Music For Violin Alone
"Music for Violin Alone" was recorded in a makeshift studio in an empty house in Le Poujol sur Orb during the first two weeks of the French lockdown. Recorded both as a response to all loss of work due to COVID-19 and a way to be heard again. The pieces on the album are the pieces I’ve come to discover and learn during the two years of maternity leave. Two years of maternity leave have also been two years of creative silence, a search for new approaches, repertoire and ways of playing.
Only afte…
Yeo-Neun
** small repress, absolutely astounding! ** Anyone encountering the efforts of the cellist, Okkyung Lee, faces an unavoidable truth. She’s an unreckonable force. Few players in the contemporary landscape relinquish themselves so completely to the practice of free improvisation, adapt with such ease without sacrificing the distinctions of self, or exist in the moment so completely, not to mention her awe inspiring technical skill. Her latest LP, Yeo-Neun, issued by Shelter Press, stands as tower…
Vortice Rosso
Putojefe Records is proud to present Vortice Rosso, the first album by Italian composer Flavio Bonometti: a tumultuous journey through the languages of the avant-garde masterfully synthesized in 12 pieces of contemporary classical. After a brilliant career as a violist at La Scala Theatre in Milan and in many other orchestras, Flavio Bonometti gave up the stage to dedicate himself exclusively to his music. The tracks of Vortice Rosso, produced and recorded over the last 10 years, are born from t…
Music For 18 Musicians
With Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, the French ensemble Links presents a classic of the 20th century: Written in 1978, it was Reich’s first work for a larger ensemble. From today’s perspective, it is an icon of American post-minimalism which has not lost any of its fascination.
Rhythmic precision, a large dynamic spectrum and a unique range of colors guarantee for an unforgettable listening experience.
Fluxus
“All works of this album are part of my Fluxus cycle, which is inspired by physical phenomena associated with fluid mechanics. Space is not a mere concept: It is an experienced reality where frames, forces and fluxes interplay in a creative dynamic – which I strive to convey in my music”, says Portuguese composer Jaime Reis about this recording.
Reis’ music is informed by both his keen interest in cutting-edge research in the natural sciences, and his abiding attention to Asian musical – and ind…
Cleopatra's Songs
“Give me some music!” These words from Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, which open Cleopatra’s Songs, seem particularly well chosen to characterize Agata Zubel’s relationship to music. Music: a vital need, a thirst, but also something that you give.
This portrait album with three major works, performed by leading ensembles, including the Klangforum Wien and Ensemble intercontemporain, follows her receipt of the Erste Bank Kompositionspreis in 2018.
La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura
Experiencing La lontananza utopica futura has enriched my musicianship. The unusual openness of the original materials by Nono required the establishment of an interpretive path through tapes and scores. This need has led to the emergence of a creative approach to performance, where the lines between roles and figures are blurred; with La lontananza, we cannot identify the composer as the provider of clear and direct instructions, and the performer cannot remain an invisible score-reproducer. A …
Les Espaces Électroacoustiques II
The idea of exploring important 20th century electro-acoustic compositions within their historically informed performance practices, and using this as the basis for the production of a new interpretation in 5.1 surround sound, has created quite a stir. It originated at the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology (ICST) at the Zurich University of the Arts, and found its expression in the double SACD Les Espaces Électroacoustiques I. — This album now brings us further milestones of ele…
Spectral Malsconcities
In modern experimental music, and especially among a number of musician-composers emerging in America during the Sixties, a fixation on process and awareness became a structural hallmark, exploring the gradual change of sonic materials, built environments, and the human body. Though much maligned as a term by its practitioners, figures like Steve Reich, La Monte Young, Philip Glass, and Terry Riley were among these 'minimal' composers; askew of them were electroacoustic explorers like Alvin Luci…
The Arrow Of Time
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 …
Some Center
Chris Brown’s (b. 1953) compositions Some Centre (2019) and First Light (2016), performed with such assured lucidity and subtle shading by the three members of The Chromelodia Project, engage with significant precursors in music and in literature, drawing upon their words and innovations, their insights and adventurous spirits while, in the process, transporting those uncompromising benefactors to a different frontier. Brown makes songs from poems by Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) and Jackson Mac L…
These Are the Generations
The title of this recording has multiple meanings for its composer, Larry Polansky (b 1954). These are the generations... is a translation of the Hebrew title for the second work on the program, Eleh Tol'd'ot, the first words of the thirty-fifth verse of the first book (B'rey'sheet) of the Torah. Beyond referencing Polansky's Jewish heritage, the phrase reflects this particular collection of works on several levels.
