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Search Result for Genre CLASSICAL
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2LP
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SV 097LP
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$34.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 7/6/2018
Double LP version. "Steve Reich's Drumming is regarded as one of the most important musical works of the last century. Distilled through his studies of African percussion in Ghana during 1970 and Balinese gamelan music, Reich revolutionized our understanding of polyrhythms, sculpting a new sonic territory to illuminate the radical potential of Minimalism. Divided into four sections, performed without pause, Drumming is written for eight small tuned drums, three marimbas, three glockenspiels, piccolo and voice. The singers recite melodic patterns that mimic the sounds of the instruments, gradually rising to the surface and then fading out. The overall effect can be transfixing -- pulling listeners into the rhythm and possessing a raw immediacy, directness and energy. The premier performances of Drumming took place in December 1971 in New York City -- first at The Museum of Modern Art, then at Brooklyn Academy of Music and finally at Town Hall where this recording was made -- and featured the composer along with a cast of longtime collaborators including Art Murphy, Steve Chambers, Russ Hartenberger, James Preiss, Jon Gibson, Joan La Barbara, Judy Sherman, Jay Clayton, Ben Harms, Gary Burke, Frank Maefsky and James Ogden. Originally released in 1972 by gallerist John Gibson in a small private edition, Drumming represents the culmination of Reich's investigation into rhythmic phase relationships and its early realization captures a remarkably organic feel, especially compared to the more widely known version on Deutsche Grammophon from 1974. This first-time vinyl reissue and first-time CD release has been carefully remastered from the original master tapes."
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2CD
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SV 097CD
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$25.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 6/22/2018
"Steve Reich's Drumming is regarded as one of the most important musical works of the last century. Distilled through his studies of African percussion in Ghana during 1970 and Balinese gamelan music, Reich revolutionized our understanding of polyrhythms, sculpting a new sonic territory to illuminate the radical potential of Minimalism. Divided into four sections, performed without pause, Drumming is written for eight small tuned drums, three marimbas, three glockenspiels, piccolo and voice. The singers recite melodic patterns that mimic the sounds of the instruments, gradually rising to the surface and then fading out. The overall effect can be transfixing -- pulling listeners into the rhythm and possessing a raw immediacy, directness and energy. The premier performances of Drumming took place in December 1971 in New York City -- first at The Museum of Modern Art, then at Brooklyn Academy of Music and finally at Town Hall where this recording was made -- and featured the composer along with a cast of longtime collaborators including Art Murphy, Steve Chambers, Russ Hartenberger, James Preiss, Jon Gibson, Joan La Barbara, Judy Sherman, Jay Clayton, Ben Harms, Gary Burke, Frank Maefsky and James Ogden. Originally released in 1972 by gallerist John Gibson in a small private edition, Drumming represents the culmination of Reich's investigation into rhythmic phase relationships and its early realization captures a remarkably organic feel, especially compared to the more widely known version on Deutsche Grammophon from 1974. This first-time vinyl reissue and first-time CD release has been carefully remastered from the original master tapes."
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2CD
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RZ 1038-39CD
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$38.50
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 6/8/2018
From the liner notes by Hans-Peter Schulz; Translation by Peter Gebert: "... SOLO II: Solo II is part of a group of works with the title Buch der Stille 1 ('Book of Silence 1'). This is a series of solo pieces for flute/oboe da cacchia (solo I), trombone/bassoon (solo II), organ (solo III), low string instrument (solo IV), and piano (solo V), all of which were developed from the same compositional idea; the series is a generalisation of disappearing musics, itself a composition for three winds, two strings and two pianos written between 1989 and 1991. The individual solo-compositions can be performed separately, as well as in all combinations simultaneously. After Jakob Ullman had met John Cage in person on the occasion of a Cage festival organised by the Deutschlandfunk in 1990, this encounter developed into a lengthy and intensive exchange of ideas which had considerable impact on the compositional process that Ullmann was concerned with at the time, specifically of soli I, II and III, finished in 1992. The pieces can therefore be rightly considered as a reflection and result of this exchange of ideas . . . MÜNTZERS STERN (MÜNTZER'S STAR): Between 2014 and 2016 Jakob Ullmann composed the orchestral work steine, feuer, sterne ('stones, fire, stars'). . . . One section among these is the section for a solo bassoon, which may be performed independently under the title 'Müntzers stern'. Thomas Müntzer, born around 1490, was a keen supporter of the Lutheran Reformation. . . . After the battle near Frankenhausen, Müntzer was captured, tortured and eventually beheaded. As a priest, he strove for the renewal of divine service and translated liturgical texts and hymns from Latin to German even before Luther. The title Müntzers stern refers to the Advent hymn Gott heil'ger Schöpfer aller Stern, a translation of the medieval hymn conditor alme siderum done by Müntzer as part of this work. Ullmann spread the melody of the hymn over the total duration of the composition in a very prolonged manner. In the course of this process, the six different tone pitches of the hymn, which are heard either being sung or as an emphasised partial within the bassoon's spectrum, are supplemented by another six tones, played ordinario on the bassoon, those still missing in the twelve-tone space, until the chromatic scale is completely filled in ..."
