Angelus Novus
*2021 stock* Angelus novus is the third opera by Madrid composer Jorge Fernández Guerra. This time, he draws on a selection of texts by Walter Benjamin, which he uses to create a dialogue of sorts between a male character and a female character, who could be an alter ego or perhaps an angel.
The dialogue appears to transpire during the final moments of the character’s life, which may be reminiscent of Benjamin’s final moments at the Spanish border as he fled the Nazis.
Angelus novus premiered a…
Improvisaciones
*2020 stock* The double CD Improvisaciones is an homage to the Iberian baroque organ. Germán Valverde Usano’s music reminds one of the rich music tradition of the autonomous community of Castile and León as well as its rich cultural heritage with over 100 conserved Iberian baroque organs. The recordings took place in 2016 in San Agustín in Capillas not far from the capital city Palencia (Spain).
Germán Valverde Usano’s passion for the Iberian organ as well as his extraordinary musical talent are…
De Puro Amor & En Amor Duro
*2021 stock* What is one to make of Maria de Alvear’s two long solos for piano, De puro amor (‘Of pure love’) and En amor duro (‘In hard love’), both composed in 1991. The scores themselves, if one decides to start from here, are completely perplexing. Pages and pages are marked with hastily scratched notes, sometimes repeating themselves dozens of times. Little priority seems to have been given to rhythm, dynamics or articulation; even less to the notational conventions such as barlines, spacin…
Preludes: Books 1 & 2
Claude Debussy's two books of Preludes played by Argentine pianist Haydée Schvartz, on 2CD with bonus tracks including a song with baritone Bryan Church. Awarded the 2021 Premio Gardel for Best Classical Album.
KRAFFT
KRAFFT for orchestra was composed in 2016 as a commission of the French State, and was premiered in Paris and Marseille, France. The composition has a similar kind of metric structure as String Quartet No.3: all instruments play in rhythmic unison throughout. KRAFFT is an ironic-onomatopoetic wrong spelling of the German term "Kraft", meaning "power" or "force". The listener should feel exposed to a sonic undertow. The notion of huge power and force is often connected to the existence of clandes…
Guitars
Taku Sugimoto is a Tokyo-based guitarist and composer. Improvisation is one aspect of his work, but currently his main activities are composing and performing composed pieces (including those of other composers). He continues his global and concentrated interaction with composers from around the world, particularly those closely connected with Wandelweiser. Ftarri had previously released two albums under Sugimoto's name alone—Septet (2015) and Quintets: Berlin, San Diego (2017). On both CDs, his…
Percussion Works
Four percussion works by Australian composer Thomas Meadowcroft, 2000-2011, played by Speak Percussion: The Great Knot, Cradles, Plain Moving Landfill and Home Organs, using junk and domestic instruments such as electric organs and drum machines.
Louange à l’Éternité de Jésus (from Quatuor pour la fin du temps) - 10"
Louange à l'éternité de Jésus is the fifth movement for cello and piano from Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time), adapted here for cello and organ. It was composed while Messiaen was a prisoner of war in Stalag VIII-A, Görlitz, Germany, and first performed with other detained musicians inside the Nazi camp in January 1941. Inspired by the Book of Revelation, this music invokes the composers vision of "immutable peace", in its infinitely slow, ecstatic pa…
Baobab
Co-released with Umland Records, Germany. On one night in 2019, The Dorf (German for "village") took a heavy dose of the music of Phill Niblock. The impact on the musicians, gathering to play a double-length version of Niblock's Baobab and (in a second set) three "Dorf" tunes, was deep. It felt a bit like going to church -- a truly spiritual experience. At first, the audience did not believe the announcement that the "drone" piece would last for 46 minutes. Afterwards, their reactions showed the…
Hyazo
A new album from the trio who released Tse in 2016, and - along with violinist Angharad Davies - Awire in 2018. Three compositions of quiet and delicate beauty, two by Christoph Schiller, and the title track by Cyril Bondi.Cyril Bondi: Indian harmoniumPierre-Yves Martel: viola da gambaChristoph Schiller: spinet
Antifona
Following on from the wonderful "Cantilena", four new chamber works by the Paris-based Italian composer Giuliano d'Angiolini. Performers include Apartment House, Manuel Zurria, Mark Knoop and the composer.
Let Pass My Weary Guiltless Ghost
Let Pass My Weary Guiltless Ghost marks another chapter in Magnus Granberg’s ongoing exploration of the borderlands between improvisation and quietly radical chamber composition. Granberg draws from his background in saxophone and deep engagement with traditions spanning classical, folk, and the avant-garde, establishing a musical language marked by reserved urgency and gentle abstraction, performed by his dedicated ensemble Skogen.
The recording is structured to allow strings, clarinet, piano, …
Fűr Biliana
Ernstalbrecht Stiebler’s Für Biliana unfolds as a quietly powerful study in sustained resonance and tactile silence, brought to life with understated virtuosity by Biliana Voutchkova and her collaborators. Across four compositions - including the eponymous solo piece and “Glissando,” both written for Voutchkova, as well as “Duo 4 / Parallelen” and “Extension für Streichtrio” - Stiebler investigates the possibilities of sonority, repetition, and space in chamber music. His distinctive architectur…
Unfurling
Unfurling introduces a trio where established voices in contemporary experimental music - Angharad Davies, Klaus Lang, and Anton Lukoszevieze - are brought together in an environment shaped as much by deep listening as by compositional foresight. Born out of a residency and recorded during the intense yet open space of a single studio session, the album becomes a portrait of creative trust and shared focus. Throughout the 52-minute performance, each musician both asserts and dissolves their indi…
Approdi 2, Avanguardie Musicali a Napoli - Volume II
**300 copies** Avant-garde and experimental musics are intrinsically connected to community, collectivism, support, and collaboration. Audiences and artists, stretching to every corner of the globe, continuously rely on each other to push into ever more ambitious realms. This spirit of discourse has always been central to the multigenerational contexts of avant-garde and experimental music from Italy. For decades, neglected and over looked by their international peers, the country’s musicians an…
Metamorphoses (Book I) / Five Pieces for Piano
George Crumb's earliest and most recent piano works on one CD: the first recording of Metamorphoses (Book I), ten pieces after famous paintings written for Margaret Leng Tan, and the Five Pieces for Piano (1962).
Sextet & Double Sextet
Steve Reich's Sextet (1984) and the Pulitzer Prize winning Double Sextet (2007) together on one release for the first time, played by the Danish ensemble Ekkozone under percussionist and conductor Mathias Reumert.
Kurzwellen
Karlheinz Stockhausen's Kurzwellen (1968) in a new performing version by C.L.S.I. for four instruments, four shortwave radios, six computers and conductor, premiered in 2011 and conducted by Paul Mefano.
Complete Piano Works
All of Morton Subotnick's piano music on one disc for the first time, with four first recordings, including Liquid Strata and The Other Piano with electronics, played by SooJin Anjou and supervised by the composer.
Dispersion
Elliott Sharp's Dispersion: Flexagons, Dispersion of Seeds, The Hidden Variable and Palimpsest, four processes-based works for large ensemble, played by the young musicians of Veni Academy under Marián Lejava, with Sharp on electroacoustic guitar.