Composition / All styles

"James Moore (b. 1979) is a composer with an eye toward the world of games and experimental theater. He’s an electric guitarist who’s willing and eager to treat his instrument as a playground, not a reverent, static tradition. He’s a tinkerer, a charmer, and a fella who’s always up for another round at the bar of wacky ideas and intellectual questioning. He’s excited for new and unexpected opportunities for collaboration, but always maintains a voice that seems to stay recognizably his own throu…

This collection of two tonal works by composers known for their non-tonal compositional style is a fine example of contemporary approaches to sacred choral music. Salvatore Martirano’s Mass is a setting of a traditional Latin Mass whilst Donald Martino’s Seven Pious Pieces sets religious texts by Robert Herrick. The vocal writing is masterful with transparent textures and flowing contrapuntal lines.

While certain recognizable fingerprints are found throughout the body of Daniel Lentz's (b. 1942) work, he has never been content to settle within one particular style or mode of music for long, moving ever forward in an evolutional continuum, an overriding arc that defines his growth as a composer -- beginning with traditional music, diverting into electronic music, moving into performance art pieces for his various touring groups, then sallying into minimalism, followed by work distinguished f…

Born in Michigan but for most of his life a true Californian, Robert Erickson (1917-1997) had a reputation as a maverick. His musical path was never a straight line, nor, really, a line at all but a landscape, with ranges of features rather than mere points of interest. He was a profound and original musical thinker who embraced the expressive possibilities of all music, from the Western classics and moderns of his own early education to Indian and Balinese traditions and all manner of contempor…

Lejaren Hiller (1924-1994) is, understandably, best known for his computer-assisted compositions and works utilizing electronics. The three pieces included in this collection span a crucial fifteen-year period in Hiller's career. The first was written two years before Quartet No. 4 for Strings, The ILLIAC Suite. The second work was written three years into his time as a music professor at the University of Illinois, while the final sonata in this collection was written during his second year at …

music for bowed string instruments consists mostly of music composed by Malcolm Goldstein (b. 1936) between 2018 and 2019 while living in Montréal, Québec. The impulse to compose this series came from Goldstein’s experience as a teacher and performer of Béla Bartók’s 44 Duos for Two Violins (1931). Whereas Bartók’s series features a clear progression to the pieces, gradually increasing in technical and musical complexity from beginning to end, music for bowed string instruments has no such seque…

Wrestling with the notion of balancing both formal construction and creative spontaneity has allowed Scott Fields (b 1952) to compose a powerful body of work with ties to extramusical concerns from the realms of literature, philosophy, and science. Seven Deserts (2019), rather than operating from a fixed narrative structure with predetermined events, lays out the ground rules for a manifestation that is absolutely identical in every performance in its operations and sonic vocabulary, but with ea…

Born in Michigan but for most of his life a true Californian, Robert Erickson (1917-1997) had a reputation as a maverick. His musical path was never a straight line, nor, really, a line at all but a landscape, with ranges of features rather than mere points of interest. He was a profound and original musical thinker who embraced the expressive possibilities of all music, from the Western classics and moderns of his own early education to Indian and Balinese traditions and all manner of contempor…

We want to fabricate a new music. We imagine a situation in which the sounding together of tones is never taken for granted, is continually renewed and reinvented. We know that the effect of any set of simultaneous tones, by means of the multiplication implicit in the harmonic series, totals much more than the number of notes played. A room can be made to vibrate with hundreds of frequencies by a single chord. We want to enter into a universe of harmony in which it becomes possible to hear into …

Rory Cowal is a distinctive pianist, one who draws liberally on classical chops, ample experience with improvisation, and a predilection for the new and uncharted. This makes him especially attractive to composers who wish to blur the boundaries between traditional styles and genres. A musical adventurer at heart, Cowal seems drawn to challenging and unusual projects. The eight pieces on this CD reflect this willingness to experiment, to not just play the same old (now canonic) warhorses of the …

Compositions performed by Bethany Beardslee and Lynne Weber (sopranos), Jerry Kudern and Robert Miller (pianos). The four works on this recording span a period of a decade and are among the best of Milton Babbitt’s output, tape and otherwise. Philomel, for soprano, recorded soprano, and synthesized sound, is one of the undisputed classics of electroacoustic music and this is its definitive recording. Two versions of Phonemena —one for soprano and piano, the other for soprano and tape— another vi…

The Piano Concerto No. 2 is an experiment in classical form. The work contains the same sudden juxtapositions and abrupt contrasts of mood as his futurist music. But the excesses of his recent Ballet mécanique are compensated for by an almost spare, baroque orchestration and motifs that draw on Bach as much as on Stravinsky. In three movements, George Antheil employs a more restrained but still exuberant style. The beautifully meditative slow movement is followed by a virtuosic and compelling to…

The harp is a strange and compelling instrument that in its technological ancientness beckons composers and listeners alike to bask in its heavenly aura. Like hand drums and acoustic guitars, the immediacy of a harp's sound production demands an intimate, one-on-one relationship between listener and instrument/performer. This intimacy is why composers of all stripes write music for harp－it strips away habit and affectation. Its limits are challenges that distill the essence of a composer's style…

First reissue of Walter Zimmermann's solo piano work Beginner's Mind, played by Herbert Henck and first released in 1978 on Beginner Records. The CD adds Abgeschiedenheit, after Meister Eckhart, released for the first time.

