In between -the viola in my life IV
"Two first recordings of Morton Feldman's music in themselves make this CD a notable event. And then, David Felder's music puts it over the line. The music bridges two generations and two distinct personalities. Feldman, with John Cage, Earle Brown, David Tudor, and Christian Wolff, was a seminal member of the New York School in the 1950s, and his work is known for the beauty and delicacy of its orchestral colors, its 'painterly' surface, its static and quiet structure, its contemplative charact…
Unforeseen Events
Among the most remarkable documents to emerge from the early 1990s convergence of acoustic performance and computer music, David Behrman's Unforeseen Events stands as a testament to the profound possibilities unlocked when human creativity collaborates with artificial intelligence. Originally released in 1991 on XI Records, this stunning album represents the culmination of decades of pioneering work by one of America's most visionary experimental composers - a figure whose influence extends far …
Clarinet songs
Daniel Goode's Clarinet Songs has long been a favorite on the new music concert circuit. It is a 75-minute suite for solo clarinet which Goode began writing for himself in 1979, and reached its current form in 1991. It uses all of Goode's virtuosic techniques distilled into sixteen "Songs without Words," a poetics of the new clarinet. It is made up of a series of individual pieces, each a sound world of its own, based on some unique material, perhaps a specific technical, poetic, or sonic idea, …
Piano Music 1959-70
‘Piano Music 1959-70’ is a reissue of an album that enjoys cult status
among Cardew aficionados. The standout piece remains Volo solo (1965),
conceived originally for Tilbury as an attempt to coin a new type of
virtuosity. Cornelius Cardew expected it to be taken at a reckless tempo so that,
as he wrote, ‘the piano should seem to be breaking apart’. But the
material he gives the pianist – 60 inchoate fragments interlinked by
pauses – trips impetus up, the structure left with a hiccuping
s…
Chamber Music 1955-64
Restocked, reduced price. The works on this CD represent arguably the most experimental and radical works to come out of Britain in the past 40 years. Cornelius Cardew's scores from the early 1960's are notable for their elegant, original and precise notational scores, labyrinthine blueprints for realisation as totally new and original compositions. They are open to ever new interpretations whose possibilities are restricted only by the creativity of the performer. It is this responsibility laid…
Ten Exercises
This marvelous recording of these elusive works features composer-supervised performances by a hand-picked group of renowned new-music exponents. "Your first encounter with the music of Christian Wolff leaves you with the impression you've just heard (or played, or read) something totally strange, unlike anything else you know. And yet, upon reflection, you realize it is at the same time something completely ordinary and normal, as familiar in its way as any number of repetitive actions …
Stones
2009 release **
The score of "Stones" consists of just a few lines of text:Make sounds with stones, draw sounds out of stones, using a number of sizes and kinds (and colours); for the most part discretely; sometimes in rapid sequences. For the most part striking stones wfth stones, but also stones on other surfaces (inside the open head of a drum, for instance) or other than struck (bowed, for instance, or amplified). Do not break anything. Christian Wolff, STONES, (from: Prose Collection, 1968…
Early Piano Music (1951-1961)
Early Christian Wolf piano music (written 1951-61), performed by: John Tilbury & Christian Wolff (pianos), Eddie Prevost (percussion). Studio recordings from 2001/2. "During the period when these works were composed (1951-61), Christian Wolff was closely associated with John Cage. Morton Feldmon, Earle Brown and David Tudor (they are sometimes referred to together as the New York School'). Feldman later remarked that he was profoundly indebted to Christian Wolff ('I think of him as my artistic c…
Six Primes
Thirteen-limit just intonation, with the primes 2, 3, 5, 7, 11 and 13 governing the tuning, the harmony, the rhythm and the form all at once. The twelve retuned notes yield seventy-five different intervals where equal temperament gives twelve. Brown was a piano tuner for fifteen years and tuned it himself.
ChamberEvents
2005 release **
The works on this CD represent three different series of compositions, which I have been working on simultaneously in the last few years. Structurally, their individual parts resemble each other: all instruments play (rather) long sounds, each one followed by a pause.55 similar events plus two drummers drumming (1999) consists of two layers of events. On the one hand, seven instruments are organized ‘isophonically’ and with regular durations. Their sounds, each comprising the sam…
Alvin Lucier
The work of Alvin Lucier needs little introduction. He is certainly one of the most innovative composers of his time, a pioneer and central figure in the world of experimental and electronic composition and performance. His early work, alone and in conjunction with Robert Ashley, David Berhman, Gordon Mumma and others in the Sonic Arts Union -- which Lucier helped found in 1966 -- is musically rich while simultaneously exploring the many physical and psychic effects of sound. Pieces such as I Am…
Ever Present
Awesome collection of new, post-2000 works by Alvin Lucier. It's a been a long time since "I Am Sitting In A Room" for sure, but the dude clearly understands how to fill a room with sound as well as most anyone alive. "Alvin Lucier's (b. 1931) works on this CD, for solos and trios, continue to explore his unique sound world, exploration of microtones, and use of unusual instrumentation. 'Piper' is probably one of the few avant-garde pieces composed for the bagpipe. The piper is asked to walk slo…
Navigation for strings. Small waves
"'Navigations for Strings': For String Quartet. 'Small Waves': For String Quartet, Trombone, Piano and Two Water Pourers. The Arditti Quartet: Hildegard Kleeb, Roland Dahinden. Alvin Lucier (b. 1931) has been a pioneer in many areas of music composition and performance, including the notation of performers' physical gestures, the use of brain waves in live performance, the generation of visual imagery by sound in vibrating media, and the evocation of room acoustics for musical purposes. 'Navigat…
Still Lives
Three amazing works for pure waves and instruments. Lucier has pioneered in many areas of music composition and performance, including the notation of performers’ physical gestures, the use of brain waves in live performance, the generation of visual imagery by sound in vibrating media, and the evocation of room acoustics for musical purposes. His recent works include a series of sound installations and works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, and orchestra in which, by means of close tuni…
Theme
Theme features three works from Alvin Lucier. Music for Piano with Magnetic Strings is a work in which the strings of a piano sound by themselves. Several EBows (small electromagnets used primarily with electric guitars) which would cause the piano strings to vibrate and sound are placed on the strings of the piano. The pianist works from a prose score which describes the process and suggests she freely position and reposition five EBows on the piano strings, creating strands of sounds of v…
Clocker
Another classic Lucier catalog item, a 45-minute recording made in 1991 of this piece that he first conceived in 1978. The piece is for: amplified clock, performer with galvanic skin response sensor and digital delay system. The sounds that emanate are beautifully shifting patterns of tock-collage that reveal dramatic sonic detailings. "I wanted to make a work in which a performer could speed up and slow down time, stopping it, if possible, simply by thinking. I bought a Westclox Silver Bell Mon…
Horbare Okosysteme: Live elektronic compositions 1993-2005
Live electronic compositions from 1993-2005 by composer Agostino Di Scipio, using acoustic instruments and digital sound processing to create unusual and previously unheard sound worlds.
Paysages historiques
Live electronics from a composer born in Napoly in 1962. He also has a CD on EDition RZ. 'Roma. L'insieme Di Cantor' (1998). 'Paris. La Robotique des Lumiéres' (2003). 'Berlin. Bad Sampling' (2000). 'New York. Background MeDia Noise' (2005). 'Untitled (sound synthesis, October 01)' (2001). 'eBss (e-Book Sound Supplement)' (2002).