★Tzadik
Light Upon Light
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist, improviser and theoretician, Wadada Leo Smith is one of the most important composers of our time. An original member of Chicago's AACM, his exciting pieces blending composition and mprovisation have been performed by many of the world's most important ensembles and soloists. Featuring an exotic composition for chamber ensemble and gamelan quartet, a beautiful solo piece for viola, a bass concerto written for virtuoso Bert Tu…
Luminous Axis (The Caravans Of Winter And Summer)
A relentless musical innovator since his early days in the Chicago AACM, Wadada Leo Smith is one of the most consistently creative composer/performers in new music. In his sixth Tzadik release he once again explores new territory, bringing six absolute masters of live electronics together to perform some of Wadada's most adventurous and colorful compositions. Including a large, sprawling work for four laptops and trumpet, and two dynamic duets with legendary laptop pioneer Ikue Mori, Luminous Ax…
TZ 7038
Gisburg's newest Tzadik recording couples two masterful compositions onto one disc. Her heartfelt opera for solo voice about the ups and downs of doomed and obsessive love is one of her most personal and striking compositional statements to date, a powerful combination of stark emotional content, minimalist melody and narrative charm. "Anna" shows Gisburg's profound command of classic instrumental writing - a lush and dramatic string quartet performed by the brilliant Cassatt Quartet.
Tunnel - Funnel
Daniel Goode (1936), composer and clarinetist, was born in New York, studied philosophy, and then music with Henry Cowell, Otto Luening, Pauline Oliveros and Kenneth Gaburo. He is director of the Electronic Music Studio of Rutgers University, and co-director of the DownTown Ensemble, which he co-founded in New York in 1983. Tunnel-Funnel, composed in 1985 is one of his most ambitious and exhilarating works. It was premiered in 1988 by the DownTown Ensemble conducted by David Gilbert, repeated at…
Flying Sparks and Heavy Machinery
Annie Gosfield's second amazing CD for Tzadik takes acoustic and electric music into dynamic new realms. Factory sounds…improvisation…lush sonorities…junk percussion…twangy guitars…classic minimalism…delicate harmonics…odd drones…rock…sirens…string quartets…driving rhythms…ambients…noise…complex structures…jack hammers and more from one of downtown's most interesting composers.
O Little Town Of East New York
Shelley Hirsch is a marvelous performer with remarkable vocal talents, charm and a wicked sense of humor. She is one of the best-knownimprovisers of the Downtown New York City scene, performing with virtually every major experimental artist in New York and Europe, but has thus far released only two albums of her own music (both released only in Europe). An award-winning radio play and Hirsch's most ambitious work, O Little Town Of East New York is a semi-autobiographical musical suite about grow…
Memories Are My Only Witness
A beautiful CD of quirky instrumentals from the hip mind of Yuka Honda, co-founder of the pop band Cibo Matto. Combining a wry sense of humor with wit, elegance and impeccable taste, Yuka’s charming instrumental miniatures cross all musical borders hypnotizing you with funky breakbeats, heartfelt melodies and nostalgic soundscapes. Recorded at her home studio and featuring longtime associates Duma Love, Timo Ellis, Bill Ware and Dougie Bowne, this is a breakthrough project for Yuka Honda, who is…
Riff and Transfiguration
It is truly an honor for Tzadik to release on its Composer Series a CD of music by Lee Hyla, one of America's most important composers of concert music. Concentrating on his dynamic music for piano, this exciting CD presents a fascinating sextet for hammered dulcimer, clarinet, piano and strings, and three solo piano compositions performed by Stephen Drury, Mia Chung and Judith Gordon, three of today's most acclaimed virtuosos. An exciting adventure into a new world of sound, space and texture f…
Songbird Suite
Born in California, raised in Texas and a New York resident since 1989, Susie Ibarra has become one of the most distinctive drummers in the world. Her latest project is a supergroup that crosses all borders. Driving rhythms and moody atmospheres are shaded with romance, lyricism and mystery. Featuring Susie’s exotic percussion, the classical violin of virtuoso Jennifer Choi, Craig Taborn’s angular pianistic fireworks and laptop electronics pioneer Ikue Mori, Songbird Suite is a delicate and comp…
Kuchinoha
Makigami Koichi is the leader of one of Japan's longest running underground bands, Hikashu, which has evolved from an electronic pop band to embrace world music, improvisation, noise and other styles. Makigami has recorded two previous albums on his own, including the star-studded, Zorn-produced Koroshi No Blues, a much sought-after import on Toshiba-EMI Japan. He has performed with Derek Bailey and Yamatsuka Eye, and is also the organizer of the monthly Tokyo performance of John Zorn's improvis…
Transmigrations: Gilgul
A unique fusion of traditional Yiddish song with country blues, rock and reggae by Kerouac-inspired cult hero Wolf Krakowski. Recorded in 1995 and originally available in a limited edition on his own label, Transmigrations: Gilgul is a soulful contemporary reading of Jewish folk and theater songs mixing the Old World with the New. Yiddish world-beat soul that will delight both young and old.