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NW 80803CD
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"Asked whether he would describe his music as 'Sound for the sake of sound,' James Tenney (1934?2006) replied, 'It's sound for the sake of perceptual insight -- some kind of perceptual revelation.' This release aptly demonstrates Tenney's deep exploratory fascination with the nature and potentialities of aural perception. His attraction to these topics was simultaneously intellectual and sensuous, and its musical products at once invite both sustained reflection and the most immediate of corporeal responses. A number of his works feature pitch collections that progressively approach or diverge from the structure of the harmonic series, or that gradually move between its 'harmonically complex' or 'dissonant' upper reaches and its 'harmonically simple' or 'consonant' lower regions. A paradigmatic example is provided by Harmonium #1 (1976). For 12 String (rising) (1971) represents an arrangement for strings of Tenney's classic electroacoustic composition For Ann (rising) (1969), which predated his interest in harmony. It nonetheless shares with much of his subsequent music a ruthless simplification of form and structure that eschews narrative drama in order to highlight the subjective processes and perceptions of the listener. The first movement of Two Koans and a Canon (1982) is entitled "First Koan (a gentler Beast)" and constitutes a variation upon Tenney's earlier Beast (1971) for solo double bass. It is a study in acoustical beating, an alluring rhythmic pulsation audible between tones whose pitches are sufficiently close to each other. The "Second Koan" in turn recalls Tenney's Koan (1971) for solo violin. It exhibits another of his radically reduced formal designs: a steady cross-string tremolo that gradually migrates upwards in register across the strings of the instrument. The brief final "Canon" is the most structurally complex of the movements. Alone of the three it employs a live tape-delay system. From 1975?84, Tenney produced a number of other compositions calling for the use of a tape-delay system in live performance, which he once referred to as 'the poor man's orchestra' for its ability to produce lush textures from few instruments. The most texturally sophisticated of these pieces is Voice(s) (1984), which requires the use of four separate tape machines. The final track, Blues for Annie (1975), offers a glimpse into the breadth of Tenney's personal musical interests. His appreciation for the blues is expressed forthrightly in a literal transcription and arrangement of Jaybird Coleman's 1927 recording of 'No More Good Water 'Cause the Pond is Dry.' "
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NEOS 11706CD
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After CDs featuring orchestral works, organ pieces and string quartets by Ernst Helmuth Flammer, NEOS is now releasing a CD of chamber music. On this disc, the composer investigates the phenomenon of time frequently and intensively, and sheds light on various aspects of it from both a musical as well as a philosophical perspective. Composed in 1988, "Zeitflucht" ("Time-Flight"), for example, explores the difference between the subjectively perceived and actually measurable passage of time, while in "Dahingegangen" ("Passed Away") from 1992 the transition into the hereafter, in other words beyond time and beyond real existence, is explored. The CD concludes with what Flammer calls a "closing piece for a chamber music ensemble", "All Ding will haben ein End" ("All Things Come to an End") (scored for a Pierrot ensemble) -- the composer wishes its rondo form to be understood as a symbol of the existential process of "becoming and passing away".
