★Another Timbre
Two pianos and other pieces, 1953-1969
A double CD of music for multiple pianos from what is arguably the most experimental and interesting period of Morton Feldman's development as a composer. Some of the pieces have been very rarely performed or recorded, and have probably never been in better hands. The music featured on these two discs testifies to the intensity of Feldman's experimentation with notation and sound during the 1950s and 60s. Considering the works chronologically one senses the composer trying out, teasing and deve…
Roananax 1999 / Obliq 2014
Roananax 1999 (Axel Dörner, Robin Hayward, Annette Krebs, Andrea Neumann) and Obliq 2014 (Hannes Lingens, Pierre Borel, Derek Shirley). Powerful archive recordings from the legendary group Roananax at the very start of 'Berlin reductionism'. Combined on a split disc with a beautiful example of reductionism 15 years on played by Obliq, a group of younger Berlin-based musicians.
Luv / Kopfuberwelle
Sabine Vogel 'luv', and Chris Abrahams + Sabine Vogel 'kopfüberwelle'. Another split disc, presenting two aspects of the music of Berlin-based flautist - composer - improviser Sabine Vogel. The first half of the disc contains a solo composition created from recordings made by Sabine with Landscape Quartet, a group committed to improvisation in and with natural environments. The second half of the disc features an extended improvised performance by Sabine on flutes in duo with The Necks' Chris Ab…
Tschirtner tunings for Twelve
Antoine Beuger\'s \'tschirtner tunings for twelve\' played by Konzert Minimal. A beautiful and delicate long-form composition by Wandelweiser founder Antoine Beuger, exquisitely interpreted by the Berlin ensemble Konzert Minimal, which includes Pierre Borel (alto saxophone), Lucio Capece (bass clarinet), Johnny Chang (viola), Catherine Lamb (viola), Hannes Lingens (accordion), Mike Majkowski (double bass), Koen Nutters (double bass), Morten J. Olsen (vibraphone), Nils Ostendorf (trumpet), Derek …
Chamber Works 1992 - 2009
Double CD of composer-supervised recordings of 14 chamber pieces by a truly unique and individual voice in contemporary composition. Performed by the UK's leading experimental music ensemble Apartment House, who have championed Crane's music since the mid-90's. 'This is not minimalism. It does not take justification in 'less is more' or 'only what is necessary'. It takes us beyond those points: it is less than necessary. It says, basically, nothing is necessary. And perhaps, also, 'let's be hap…
F23M-12: Field With Figures No. 1 - 4 / Rush!
Christian Kesten & Mark Trayle duo: F23M-12: Field with Figures No.1-4'. Annette Krebs solo 'rush!'. This is the second split disc in the Berlin series of CD's. The first half of the CD is a meeting of long-time Berliner Christian Kesten (voice) with Californian Mark Trayle on electronics. The second half of the disc is a typically engaged solo from Annette Krebs, one of the key figures in Berlin's music scene for the past 20 years. Using electric guitar, electronics and taped voices, Annette cr…
Pneuma
First CD featuring five mysterious works by a young English composer whose music gives voice to the secrets in sounds. 'Martin Iddon's music asks a lot of us. This disc, pneuma, asks even more, because it conceals the 'real, physical human bod[ies]' that are so important to this music. Iddon asks musicians to play instruments they do not play, articulate notes they will not hear, and perform independently of partners they cannot ignore. The music depends wholly on the relationships those bodies …
Despairs had governed me too long
(Magnus Granberg, Angharad Davies, Toshi Nakamura, Henrik Olsson, Ko Ishikawa, Anna Lindal, John Eriksson, Erik Carlsson, Leo Svensson Sander and Petter Wstberg). Another beautiful extended composition by Magnus Granberg, exquisitely played by an ensemble of fine musicians whose last two discs on Another Timbre both featured in The Wire's best of year CD lists for 2012 and 2013 respectively. 'Despairs Had Governed Me Too Long' is the third disc on Another Timbre by the Swedish-based ensemble Sko…
LL
Three strange and wonderful pieces from the Chicago-based duo, making music from objects found in the basement of a local thrift store. Sleevenotes by Noé Cuéllar and Joseph Clayton Mills : In 2010 we were invited to participate in an exhibition of site-specific installations and performances at Pilsen Vintage and Thrift, a local second-hand store in Pilsen, a predominantly Hispanic neighbourhood in Chicago. The owner had agreed to make the store's warehouse and basement available for art shows…
Vessels
An extraordinary 76-minute work for solo piano, played by Philip Thomas, and composed by Bryn Harrison, a Huddersfield-based composer who is quietly building something of a cult reputation for his distinctively minimal and repetition-based music. Vessels works with threads of tones which are repeated with subtle variation until they attain a mysterious, labyrinthine quality. 'I tried to get across this sense of the music being perpetually regenerative, of constantly opening up but then finding o…
