Moments
In essence, the sound of the piano comes in two parts: its attack and its decay. The striking of a hammer is followed by the resonance of a string or strings. (Much the same might be said about the vibraphone, as it happens.) This dual quality of sound comes to mind when listening to Moments by New York-based composer Michael Vincent Waller. Performed by pianist R. Andrew Lee and vibraphonist William Winant, Moments − his third album, following Trajectories (Recital, 2017) and The South Shore (X…
String Quartets
Violin was Milan Knizak's first instrument. He has composed hundred of works of this ilk; the first one DHK, 45 years ago. Next to his destroyed works, Milan took notations of different composers, cut them and put them together (with his own score) into a collage, expressing his feelings and his apprehension of music.Fama Q is a string quartet founded in 2005 in Prague. Its members, being also orchestral musicians with the Prague Philharmonia, were always devoted to chamber and string quartet mu…
Performs Songs from 'Kraftwerk 2' and 'Kraftwerk'
**500 copies** Not to be confused with the first volume released by Karlrecords in 2017, here comes the second installment of 'modern composition supergroup' - as nailed down by The Wire - Zeitkratzer's re-interpretations of early compositions by electronic pioneers Kraftwerk. Founded in 1997 by Reinhold Friedl, Zeitkratzer have since been creating an impressive broad catalogue of recordings, from the obligatory (20th Century avant-garde composers like Cage, Stockhausen or Lucier) to the unexpec…
Ensemble Works
Three detailed and fragile compositions from German minimalist composer Eva-Maria Houben reveal themselves over two CDs, performed by the Boston-based experimental music ensemble, Ordinary Affects, with Houben herself on organ recording at Memorial Chapel, in Wesleyan University. Disc 1: Echo Fantasy I, IV & VDisc 2: Gesang XI, Unter AnderenPerformed by Ordinary Affects: Morgan Evans-Weiler (violin), Laura Cetilia (cello), J.P.A. Falzone (vibraphone/piano), Luke Martin (guitar) with Eva-Maria Ho…
Harmonies and Structures
Nine – for John Cage (2010) by Zeirkratzer with Reinhold Friedl (inside piano), Frank Gratkowski (bass clarinet), Hilary Jeffery (trombone), Hild Sofie Tafjord (horn), Burkhard Schlothauer (violin), Anton Lukoszevieze (cello), Ullrich Philipp (double bass), Marc Weiser (electric guitar), Christian Lillinger (percussion). The well-known Zagreb music biennale, which has been a hotspot for contemporary music for more than 30 years, asked Reinhold Friedl, musical director of Zeitkratzer, to perform …
The Photographer
**2019 stock, reduced price** The Photographer is a chamber opera by world renowned composer Philip Glass, first performed in 1982 at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam. The story revolves around the life and work of photographer Eadweard Muybridge, the 19th century pioneer in photographic studies of motion and motion-picture projection. The centerpiece of the story is the trial for Muybridge's murder of the alleged real father of his child, an accusation Muybridge was indeed found guilty of. Remarka…
Among the Tarnished Stars / Quatuor pour la fin du temps
The UK ensemble Apartment House performs two works: Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du Temps in six movements, and Linda Catlin Smith's Among the Tarnished Stars, taking a fresh modern approach to the Messiaen, drawing out its experimental character, and the sense of drama and intricate gradations of sonority in Smith's rich and mysterious work.
Breaths
Three works from Italian composer and pianist Federico Pozzer in his "breathing" series, compositions where the musicians follow the concept of inhaling, exhaling, and pausing, set against certain fixed actions or interactions as they devise their own musical actions."My first 'breathing pieces' were written at the end of 2016... I was looking for a solution that could overcome both the players' freedom in decision-making and the strictness of the score. What I wanted was to lead musicians towar…
Windfell
James Weeks’ major work for singing violinist, Windfell, has been released on the leading British experimental music label Another Timbre. Written for and performed by Canadian violinist Mira Benjamin, Windfell debuted in October / November 2017 at concerts in London and in Durham University’s Klang series. Lasting almost an hour, Windfell arose from ‘an image of the violin surrounded by space and open air: on top of a hill, high-up and remote, played only by the wind. On this ‘wind fell’ the br…
Music For Lock Grooves
**250 copies** SN Variations fifth release features two tracks in three parts each composed for lock grooves recorded onto acetate, percussion by Sam Wilson (Riot Ensemble / Actress) and violin performed by Aisha Orazbayeva. The tracks also feature the piano of Mark Knoop and the voice of Josephine Stephenson. A lock groove is one cycle of one groove on a record. This is 1.8 sec cut at 33rpm and 1.33 cut at 45rpm. Adrian Corker used the cutting lathe currently residing in the living room of The …
Three Realizations For Ensembles