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NEOS 11730CD
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What musical means and forms can be used today when composing orchestral music? Composer Moritz Eggert poses this question in the two works of this release, which are live recordings of the world premiere performances. "Muzak" for voice and orchestra was composed in memory of David Bowie, who died in 2016. A modified version of the word "music", Muzak refers to the background music commonly played on elevators, department stores, and hotels. In "Muzak" Eggert seeks to include the entire sound world of his own time in a single composition. "Muzak" is therefore a distillation of all kinds of music, from pop music to classical repertoire, and addresses the question of whether boundaries between genres are still viable and make any sense. In "Number Nine VII: Masse" Eggert takes up the aesthetic challenge of composing a work for orchestra where all musicians play continuously without a break. Moritz Eggert - voice; Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks with David Robertson as conductor for "Muzak" and Peter Rundel as conductor for "Number Nine VII: Masse".
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NEOS 11716-17CD
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Neos present Donaueschinger Musiktage 2016. A collection of compositions featuring Rebecca Saunders, Bernhard Gander, Martin Smolka, James Dillon, Franck Bedrossian, Martin Jaggi, and Georg Friedrich Haas.
"The first acid tests of the newly formed SWR Symphonieorchester after the fusion, with some high-carat world premieres." --Dirk Wieschollek Fono Forum January 2018/Critic survey 2017
SACD 1 features the world premieres of Rebecca Saunders's "Skin" for soprano and 13 instruments (2015/16) performed by: Juliet Fraser (soprano), Klangforum Wien, and Titus Engel (conductor); Bernhard Gander's "Cold Cadaver with Thirteen Scary Scars" for 21 instruments (2016) performed by: Steamboat Switzerland, Klangforum Wien, and Titus Engel (conductor); and Martin Smolka's "a yell with misprints" two movements for ensemble (2016) performed by ensemble recherche.
SACD 2 features the world premieres of James Dillon's "The Gates" for string quartet and orchestra (2016) performed by Arditti Quartet, SWR Symphonieorchester, and Pierre-André Valade (conductor); Franck Bedrossian's "Twist" for orchestra and electronics (2016) performed by SWR Symphonieorchester, Alejo Pérez (conductor), IRCAM, and Robin Meier (computer music designer); Martin Jaggi's "Caral" for orchestra (2016) performed by SWR Symphonieorchester and Pierre-André Valade (conductor); and of Georg Friedrich Haas's "Konzert für Posaune und Orchester" (2015/16) performed by Mike Svoboda (trombone), SWR Symphonieorchester, and Alejo Pérez (conductor).
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NEOS 11607CD
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In "Nachklang - Rose (Echo - Rose)", two (music) cultures stand side by side on an equal footing: that of Europe and of Persia. The starting point is the effect left behind by the scent of a rose. While it is associated with love in Western culture, in Islam it has strong religious, metaphysical and symbolic connotations. Rupert Huber himself describes his composition for mixed choir and Persian instrumental ensemble as a "patchwork" in the best sense of the word, where flecks of different colors stand side by side without one dominating. The present CD also includes two older works by Huber: "Wermut (Wormwood)" for choir and trombone to a text from the Book of Revelation, and "Der kranke Mann (The Sick Man)" based on a theme by Robert Schumann. Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks - Dastan Ensemble: Mike Svoboda - trombone; Rupert Huber - conductor.
Rupert Huber was principal conductor of, among others, the WDR Choir and directed the SWR Vokalenemble Stuttgart as well as regularly conducting well-known choirs, orchestras and ensembles. His works are performed at festivals such as Ruhrtriennale, Salzburg Festival, Wien Modern, or Eclat Stuttgart, often in cooperation with ARD broadcasters.
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NEOS 11709CD
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Unaccompanied solo pieces, like those brought together on the present CD, are in a category by themselves -- for instrumentalists and composers alike. Nowhere else is the musician left on his own to such an extent, left to his own devices. Moreover, there are often special technical difficulties; since the advent of virtuoso performance, the solo piece has always been a preferred venue for stupendous, exposed virtuosity. Such works for a single interpreter play a major role in the oeuvre of Marcus Antonius Wesselmann, already in a quantitative sense with 19 compositions so far. The composer, who lives in Cologne, has consistently explored the possibilities of various ensemble types and sizes in a body of work that has grown steadily over the past thirty years. Alongside a series of ensemble works, he has repeatedly written solo pieces for various instruments, so that today there is a nearly equal balance in his works catalog between ensemble and solo compositions. With the exception of the piano works ("SOLOS 5", "6", "7", "9", "14", and "16"), Wesselmann has so far chosen a different instrumentation for each work -- here flute, percussion, electric guitar, viola, baritone saxophone, or bassoon in the mix, composed in 1991, stands somewhat apart from the series of works introduced on this CD, for this composition for two-channel tape requires no performing soloist. Wesselmann is essentially concerned here -- according to his own formulation of the basic idea of the piece -- with the "connection and/or mediation of musical and scenic sequences." "SOLO 1" features Helen Bledsoe on flute; "SOLO 2" features Dirk Rothbrust on percussion; "SOLO 3" features Mats Bergström on electric guitar; "SOLO 4" features Garth Knox on viola; "SOLO 9" features Simone Otto on baritone saxophone; and "SOLO 10" features Johannes Schwarz on bassoon.
