★Die Schachtel
Chamber Rites
Chamber rites is an encounter based on sharing emotions, on audio-visual exchange, on the practice of radical improvisation, characterized by a location or context, of which we define a part of its mobile architecture. Ours is a ritual whose coordinates – spatial, temporal and performative – are traced by signs, at the same time enigmatic and visible, sedimented in time” (Fabrizio Casti and Elio Martusciello, 2015)Fabrizio Casti is an italian experimental music composer that operates also in acu…
Null I - VII
Epic in scale, static, timbre and stillness, "Null" is a vast and profound music project that Luigi Archetti has been pursuing over a longer period. His musical research is not about Null (the German word for zero) as a mathematical object, as a real number. Instead, the term Null (zero) is used here as a metaphor in order to describe a state of pausing and anticipatory waiting. The music in project NULL is characterised by static sounds, by drones and their overlapping and layering. The sound s…
Null IV - VII
**2x double CD set and outer box**Epic in scale, static, timbre and stillness, "Null" is a vast and profound music project that Luigi Archetti has been pursuing over a longer period. His musical research is not about ‘Null’ (the German word for zero) as a mathematical object, as a real number. Instead, the term ‘Null’ (zero) is used here as a metaphor in order to describe a state of pausing and anticipatory waiting. The music in project NULL is characterised by static sounds, by drones and their…
Dimensioni
Another welcomed return in our Zeit Series - his 2010 Neuma Q being one of the best received titles in the series - Osvaldo Coluccino presents a collection of his early (1997-2007) electroacoustic pieces. From the dark drones of Dimensioni (interspersed with the treated voice of Jacques Lacan) to the treated percussions of Nell'attimo, to the acousmatic brilliance of Dal margine, this CD is a journey into the brilliant head and the complex soul of one of the most interesting Italian cont…
Landscape with Tears
At his third release for our Zeit Composer Series, the talented Italian flute player Manuel Zurria has given birth to some of the most heartbreaking music ever published by Die Schachtel. A moving and incredibly clever transcription for flutes, glass and electronics of John Dowland's 1604 masterwork Lachrimae functions as the thread between a stunning and totally rewarding series of pieces by György Kurtag, Peter Eötvos, Gavin Bryars, Mary Jane Leach, Howard Skempton, closing on a composit…
Prati Bagnati del Monte Analogo
Limited repress LP edition. Originally published in 1979 by the legendary Gianni Sassi's Cramps Records label, as part of a series curated by Franco Battiato, the long-awaited "Prati Bagnati del Monte Analogo" has finally made available by Die Schachtel in a repackaged deluxe edition (both LP and CD), fully remastered (by Giuseppe Ielasi) from the original Cramps tapes, and complete with 3 extra tracks (in the CD edition) dug from Francesco Messina's archives.
Produced by Franco Battiato…
Frammenti da Antico Adagio
Antico Adagio was originally intended to be a double album, but was eventually scaled back to a single disc, and this is the unreleased album from the 1978 session. Before an aberrant idea of progress and workaholic ethic ludicrously sped up our daily lives, even in the hectic city of Milan it was possible to “play slowly” – with no pressure, simply following the path your art was showing you. After a classic artistic journey and an experimental stint with Aktuala and other brilliant fel…
Musical Sculptures & Other Devices
A sonic journey into John Cage and surroundings by renowned Italian composer Agostino di Scipio and his talented students. On December 9th, 2012, upon invitation from the Associazione Scarlatti, Agostino di Scipio and his students at the San Pietro a Majella Conservatory gave a performance of a very rare piece -- John Cage's Sculptures Musicales. The performance was planned out by Dario Sanfilippo, based on the few annotations left by Cage (which in turn followed an idea Cage took from Ma…
Con brio - musica acusmatica
Francesco Giomi is one of the most active Italian composers in the field of acousmatic music. Over the years, he has also collaborated as sound director and live performer with Luciano Berio and other important composers and directors, as well as Italian and international orchestras and ensembles. He has conducted the live electronics group Tempo Reale (the musical research center established by Berio) in theaters and festivals all over the world. He teaches Electronic Music at the Music …
Dissonanzen
When, back in 2013, we were asked by the Ensemble Dissonanzen to publish a massive retrospective edition of some of their most representative works, to celebrate their 20th anniversary, we knew it would have been a challenge. We were – and are – quite conscious of the fact that the work of an all-acoustic New Music ensemble with a heavy dose of improvisation may appear out of place within the Die Schachtel's catalogue that. although eclectic, is more biased towards electronic/experimental …
Vibractions, 1978 - 2012
