Composition / Extended Voices

Limbo, by Viktoriia Vitrenko, is a vocal journey exploring liminality through music, inspired by Maria Kalesnikava and composed amid pandemic and war. It blends diverse vocal styles, bridging personal and universal experiences of waiting and uncertainty.

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

As a development of the work done by “I lost myself in finding you”, the trio of Rasha Ragab, Christoph Nicolaus and Lucio Capece is joined by cellist Judith Hamann. In this Quartet piece Capece created the structure, time line and the tones combinations, taking as a departure point the tuning of one specific Stone Harp, that takes the group into a carefully calibrated microtonal tuning. The piece is a slow  conversation, alternating long tones and overtones, repeated sequences of multiphonics, …

1991 release ** How well early, full notated, Cage is standing the test of time, especially the works for prepared piano and for percussion. The Perilous Night is a 12-minute prepared piano piece completed two years before Cage started his classic Sonatas and Interludes. The Perilous Night, which uses fairly elaborate preparations, is nothing like so well known, although included on Jeanne Kirstein's important 1970 CBS double LP. The connection between Cage and Jasper Johns was re-emphasized whe…

1990 release ** "Beautifully performed pieces from 1942 to 1985 by vocalist Joan LaBarbara with piano and percussion. Contains: A Flower (1950), Mirakus (1984), Eight Whiskus (1984), The Wonderful Widow of 18 Springs (1942) for voice and closed piano, Nowth upon Nacht (1984), Sonnekus (1985), Forever and Sunsmell (1942), Solos for Voice (from the Songbooks) #'s 49, 52, 67 (1970), Music for Two (by One) (1984)."

Katharina Rosenberger's Tempi Agitati, a vocal work for Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart that sets Petrarch's texts alongside madrigals by Willaert and Rore, using extended vocal techniques. Complete Petrarch texts are included.

Three long-form works from Joan La Barbara's first decade of recordings, with new stereo and surround mixes from the analogue tapes: As Lightning Comes In Flashes (1981), Autumn Signal (1978) and the previously unreleased CYCLONE (1976-77).

Six first recordings for solo percussion by Luis Tabuenca, each named after a work by Paul Klee, played acoustically with no electronics beyond amplification, with liner notes by Steven Schick.

Five first recordings of works by composer and harpist Anne LeBaron, 1975-1986, including Lamentation/Invocation, Rite of the Black Sun, Planxty Bowerbird, Noh Reflections and Concerto for Active Frogs, played by the New Music Consort and others.

Vocal works by Luciano Berio, among them Folk Songs, Sequenza III, Chamber Music, O King and Circles, sung by Christine Schadeberg with Musicians Accord, reissued with the first recording of Quattro Canzoni Popolari.

Portrait CD of Benjamin Scheuer: Impulsive Lieder, Sprachmaschine, Vier Attrappen, Regal and Lachtherapie, performed by Andreas Fischer and ensemble, Vanessa Porter, Schola Heidelberg under Walter Nußbaum, ensemble risonanze erranti and Nikolai Rosenberg.

Two duos with piano by composer Eric Wubbels: Field of Action, made with Charmaine Lee on voice, microphones and electronics, and contraposition for trombonist Weston Olencki and prepared piano.

Jerome Kitzke (b. 1955) has described himself as being as much a storyteller as a composer, and that description makes sense. Throughout his music there is a strong dramatic, narrative, theatrical component. Performers shout, sing, move and dance, often as though possessed by the music. An obvious ancestor here is Harry Partch, and though Kitzke’s music does not use just intonation, it projects that “corporeal“ quality that this predecessor valued as essential.The pieces on this disc make for in…

Chaya Czernowin's HIDDEN for string quartet and electronics (JACK Quartet, IRCAM) and Adiantum Capillus-Veneris for voice and breath (Inbal Hever), first recordings made in Cologne on 11-13 April 2016 at Deutschlandfunk's Forum neuer Musik.

Dieter Schnebel's MOVIMENTO for musicians in motion (2015), performed by the AG Neue Musik of the Leininger-Gymnasium Grünstadt under Silke Egeler-Wittmann (SWR, 2016), with Gesums - Geknarrt from Schulmusik recorded in 1985 under Manfred Peters.

Choral works by Heinz Holliger: Shir Shavur on David Rokeah, Psalm, hölle himmel and Rosa Loui on Kurt Marti, and Utopie Chorklang; SWR Vokalensemble under Marcus Creed and Holliger, recorded 2006-2015, mostly first recordings.

Martin Smolka's choral works Poema de balcones (Lorca), Walden, the Distiller of Celestial Dews (Thoreau, with percussion) and Słone i smutne (Różewicz), sung by the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart under Marcus Creed.

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.

Portrait of the Ukrainian-born composer Anna Korsun with five works from 2011-2017 for organ, guitar, voices, ensemble and objects, with Korsun as soprano, Dominik Susteck, Flavio Virzì, Looptail and members of Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart.

Hildegard of Bingen's sung morality play Ordo Virtutum (c. 1150) in a free, contemporary-minded arrangement by Dietburg Spohr for the Ensemble Belcanto, recorded October 2010 at the Festeburgkirche, Frankfurt am Main.

Chamber and vocal works by Heinz Holliger: Puneigä (soprano Sylvia Nopper), Induuchlen (countertenor Kai Wessel, horn Olivier Darbellay), Toronto-Exercises and Ma'mounia, with the Swiss Chamber Soloists under Holliger. Recorded 2006-2010.

First album by Marco Ambrosini's Ensemble Supersonus (nyckelharpa, kannel, overtone voice and harp, jew's harp, harpsichord and square piano): early music, folk, Ottoman and original pieces. Recorded November 2015, Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI, Lugano; produced by Manfred Eicher.