Ruedi Häusermann 5th release of strinquartets from his music Theatre productions. CD with digipak and 8-page booklet. Born in 1948 and residing in the medieval Swiss town of Lenzburg, and virtually unknown outside of the German-speaking world, Häusermann is a multi-instrumentalist and enormously prolific composer who works primarily in the medium of absurdist music-theater. A virtuoso wind player and free improviser who also composes for traditional classical instrumentation, his work is charact…

1991 release ** Nebojša Jovan Živković plays total percussion music by himself, Maria Ptaszynska, Johannes Kotschy, Markus Halt, John Christie Willot and Robert Schumann.

1987 release ** Includes recordings of: Toshimitsu Tanaka-Two movements / Minoru Miki – TIME / Dmitri Schostakowitsch – Polka & Oportunist from his Ballets Nebojsa / J. Zivkovic – Drei Phantastische Lieder, Tensio, Strah*Ctpax

1996 release ** "The works on this recording are recently composed flute pieces by six distinguished senior American composers from the generation born in the fist quarter of the 20th century (1900-1926). All of the works have been written by these composers at age 65 or older - autumn rhythms and all represent a new departure for each. Four of the works are for the one keyed wooden baroque flute - the flute for which Bach and Mozart composed their flute music. The instrument is now enjoying a r…

1997 release **

After-Image traces composer Lila Meretzky’s exploration of memory, color, and time through chamber, vocal, and electroacoustic works, culminating in luminous studies for strings and percussion inspired by personal and historical narratives.

Feldman and Tobias Hume (performed by Luciana Elizondo and Guy Vandromme).

1994 release ** Contemporary music for winds by Alessandro Solbiati, Pietro Borradori, Ruggero Laganà,Massimo Ambrosini, Claudi Scannavini, Paolo Aralla, Umberto Bombardelli, Cristina Landuzzi.

1994 release **

2011 release ** Works for flute and percussion by Petros Korelis, Jacques Di Tucci, Roger Lersy, François Rosse, Alain Féron, Giacinto Scelsi, Yoshihisa Taira, Jean-Yves Naviner.

1990 release ** "The 'Gruppe Neue Musik Berlin' (Berlin New Music Group) represents an interesting aspect of Berlin's recent musical history: unlike comparable ensembles in other German cities, it is not, and has never been, committed to a unified style or to any one school. Although an organised, creative group, improvisation remains a permanent element. The cooperative project's aim is to facilitate performances outside the avant-garde music establishment, while preserving a high standard of i…

1998 release ** "Wendy Mae Chambers (b 1953) is known for the scope and originality of her works, typified by large and unusual instrumental combinations. In Chambers’s own words, Twelve² is a voodoo tone poem in eleven movements for twelve percussionists. Each movement is about 4 minutes in length. The last movement is 4'33" of lots of sound (in tribute to John Cage's 4'33" of silence). Voodoo drumming [calls] forth Cage’s spirit and the bells, chimes, and gongs [celebrate] ... celestial qualit…

1991 release ** "Luis de Pablo represents the first post war generation in Spain, a lawyer, his music has graced all the primary festivals of new music in Europe, not so much the USA,nothing at all. He writes incredibly for strings in any genre there, solo, duets or trios. These pieces are more colorful mixtures of winds percussion,piano and strings and reveals a certain surface playfulness, an affinity for the dance gesture I think. The Notturnino has a kind of wispy arid flush of colours, ongo…

Evis Sammoutis’ music is a dynamic fusion of physicality, virtuosity, and cultural depth. Drawing on his Cypriot roots and diverse training, his compositions explore tactile soundscapes, poetic contrasts, and neurological aesthetics. Works like Echopraxia and In Darkness challenge conventions of imitation and vulnerability, while Rhymes and Engravings evoke intricate structures and materiality. Inspired by literature, visual art, and the expressive potential of sound, Sammoutis crafts music that…

