First recordings: 1950s
Thirteen first recordings of early Feldman works from 1950 to 1953, including Intersection for magnetic tape, the Music for Jackson Pollock film score with Pollock's narration, Nature Pieces and Variations, played by pianist Philipp Vandré and the Turfan Ensemble.
Michael von Biel
An astonishing CD with the usual RZ deluxe touch by the well-known fluxus related cellist. Michael von Biel (born 30 June 1939 in Hamburg) a German composer, cellist, and graphic artist. Von Biel studied piano, theory, and composition in Toronto (1956–57), Vienna (1958–60), New York (1960, with Morton Feldman, amongst others), London (1960, with Cornelius Cardew), and Cologne (with Karlheinz Stockhausen). From 1961 to 1963 he attended the Darmstadt Vacation Courses for New Music. In 1964 he rec…
Simoom
On Simoom we hear three of Lois V. Vierk's works for "big instruments," that is, multiples of the same instrument, treated more like single entities than like groups of voices: Go Guitars for five electric guitars tuned microtonally around "E," Cirrus for six trumpets, and Simoom for eight cellos. All three works employ what Vierk describes as "Exponential Structure," which utilizes exponential relationships to control time, pitch movement and rates of change. Within this system, Vierk creates v…
Trauermusiken
Two compositions by the young Austrian composer/organist Klaus Lang who currently lives in Berlin/Germany. Der Wind und das Meer for viola (Barbara Konrad, viola) The Sea of Despair for String Quartet (Amras Streichquartett)
Complete Short Works for Prepared Piano
All of John Cage's short works for prepared piano on two CDs, everything except Sonatas and Interludes, played by Philipp Vandré.
A Cage of Saxophones 2
Second volume of John Cage works for saxophones, played by Ulrich Krieger and his ensemble: early pieces of unspecified instrumentation, saxophone parts drawn from Atlas Eclipticalis and Concert for Piano and Orchestra, and the first saxophone version of Two.
The Works for Piano 4
Piano works by John Cage played by Margaret Leng Tan: 1940s pieces found at his publisher including Triple-Paced, Ad Lib and Jazz Study, the Works of Calder film score, and One2 for three pianos.
Clepsydra, Astray
**Restock of a rare, must-have record for contemporary music lovers. Comes with 4-page 12" booklet ** Great dense orchestral scraping and bowing from 1982 & 1983 by Romanian composer Horatiu Radulescu (1942-2008), among the great masters of Spectralism and subharmonics. This absorbing LP includes two groundbreaking works centered around the 'Sound Icons' - pianos standing on their sides, played with bows between the strings. On side A is the hypnotic, otherworldly Clepsydra for 16 Sound Icons (E…
Advance of the Fungi
First CD collection of George Cacioppo's music: six chamber works from 1960-66 including Time on Time in Miracles, Advance of the Fungi and Holy Ghost Vacuum or America Faints, played by French ensembles, with Cacioppo himself on electric organ.
The Previous Evening
Former Henry Cow guitarist Fred Frith pays homage to three giants of contemporary classical music: John Cage, Morton Feldman and Earle Brown. In his own inimitable fashion, Frith has tried to incorporate the chosen composer's own working methods into each of the three pieces that make up The Previous Evening. As he explains in the enclosed booklet regarding his John Cage homage: 'Fragments of text heard in Part 1 were taken at random from Cage's book Silence. Tape editing, the structure of the e…
Franco Evangelisti
The first CD release of works by Franco Evangelisti (1926-1980), the founder of Nuova Consonanza (infamous early '60s Italian avant garde ensemble that included Mario Bertoncini, Roland Kayn, Ennio Morricone, Frederic Rzewski and others). This two disc retrospective features studio audio-footage and lab-experiments, featuring performers Aloys Kontarsky, David Tudor, Eberhard Blüm and the LaSalle Quartet. Spanning the last 40 years, virtually all forms of post-1950 invention are represented here …
Music for piano
Douvle CD set with recordings by the legendary 20th century avantgarde pianist performing compositions by (and with) John Cage, Sylvano Bussotti, Morton Feldman, Christian Wolff.
(Re):Making music, works 1962-99
Two CDs covering 37 years of Christian Wolff's music, mostly first recordings including the graphic score For 5 or 10 People and Schoenen met veters, played by The Barton Workshop with James Fulkerson.
Complete Works for Violin & Piano
All of Christian Wolff's works for violin and piano: the first recording of Pebbles (1999) and two performances of Duo for Violinist and Pianist (1961), played by the Canadian duo Sabat/Clarke with the composer present.
Ever Present
Five works by Alvin Lucier for solos and trios on beating tones and microtones: Piper for bagpipe, Fan for four kotos, 947 for flute, Silver Streetcar for triangle and Ever Present for flute, piano and alto saxophone.
Navigation for strings. Small waves
Two microtonal works by Alvin Lucier written for the performers: Navigations for Strings, played by the Arditti Quartet, and Small Waves for string quartet, trombone, piano and two water pourers, with Hildegard Kleeb and Roland Dahinden.
Horbare Okosysteme: Live elektronic compositions 1993-2005
Live electronic compositions from 1993-2005 by composer Agostino Di Scipio, using acoustic instruments and digital sound processing to create unusual and previously unheard sound worlds.
Melody, Ergodicity and Indeterminacy
First recordings of James Tenney's Poem, Monody, Seegersong #1 and #2 and the Ergodos series for computer music, with string, instrumental and percussion responses, played by the Barton Workshop and soloists.