Goyrl: Destiny
In his dramatic follow-up to Transmigrations: Gilgul, Wolf Krakowski weaves unique and heartfelt world-beat soul stylings with Yiddish folk, theatre and pop songs to create a compelling international downtown sound rooted in the blues, country-rock, tango, reggae and native mameloshn. Produced by Frank London, this contemporary classic is the very embodiment of Old World meets the New.
Endless Shout
One of the world's leading composer/performers presents a dynamic collection of his most important recent works. Professor, musical scholar, author, composer, virtuoso trombonist and computer music genius George Lewis has been a major name in new music since the mid '70s, having worked with just about everyone you can imagine, but his recorded output has been all too rare. This first release for Tzadik highlights the wide variety of his compositional approaches, with music for creative music orc…
Feeds You!
Another eclectic rock/pop band out of the infamous Kansai scene that produced the Boredoms, Omoide Hatoba and more. This exciting young three piece unit based in Kyoto presents their debut recording after years of playing in just about every small club from Tokyo to Fukuoka. Visceral power pieces offset with charming female vocals, pointillism and dub effects. Striking originality and a childlike curiosity point this band towards a new Kyoto rock sound.
Invocations
Trumpeter Frank London (Klezmatics, Hasidic New Wave) presents his most intimate and personal work to date, evoking the passionate, imploring voices of the great cantorial virtuosos Rosenblatt, Sirota and Kamiol. Recorded live in the Community Synagogue in the heart of the Lower East Side, Invocations is a soulful collection of classic hazonos, scored for trumpet solo, harmoniums, glass harmonica and bass. A lush and beautiful contemporary reading of an ancient yet under-appreciated Jewish tradi…
Streets of Lost Brothers
Another brilliant collection of scintillating originals and Jewish classics from the unique and twisted mind of guitar madman Gary Lucas. Gary’s first release for Tzadik was a delightful and uproarious collection for children. With Street of Lost Brothers, Gary has turned to the dark side. Dances, dirges and doinas for Gary’s versatile touring band, with special guest appearances by insane vocalists Kenny and Larry, sax squealer John Zorn and Walter Horn.
How I Spent My Vacation
A veteran of New York's downtown scene, founding member of the infamous Lounge Lizards and a gifted composer, arranger and pianist, Evan Lurie has been the composer of choice for dozens of directors over the past ten years, adding a new dimension to dozens of film classics from Roberto Benini's Il Diccolo Diavolo and Il Mostro to Cindy Sherman's Office Killer. For his first Tzadik release he has assembled an eclectic collection of some of his favorite film scores, all of which appear on CD here …
Faux-Jumeaux
Four startling studio compositions by an extraordinary young French composer. Born in 1980, Pierre Yves-Macé began as an improviser, played in jazz-rock prog bands, studied classically, accompanied dance classes and has composed electronic music for theater, dance and the martial arts. Faux-Jumeaux, his first CD release, brings the aesthetics of French romanticism into a head-on collision with sampling technology, electro-acoustics and minimalism. A lyrical, adventurous mix of styles and sounds,…
MxBx 1998 / 13,000 miles at light velocity
Melt Banana is the defining band of New Japanese Hardcore and it is taking America by storm. Their songs combine compositional complexity and improvisational noise with the power of a locomotive going full blast through a brick wall. Recorded during their tour of the States in 1998, MxBx 1998 / 13,000 Miles At Light Velocity captures this band in a blazing fury that will leave you breathless. An astonishing performance by one of Japan’s most innovative, personal and influential independent bands…
Before The Law
Raz Mesinai is one of the most respected young musicians in New York’s burgeoning underground electronica scene. His unique approach utilizes samples of acoustic instruments performing his original compositions, electronics of his own design, computers and occasionally his dynamic percussion work. His latest project is inspired by the hermetic Jewish writer Franz Kafka whose influential work views the Jewish experience through a mystical, almost Kabbalistic lens. A complex and multifaceted CD of…