Swing Bridge; Sizzles
First recordings of two Alvin Lucier works centred on the pipe organ: Swing Bridge (2015) for organ, ensemble and pipe wavers, played by the Australian Art Orchestra with Austin Buckett, and Sizzles (1997) for organ and drums.
Plasmatic Music, Vol. 1
Three works from Horatiu Radulescu's Sound Plasma period, played by Sam Dunscombe and Rebecca Lane: Capricorn's Nostalgic Crickets, Small Infinities' Togetherness and Opus 42, Inner Time / Outer Time. Volume 4 of Mode's Radulescu Edition.
Second Room
Limted LP edition. Second Room is Martin Taxt’s second album in a series of works investigating possible relations between music and architecture. In this work written for alto saxophone, two microtonal tubas, double bass, church organ, hand bells and modular synthesizers he is inspired by the Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto, and his ideas on different concepts of living. In a lecture at the Harvard University in 2011, Fujimoto sets up a comparison between the nest and the cave, as two fundament…
Irida Records: Hybrid Musics from Texas and Beyond, 1979–1986
An incredible set of vinyl reissues explores the unfolding sonic fiction of Texan composer Jerry Hunt and others affiliated with his Irida label.
6 Pieces for Gamelan Slendro
Six pieces for gamelan slendro by Lou Harrison, Larry Polansky, Petar Klanac, Billy Martin and Roland Dahinden, played by the French ensemble 0, the Swiss percussion group Eklekto and Gamelan Oksitan.
Por Gitaro: Suites for Tuned Guitars
First complete recording of Lou Harrison's reconstructed suites for just-intonation guitar and of the Ditone Set, played by John Schneider, with the first recording of Harrison's Handel homage for guitar and gamelan.
The Echoing Green
Chamber works by Walter Zimmermann from 1986-89 for piano, cello and piano, bass flute and piano, and violin and piano, played by the HCD Ensemble with cellist Michael Bach and violinist Peter Rundel.
Labyrinthe de Minotaur
Alain Bancquart's large-scale microtonal cycle on the myth of the Minotaur, on texts by Marie-Claire Bancquart, recorded at its world premiere of the complete version at Radio France on 27 May 2000.
Pietra e Oggetto
A sparse and subtle jungle comprises the pieces that make up "Pietra e Oggetto". It is subtle, as such it remains in the memory. Thanks to the device of silence, which is like the air in between things, it allows time for what we have heard to imprint on our acoustic sketchpad. Like closing your eyes to preserve a memory and then moving on to the next. We feel a certain privilege in listening to these undecidable environments; these composite and hybrid objects filled with synthetic biodiversity…
Rise, Follow
* Edition of 200 * A composition for two bass Renaissance flutes. Performed by Mara Winter and Johanna Bartz. Rise, follow is a dialogue of long tones played by two bass Renaissance flutes, featuring subtle but persistent changes over the duration of one hour. It is performed in one sitting without interruption. The composition adopts the principle of instrumental ‘consort-style’ playing in Europe during the 16th century: a family of similarly pitched and constructed instruments performing polyp…
Anabasi
* Edition of 200 * In what might appear to be a paradox of logic, much of the history of avant-garde music - from Eric Satie, John Cage, and Morton Feldman, through the minimalists, post-minimalists, and beyond - has presented new forms radicalism through remarkable, self-imposed constraint. Sometimes structural, others tonal, temporal, or a combination of any of the three, these limitations and focus not only place demands of focus and attentiveness on the listeners, drawing the ear toward subt…
Works for Organ & for Cello
Second volume of the Horatiu Radulescu Edition: his complete organ works played by Christoph Maria Moosmann, plus Intimate Rituals III and Immersed in the Wonder II with cellist Catherine Marie Tunnell, all first recordings.
Shade / Gradient
**425 copies, 3-color letterpressed jacket with large 20-page booklet containing the full score and a lengthy interview with the composer** Catherine Lamb’s work is characterized by an insistence on what she calls the “interaction of tone”. Precisely tuned intervals, played slowly at subtle volumes, blend and generate a host of difference and combination tones, phasing, beating and aural illusions. Her ensemble and orchestral compositions have been performed in grand halls and d.i.y. spaces alik…
Pianos Quart de Ton
Music for two and four pianos tuned a quarter tone apart: Wyschnegradsky's Ainsi parlait Zarathoustra and 4e Fragment symphonique with ondes Martenot, plus new works by Alain Moëne and Alain Bancquart. Several first recordings.
The Orchestral Works 2
Three orchestral works by Giacinto Scelsi recorded in Vienna in 2005: Quattro Pezzi (su una nota sola), Uaxuctum, and the first recording of La Nascita del Verbo, with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and choirs.
Music For High Winds
Giacinto Scelsi's music for high winds, solo and duo pieces for clarinet, flute, piccolo and oboe written between 1953 and 1970, played by Carol Robinson, Clara Novakova and Cathy Milliken. Volume 3 of Mode's Scelsi Edition.
The Orchestral Works 1: Hymnos, Hurqualia, Konx-Om-Pax
Volume 2 of Mode's Scelsi Edition: the orchestral works Hymnos, Hurqualia and Konx-Om-Pax, played by the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic and Concert Choir under Juan Pablo Izquierdo, interspersed with Canti del Capricorno sung by Pauline Vaillancourt and Douglas Ahlstedt.
During a Lifetime
During a Lifetime stands as a portrait of Toronto-born, Berlin-based composer Chiyoko Szlavnics, commissioning three major pieces: “During a Lifetime” (2015), “Freehand Poitras” (2008), and “Reservoir” (2006). Szlavnics’s music is marked by tender asceticism and an immersive approach to process - her scores privilege long sustained notes, slow pitch glissandi, and luminous combinations of sinewaves with wind and string ensembles.
The title piece features Konus Quartett (four saxophones) entwined…
Soweto Stomp
Structured improvisation compositions by violinist Malcolm Goldstein, ranging from jazzy to dense microtonal sound, in which he plays with the Montreal-based Ratchet Orchestra as composer, soloist and ensemble member.
Brazil 84
Phill Niblock's 16mm film Brazil 84, from his series The Movement of People Working, shot along the Brazilian coast in 1984, with his music as soundtrack in stereo and surround: Three Orchids and Two by Tom. 77 minutes.