River of January
The journey of River of January began in early 1969, when as a freshly arrived 14-year-old from Los Angeles, standing by the ocean in Rio de Janeiro [transl., River of January], Rick Baitz heard a crescendo of rhythmic chanting, followed by a parade of women sashaying down the sidewalk, joyfully singing and swaying to the beat of their own samba. He didn’t know at the time that one day he would write a piece honoring the name of that city, but In 1991 he was commissioned by The Juilliard School …
Archipels
*2024 stock* bastille musique presents its twenty-fifth release »Saunders, Boucourechliev, Clarke, Riehm: Archipels« featuring world premiere recordings by Nicolas Hodges (piano). The album combines new works for piano by Rebecca Saunders, James Clarke and Rolf Riehm with three different interpretations of André Boucourechliev’s open form composition Archipel 5d from 1970. In addition to the recordings produced by the SWR, it also contains a 48-page bilingual booklet (EN, DE) with articles by Ni…
Eonta
*2024 stock* bastille musique presents its twenty-third release »Iannis Xenakis: Eonta« featuring recordings by Ensemble Schwerpunkt, Lorenzo Soulès (piano), Edicson Ruiz (double bass), Dirk Rothbrust (percussion) und Peter Rundel (conductor). The album includes Iannis Xenakis’s music for brass from four decades, from Eonta (1963-1964) to Linaia-Agon (1972), Khal Perr (1983) and Mnamas Xapin Witoldowi Lutosławskiemu (1994), amongst others. In addition to the recordings produced by the WDR, it al…
Brigitta Muntendorf: Trilogie
*2024 stock* bastille musique presents its twenty-second release »Brigitta Muntendorf: Trilogie« featuring world premiere recordings by the GrauSchumacher Piano Duo. The album includes both the Trilogie für zwei Flügel, produced by the WDR, and the respective films of Theater des Nachhalls, a concert installation for multichannel video and audio. In addition to the recordings and the films, the set also contains a 52-page bilingual booklet (EN, DE) with articles by Dirk Wieschollek and an interv…
Hugues Dufourt, ensemble recherche, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Ensemble Nikel, Remix Ensemble, Yaron Deutsch, Nicolas Hodges
Hugues Dufourt: Surgir bastille musique presents its twenty-seventh release »Hugues Dufourt: Surgir« featuring world premiere recordings by ensemble recherche, WDR Sinfonieorchester, Ensemble Nikel, Remix Ensemble, Yaron Deutsch (electric guitar) and Nicolas Hodges (piano). Produced by the WDR, the recordings comprise Dufourt’s complete Tiepolo cycle (2004-2016), selected works for orchestra and piano (1980-2012) as well as all compositions for and with electric guitar (1986-2022). Additionally, the box set includes a…
Helmut Lachenmann: Mes Adieux
bastille musique presents its twenty-ninth release »Helmut Lachenmann: Mes Adieux« featuring Trio Catch, trio recherche, Karolina Öhman (cello), WDR Sinfonieorchester and Lin Liao (conductor). With Notturno (1966-1968), Allegro sostenuto (1986-1988) and the world premiere recording of Mes Adieux – Streichtrio Nr. 2 (2021-2022), the album brings together three outstanding works by Lachenmann from three different creative periods. The WDR recordings are complemented by a 48-page bilingual booklet …
Borowski, Holz, Keller: Klangrede
*2024 stock* bastille musique presents its fourth release »Borowski, Holz, Keller: Klangrede« featuring world premiere recordings by the Zafraan Ensemble and Titus Engel (conductor). Produced by the SWR at the Hans-Rosbaud-Studio, the recordings comprise two works each by Johannes Boris Borowski, Eres Holz and Stefan Keller. The set also contains a 56-page bilingual booklet (EN, DE) with articles by Clemens Hund-Göschel, Eckhard Weber and an interview with the Zafraan Ensemble, as well as four c…
Besilvering - Solo, Duo And Ensemble Works
*2024 stock* bastille musique presents its nineteenth release »Luke Bedford: Besilvering« featuring world premiere recordings by the Holst-Sinfonietta and Klaus Simon (conductor). The album includes a selection of Bedford’s instrumental works from 2002 to 2019, from solos to a wide variety of chamber line-ups to an ensemble piece for ten players. In addition to the recordings produced by the SWR, it also contains a 48-page bilingual booklet (EN, DE) with articles by Eckhard Weber, an interview w…
Hypnokaséta
“Hypnokaséta (2020-2021) is a continuous set of 16 pieces for string quartet, improviser (playing cassettes and any instrument) and live electronics. The source material is based on dreams that I had during the first few months of lockdown, April-June 2020. Accounts of these dreams are encoded in the music that is played by the quartet and also encrypted in the sound textures that surround this. The pieces alternate between quartet as the foreground and electronic interludes, where solos or duos…
Binomial Cascades
Tip! "I just released a new album as my solo project, Agencement. This is a follow-up album to 'Six Juxtaposed Works', which was released in 2017 on the Copenhagen label Tochnit Aleph. It's been about 35 years since I produced 'vinyl' by myself, so it's very emotional, although since the 1990s, it has become difficult to manufacture vinyl LPs in Japan and there were no channels to outsource overseas because I was disappointed in the situation. Musically, I think it's a further step in the direct…
Reverse Bloom
On the evening of July 13th, 2023, I trekked up to Arnold Hall for a very special performance at The Stone. I sat in the front row and took out my notebook then turned to my right and looked around the space. The dimly lit room buzzed with quiet activity and conversation. After a few more minutes, the lights went even lower and out walked three shadowy figures. Each clicked on a small bulb that lit their individual music stands. This was my third time seeing the Jessica Pavone String Ensemble. T…
Organic Music Tapes Vol.3
*100 copies limited edition* In keeping with tradition, the new year brings another offering from Portuguese pianist and composer Tiago Sousa. "Organic Music Tapes Vol.3," the third instalment in Tiago’s ongoing series, continues to develop a freeform dual approach to organic and fluid compositions for Piano and Organ - this time adding a real church tube organ to the proceedings.