1991 release **

1988 release. Ade, "a piece about farewell" for seven actors, singers and dancers, is a work of musical theatre by Harald Weiss, here heard without the stage. Weiss brings together elements of classical music, folk, rock and minimal music in the style that runs through all his work and escapes any classification. The ten scenes (Heimkehr, Tagtraum im Verborgenen, Elegie, Springtanz, Hymne, Tanz der Kobolde, Arie, Die Rufe der Demaskierten, Lamento, Abgesang) move between solo and choral voices, …

In his album Tarió, Manuel Contreras Vázquez presents a profound engagement with Latin American history, sound exploration, and experimental notation. Through intricate timbral textures and an architectural approach to composition, his works navigate themes of memory, resistance, and human experience. From intimate solo pieces to collective vocal and instrumental forces, Contreras Vázquez challenges conventional musical boundaries, blending silence, phonetics, and social narratives. This album o…

2015 release ** "The Albanian patrol boat Katër i Radës sank in the Strait of Otranto in 1997 after being rammed by an Italian corvette that was trying to repel it. Around 100 women, men and children died while fleeing the civil war. Almost twenty years after that tragedy, the Albanian composer Admir Shkurtaj, who has lived in Salento by adoption, has written a contemporary chamber opera for the 2014 Venice Biennale (which commissioned it), with a libretto by Alessandro Leogrande and staged by t…

2018 release ** "All the themes from all of Beethoven’s symphonies, played live by an orchestra, concentrated into one hour and supplemented with electronics – that’s “Nine in One”. Or: a wild rollercoaster ride through the twists and turns of Ludwig van Beethoven’s brain. In the front carriage: Wolfgang Mitterer. He has a reputation, as a musician many’s the time he’s tormented the big concert organs of the continent, as well as composing for important orchestras, ensembles and opera houses, ro…

*250 copies limited edition* "Play" is a work by Berlin-based composer Hannes Lingens. The score consists of 100 cards on which brief instructions to the musicians are written. The CD "Play" (hitorri-963), which contains two performances of this work, was released on the Hitorri label in October 2023. Tom Soloveitzik, a musician from Israel who was living in Tokyo at the time of that release, had participated in one of the performances on the CD. As a result, a performance, produced by Soloveitz…

*2025 stock. 300 copies limited edition* Tokyo-based composer Yuka Shibuya released the album "Works for Piano," a selection of piano compositions performed by Satoko Inoue, on the Ftarri Classical label in 2021. This new CD release, also from Ftarri Classical, documents performances of six compositions by Shibuya. "Found Moment" is comprised of live performances held in the concert space in Ftarri, Tokyo. In a concert that took place on September 20, 2021, “View from the Round Window 2” (2018) …

1991 release ** This disc features a colourful array of contemporary works by international and Canadian composers. From the reflective and lyrical Little Venice to the dazzling, virtuosic percussion piece She Who Sleeps with a Small Blanket, Toronto’s premier contemporary chamber ensemble, Arraymusic, provides the listener with a five course meal for the ears. Linda C. Smith Little Venice, Steve Reich New York Counterpoint, José Evangelista Merapi, Rodney Sharman Dark Glasses, Kevin Volans She …

1992 release ** "'Rebonds' (I. Xenakis), 'Akea' (I. Xenakis), 'Epicycles' (I. Xenakis), 'Mania' (C. Tsoupaki), 'Concerto For Oboe And Chamber Ensemble' (D. del Puerto) - Machiko Takahasi (fl.), Ernest Rombout (ob.), Mark Dijcks, Ria Kleinjan (cl.), Jonathan Reeder, Stefanie Liedtke (bsn.), Fokke van Heel, Guillermo Zarzo (h.), Peter van Dinther (tp.), Willie Verdievel (tb.), Jan van der Sanden (tu.), Mifune Tsuji, Izumi Okubo, Paul Hendriks (vl), Susan Bierre (vla), Tadashi Tanaka (cel.), Thom d…

2019 release ** "Rippling piano lines fill the air, once again rethinking the possibly of what contemporary Italian music is and was."

Listening is the foundation of Raven Chacon’s (b. 1977) wide-ranging artistic practice. “I am a listener,” he simply declares, but the attention he gives to sound is complex and vast, encompassing far more than what is immediately audible. From his earliest works, Chacon has been dedicated to amplifying the unheard, calling attention to what is absent or unknown. Although Chacon classifies the compositions on this recording as chamber music, all three of these works “zigzag” through his noise st…

*250 copies limited edition* Composer Taizo Hida was born in 1972 and lives in Osaka. In 2022, the album of rain, in which pianist Satoko Inoue performs compositions by Hida, was released on Ftarri Classical and received high praise. Two new albums have been issued simultaneously on Ftarri Classical in order to showcase the richness of Taizo Hida’s creativity. One of these is the CD Yunagi. The CD consists of five tracks, "Yunagi 1" to "Yunagi 5." Hida composed "Yunagi 1" in June of 2020. He lat…