The compositions included stem from different generations of Polansky's musical …
Seven Deserts
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…
Space Guitars
**2020 stock** I was born in Detroit (1931), studied chemistry and music at Princeton (1949–53), and after the army, pro-baseball, and working as a chemist at Cape Canaveral, I went to “Koln State” (Music School) in Germany on the GI Bill, (1959-63) and spent a lot of time watching Karlheinz Stockhausen work. I then “visited” Rome (1964–87) where Frederic Rzewski, Alvin Curran, Jon Phetteplace and I put together a group, “Musica Elettronica Viva” (MEV), to create electronic- sounding music in co…
Music of David Tudor and Gordon Mumma
This historic recording features the first-ever release of the two earliest surviving recordings of David Tudor's seminal work, Rainforest. Sandwiched in between are six keyboard works by Gordon Mumma in recordings featuring the composer and his close collaborator, Tudor. Together, these works constitute a fascinating and historically important document of the 1960s avant-garde in America.
In early 1968, Merce Cunningham created a new dance whose apparent impetus was Colin Turnbull's The Forest …
September Canons
Todd Reynolds, violin, with electronic processing; Members of the Yale Philharmonia, Julian Pellicano, conductor; The Berkeley Gamelan, Daniel Schmidt, director; Ingram Marshall, gambuh (Balinese flute), Serge synthesizer, live electronic processing
The pieces on this recording span almost three decades and represent the principal threads that have run through Ingram Marshall's (b 1942) work: his remarkable skill in using electronics to create expressive and voluptuously beautiful pieces; the in…
At Synge Verden Ind I En Ny Og Mangefoldet Tid
At Synge Verden Ind I En Ny Og Mangefoldet Tid was composed during Anders Lauge Meldgaard’s period as composer in residence at the old Danish castle Rønnebæksholm on the south of Zealand. He has previously released music as Frisk Frugt, Supermelle, Music for Six Electric Guitars, Kirsten Ketsjer and been a part of the experimental collective yoyooyoy.
This release marked Anders taking on new musical adventures by composing for an ensemble of classical musicians. The music, however, retains the f…
Orchestral Music
The second release to be drawn from Orange Mountain Music's Philip Glass Archive series, this disc - if you hadn't guessed - focuses on the composer's orchestral works, namely his compositions Days And Nights In Rocinha and Persephone. The former of these was inspired by the titular neighbourhood in Rio De Janeiro, best known for its celebrated samba school. Accordingly, the piece is redolent of a Latin American influence, opening with a languid romantic melody only to eventually augment itself …
Lost and Found
Formed in 2017, J Pavone String Ensemble features Jessica Pavone and Abby Swidler on violas, and Erica Dicker and Angela Morris on violins. The group's latest release, Lost And Found, combines both traditional notation and improvisation, with a focus on sustained collaborative playing and the application of ideas exploring the healing potential of sonic vibrations. It was recorded at Firehouse 12 in New Haven, Connecticut.
Speaking with The Wire's Philip Clark in November 2019, Pavone describes …
Suite D’Études Chorégraphiques – Musique Pour La Danse D’Aujourd’hui
This suite of choreographic studies was commissioned by the Ministry of Culture and is designed to teach contemporary dance techniques of different styles. We deliberately avoid offering suggestions for exercises, leaving the teachers complete freedom of creation and improvisation. - Alina Piechowska