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Universe Symphony / Second Symphony
The most ambitious and grandest of his projects would of course never see completion. For over forty years, Ives continued to supplement the material for his Universe Symphony, adding both notes and details. At some point, the scenario he envisaged got somewhat out of hand, Henry Cowell reported. “Several orchestras and large parties of singers, male and female, were to be placed in valleys, on mountain slopes and on summits,” and “6 to 10 different orchestras on several mountain tops, each movi…
Untitled (3rd Album)
Reissued! Rising from the silence, shaking the muck of level-Z rock and roll detritus from their feet, Royal Trux returned to action in October of 1992 with an untitled album, their third. It had been two years since they'd vanished into the negative zone with Twin Infinitives, an ultimate left-turn that appeared to have no endgame. For Untitled, Royal Trux strung together eight pieces of varying vintage that clearly communicated their rock and roll desires with the most direct approach to playi…
Titles Of The Greatness Of Been
Floating of directly direction improvisation this record have almost no overdubs. Coming close to the abortion of sounds genuinely overlooked by contemporary artist, they succeed to use 'noise' as a base to build quite direct tracks. At times very soft and gently showing of a romantic side of things, followed by a psychiatric attempt to slaughter all neighbours. The general feel after listening to the album is gasping for breath. It took them 4 years to do this album of top guitar improvisation …
String Quartets Vol 4
The most recent of his compositions which Rihm called “string quartets” date back a few years already, with a gap in the enumeration still waiting to be filled (the eleventh quartet is missing). Even a cursory comparison of the three works’ beginnings reveals Rihm’s “ability to find new and distinctly characteristic solutions for each piece, which, each in their own way, put a stamp on what is to follow.” (R. Frisius) The gentle pizzicati of Quartet No. 10 and the muted, shadowy chord of No. 12 …
Mise en Scène
"I wrote Mise en Scène between July 1992 and May 1994. Apart from the four additional clarinets involved besides the soloist (two of them as 'doppelgangers' of the soloist) having to move around in the hall during the five movements of the composition, the choice of title is also justified by a number of scenographic instructions that constituted an, albeit vague, starting point for the whole composition." For his concerto José Ramón Encinar also falls back on his own compositions for clarinet, …
Proximities
Finaly restocked: Line is proud to present Proximities the first solo recording by Steve Roden on the label since 2005′s critically acclaimed release, Airforms. "Proximities was recorded in 2010 during my time as the artist-in-residence at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas. I began by recording a performance of a series of tones played on an old battery powered Paia Oz, that were determined by the letters A-G as found in a text by minimalist sculptor Donald Judd. I recorded the tone seq…
The radiant mirror
Chris Corsano has gained a well-earned reputation as one of the hardest-working drummers around. Equally at home with intense kinetic explosions of energy and concentrated near-silence, he effortlessly flows from one idea to the next, always sympatico with his fellow musicians. He has recorded and gigged with, among others, Paul Flaherty, Thurston Moore, Jessica Rylan, Jim O Rourke, Nels Cline, Jandek, Greg Kelly, Daniel Carter, Six Organs of Admittance, Evan Parker, Sunburned Hand Of Man, MV&E…
14 Récitations
A songbird that stops singing must die. Georges Aperghis demands a similar degree of self-sacrifice of the performer of his 14 Récitation.
An Experimental Recital
Some 150 years apart, both composers developed minute nuclei into an ever expanding cosmos of sound, each against the background of his own era. Prick up your ears – Schubert's Fantasy in F minor and Sonata in B flat major D 617 crossed with Ligeti's Three pieces for two pianos: rich in contrasts, upsetting, and in a simply stunning interpretation by Andreas Grau & Götz Schumacher. In the beginning there was simply the idea of playing Schubert and Ligeti together in one program: "During the perf…
Neither
An opera? An anti-opera? A monodrama? Whatever it may be: Neither (1977) marks the meeting of the kindred artistic souls of Samuel Beckett and Morton Feldman.
