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viewing 1 To 4 of 4 items
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2LP
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FR 006LP
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Double-LP version, black vinyl in gatefold sleeve -- on vinyl for the first time, in a revelatory new remaster by Jim O'Rourke. In 2016, Finnish label frozen reeds published the première release of Julius Eastman's Femenine, for chamber ensemble. Laying unheard for decades prior, the release documented a 1974 performance by the S.E.M. Ensemble with the composer himself on piano. Lauded in Pitchfork (awarded "Best New Music"), The New Yorker, and The New York Times, the first release of Femenine served as the catalyst that propelled Eastman's music into the mainstream. Articles on Eastman's music and its immediate disruptive impact on the classical canon began to appear in every major news organ in the English-speaking world and beyond. His music began to be programmed in major concerts and festivals, several of these entirely themed around his life and work. New recordings sprang up from a fresh generation of musicians engaging with his ideas and interpreting them for a modern audience hungry to hear more. But the raw, emotionally cascading spirit of the original performance continues to inspire listeners. Joyous, insistent, and immersive, Femenine bathes the listener in surges of tonal color from intertwining winds, piano, violin, pitched percussion, synthesizer, and -- uniquely -- the composer's own invention of mechanized sleigh bells, which provide the 72-minute piece with its characteristic pulse. Femenine was recorded live by Steve Cellum -- co-producer of Arthur Russell's World of Echo -- and the new vinyl reissue has been remastered from the original high-definition tape transfer by Jim O'Rourke at his Steamroom studio in the Japanese mountains. Illuminating sleeve notes are provided by composer and author Mary Jane Leach, key figure of the Eastman revival and co-editor of the Gay Guerrilla collection of essays on his life and music. Gatefold. "Eastman's stated aim with Femenine was to please listeners, saying of the piece that 'the end sounds like the angels opening up heaven . . . should we say euphoria?" --Mary Jane Leach
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16CD BOX
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FR 007-022CD
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Sold out, no repress currently planned. Frozen reeds presents the première release of Roland Kayn's 14-hour masterpiece, A Little Electronic Milky Way of Sound, as a 16-CD boxed set. Roland Kayn's truly epic A Little Electronic Milky Way of Sound is both a major late opus and a summation of his vast contribution to the fields of electronic music and composition. Hearing the briefest passage of this piece, assembled in 2009, is enough to date the material of which it is composed back to the era of Kayn's noteworthy LP boxed sets, released on the Colosseum label in the late '70s and early '80s. Kayn's so-called "cybernetic music," to use the term he preferred, resolutely refuses to showcase the methods employed in its creation. The mass of logical interactions and correspondences underpinning the sounds are submerged so deeply below the surface as to defy analysis. One is left only with the results, which grant the listener a profound and unique experience. With A Little Electronic Milky Way of Sound, Kayn provides both a vast sonic territory and the invitation to explore it. From glacial, drone-like vistas to violent staccato sequences, the piece's 22 movements chart the length and breadth of electronic music in as comprehensive a manner as has ever been attempted. The resurgence of the modular synthesizer as a popular musical tool in recent years belies the possibility that its boldest virtuosi may already lie in the instrument's past. In his work in Europe's electronic music studios alongside colleagues such as Leo Küpper and Jaap Vink, Kayn created sonic textures in such abundant variety as to make genre-categorization redundant. Photographs of the one-off, hand-built systems upon which they were realized have inspired the awe of electronic-music connoisseurs for years, but their output has been all too little heard and appreciated. In 2017, Roland Kayn represents perhaps one of the last titanic figures of 20th-century music to receive their due recognition, and to have their vital music restored to availability. Fresh from its 2016 release of Julius Eastman's Femenine (FR 006CD), which spurred on its composer's wider rediscovery and gave rise to performances, broadcasts, and festivals devoted to his work around the world, frozen reeds is proud to initiate the first stage of a similar process for Roland Kayn, which his incredible music so richly deserves. Edition of 750. Audio restoration by Jim O'Rourke. Artwork by Robert Beatty.
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CD
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FR 006CD
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Limited 2023 restock. This recording is the première release of Julius Eastman's Femenine, for chamber ensemble. It is Femenine's only known recording, documenting a 1974 performance by the S.E.M. Ensemble (with the composer on piano) that has lain unheard for decades. The music of Julius Eastman (1940-1990) is enjoying an ongoing period of rediscovery. Known best in the past for his work with figures like Peter Maxwell Davies, Arthur Russell, and Meredith Monk, today his own formidable compositions continue to draw increasing admiration. Joyous, insistent, and immersive, Femenine bathes the listener in surges of tonal color from intertwining winds, piano, violin, pitched percussion, synthesizer, and -- uniquely -- the composer's own invention of mechanized sleigh bells, which provide the 72-minute piece with its characteristic pulse. Illuminating sleeve notes are provided by composer and author Mary Jane Leach, who is co-editor of Gay Guerrilla, a 2015 collection of essays on Eastman's life and music. Recorded by Steve Cellum -- co-producer of Arthur Russell's World of Echo -- and mastered by Denis Blackham. CD in slim card package with insert. "Eastman's stated aim with Femenine was to please listeners, saying of the piece that 'the end sounds like the angels opening up heaven . . . should we say euphoria?' " --Mary Jane Leach
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2CD
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FR 001-2CD
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Restocked. In 2000, Eberhard Blum (flute, alto flute, bass flute), Nils Vigeland (glockenspiel, vibraphone) and Jan Williams (piano, celesta), American composer Morton Feldman's close friends and collaborators, came together once more as The Feldman Soloists to perform Crippled Symmetry, the trio Feldman composed for them, on the 25th anniversary celebration of June in Buffalo, the festival he founded. The recording of this concert is now finally available on CD, and is destined to become the reference recording of this work. Required listening for all fans of Feldman's rich, hypnotic world of enigmatic harmony and mnemonic echo. Mastered by Denis Blackham, and presented in a card package which unfolds to reveal the musicians' "butterfly-like" arrangement on stage. "This turned out to be one of the best performances that we had ever given together. The rare and indescribable 'magic moment' of occasion and ambience seems to have inspired us. The recording of the concert belongs to my most valued sound documents. When I listened to it for the first time, my immediate reaction was: this performance ought to be available on CD. Now, ten years later, it is." --Eberhard Blum
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