Composition / Avant-Garde

Edition Musikfabrik: Brian Ferneyhough's Finis Terrae (with EXAUDI), Klaus Lang's The Ocean of Yes and No, Carola Bauckholt's Schlammflocke and Jorge E. López's Gonzales the Earth Eater, first recordings by Ensemble Musikfabrik under four conductors.

Edition Musikfabrik vol. 5: Baltakas's (co)ro(na), Saunders's cinnabar with Juditha Haeberlin and Marco Blaauw, Lindberg's Joy and Xenakis's Thalleïn, recorded live by Ensemble Musikfabrik in Cologne, 2004-2006.

Edition Musikfabrik vol. 4: works for soloist and ensemble by Michael Jarrell, Stefano Gervasoni, Joël-François Durand and Brian Ferneyhough, with Hae-Sun Kang, Michael Tiepold, Helen Bledsoe and Omar Ebrahim; conductors Masson, Siebens, Wood.

Edition Musikfabrik vol. 3: Martin Smolka's Rush (Hour in Celestial Streets), Mauricio Kagel's Orchestrion-Straat and Louis Andriessen's Racconto dall'Inferno with Cristina Zavalloni, conducted by Peter Rundel and Reinbert de Leeuw.

Edition Musikfabrik vol. 2: Rebecca Saunders's a visible trace, Mauro Lanza's Vesperbild, Nicolaus A. Huber's Music on Canvas and Bernd Alois Zimmermann's film music Metamorphose, played by Ensemble Musikfabrik under Rundel, Siebens and Masson.

Karlheinz Stockhausen's Amour (1974/76), Der kleine Harlekin (1975) and Wochenkreis from Montag aus Licht (1986/88), played by clarinettist and basset horn player Michele Marelli with Antonio Pérez Abellán on synthesizer, recorded in March 2013.

All eighteen of György Ligeti's Études pour piano in three books (from 1985), played by Thomas Hell in a recording by Deutschlandradio Kultur.

Piano music by George Antheil, mostly written in Berlin in 1922-23, including the Airplane, Death of Machines and Jazz sonatas, many in first recordings, played by Guy Livingston with Philippe Keler and Stéphane Leach.

John Cage's Two3 (1991), one of his late Number Pieces for shō and five water-filled conch shells, performed by Wu Wei (sheng, conch shells) and Stefan Hussong (accordion, conch shells) over two CDs.

György Ligeti's organ works Volumina, Harmonies and Coulée, with Musica ricercata arranged for organ, plus Dominik Susteck's improvisations Sprachsignale, played by Susteck on the organ of the Kunst-Station Sankt Peter, Cologne.

Rolf Riehm's Hamamuth - Stadt der Engel for piano (2005) and Wer sind diese Kinder for piano, orchestra in three groups and electronics (2009), with Nicolas Hodges and the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg under Beat Furrer.

Late and previously unknown works for player piano by Conlon Nancarrow, including Study No. 48 for two superimposed rolls and For Ligeti, recorded on the composer's own instruments; a co-production of WDR and the Paul Sacher Stiftung.

Soprano Claudia Böttcher and pianist Jovita Zähl perform Stockhausen's Tierkreis (soprano and piano version) and Klavierstück IX and Berio's Sequenza III and Quattro Canzoni popolari, recorded in Cologne in 2011-2012.

Piano music by Morton Feldman from 1950 to 1977, from the Intermissions and Nature Pieces to Last Pieces and Piano, played by Sabine Liebner on two CDs, a coproduction with Bayerischer Rundfunk.

Trombonist and tubist Mike Svoboda plays Scelsi's Mantram, Cage's Solo for Sliding Trombone in a version for eight trombones, Stockhausen's Signale zur Invasion and Nono's Post-prae-ludium per Donau with Holger Stenschke on live electronics.

First CD recording of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Tierkreis in the version for organ, played by Dominik Susteck on the Willy Peter organ of St. Peter, Cologne, with four of his own improvisations.

Works by Conlon Nancarrow for orchestra, ensemble and pianos, including Player Piano Studies in live transcriptions, plus Paul Usher's Nancarrow Concerto for pianola, with Ensemble Modern, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln and Rex Lawson, WDR production 2004-2005.

Early works by Valentin Silvestrov (1965-1977): Spectrums, Symphony No. 2, Cantata, Meditation and Farewell, O World...!, conducted by Igor Blazhkov in concert and studio recordings from Leningrad and Kiev, 1965-1991.

Five chamber works by Rebecca Saunders, four in first recordings, including blaauw for double-bell trumpet, vermilion and Stirrings Still, played by soloists of Ensemble Musikfabrik in coproduction with DeutschlandRadio.

