, Zurria …

2025 stock ** "The present recording, recorded in a studio by an ensemble of first-call freelancers led by two ideally sympathetic conductors, Eric Wubbels and Taylor Ho Bynum, provides eloquent evidence of what Laubrock has achieved. Both of her orchestral pieces – Vogelfrei, with its variegated textures, animated rhythms, swooping vocals, and inexorable momentum; and Contemporary Chaos Practices, where four instantly distinguishable soloists (Mary Halvorson, Davis, Wooley, and Laubrock herself…

"The bass music you will hear on this album is, it might be said, a child of the seventies. A ferociously radical time in the development of the double bass as a solo instrument found composers eager to formulate soundscapes that would send our Bottesinis and Dragonettis running for the exit ! As an emerging bassist in these heady times, immersed deeply into the art of improvisation where almost on a daily basis colleagues pushed the boundaries of instrumental possibilities, I found myself addit…