Pianosequenza Vol. 2
Tying every symbol to an idea has made the world manageable, but also predictable. Suspending the pact, delaying to denominate, letting sound remain pre-conceptual for an instant leads to confusion; nameless, all things slip away, lose direction and blend in with the background noise. Here lies the danger of pure indifference where all things are indistinguishable and listening risks becoming pure perception. It is not a question of refuting meaning, but rather of embracing that latency where fo…
12 Trombones & Percussion Densities
Bonecrusher creates an immersive sonic landscape that captivates listeners, drawing them into a world where chords crackle, howl, and vibrate eerily. Founded in 2020 by trombonist and composer Matthias Muche in Cologne, the ensemble showcases its latest work through four innovative compositions. Each musician explores the trombone’s capabilities with meticulous detail, crafting evolving sonic states that morph fluidly, resembling a tightly woven net.
The ensemble faces a unique challenge; those …
Figures of Glass: Piano Etudes - Edits (LP)
With Figures of Glass (Piano Etudes – Edits), Vanessa Wagner offers a new listening perspective on Philip Glass’s Piano Études, shaping a curated selection of edited versions drawn from her acclaimed recording of the complete cycle. These edits do not alter the substance of the works; rather, they refine their temporal focus, revealing their emotional force with renewed clarity.
Conceived in parallel with Figures of Glass, a hybrid project developed with visual arts collective Scale, the release…
Fables
This is the first widely distributed release for Isabel Pine after a series of self released EP’s and singles on Bandcamp. She studied classical music on viola from the age of 3 through into college, where she was on a path to be a performer in a large ensemble, but eventually left after feeling frustrated and limited in a world that did not provide much of an outlet for individual creativity. But the doors of perception really opened when she moved to British Columbia and was exposed to the raw…
Fleeting Future
*2026 much needed repress!* Akusmi is the new project moniker of French-born, London based composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Pascal Bideau, who signs to the new Tonal Union imprint for the release of his album ‘Fleeting Future.’ With its hallucinatory, genre-defying blend of minimalism, cosmic jazz and Fourth World influences, and in its quest for optimism in the face of unknown and limitless possibility. ‘Fleeting Future’ stands apart as an inventive and inspirational debut. The crea…
Paper Braids
*200 copies limited edition* "Paper Braids came out of a long collaboration between me and the wonderful musicians of the Kali Ensemble. Through a series of workshops, residencies, and performances over the course of four years, we built up a collective practice focused on three topics: listening as the basis of musical interaction, awareness of how sound interacts with the performance space, and using that spatial awareness as a basis for both the duration of individual sounds and the temporal …
Dotolim (2023)
The score Dotolim was originally realized in 2009 and composed for the performance space Dotolim. The musicians, Jin Sangtae, founder of Dotolim, and Joonyong Choi also performed on the 2009 version of the score. While on tour through Asia in 2023, I spent two nights performing and recording in Seoul at Dotolim. My idea was to realize a new version of the score with the current generation of experimental musicians active in Seoul. And unlike for the first version where I worked with electronics,…
Acustica
Composed between 1968 and 1970 and originally issued by Deutsche Grammophon in 1972, there are arguably few works within the canon of 20th Century experimental music as beloved and sought after as the Argentine composer Mauricio Kagel’s Acustica. Created for “experimental sound-producers and loudspeakers”, comprising electroacoustic material assembled on 4-track tape in 1969 at Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) in Cologne, and acoustic material for 2 to 5 musicians, scored over roughly 200 filing-ca…
Presque Rien No.1 / Société II
Originally issued in 1970 within the third suite of LPs comprising Deutsche Grammophon's Avant-Garde series, the French composer and electroacoustic pioneer Luc Ferrari's Presque Rien No.1 / Société II stands among the most important and groundbreaking albums issued within the canon of 20th Century avant-garde and experimental music. Containing two radically distinct works, Presque Rien No.1 (1967-1970) and Société II (1967), it doubles as a near perfect illumination of the incredible range of c…
