Composition / Minimalism

First recordings of Christian Wolff's Tilbury pieces (1969-70), Snowdrop (1970) and Tilbury 5 (1996), minimalist open-form works played by trombonist Roland Dahinden, pianist Hildegard Kleeb and violinist Dimitrios Polisoidis.

The fourth disc in the Canadian Composers Series features the music of Chiyoko Szlavnics. The CD contains three works, two of which use sinewaves in conjuncton with acoustic instruments. The title track ‘During a Lifetime’ is written for sinewaves an…

Mary Jane Leach (b 1949) explores the physicality of sound, working very carefully with the timbres of instruments, creating combination, difference, and interference tones. The use of sound phenomena, however, is only a means to an end, the ultimate…

Since the late 1970s Biota has ploughed its own furrow, producing a body of work that resembles nothing anyone else has done or is yet doing. Their compositions evolve in long, constantly shifting timbral blocks filled with fragments and echoes of qu…

Four works by Alvin Lucier played by the Italian ensemble Alter Ego: Two Circles, Fideliotrio and Three Translations of the Works of Maurizio Mochetti, plus a new recording of I Am Sitting in a Room with the composer.

Four works by Alvin Lucier, Carbon Copies, Risonanza, Music for Pure Waves, Bass Drums and Acoustic Pendulums and Broken Line, performed by the Berlin-based Trio Nexus.

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.

"The evolution of the string quartet repertory has accelerated during the last half of the twentieth-century and beyond as composers from both the mainstream and the avant-garde have mined its seemingly inexhaustible creative resources. This CD featu…

First complete recording of John Cage's works for organ, played by Gary Verkade on the organ of Gammelstad Church, Sweden: Some of 'The Harmony of Maine', Souvenir, ASLSP and Organ2/ASLSP, with 4'33'' on the DVD only.

Six minimalist works by Reich, Riley, Andriessen, Gann, Adams and David Lang played by Orkest de Volharding under Jussi Jaatinen, including first recordings of City Life for wind orchestra and Kyle Gann's Sunken City.

Edition RZ presents John McGuire's Works For Instruments. Performers: Ensemble Modern -- Julia Rempe (soprano); Pellegrini-Quartett: Antonio Pellegrini, Thomas Hofer (violin); Fabio Marano (viola); Helmut Menzler (violoncello); musikFabrik: Hermann K…

This three-disc set marks the first appearance on disc of the music of the African-American composer Julius Eastman (1940–1990), who died sixteen years ago under unexplained circumstances and whose musical legacy was thought lost. This comprehensive …

Schlingen Blängen is an invaluable addition to the slender but precious discography of Charlemagne Palestine, one of the legendary figures of the amazingly fertile New York and West Coast experimental music/art scene of the sixties and seventies. He …

Orange Mountain's new release Music 4 Hands presents new transcriptions for two pianos written and performed by Dennis Russell Davies and Maki Namekawa. Featured compositions are Philip Glass' 'Six Scenes from Les Enfants Terribles' and Steve Reich's…

Early works by Gavin Bryars from 1969-71: first recordings of Pre-Mediaeval Metrics and Made in Hong Kong, plus 1, 2, 1-2-3-4 and The Squirrel and The Ricketty Racketty Bridge, played by Ulrich Kreiger, Seth Josel and others.

Trio Omphalos (Stefan Hülsermann, clarinet; Olaf Pyras, percussion; Ji-Youn Song, piano) plays its own arrangements of John Cage's Chess Pieces and Four Dances and of thirteen of Tom Johnson's Rational Melodies, plus Johnson's Counting Duets No. II.

Three 22-minute drone works by Phill Niblock: Disseminate Ostrava for orchestra, Kontradictionaries for the Kontra-Trio of contrabass flute, saxophone and tuba, and Disseminate Q-O2 for the Q-O2 Ensemble.

The works of Mary Jane Leach explore the physicality of sound, working very carefully with the timbres of instruments, creating combination, difference, and interference tones. Space is also an important concern: how sound changes when it is moved ar…

Six-CD anthology compiled by Manfred Eicher and Steve Lake for the exhibition ECM: A Cultural Archaeology (Haus der Kunst, Munich, 2012-13): recordings from 1961 to 2012 by Steve Reich, Arvo Pärt, Eleni Karaindrou, Old and New Dreams and many others.

Music by Carlo Gesualdo alongside Brett Dean's Carlo and Erkki-Sven Tüür's L'ombra della croce and Psalmody, performed by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Tallinn Chamber Orchestra under Tõnu Kaljuste; recorded in Tallinn in February 2014.

Kate Moore's music for one, two, four and multiple pianos, all played by Saskia Lankhoorn, recorded in April 2013 at the Auditorio Radiotelevisione svizzera, Lugano, and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Organ works by Arvo Pärt, Peter Maxwell Davies and Philip Glass played by Christopher Bowers-Broadbent, recorded in October 1990 at the Grossmünster, Zürich, and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Charlemagne Palestine live at the Sorbonne chapel in 1979, playing two Bösendorfer Imperial pianos: forty minutes of slowly accumulating intervals and ringing overtones. Hand-made CD in a velvet box designed by Palestine.

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.