Gnomic Variations / Processional / Ancient Voices of Children
On reading the title Gnomic Variations, lovers of piano music might fancy themselves to be in a kind of "Grieg's World," but the truth is far from it: the title of the piano solo, completed in 1981, does not refer to any thieving Irish gnomes but solely to the conciseness of the structure of the work. "Gnomic" here means expressing an idea in brief words, or, simply, describing a maxim as accurately as possible. The Gnomic Variations consist of three parts, comprising a total of 18 variations. A…
Piano Duet
Before the epigones take over the stage we are given a chance to hear out Bach himself: the unfinished four-voice Contrapunctus XIV from the Art of the Fugue marks the starting point of Andreas Grau's and Götz Schumacher's remarkable exploration of the Bach cosmos. In the Berlin autograph of the Contrapunctus XIV the place where the score breaks off is marked by an inscription: "At the point where the name BACH is introduced in the countersubject to this fugue, the composer died." Even though fr…
The Disintegration Loops
First widely available release on Basinksi's own label (other releases on Raster, Idea, Durtro, Headz, etc), from early 2003. This series of 4 Disintegration Loops has become one of the true phenoms of post-9/11 experimental music -- totally legendary stuff at this point. "William Basinski is a musician, composer, auteur who has worked in experimental media for over twenty years in NYC, expanding the boundaries of the aural landscape. In 1978, inspired by minimalists such as Steve Reich…
Jugendlieder - Songs From The Youth
Berg's early lieder owe their existence largely to the young composer's great interest in literature; nevertheless it was his friend Hermann Watznauer, who actually inspired him to embark on composing his first lieder around 1900/01. And Berg enjoyed himself so much that he continued along the same lines until 1903, completing another 30 lieder; even Arnold Schönberg was essentially fascinated by them: "Berg's earliest compositions, however clumsy they may have been, already reveal two qualities…
Happy days
Back in stock. Released: 1997.Jim O'Rourke is a rarity: a genuine bridge between the avant-garde and the underground. From his production work (Smog, Wilco, Faust) to his own freewheeling excursions as a solo performer and member of outfits like Gastr del Sol and Sonic Youth, his work continues to bring the out there in here. Happy Days pits a lone guitar against a phalanx of hurdy-gurdies, a decided shift away from the composer's electronic-based work. A roiling hornet's next of activity that F…
Cathédrale
Concert music for solo harp: The harp, whose ancestor belongs to the most ancient musical instruments, is usually associated with impressionistic sound. But Roman Haubenstock-Ramati - the most visionary inventor of sounds among contemporary composers, according to Wilhelm Sinkovicz – has never been satisfied with the status quo. So, while teaching composition and investigating new forms of musical notation, he succeeded in his endeavor to explore new possibilities of musical expression again and…
Bringing up baby
rare UK album from 1981. Musique Concret were an obscur London duo composed by Jim Friedman & Michael Mullen with a short lived musical history : their sole album 'bringing up baby' was originally released on Steven Stapleton's label United Dairies and there is also one short track on compilation. This is a great experimental power electronics works with the use of many delay and echo, tape recorder manipulations, collages, rhythms box, noise, and others studio trickery, naturally close to Nurse…
Getting a head
Second in the metal box limited edition re-releases, this one from1980 with Fred Frith (guitar) and Charles K. Noyes (percussion) and featuring unorthodox instruments built from tape recorders and helium balloons.
Elektronische musik
One of the biggest finds in total Kraut electronic underground in the recent years. Crack in the Cosmic Egg asks: Does this exist? Yes it does! A Student of Eimert, Reinhold Weber produced several records of his own, two between 1969 and 1971, both of which are total weird and wild electronic, handmade, pre-synthesizer. Topped with crazy German language monotone lyrics. For fans of Cluster, Eimert, Stockhausen and people generally interested in the weird side of music. The second LP of his will …
Musica electroacustica 1988-2000
Composer from Argentina. “Orillas” (1988), “El pájaro” (1995), “Vientos” (1996), “Al sur” (1997), “El regreso” (2000), “El vuelo” (2000).