Quatrain / A Flock Descends Into The Pentagonal Garden
Containing what are easily among the important and celebrated works by Tōru Takemitsu, arguably Japan's most important and celebrated 20th Century avant-garde composer, 'Quatrain / A Flock Descends Into The Pentagonal Garden' was originally issued by Deutsche Grammophon in 1980. Had the Avant-Garde series not concluded nine years prior, it certainly would have been contained within its ranks. Illuminating a crucial juncture within the composer's career which not only found him fully embracing ac…
Con Slancio
“These performances, by Heinz Holliger and Marie-Lise Schüpbach, are simply astonishing in their fluency,” wrote UK magazine Gramophone of Holliger’s album Zwiegespräche, and the description applies with equal pertinence to con slancio, with its inspired and inspiring play of energies. The title piece, which opens the programme here, was written by the Swiss composer and nonpareil oboist as a tribute to musical partner Schüpbach: “Since I began playing in duo with Marie-Lise, I’ve been fascinate…
Descendants
Composed especially for the main hall of the Orgelpark in Amsterdam, with its historical organs, Descendants was realized in the just-intonation “Dreyblatt” tuning system, derived from the first eleven harmonic overtones and their extensions based on the fundamental C (A = 415 Hz). The following intervals, identified on the four organs and corresponding to my tuning system, were used in the composition: 1/1, 9/4, 3/2, 7/4, 11/16, 21/16, 25/16, 35/32, 63/32, 77/64, and 81/64. These pitches and th…
Atlas Eclipticalis - The music of John Cage & Earle Brown
The John Cage Trilogy – Inspired by Hidekazu Yoshida’s interpretations of Japanese Haiku poetry, John Cage formed a trilogy of his existing works honoring the essence of the poetry. Atlas Eclipticalis (1961), the first piece in the trilogy, represents nirvana. Variations IV (1963), the second work, represents samsara—the turmoil of everyday life. 0’00” (1962), the third piece, represents individual action. Simple Harmonic Motion Records is proud to be the first to present a realization of Cage's…
Four Systems
Four Systems (1954) is an early and influential example of Earle Brown’s open-form approach to composition. Written as a graphic score, the work replaces traditional notation with visual elements that suggest relationships of pitch, duration, dynamics, and rhythm rather than prescribing exact sounds.
Four Systems may be performed by any number of musicians using any instruments, and its duration is equally open: the piece may last as long as desired, provided the time frame is agreed upon in adv…
Dream Sequence of an Ancient Forest
Dream Sequence of an Ancient Forest gathers pieces composed between 2017 and 2023 into a continuous arc that feels less like a compilation and more like a slow, lucid dream. Across the album, Madli Marje Gildemann listens with almost scientific care to the smallest workings of the natural world – the secret exchanges of plants, the nocturnal trajectories of birds, the micro‑rhythms of an old‑growth forest – then lets imagination bloom around those observations. Her sound world is atmospheric and…
Hermetika IX
Hermetika IX – Vox Angeli II pushes Bernhard Lang’s obsession with loops, fracture and stylistic collision into explicitly metaphysical territory. Centring the female voice, the piece takes its texts from the Nag Hammadi scriptures, a body of early Christian and Gnostic writings in which the tension between spirit and flesh, transcendence and fall, is particularly charged. Across four sharply contrasted movements, Lang treats those texts less as doctrine than as volatile material: sensual biblic…
Différences / Sequenza III & VII / Due Pezzi / Chamber Music (LP)
Five pieces for solo instruments or small ensembles spanning from 1951 to 1969, recorded under the direction of the composer himself and performed by Cathy Berberian and Heinz Holliger a.o., released on Philips' "Modern Music Series" in 1969.
Tartiniana Seconda / Due Studi / Ciaccona, Intermezzo E Adagio / Parole Di San Paolo (LP)
Four pieces for solo (cello), duo (violin and piano) and ensemble spanning from 1945 to 1964 released on Italia in 1977.
Streichquartett / Die Jahreszeiten / Chaconne Für Violoncello Solo (LP)
Three 1979 compositions respectively for string quartet, chorus and cello solo, released on Wergo in 1979.
Il Cordovano (LP)
1987 LP on Ricordi's Italian contemporary music series with the 1958 opera in one act by the important composer and teacher (of Ennio Morricone, Franco Donatoni, Aldo Clementi and Cornelius Cardew a.o.). With insert.