Three compositions written by Francisco Meirino for ensembles. Utilizing pitch and timbre of traditional acoustic instruments Meirino’s unique compositional voice speaks out. Guiding the listener through tension and decompression, unease and malaise. Performed with Ensemble Vortex and Ensemble Phoenix in Basel, recorded during 2016-2019.Born in Spain in 1975, Meirino is active since 1994 (as Phroq until 2009) in experimental music and live performance. His music explores the tension between pro…
Barricades
**500 copies** This album contains LA-based composer Michael Pisaro's recent composition Barricades, a 63-minute piece for piano and electronics. Consisting of thirteen studies (piano pieces, some with electronics) and two electronic interludes, the piece is performed by Israel-based pianist Shira Legmann, with Pisaro on electronics. Legmann's clean, supple yet solid piano sounds, employing a wide dynamic range, add a sense of organic life to the composition. Her whispery nuances and mysterious …
Lettres et Replis
**500 copies** This album contains six pieces written by French composer / artist Bruno Duplant, all composed and realized by Dutch pianist / composer Reinier van Houdt. Duplant's scores Lettres (pour Reinier van Houdt) (2017) are three letter-form scores personally addressed to van Houdt containing letter sequences distributed across the page. Trois replis d'incertitude (2018) are also three letter-form scores but with the notion of 'repli' (meaning 'fold' in a Deleuzian postmodern baroque sens…
Cheminant
**500 copies** This is French composer / pianist Melaine Dalibert's third solo piano album, following his well-received 2018 album Musique pour le lever du jour and 2017 album Ressac. Cheminant contains a diverse array of Dalibert's unique compositions for solo piano, ranging from the up-tempo rhythmic Percolations performed masterfully by Dalibert's right hand, to the slow, prolonged meditative Music in an octave and Cheminant, to the kaleidoscopic Étude II with the repetitive hammered chords, …
A Porthole (I)
**300 copies on aqua blue vinyl** French modern-classical quartet Astrïd return with the first part of a new release entitled A Porthole. Conceptually the two records work in unison, focusing on portholes into the abyss, with part one delving into the depths of the deep sea. The tracks are named after various strains of seaweed, the artwork depicting dark waves and uncertainty. Part two will follow in a year time and will turn its attention to the night sky and constellations. A Porthole continu…
Kosmogonia
Cold Spring Records present a reissue of Krzysztof Penderecki's Kosmogonia, originally released in 1974. Unnerving, intense, bloodcurdling, sinister, dramatic -- the music of Kosmogonia features Penderecki's famous, unorthodox instrumental techniques, and some of the darkest music ever composed. Hailed by The Guardian as "Poland's greatest living composer," Krzysztof Penderecki is the maestro behind the unforgettable, disturbing music on 1980's The Shining (including "De Natura Sonoris II," feat…
L'âme Est Sans Retenue I
Swiss composer Jürg Frey's six hour long electronic tape piece L'àme Est Sans Retenue I was recorded and assembled in 1997/98 and is now being released for the first time. It is the longest piece Frey has ever composed in his over 40 year career.In this piece, Frey utilized the sounds of field recordings he made in Berlin in 1997 as the source materials, alternately inserted between long stretches of silence. Frey was particularly focusing around that time on how the dynamic relation between sou…
Die Natur der Klange: Neue Musik fur Harfe
Gabriele Emde-Hauffe was born in 1953 in Darmstadt, Germany. She received a humanistic education at a local grammar school in Darmstadt and started studying the harp after her A-levels, first in Darmstadt and finishing in Cologne. Conducted by Péter Eötvös, she worked out modern chamber music and modern improvisation by J. G. Fritsch and Vinko Globokar. Passing her exams in 1980 and 1981, she continued her studies of musical science at Cologne University, based on her thesis, "The Harp bet…
Seguente
Re-release of ed. RZ LP Luigi Nono plus three remarkable recordings. All works by Luigi Nono: ("A Carlo Scarpa" for large orchestra), ("A Pierre" for contrabass flute, contrabass clarinet and live electronics), ("Guia Al Gelidi Mostri" for electronically treated winds, voices and strings). Plus an additional CD of compositions not on the original LP: "Caminantes" and "No hay caminos, hay que caminar." Regarding Nono's concept of "new listenings": "This no longer means revolutionizing the e…
Ensemble Works 3
'Palimpsest' (1979) for piano & ensemble. Cory Smythe, piano. 'Echange' (1989) for bass-clarinet & ensemble. Joshua Rubin, bass-clarinet. 'Akanthos' (1977) for soprano & ensemble. Tony Arnold, soprano. 'Thalleïn' (1984) for 16 instruments. 'O-Mega' (1997) for percussion & ensemble. Steven Schick, percussion & conductor. Steven Schick, conductor. 'Zythos' (1996) for trombone & 6 marimbas. Benny Sluchin, trombone.
An exhilarating Xenakis progran, built around works for soloist and ensemble. Most…