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 and saxophone quartet, an instrument on which Szlavnics herself used to perform. The final piece, ‘Reservoir’, is composed for sinewaves and an unusual instrumental octet, including two accordions, two flutes and two percussionists. The middle piece ‘F…

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 goal being musicality. Early music, with its imitative polyphony and modal harmonies, is the primary source of inspiration for the compositions on this disc, four of which are part of an ongoing project focusing on the myth of Ariadne－Ariadne’s Lam…

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 quasi-familiar musical languages and sounds – or none - and use instrumental resources that span half a millennium and two thirds of the planet to create unique combinations of timbral colour in constant motion; this is a music in which everything is i…

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 features the virtually unprecedented combination of string quartet and percussion. It contains three works by prominent American experimentalist composers from several generations exploring the ensemble's unique sonic resources in diverse stylistic settin…

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 Kretzschmar, Paulo Alvarez, Irmela Roelcke, Eun-Ju Kim, Ulrich Löffler, Jürgen Kruse (piano), Christine Chapman, Jodie Lawson, Charles Putnam, Rohan Richards (horns), Dirk Rothbrust, Carlos Tarcha (percussion). Each of the compositions of post-minimal…

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 and definitive document, which comprises almost all of Eastman’s signature works, will undoubtedly be a revelation for those who have thus far been unable to hear his work. Eastman was an energizing underground figure, one whose forms are clear, whos…

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 is considered to be a seminal figure of early minimalism－as important as his better-documented contemporaries. His performances on the giant bells at St. Thomas Church and his evening-length Bösendorfer shows are still spoken of with awe by those who…

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 'Piano Phase.' Glass and Reich were leaders of a new music revolution in New York City in the 1960s and '70s that included Terry Riley, La Monte Young and Meredith Monk. In the years since then, the two composer's careers and music have greatly dive…

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 around a room. Celestial Fires features the New York Treble Singers, (Virginia Davidson, conductor) performing four 8-part pieces for a capella women's voices; Shannon Peet performing Feu de Joie for 7 bassoons; and Barbara Held and Ms. Leach performin…

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.