Composition / All styles

2013 release **"A split disc with five compositions by Stiegler and two by Ablinger, each performed by some combination of violin (Sabine Akiko Ahrendt), cello (Jan-Filip Tupa) and clarinet (Diego Montes). I think I'd only heard Stiegler's work before in conjunction with Hannes Seidl on their early Wandelweiser release, "das wetter in offenbach". Here, he evinces a rather playful approach, especially in the two "Treibut" (flotsam) pieces, 1/2 (2011) and II (2009); playful but with a nicely bitte…

2015 release **

2015 release ** This really is a special one. Solo voice carries so many connotations, of speech, of song, of chant, of prayer. It’s the most directly human, personal, unmediated instrument of all. It’s the way we speak to each other, comfort each other, entertain ourselves, reassure ourselves, talk to our gods. There are elements of all on this CD; remarkably so, because on first listen at least all seven pieces inhabit similarly restrained, private and reticent soundworlds. There is a general …

2017 release **  "The duo of Beat Keller and Philipp Bowee on electric guitars perform 6 subtle compositions from Turkish-born sound artists and composer Cem Guney's, including 'a bas relief of a talisman' dedicated to Charles Ives and 'soft kill incubator' dedicated to Sylvia Alexandra Schimag."

2015 release ** "Pieces  written for a sextet of flute, clarinet, percussion (quiet, white-noisy/rattley-type things), violin, viola and cello. They each follow a similar pattern, presenting a solitary idea – a chord, an instrumental texture – that alternates with short silences and gradually evolves with each return. The first, two and three, is almost like breathing. The sounds themselves are beautifully and carefully devised, particularly the gently descending peals in mulberry grove, but it …

2016 release ** "In the early days of Wandelweiser records, a disc of music by the forgotten composer Herman Van San extended the label’s scope and helped to cement its aesthetic.  He was composing long before there was a Wandelweiser group or label, but his outsider static and innovative music was a perfect fit.  This disc of music by the all but unknown Mikheil Shugliashvili achieves a similar purpose. Born in 1941, the composer died in 1996, the year of the label’s first release, but his radi…

2016 release ** "This release by Edition Wandelweiser Records collects recent compositions by Katharina Weber, Jack Callahan, Alex Goretzki, and Alfred Zimmerlin, performed by Christian Buck on guitar and Christian Wolfarth on percussion. It opens with Callahan’s ‘New Piece’, beginning with quiet feedback and low rumble before moving on to evenly spaced chords, cymbals, and soft beats. There’s an ambiguity or uncertainty to these sounds, or to my hearing of them, in terms of their harmony and ti…

2013 releae ** "Three works for solo piano in a kind of homage to Cage's "4'33"", insofar as the room in which the recordings took place is accorded coequal prominence, at least as the stated intention of Lee. So one hears various rustles, coughs and whatnot while the beginning of the last track, "Piano Solo No. 5" (2011) sounds as though recorded in close proximity to a number of aging fluorescent bulbs. More to the point, the piano sound is noticeably different in the three spaces. The music i…

2013 release ** "11 Micro-Exercises were invented by Christian Wolff in response to a commission from the Miniaturist Ensemble. For Wandelweiser Editions, other miniaturists perform these eleven pieces (plus two bonus pieces): Beat Keller and Reza Khot. Keller and Khot are two electric guitarists who pierce the ivory (sometimes tear it) and respect the principle of a musical art free from preconceptions. Nine seconds, twenty-two, one minute and thirteen, or eleven minutes and forty-seven… The le…

2014 release ** "Peter Streiff’s music moves in historical webs, encompassing the connected worlds of allusion and individuality in a language that is at once direct and cryptic. This new disc of his piano music, performed by fellow composer Urs Peter Schneider, is a microcosm of Streiff’s creative trajectory. For ease of comprehension, I will use English versions of composition titles in this review. “Of Magic” (1970), the earliest material represented here, has a fair amount in common with the…

2013 release ** "Sometimes, music reaches my desk which I genuinely feel is beyond my ken to write about--I simply don't have the necessary tools. This wonderful disc, in large part, is one such so I'll pretty much stick to just giving my impressions and make no real attempt to put the music into context. I do feel confident in saying that, though I haven't heard everything released from Wandelweiser, the music herein will pretty definitely not coincide with your impression of the label, and I …

2015 release ** "Margriet Hoenderdos, a student of influential Dutch composer Ton de Leeuw, was still honing her own distinctive voice at the time of her premature death in 2010. The precariousness of simply existing is effectively evoked in a 21 minute woodwind quintet in which she responded to a poem by Hans Faverey, written as he endured his own terminal illness. Sombre and harmonically anxious, this music resembles a physical construction that appears sturdy, yet has an unnerving tendency to…

2015 release ** "Eleven songs for voice and lute by the Swiss singer and composer Marianne Schuppe. The instrumentation taps a deep historical channel, back to Dowland and beyond. But Schuppe doesn’t pluck her lute. Instead she uses e-bows to turn a melodic accompanying instrument into an environment, an ancient combination updated to reflect a contemporary preference for objects over stories. The songs are simple melodies, sometimes folklike (ballads and laments more than dances), but with word…

Performed by Ensemble Grizzana, Jürg Frey (clarinet), Magnus Granberg (celesta, harmonica & stones), Angharad Davies & Mira Benjamin (violins), Anton Lukoszevieze (cello), Dominic Lash (double bass), John Lely (electronics, harmonica & stones), Richard Craig (flute & electronics), Philip Thomas (piano), Simon Allen (dulcimer & glass harp), Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga (zither & electronics).