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NEOS 11704CD
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From a conversation between Nikolaus Brass and Das Klarinettenduo, Beate Zelinsky and David Smeyers, in Donaueschingen in 2006, there arouse the double concerto Zeit im Grund, released on two different Neos CDs: Zeit im Grund/Von Wachsender Gegenwart (NEOS 11112CD, 2013) and Double Concertos by Atli Ingolfsson, Adriana Holszky and Nikolaus Brass (NEOS 11708CD, 2017). This has been the beginning of more future collaborations. In 2009 Brass composed his work "Dialoghi d'amore VI" for the duo, which he expanded into a three-movement work in 2011. Later the quintet "SPUR" for string trio and two clarinets was realized through a collaboration between the Munich based TrioCoriolis and Das Klarinettenduo. For the "5. Streichquartett", Beate Zelinsky and David Smeyers started working together with the Minguet Quartett. This inspired Brass for his trio "Strophen", written especially for Beate Zelinsky, David Smeyers and the violist of the quartet, Aroa Sorin. This CD is completed by "Salut" and "Adieu", both works for clarinet solo.
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2CD
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NEOS 11720CD
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In The Wannsee Recordings, Gunnar Geisse expresses his fascination with accepting the fleetingness of the current moment and his perception of its changing nature. On the other hand, he is also attracted to the possibility of expressing and reflecting upon the complexity of human existence through art. Geisse developed an instrument he calls a "laptop guitar", a computer-enhanced extension of his former main instrument (the electric guitar) which allows him to take analog playing to the digital level. He uses the possibility of software-based real-time conversion of audio into MIDI data to control virtual instruments and samplers. It does not matter which type of audio signal is used as a source: Input signals can be from electric guitar, speech, or noises; even "translation" of music into other music is possible in this way. Today, Gunnar Geisse uses the computer both as an instrument for improvisation and as a production tool in creating well over 20 radio plays, in commissioned works for musica viva, the Munich Opera Festival, the Munich Biennale and the Donaueschinger Musiktage. Geisse used real-time manipulation of choral singing and orchestra in Gregor Hübner's "De Profundis". In addition to his work as an electric guitarist with among others the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunk, the Radio Symphony Orchestra of the SWR. and the Broadway Musical Company New York, his love for improvised and experimental music has resulted in collaboration with Peter Brötzmann, Vinko Globokar, Phil Minton, David Moss, Olga Neuwirth, Mike Svoboda, Michael Wertmüller, and many others.
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NEOS 11703CD
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This CD, titled Vocal Music, presents a selection of the vocal works for mezzo-soprano and various instrumental settings, composed by the recently deceased Czech composer Ladislav Kubík during the period 2012-2016, complemented with one of his earlier compositions, "River in Spring on a text by Franz Kafka (1996). Kubík's lifelong interest in poetry and prose, demonstrated over the years by his numerous vocal works, ranged from the ancient Latin texts and traditional Japanese poems through Rilke, Pasternak, and Kafka to the 20th century Czech, Slovak, American, and Polish poetry. Equally wide is the range of musical forms and genres that bear the poetic message; they include large choral works as well as miniature songs, various chamber music combinations, and non-traditional vocal applications, sometimes in symbiosis with an electronic component. Amongst these works, a special place in Kubík's compositional output belongs to the works for mezzo-soprano, partially generated and inspired by the composer's collaboration with the notable mezzo-soprano Phyllis Pancella. Three of the included works, "24 Haiku", "To Be a Poet", and "Magdalene", are dedicated to her. Yet, her performance is effectively supported by Taiwanese-American pianist Hui-Ting Yang and the Czech musicians Jitka Hosprová (viola) and Hana Brozová (flute), as well as the excellent and, for new music, always enthusiastic Florida State University Percussion Ensemble with Alexander Jiménez (conductor).
