Rough Magic
Rough Magic features premiere recordings of four works created for and (significantly) with the group, is an explosive departure from their previous recordings, leading listeners through the beauty and struggle of language while showcasing, once again, the band’s unwavering commitment to pushing the boundaries of vocal music. From high-gloss, 80s-style synth-charged passages to early Steve Reich tape-piece-type sounds, Rough Magic articulates a grand experience of language, its limits, and its r…
Spiral - Pole
Karlheinz Stockhausen – Spiral was composed in 1968 while Stockhausen was living in Connecticut (United States). It was developed through his association with a guitarist student, Michael Lorimer, and originally dedicated to him (tho never performed by him). Spiral had it's greatest success when it was premiered by the oboist Heinz Holliger (and subsequently performed more than 1300 times!) at the Osaka 1970 World's Fair Expo in Stockhausen's own performance pavilion, a speaker-lined spheric…
Cosmic Pulses
Karlheinz Stockhausen – “Cosmic Pulses” is the last electronic composition by Karlheinz Stockhausen, and it is number 93 in his catalog of works. It is the 13th "hour" of Stockhausen's originally-planned 24-part cycle Klang ("Sound") which is based on the 24 hours of the day. This electronic work is composed of 24 layers of synthesizer-generated melodic material, with each layer having a different speed and pitch register. The layers enter one by one, starting from the lowest/slowest layer, a…
Musik Für Posaune Und Euphonium
*2022 Stock.* Karlheinz Stockhausen – “Musik für Posaune und Euphonium (Music for Trombone and Euphonium)” In Freundschaft (Für Posaune) for trombone – Signale Zur Invasion (1992) for trombone, electronic music and sound projectionist – Kinntanz (1983 / 89) for euphonium, percussionist, synthesizer player and sound projectionist "Stockhausen’s birthday gift composition for Suzanne Stephens - In Freundschaft - has been played by a number of soloists over the years, i.e., on different kinds of so…
Oktophonie
*2022 Stock.* Karlheinz Stockhausen – “Oktophonie ” Realized at the Studio für Elektronische Musik, WDR, August 23 - November 30, 1990 & Aug. 5-30, 1991. " (...) Stockhausen also points out that the production and spatialization are described in the separate OCTOPHONY score. This score is indeed a very meticulous and detailed one, indispensable for aficionados who will want to enter the inner workings of the OCTOPHONY structure. It is an extreme score in this aspect, in the minute details of its…
Tierkreis / Musik Im Bauch
*2022 Stock.* Karlheinz Stockhausen – “Musik im Bauch (Music in the Belly) ” is a piece of scenic music for six percussionists and music boxes composed by Karlheinz Stockhausen in 1975. "The origin of “Musik im Bauch” and “Tierkreis”, as far as can be traced, goes back to 1967, when Stockhausen’s daughter Julika was around two years old. Stockhausen explains that all kinds of minute sounds were coming from the little girl’s insides, and Stockhausen joked with her and said: “Julika, you really ha…
Mantra
*2022 Stock.* Karlheinz Stockhausen – “Mantra” was composed in 1970 and premiered in autumn of the same year at the Donaueschingen Festival. The work is scored for two ring-modulated pianos; each player is also equipped with a chromatic set of crotales (antique cymbals) and a wood block, and one player is equipped with a short-wave radio producing morse code or a magnetic tape recording of morse code. "The real basis for “Mantra” is a thirteen-note motif; formula, allotting each note specific ch…
Aus Den Sieben Tagen
Packaged in two Multiboxes, with a 124 page booklet (in English language), in a 2" thick slip box. Karlheinz Stockhausen – “Aus den sieben Tagen” for six players (1968) (From the Seven Days) is a collection of 15 text compositions by Karlheinz Stockhausen, composed in May 1968, in reaction to a personal crisis, and characterized as "Intuitive music"—music produced primarily from the intuition rather than the intellect of the performer(s).." This type of composition or instruction or whatever on…
Kurzwellen
*2022 Stock.* Karlheinz Stockhausen – “Kurzwellen” for six players (1968). Participants: Aloys Kontarsky (piano & short-wave radio), Harald Bojé (electronium & short-wave radio), Alfred Alings & Rolf Gehlhaar (tam-tam & short-wave radio), Johannes G. Fritsch (electric viola & short-wave radio), Karlheinz Stockhausen (filters & potentiometers). Kurzwellen is one of a series of works dating from the 1960s which Stockhausen designated as "process" compositions. These works in effect separate the "f…