Three compositions exploring breath as a musical regulator

British composer Frank Denyer presents seven beautiful chamber works dating from 1974 to 2018, opening a door to his unique soundworld. Released by Another Timbre in November 2019, The Boundaries of Intimacy features sublime, unexpected pieces of delicate intimacy performed by a variety of artists including Luna String Quartet, Juliet Fraser, Elisabeth Smalt, Jos Zwaanenberg and Nobutaka Yoshizawa. "Most of the music on this CD is soft, some of it very soft indeed. To achieve the optimal listeni…

Eventless Plot is the collective name for three musicians from Thessaloniki, Greece, who compose together. Vasilis Liolios, Aris Giatis and Yiannis Tsirikoglou have been collaborating in this way since they met as students 20 years ago. They bring in other musicians from Greece and Holland (where Yiannis now lives) as their compositions develop. The CD presents three of their recent and most compelling chamber works. "The title reflects the basic idea of the composition. There is a contradiction…

"The four pieces on the CD cover a broad time span. The first piece, which is the most recent, is a clear example of the kind of entwinement between technologies, affect, space and listening that I’ve been working on for a while. This piece plays with the role of different conditions of sound production in shaping the way we pay attention to sound - how we engage in listening to it. In its live version the piece involves other layers which are not present in the recording. This entails both the …

Six improvisations by Ernstalbrecht Stiebler (piano) and Tilman Kanitz (cello), recorded towards the end of Stiebler's life in Kanitz's Berlin studio.Interview with Tilman KanitzCould you tell us how and when your duo with Ernstalbrecht came about?At a festival for North Indian Classical music in Calcutta I was impressed by the extensive “tuning up” process of the musicians. I thought of Ernstalbrecht and wrote to him, suggesting that he should write a cello piece for me. A couple of months late…

Ian Antonio discovered Jürg Frey via algorithm. About 15 years ago, SoundCloud kept leading him to the same piece, maybe Circular Music No. 2. "I wouldn't notice the piece starting but then realize I was in fact listening to it closely," he recalls. "The stillness and closeness and warmth were somewhat new to me." At the time, Antonio played "a lot of very loud and often very fast music" with groups like Wet Ink, Talujon, Zs, and Yarn/Wire. Frey's music was "very much the opposite." This double …

American composer Paul Paccione makes a welcome return to recording with this portrait album featuring five chamber works originally composed between 1980 and 1990, all performed by the acclaimed Apartment House ensemble. Born in New York in 1952, Paccione studied with legendary minimalist pioneer Harley Gaber and later at the University of Iowa, developing a distinctive voice deeply influenced by Morton Feldman, John Cage, and Anton Webern. The album includes Exit Music for string trio, Gridwor…

A portrait CD of UK composer Paul Newland's music, with five pieces dating from 2009 to 2023, all recorded by Apartment House in 2023. A rich variety of music, ranging from string quartet, two different trio combinations, a short work for solo piano, and a score for open instrumentation, realised in this recording by a septet.Cover artwork by Paul Newland

The first piece composer Catherine Lamb has written specifically for acoustic guitar was commissioned by Chilean guitarist Christián Alvear. Extending concepts from an installation piece titled Secondary Rainbow with Bryan Eubanks, Lamb employs electronics over an infinite cycle of four "environmental chords" which overlap and resonate with one another.

First-time reissue of Willem Nyland's rare private-press piano improvisations. The Dutch chemist-turned-Gurdjieff disciple recorded these spiritual teachings on specially tuned piano in 1960s upstate New York

* Limited Edition Green vinyls + insert *  Ars Subtilior (14th century) and the Noise: the two inspirations of Christophe Guiraud which are like two rivers which are woven in a writing of great power. The French young composer is the link between the most accomplished scholarly music and some radical aspects of noise. Born in Toulouse mid-seventies, he settles in Brussels - which becomes the crossroads of a continuous creation. Currently works and has been collaborating since several years with …

*2025 stock* "The latest album by innovative Slovak composer, Barbora Tomášková, offers a unique suite of sounds, where boundaries between acoustic traditions and exploratory electronics dissolve. The Slovak composer and performer’s practice revolves around innovative use of ’objets trouvé’ and western classical instruments via hefty electronic manipulations and many extended techniques. Taking its name from both the less common and stable form of DNA and the Slovak term for “from the bottom”, Z…

Absolutely beautiful LP of intimate drifting lo-fi piano nostalgia from Hokkaido’s Mashu Hayasaka on the store's own imprint.