Logical harmonies
Seven recent pieces by the UK-based composer Richard Glover, whose music is a process music based on the exposition of simple harmonic patterns. 'I enjoy the nuanced transformation attainable through dealing with harmony: alterations from within the sound which cannot be identified as emanating from one particular element, or line, but gradually alter the nature of the overall sonority each time. The focus upon the global, the whole, allows deeper inspection of everything else.' Performers inclu…
Radi d'or
A composed piece for small ensemble of instruments and live electronics. ÔRadi d'Or' uses shifting sinetones alongside sustained sounds from the acoustic instruments to create a shimmering music that unfolds slowly with gracefully. Composed in 2010, this recording is of the first public performance by the Ferran Fages Ensemble, which took place in Barcelona in February 2011: Olga Abalos (flute and alto saxophone), Lali Barrière (sinetones), Tom Chant (soprano and tenor saxophones), Ferran Fages …
Variable formations
Johnny Chang (viola), Angharad Davies (violin), Jamie Drouin (electronics), Phil Durrant (electronics), Lee Patterson (amplified objects), John Tilbury (piano).In February 2013 the Berlin-based musician Johnny Chang, who is a member of the Wandelweiser collective, visited London as part of a short tour along with his some-time playing partner Jamie Drouin, the Canadian musician and artist who had recently moved to Berlin. The duo constructed an installation at the Soundfjord gallery in Tottenham…
Rows
The return of the Swedish-based ensemble Skogen, after the success of their previous CD 'Ist gefallen in den Schnee'. This time the ensemble interpret a piece by Anders Dahl to produce what is, in the composer's words, 'the simplest twelve tone music possible'. With Magnus Granberg, Angharad Davies, Toshimaru Nakamura, Ko Ishikawa, Anna Lindal, Henrik Olsson, Petter wastberg and Erik Carlsson
Variations
First solo work from Christoph Schiller for spinet, amplified objects and piano. Christoph uses a simple but brilliant structure which combines improvised pieces in a unique chain-like pattern of repetition and development
Cantor Quartets
Antoine Beuger composed his ‘Cantor Quartets’ in 2003. There are 15 pages in the score, four of which are presented on this double CD. Each page contains four lines with seven notes each, all of which should be played gently and for a long or very long duration. Instrumentation is unspecified, and the notes can be played in any octave. Formally the piece is constructed a bit like a round such as ‘Row, row, row your boat’, in that Player A plays the first line as a solo, then when he/she moves o…
Wandelweiser und so weiter
Available again, Wandelweiser und so weiter' is a 6-CD box set with 8 hours of music by a wide range of composers in or around the Wandelweiser collective. The box brings together previously unissued works by the most well-known composers in the Wandelweiser collective (Michael Pisaro, Antoine Beuger, Radu Malfatti and Manfred Werder), pieces by other Wandelweiser composers (Johnny Chang, Sam Sfirri, Eva-Maria Houben, Stefan Thut, Taylan Susam), as well as music by other composers whose wo…
Cartridge Music
Cartridge Music was composed in 1960 and is one of Cage’s earliest attempts to produce live electronic music. Sounds are produced using cartridges from record players. Performers insert different objects into the opening of a cartridge, and manipulate them in a variety of ways (scraping, touching, striking etc) so that the sound of the object is picked up by the cartridge and then fed to an amplifier and speaker. The choice of objects and means of manipulation are left entir…
Inframince / Immensity
Michael Thieke (clarinet) and Olivier Toulemonde (acoustic objects) : 'Inframince'. Lucio Capece (bass clarinet & preparations) & Jamie Drouin (analogue synthesizer & radio) : 'Immensity'. The Inframince / Immensity split CD is the first in a series of discs exploring the work of musicians based in Berlin, a city which has been one of the most vibrant centres for improvised and contemporary music since the 1960's. The alternative music scene there is now huge, and musicians from all aroun…
Temperament as Waveform
Long-awaited duo, assembled over a period of two years as a result of file exchanges between Manchester UK and Austin Texas between 2010 an 2012. Four tracks of powerful electro-acoustic composition from two like-minded musicians who have never met in person. 'This fascinating album manifests both the frustration and invention that can emerge from inter-continental collaboration. It is an album of sacrifice one that subsumes existent tendencies into the creation of a whole beyond individual ide…