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NEOS 41701CD
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What Phil Minton is able to create with nothing but his voice -- those, as Bert Noglik puts it, "simply unbelievable and uncanny sounds for which nothing comparable exists, far and wide" -- seems to lie beyond what it is possible. He is the indisputable vocal giant of the jazz avant-garde. He meets a collective of kindred spirits with the ICI Ensemble. Comprising some of the most enthusiastically experimental instrumentalists and sonic artists of the German improvisation scene, this ensemble has been creating a unique sonic cosmos for almost 20 years that has already inspired numerous international composers and improvisators to collaborate with them. Phil Minton and the musicians of the ICI Ensemble spin here a refined chamber musical texture and seem to whisper words of the late Beckett: "Say Yes." -- until someone else relativizes: "Till No". And then nothing is any longer as it was before. Personnel: Phil Minton - voice; David Jäger and Markus Heinze - saxophones; Christofer Varner - trombone; Martin Wolfrum - piano; Gunnar Geisse - laptop guitar; Georg Janker - double bass, electronics; Sunk Pöschl - drums.
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NEOS 11715CD
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A major interest of the Spanish composer Alberto Posada is exploring the relationship between music, nature and mathematics. He also focuses on the connection between music and other forms of art. This portrait CD, Poetics of the Gaze, comprehensively documents the influence of fine art on his compositions. Alberto Posadas was born in Valladolid, Spain in 1967. He is regularly a composer-in-residence at IRCAM, has held scholarships from the Free State of Bavaria (Villa Concordia, Bamberg) and the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin, and was awarded the National Music Prize by the Spanish Ministry of Culture. His music is played at many festivals, including the Donaueschinger Musiktage, Eclat (Stuttgart), Ars Musica (Brussels), Ultima (Oslo), Klang-spuren Schwaz (Tyrol), Ultraschall (Berlin), Musica Strasbourg, and the Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik. Klangforum Wien featuring Nacho de Paz as conductor.
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NEOS 11606CD
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rūḥ-i-gulāb (The soul of the rose) is based on two 13th-century Oriental texts: the Rose Poem of Ğalāl-ad-Din Rūmī (translated by Friedrich Rückert) and excerpts from the Poem of the Mantle by Sharaf al-Din al-Būsīrī. A cross-cultural work of art emerges from the composition. Opening up to Oriental and Far Eastern culture is a central concern of the conductor and composer Rupert Huber. This includes turning away from the strict conceptualization of a work -- that is, away from traditionally "fixed" notation -- to encouraging individual performers to assume responsibility and listen closely to and respond to each other. He consistently follows this approach in the Rose Ausländer setting, "Mein Venedig" ("My Venice"). Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks & Madīḥ Ensemble: Doris Huber - bowl, bells; Rupert Huber - conductor.
Rupert Huber was principal conductor of, among others, the WDR Choir and directed the SWR Vokalenemble Stuttgart as well as regularly conducting well-known choirs, orchestras and ensembles. His works are performed at festivals such as Ruhrtriennale, Salzburg Festival, Wien Modern, or Eclat Stuttgart, often in cooperation with ARD broadcasters.
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NEOS 10819CD
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On this CD, Isao Nakamura presents a selection of works for solo percussion which -- despite some very demanding technical passages -- do not focus primarily on technical brilliance but on clear, focused artistic ideas, as well as, in some cases, extra-musical concepts. The main focus here is on drums. As the only instruments tuned to a specific pitch, in this CD the timpani features in two movements of Elliott Carter's "Eight Pieces for Four Timpani" and in Peter Eötvös's "Thunder". The latter is an experimental solo work for one-pedal timpani. Nicolaus A. Huber uses only a single snare drum in "dasselbe ist nicht dasselbe" ("the same is not the same"). A nearly endless range of sounds is elicited from the timpani by alternating playing techniques. Several works on this CD were dedicated to Isao Nakamura. Also features compositions by Mauricio Kagel, Younghi Pagh-Paan, Iannis Xenakis, and Toshio Hosokawa.