A Dark Flaring marks the Signum Quartett’s impressive return to ECM’s New Series after debuting for the label with striking performances on Erkki-Sven Tüür’s acclaimed chamber music recording Lost Prayers (2020). Here, the quartet has put together a unique programme dedicated to six South African composers, born in the 20th century, whose works for string quartet are united by the way they blend respect for the past with an instinct for the future in a wide-flung idiomatic scope. Whether writing…

zeitkratzer director Reinhold and his ensemble present new compositions, grounded on Domenico Scarlatti's piano sonata F-minor K.466. Commissioned by the dance company Rubato and dedicated to Mario Bertoncini (1932-2019).

In the Understage area of the Alexandra Trianti Hall, the musical saw in the hands of Nikos Giousef, and accompanied by piano, samplers and analog synthesizers, is transformed into a voice. 'An otherworldly child's voice', 'a Siren's voice' or 'a castrato voice', as it has been described, it easily climbs to tonic heights that the human voice can only reach with great effort. The pieces chosen for the program reflect this criterion, with works such as the aria 'Erbarme Dich, Mein Gott' from the …

The story of six soulmate musicians meeting at the intersection of classical composition, pop, electronic and minimal music begins in 2016 with their celebrated performance at the Cologne Philharmonie. After follow-up performances at the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn as well as the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Gregor Schwellenbach, Daniel Brandt, John Kameel Farah, Paul Frick, Erol Sarp and Kai Schuhmacher made a guest appearance at the invitation of Radio Berlin Brandenburg in the iconic Haus des Rundfunks…

Laura Cetilia's cello works evoke the sense of crossing the threshold between traditional classical music and experimental soundscapes. Within an acoustic resonance that respects the natural reverberations of a space, rippling waves of subtle disturbances conjure a mixed sensation of classical roots and a refreshing encounter with the unknown. This offers a glimpse into a vast and profound world that is uniquely Cetilia's own. 'gorgeous nothings' is an album of three pieces composed by Cetilia, …

Nine solos for Hardanger fiddle that trace a fascinating journey between tradition and experimentation, composed and performed by Sarah-Jane Summers, a virtuosic Scottish musician based in Norway. With Echo Stane, Summers employs the Hardanger fiddle – the national instrument of her adopted country – as a bridge across the North Sea, connecting the musical heritage of the Scottish Highlands with Norwegian folk traditions while pushing both toward the avant-garde. Summers grew up in rural Inverne…

Rispecchiato in quarzo, Dal nero immenso, lèvita, and Traspare assente albore unfold as structured sequences of transformation—transparent, hypnotic, fairy. Each solo instrument (piano, contrabass clarinet, bass flute) interacts with multi-layered electroacoustic textures built entirely from acoustic sources. These “electronics” remain sensitive and natural, shaped through breath, resonance, and subtle manipulations. An 1876 Steinway, spectral clarinet multiphonics, and whispered flute tones for…

Hall’s debut merges field recordings, piano, spoken word, and spectral analysis to craft vivid soundscapes exploring kinship, intimacy, and trauma.

Femme le soir immerses listeners in Betsy Jolas’s world of memory, inquisition, and fleeting radiance, performed by Anssi Karttunen (cello) and Nicolas Hodges (piano). These pieces unravel at the tempo of spoken thought, suspending lyrical lines in unhurried motion and sudden illumination.

Tzimtzum imagines four sweeping new orchestral canvases from Sarah Nemtsov, weaving Ensemble Nikel’s hybrid-electric force with WDR Sinfonieorchester’s expressive palette under Peter Rundel. Her music traces broken cycles - rupture, echo, and repair - through deeply textured instrumentations and bold structural arcs.

Tip! One of the first Irida releases, Texas Music (IRIDA 0026, 1979), collects compositions by Jerry Hunt (hailing from Dallas), Philip Krumm (based in San Antonio), and Jerry Willingham (“in and out” of Austin). The record was produced in two editions: one for mass consumption in a corrugated plain brown sleeve featuring a single fish stamp on the cover by the artist David McManaway, and a small “fundraising edition” sold in the same packaging at a higher price with a numbered print by McManawa…

Isabella Gellis’s The Dissolute Society Comprised of All Sorts is a formidable debut for solo piano, performed by Joseph Havlat. Drawing inspiration from Biber’s baroque suite and cannibalizing its gestures, Gellis interweaves the surreal, the silly, and the tactile, forming a musical tapestry that refracts historical tradition through a vividly modern, sometimes absurd lens.​

Ensemble 0 presents L'Étrange Femme des Neiges, a fresh addition to their exploratory discography and the official soundtrack to a new film featuring Blanche Gardin and Philippe Katerine. This release demonstrates Ensemble 0's knack for understated textures and melodic invention, crafting a sonic atmosphere that seamlessly blends cinematic intimacy with expressive minimalism.