Evolving from the foundation laid in the first two volumes, Sousa introduces the pipe organ into his signature piano…
Works for Saxophone
"The music of Toshio Hosokawa invites us on a poetic journey of knowledge he has made throughout his life by bringing the cultures of East and West into dialogue.” - Paco Yáñez
A Curving Abacus
In 1968, Steve Reich coined the term Process Music to describe compositional designs that resemble “pulling back a swing, releasing it, and observing it gradually come to rest,” explaining that “once the musical process is set up and loaded it runs by itself.” In the mid-1970s, Brian Eno began using the expression Ambient Music to refer to atmospheric compositions that “must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular,” music that “must be as ign…
New American Music, Vol. 4
*2024 stock. Custon CDr* Noa Ain gives us a surreal portrait of violinist Yoko Matsua in “Used to Call Me Sadness,” Joel Chadabe encourages a solo percussionist to interact with an automated electronic system in “Echoes,” Ann McMillan manipulates animal sounds with recording techniques in “Whale I,” Gordon Mumma offers audience members “Do It Yourself” participation in “Cybersonic Cantilevers” and Vladimir Ussachevsky suggests a pre-biblical story of the creation of the world depicted by electro…
New American Music, Vol. 2
*2024 stock. Custon CDr* Trumpets and trombones twist through dense pockets of sound in Lucia Dlugoszewski “Angels of the Inmost Heaven”; the voice of a lone guitarist punctures the silence in James Fulkerson’s “Patterns” II and VII; flute, bassoons, viola and vibraphone are intended to “turn some dancers on” in Carman Moore’s “Youth in a Merciful House”; and a guitarist laments to the hum of an Elizabethan-type string and woodwind consort in Stanley Silverman’s “Planh.” This is a thoughtfully b…
(Amsterdam) Memory Space
*2024 stock* The openness of Lucier's instructions belie the difficulty in dealing with the idea of how one can translate a sound from one medium into another and what kind of transformation of information takes place in that exchange. While interpreting this work, a musician becomes intensely aware of the processes by which one listens, both consciously and subconsciously; how one is constantly decoding sounds in one’s environment, filtering out essential and non-essential information, discerni…
his master's voice / aus den fliegenden blättern eines fahrenden waldhornisten / lose verbunden -- Performed by Kei Kondo and Takahiro Kuroda
*300 copies limited edition* Eva-Maria Houben (born in 1955) is a German composer, organist, pianist and musicologist. She is a member of the Wandelweiser Group. Her compositions, performed by herself and many other musicians, have been released on CDs and LPs as well as digitally by Edition Wandelweiser and other international labels. On May 15, 2023, composer Takahiro Kuroda (born in 1989) presented the concert "Square of Thoughts Vol. 2: Eva-Maria Houben and Horn + x" in the performance space…
echo fantasy lI -- Performed by Takahiro Kuroda and Kei Kondo
*300 copies limited edition* Eva-Maria Houben (born in 1955) is a German composer, organist, pianist and musicologist. She is a member of the Wandelweiser Group. Her compositions, performed by herself and many other musicians, have been released on CDs and LPs as well as digitally by Edition Wandelweiser and other international labels. On May 15, 2023, composer Takahiro Kuroda (born in 1989) presented the concert "Square of Thoughts Vol. 2: Eva-Maria Houben and Horn + x" in the performance space…
Antoine Brumel: Earthquake Mass
Following on from their successful last recording, Josquin the Undead (GCDP32117) this new recording of Antione Brumel's Earthquake Mass is a welcome addition. Graindelavoix is an Antwerp-based music and art ensemble founded in 1999. Helmed by founder-director Bjorn Schmelzer, it is committed to offering a contemporary and critical interpretation of mainly historical, vocal repertoires. It would be difficult to find a composition that resembles the twelve-part mass Et ecce terrae motus by Antoin…