Works for cello by John Cage from 1953 to 1978, including Solo for Cello, 59 1/2 Seconds for a String Player, Atlas Eclipticalis for two cellos, Variations I and Etudes Boréales, played by Friedrich Gauwerky, coproduced with Bayerischer Rundfunk.

Live recording of Dieter Schnebel's Orchestra, symphonic music for mobile musicians, at his 70th birthday concert on 14 March 2000 at the Universität der Künste Berlin, played by students and teachers under three central conductors.

Seven percussion works by Vinko Globokar, including Toucher for a speaking percussionist, ?Corporel for body percussion and Ombre with tape and rhythm machine, played by Matthias Kaul, a coproduction with Deutschlandfunk.

Five piano sonatas by George Antheil from 1923 to 1950, three in first recordings (the Third, Fifth and Woman Sonata), played by Guy Livingston on a Fazioli piano, recorded in Paris in July 2003.

Harry Partch's The Wayward (Barstow, San Francisco, The Letter, U.S. Highball), hobo texts set for voices and Partch's own instruments, played by Newband under Dean Drummond, recorded in New York in December 1999.

Thirteen of Morton Feldman's graphic scores, 1950-67, played by the Barton Workshop and soloists including Frank Denyer and Taco Kooistra, with first recordings of several ensemble works. Volume 9 of Mode's Feldman Edition.

Feldman works for voices and instruments from 1949 to 1971, three of them first recordings, including Journey to the End of Night, The O’Hara Songs and Four Instruments, played by The Barton Workshop.

Feldman's indeterminate works: the complete Projections and Durations series on one disc, the first recording of Two Pieces for Six Instruments, and The Straits of Magellan, played by pianist Philipp Vandré and the Turfan Ensemble.

Charles Ives's shorter piano pieces, from Study No. 20 to the Three Quarter-tone Pieces for Two Pianos, played by Herbert Henck with Deborah Richards. Recorded July 1984 at the Bayerischer Rundfunk, Munich.

The first complete recording of Luciano Berio's Sequenzas for solo instruments, with the alternate versions and nine further solo works, on four CDs with verses by Edoardo Sanguineti and a 104-page book.

Two string quartets by John Cage played by the Arditti Quartet: String Quartet in Four Parts (1949-50), in a new recording, and Four (1989), a first recording written for the ensemble. Composer-supervised sessions.

Herbert Henck plays John Cage's Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano and his own improvised Festeburger Fantasien (two series), recorded at the Festeburgkirche, Frankfurt, in August 1993 and August 2000.

Heiner Goebbels' Walden (1998) for expanded orchestra and speaker, after Thoreau. Ensemble Modern Orchestra conducted by Peter Eötvös, with Bob Rutman as speaker, singer and on steel cello and bow chimes. Recorded live in November 1998 in Cologne and Frankfurt.

Works for solo double bass, two basses and eight basses by Stefano Scodanibbio, played by Daniele Roccato, Giacomo Piermatti and the Ludus Gravis ensemble under Tonino Battista; recorded February-March 2014 in Perugia and Rome.

First complete set of Iannis Xenakis's percussion works on three CDs: sextets, duos and solos, including Persephassa, Pléïades, Psappha, Kassandra and Rebonds, played by Steven Schick and the ensemble red fish blue fish.

The Keller Quartett plays György Ligeti's String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2 with the Molto adagio from Samuel Barber's String Quartet op. 11 between them. Recorded June 2007 and October 2011 at Radio Studio DRS, Zürich.

Elliott Carter's one-act opera What Next? (libretto by Paul Griffiths), recorded live at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, in September 2000, and his Asko Concerto (Hilversum, 2001), with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra conducted by Peter Eötvös.

Aki Takahashi plays Giacinto Scelsi's piano works in 2005 recordings, mostly pieces she prepared with the composer, including the Quattro Illustrazioni depicting the incarnations of Vishnu.

Two Scelsi piano works played by Stephen Clarke: the first recording of the 1930 Suite No. 2 and Action Music (1955), in the second volume of Mode's Scelsi Edition devoted to the piano.

Giacinto Scelsi's music for woodwinds, mostly from the 1950s, for solo clarinet, flute and duos with oboe and piccolo, played by Carol Robinson, who worked with the composer, with Clara Novakova and Cathy Milliken.

Four pieces for cello and pipe organ by Thomas Demenga (cello) and Heinz Reber (organ), recorded digitally in October 1980 at the Pauluskirche in Bern and produced by Manfred Eicher; first released by ECM in 1981.