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NEOS 11719CD
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René Wohlhauser (composition, baritone, piano, conductor) was born in 1954 and grew up in Brienz, Switzerland. Experiences as a rock and jazz musician, lied accompanist, and improviser have accompanied and continue to accompany his principal activity as a composer of contemporary art music (including chamber, orchestral, and stage works). In recent years, Wohlhauser has repeatedly undertaken tours in Europe as a pianist, singer, and conductor with the Duo Simolka -- Wohlhauser and his own Ensemble Polysono. In 2013, Neos began its CD series "Wohlhauser Edition". He teaches composition, music theory, and improvisation at the Basel Academy of Music (and until 1991 at the Lucerne Academy) and as Professor at the Kalaidos Music Academy. The Ensemble Polysono and the Duo Simolka -- Wohlhauser from Basle specialize in the interpretation of current contemporary music. They go on tour each year in Switzerland and several larger cities in Europe (including Basle, Berne, Zurich, Stuttgart, Munich, Hamburg, Weimar, Erfurt, Detmold, Berlin, Paris, London, and Salzburg). Works for various ensemble combinations, performed by the Ensemble Polysono, Egidius Streiff, the Duo Simolka -- Wohlhauser, and the Treiber-Sontòn Caflisch-Müllenbach Trio.
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ARB 165CD
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Classical music was created by geniuses, and the lucky few who were near them could witness how inimitable they were and are. Beyond these individuals there arose a proliferation of hypertrophied egos, management, commercialization, and other menaces to art. Mieczysław Horszowski performed for ninety-one years and was mostly overlooked by the record industry. Hundreds of Beethoven recordings fill the marketplace yet this pianist's teacher was guided by someone close to Beethoven. His mother had also been taught by Chopin's assistant so again, he is very close to music's origins. No wonder Horszowski could fearlessly project the improvisational fire within Beethoven's variations, some of which resemble what would later inhabit jazz and ragtime. It takes a genius to play another genius's creations and whenever Horszowski played a composer, his body language altered to channel their sounds and speak their unique languages. In 1940 Horszowski was eager to get out of fascist Europe and gave a recital for Vatican Radio. Wondering if the network was as careful as their library, Arbiter traced their archivist who said that it was only a few days earlier that day a pile of reel-to-reel tapes were about to be disposed when a pianist noticed Horszowski's name written on the spine of a box. It was rescued and survived a playback for digitalization. The machine was new technology, fresh from Nazi Germany. News of its discovery provoked a New York Times article: "Rare Treasure Found in Vatican Trash." With Horszowski (1892-1993), all that he plays is new music. Horszowski's genius drew on these deep musical currents and was furthered by his attending Henri Bergson's lectures on philosophy in Paris, all growing into an art that brought classical music to its highest level. Works from Rome include Chopin's 1st Ballade, Funeral March, Berceuse, Impromptu no.1, Liszt's Two Legends, and a Franck chorale, all newly restored. In addition, stunning New York and Philadelphia concert performances of Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata, Eroica & Diabelli Variations have come to light and are published here for the first time. Recorded 1940-1975.
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KR 044LP
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After La Légende d'Eer in 2016 (KR 024LP), the Perihel series presents one of the milestones of electroacoustic music: Iannis Xenakis's mind-blowing, 54-minutes oeuvre Persepolis. Persepolis is the longest electroacoustic composition by Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001) who ranks among the most influential 20th century avant-garde composers. Commissioned by the Persian Shah, the piece was part of a multimedia performance -- Xenakis's so-called "polytopes" -- which premiered in 1971 in Shiraz-Persepolis (Iran) as a performance including light-tracks, laser beams, groups of children walking around with torches, and 59 loudspeakers to project the music in an open-air situation. Xenakis had realized Persepolis on 8-track analog tape in the Studio Acusti in Paris and released a stereo reduction on vinyl in the famous Philips series "Prospective 21e Siècle" in 1972, adding the new subtitle "We bear the light of the earth", his most hymnal title ever. Out of print for decades now, the LP became -- especially the Japanese edition from 1974 -- one of the most expensive collector's item of electroacoustic music. There were some later CD versions with different durations -- too long due to a wrong sample rate, others shortened by three minutes due to other reasons. The Perihel series now presents a new version: mixed from the original master 8-track tapes by longtime zeitkratzer sound engineer Martin Wurmnest and mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin -- the same experts who had already taken care of the 2016 Karlrecords release of La Légende d'Eer, another milestone composition among the works of the Greek-French avant-garde composer. Previous releases in the Perihel series, curated by Reinhold Friedl: Guy Reibel's Douze Inventions en Six Modes de Jeu (KR 028LP, 2015); Iannis Xenakis's La Légende d'Eer (KR 024LP, 2016), John Cage's Complete Song Books (KR 029LP, 2016). 180 gram vinyl; Includes insert and download code.