Vibractions, a sound installation and performance by Ferruccio Ascari, was conceived and created in 1978 within a program of sound installations organized by the center for visual arts Sixto/Notes (hich included site-specific works by Giuseppe Chiari, John Duncan, Walter Marchetti, Gianni Emilio Simonetti, along with contributions by representatives of the most radical researches of those years: Ant Farm, BDR Ensemble, Chris Burden, Paul Mc Carthy, Fredrick Nilsen, Barbara Smith, and Demetrio St…
Imagination at play. Prix Italia and Radiophonic Experimentation
Finally restocked! After five years of intense, passionate and sometimes painful work Die Schachtel (in collaboration with RAI) is proud to announce the release of the long-awaited massive Book (Edited by Angela Ida de Benedictis and Maddalena Novati) with 6CDs boxed edition dedicated to some of the most compelling Italian radio works which took part in the prestigious Prix Italia, a world-famous contest established by the RAI (the National Italian broadcasting company) in the early Sixties and …
Critical Path
Martino Traversa is a renowned Italian composer who studied at Salzburg’s Mozarteum, at the CCRMA at Stanford University and with Luigi Nono from 1987 to 1989. The CD “Critical_Path” presents for the first time ever a selection of his electronic music works, composed between 2000 and 2008.Beside being a prolific composer, Martino is a very active cultural promoter: he founded the Ensemble Edgard Varèse in 1990, with Luigi Nono's support; in 1991 he launched "Traiettorie", a highly-reputed intern…
Null II & Null III
Null II and Null III are the second and third part of the well-known Italian/Swiss composer’s massive electronic work on the theme of “nothing” (Null), whose first part saw the light with the 2010 Die Schachtel “Null” edition in ZeitComposers series.In this pieces Archetti’s thick sound drones borders on the edge of tonality as their many layers develop with a sort of “geological” pace. The work is in fact intended as a musical research on the “interior” of sound, obtained by large masses of sou…
En
One of the very few female composer of early electronic music, Franca Sacchi studied at the well known RAI Studio of Fonologia in Milan in the 60s. She developed the “En-static” principle, which included improvisation, electronic music, ritual, performance, teaching and meditation. Her music focuses mainly on sound, which is treated as raw material and endlessly explored. Sacchi's free concept of duration and deep emotional feel brings her closer to Eliane Radigue and La Monte Young, especially …
Nuove Proposte Sonore 1965 - 1972
The NPS - Nuove proposte Sonore (New Sound Proposals) Group was founded in Padua (Italy) in 1964 by the composer Teresa Rampazzi together with the visual artist Ennio Chiggio. Working with analogical devices they produced some of the most compelling electronic music of the period, and they soon became one of the most reputed electronic music centers in Italy, together with the S 2 FM by Pietro Grossi in Florence and the SMET by Enore Zaffiri in Turin. With the departure of Chiggio, the years 196…
Prove di Empty Words, Milano, Teatro Lirico 1977
A very special Die Schachtel art edition, a fine art print on Baryta FB, Hahnemühle, sized cm. 30 x 40 in edition of 15 copies, numbered and signed by the author. Photo taken during the rehearsal of "Empty Words", a Cage's milestone performance which took place at Teatro Lirico in Milan on December 2nd, 1977. The composer sitting at a small school desk, reading words and phonemes taken from diary of H.D.T. with the help of a small light. Empty Words is a long text derived from the journals of H…
Joy Flashings
A joyful product of mutual understanding between these two outstanding composers, described by Manuel Zurria in the booklet with the following words: "Philip Corner gave me the key to enter a secret and wonderful room, full of fabulous things and made me discover a part of me I did not know." Much more than a journey through sound, this work is a reflection on our modern world and the role played by music and soundscapes. It's a journey through traditional instruments and modern technique…
Entelechy
the second full-length album by the experimental/free-jazz quartet 7k Oaks, live recorded in concert at the InterAct Festival in Hasselt. This new release is at the same time a confirmation of their musical background as well as an exploration of new territories: about an hour of full-blast energy, with a variety of directions ranging from walls of electro-acoustic noise to free-jazz bursts, hypnotic rythmic patterns and lyrical melodic themes. It is the entelechy of …
Death by Water
This is a four-handed musique concrète composition by electroacoustic Italian composers Fabio Selvafiorita and Valerio Tricoli. This single-track piece was conceived and realized between Milan and the Giudecca Island, in Venice, which is the location of the field recordings and reel-to-reel tape treatments. The work stresses and questions the dramatic and alchemical potential of a musical landscape marked by water: visceral and metaphysical at the same time, full of narrative suggestions. …