Tractus
Tractus emphasizes Arvo Pärt compositions that blend the timbres of choir and string orchestra. New versions predominate, with focused performances from the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir under Tõnu Kaljuste’s direction that invite alert and concentrated listening. From the opening composition Littlemore Tractus, which takes as its starting point consoling reflections from a sermon by John Henry Newman, the idea of change, transfiguration and renewal resona…
Learning
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.
Música Aperta
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…
Schönberg Pierrot Lunaire Cheap Imitation
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 …
Variations
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…
Tàmmitam Percussion Ensemble
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)
Savage Altars
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…
Luciano Berio, Salvatore Sciarrino, Luca Francesconi, Ludovico Einaudi, Armando Gentilucci, Giorgio Federico Ghedini
Ricorrenze1990 release ** Luciano Berio: Ricorrenze Salvatore Sciarrino: Quintettino #2 Luca Francesconi: Attesa Ludovico Einaudi: Ai margini dell' aria Armando Gentilucci: Cile 1973 Giorgio Federico Ghedini: Quintetto #1 "The collection here draws together pieces from the "hard" wing of post-World War II composers. The Arnold Quintet plays all this music with flair, wit, and understanding. Berio is probably the best-known name on the disc, and I enjoyed his Ricorrenze ("Recurrence") more than the other p…
The Best Of Nexus
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
'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 …
Strange City / Ville Étrange
1988 release ** Four innovative acoustic works played by the excellent Canadian ensemble Arraymusic. Contains: Claude Vivier Et je reverrai cette ville étrange, James Tenney Harmonium # 5, Henry Kucharzyk Beating, Michael J. Baker Unfinished Business.
Memoires D'Oubli - Stream - Portrait de Genevieve Asse - Empreintes Nocturnes
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…
Musiques Trans Alpines Vol. 2
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.
The California EAR Unit
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.
Generally spoken...
1991 release ** Nebojša Jovan Živković plays total percussion music by himself, Maria Ptaszynska, Johannes Kotschy, Markus Halt, John Christie Willot and Robert Schumann.
Hotel Boltanski
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 …
SOVT
'SOVT' is an album containing one 55-minute piece, written for piano by Sarah Hennies in 2017. SOVT stands for Semi-Occluded Vocal Tract which refers to vocal exercises that strengthens the voice by helping the vocal cords vibrate more efficiently. One may practice SOVT exercises by singing with a straw in the mouth which regulates air pressure and reduces strain on the vocal folds. Hennies encountered these exercises in a class on so-called “voice feminization” for transgender women which also …
Blue Veil
CD in 6 panel digisleeve. With Obi strip. The first release to document the solo cello work of musician and composer Lucy Railton, the 40-minute composition Blue Veil recorded at Église du Saint-Esprit in Paris invites listeners into the realm of precision-tuned states of resonance: states made manifest through Railton’s careful traversal of her cello's most subtle acoustic characteristics as they harmonically interlock with mind’s embodied modalities of attention and imagination. Blue Veil aris…
Lush Laments For Lazy Mammal
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…