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NW 80794CD
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"The intense individuality of Morton Feldman's (1926?1987) art and its 'painterly' aspect have tended to push his rich output of works into a zone all of their own, surrounded by a moat of stillness. This recording attempts the reverse process -- to bring his choral works (the previously unrecorded Chorus and Instruments, Voices and Instruments 1, Voices and Instruments 2, and The Swallows of Salangan) into a 'gallery' of other choir compositions of his times. Through the interaction with works of other characters and aspirations, mutual illumination might become a new Feldman experience. Two of the five other works confront Feldman's textless choral singing with words. These, however, carry their own special musical intent. Three early twelve-tone gems [Three Statements] of Will Ogdon (1921?2013) move with Walt Whitman 'into the wordless . . . away from books, away from art,' and reluctantly away from human desire, as embodied in the central poem by Thomas Campion. Robert Carl's (b. 1954) The City brings a transcendentalist layered sound to the mystical reflections of the architect Louis Sullivan, contemplating the natural and the built-human in the lake and city of Chicago. The notion of wordless chorus fans out in varied directions in the other three works. As one of Feldman's closest associates in the New York School, Earle Brown (1926?2002) intrigues us as much for the stark differences from Feldman shown by his abstract choral mobiles (Small Pieces for Large Chorus). The Sound Patterns of Pauline Oliveros (1932?2016) are less abstract than their title might imply -- moving in and out of singing itself into extended vocality, and towards newly-suggested verbal exclamations of a non-semantic kind. Warren Burt (b. 1949), a former student of both Oliveros and Ogdon at the University of California, San Diego, contributes with his Elegy the most recent piece, also the closest to Feldman's simple successions of chorale-like chords. His harmonies, however, acquire their elegiac qualities from chromatic memories and their contradictions, moving along unfamiliar paths."
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NW 80798CD
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"The immersive sonic textures that characterize Michael Winter's (b. 1980) music are crafted from comprehensive lists of data, with each composition encompassing a musical question that is addressed algorithmically. A performance lasts for as long as it takes to 'answer' the question, expressing all results as efficiently as possible. Winter leaves room for unanticipated results by keeping things open, notably in the instrumentation, which, rather than specifying instruments, tends to designate certain properties such as 'plucked strings," or 'sustaining instruments.' In this way, each performance offers a different manifestation of the same underlying structure. For Winter, beauty is the experience of something new, and to experience something new is to evolve. Even though he allows for a great many possibilities, the recordings here evince a highly tuned aesthetic filter. All of the five works included in this collection use plucked string instruments (guitar, virginal, and harp) and pure tones (ebowed guitar and pure tones). Together, they form a metacomposition, bound together by two versions of necklaces. The titles describe the processes that form each work: necklaces represents picking patterns with aperiodic necklaces (strings of data with specific constraints of rotational and symbolic permutation), and in mass and band a constraint akin to a band pass filter is applied to an Ockeghem mass. Likewise, in chorale and finely tuned resonators, instruments resonate the harmonics of a chorale, and quieting rooms makes use of phase cancellation to quiet a room. The title of the piece lower limit refers to Winter's intention to use the smallest amount of code possible -- in other words, to find the lower limit for programming a composition. This idea, in fact, applies to all of the pieces here, since all are concerned with how to express ideas in a maximally efficient way."
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ICR 009CD
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"Traditional Vietnamese songs arranged by the Grammy awarded Silkroad Ensemble from the Ken Burns film The Vietnam War. Following their Grammy-winning album, Sing Me Home, The Silkroad Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma return with music for Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's astounding ten-part documentary film, The Vietnam War. The recording features traditional and popular Vietnamese songs, arranged by members of Silkroad Ensemble, as well as improvisations inspired by the film."
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ED 098EP
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With 2017 gradually facing a new beginning and end, Ed Banger Records and Études present an exclusive record with cellist Lori Goldston that accompanies these very moments of gentle melancholia. While the Seattle-based musician has spent a life performing and touring with some of history's most iconic bands -- such as Nirvana and David Byrne -- the course of Goldston's career has also mapped itself around other memorable peculiarities. Like the very undoing of her classical education. "Detraining" has allowed Goldston to access and intersect multiple layers within the landscape of music, eventually leading to compositions that embody gestural moments of past and future. And everything that seems to reside between. Originally performed live at Études AW17 show in Paris, Lori Goldston's record evokes ideas of timelessness whose intention isn't about consciously hauling in its audience's presence but rather implementing a type of absence that softly sedates into a space of continuation. There's a process, unfolding and somehow forever changing; motionlessly.
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R 039CD
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Trajectories is the second full-length album by Michael Vincent Waller, featuring pianist R. Andrew Lee and cellist Seth Parker Woods. The album is presented on Sean McCann's Los Angeles based label, Recital. Michael Vincent Waller is an American composer based in New York City. His music has been described as lyrical and introspective, drawing inspiration from impressionism, post-minimalism, and world music. The work situates these familiar elements within decidedly unconventional and individual frameworks. Waller's practice has been cultivated through private study with La Monte Young, Bunita Marcus, and with Elizabeth Hoffman as an undergrad at New York University. He has since collaborated with a number of noted soloists and ensembles including S.E.M. Ensemble, Ensemble Dedalus, String Noise, and members of the FLUX Quartet. In 2015, Phill Niblock's XI Records launched Waller's acclaimed two-disc recorded debut, The South Shore (XI 136CD), which compiles a number of solo and chamber works spanning 2011-2014. Pianist R. Andrew Lee is renowned for his performances of minimalist work. He has released 12 albums, predominantly long-form piano recordings, on his label Irritable Hedgehog -- including November (2013) by Dennis Johnson, which was selected by Time Out New York as the best classical recording of 2013. Cellist Seth Parker Woods has established a diverse career that straddles the worlds of classical, contemporary, electronics, and performance art. He worked with artists ranging from Heinz Holliger, G.F. Haas, and Klaus Lang to Peter Gabriel, Sting, and Aldo Tambellini. Recital is a label started by Los Angeles-based composer, experimental musician, and audio engineer, Sean McCann. The label is dedicated to modern classical and experimental music. Established in 2011, Recital has released work by Annea Lockwood, Loren Connors, Daniel Schmidt, Ian William Craig, and Sean McCann. The CD edition includes photography by Phill Niblock and liner notes by "Blue" Gene Tyranny.
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NW 80797CD
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"'The composer is therefore enjoined to accomplish the following: she must establish himself as a major instrumentalist, he must not wait upon a descending being, and she must become an interpreter, not only of her own music and career, but also the music of her contemporaries, and give a fresh new view of the known and unknown classics.' --Julius Eastman Just when you think you are grasping the breadth and quality of the music of Julius Eastman (1940?1990), a recording such as Julius Eastman: The Zürich Concert shows up, and you have to go back and reassess his work and wonder what will show up next. This recording is from a 1980 solo seventy-minute improvisatory concert in Zürich, a cherished cassette made by a friend of Eastman's, who recently realized its uniqueness and decided that he should share it. The Zürich Concert was performed on October 25, 1980 in the Aula Rämibühl gallery. Eastman was in Europe participating in The Kitchen tour, and a Swiss friend, Dieter Hall, a painter who had been living in the East Village, arranged the concert. Hall recorded it on a cassette machine, so there is the inevitable gap when the tape had to be turned over, as Eastman played non-stop for seventy minutes. Simply put, The Zürich Concert is a revelation. Listening to this recording, one is overwhelmed by the cascades of sound, the power of the playing. It almost seems as if the piano will start bouncing across the floor like an out-of-control washing machine. But there is also space and delicacy in the playing. As a whole, the music never flags, and your attention doesn't wane, as you are drawn in by the intensity of the playing and the coherence and wonder of the music being made."
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