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Maros at Ems (1970-1979)
Analog and computer-generated electroacoustic music and mixed pieces for voice, instruments and live-electronics, realized at EMS - the Stockholm Electronic Music Studio. (now the Stockholm Institute of Electroacoustic Music) 1970-1979. Miklós Maros was a composition teacher at the Stockholm secondary school of music in Stockholm, (1971-1973), teacher at the Electronic Music Studio in Stockholm (EMS) (1971-1978), and lecturer in electronic music at the College of Music in Stockholm (1976-1980…
Nachtgesänge / Konzert für Violoncello und Orchester / Intrada /
Young Müller (b. 1964, Switzerland) writes in a consistently romantic style — unexpected col legno fare! Perhaps Sterling should have released this. The warm Hesse settings, Nachtgesänge, could be mistaken for Szymanowski or Zemlinsky; indeed, Ernman sounds as though she’d be ideal in a Strauss opera. Darkly emotional, the single-movement cello concerto taps Shostakovich and Lutoslawski’s pathos; the idée fixe’s colorful unfolding reminds the listener of Dutilleux. Müller maintains his anachroni…
Intimate rituals
This Romanian-born composer is noted for having developed the technique of 'spectral composition' during the 1960s. According to the man himself, this is defined as a "variable distribution of the spectral energy, synthesis of the global sound sources, micro- and macro-form as sound-process, four simultaneous layers of perception and of speed, and spectral scordaturae, i.e. rows of unequal intervals corresponding to harmonic scales." If you're any the wiser as to what he's on about do drop us a …
String Quartets Vol. 2 (Nos. 5 & 6)
That the two single-movement string quartets No. 5 (“Ohne Titel”) and No. 6 (“Blaubuch”), composed in 1981/83 and 1984, belong to the most passionate of Rihm’s quartets is due to their restless vigor. This impulsive approach is of course always present in his music. But even the tempo indications “fast, restless” and “fast und free” suggest a certain stringency - which is fully realized in the pieces. A sense of inner disquiet pulls the listener like a maelstrom into a sea of commotion, of stru…
Krauter & Weltmeister
Recorded in 2004. Featuring Mani Neumeier (GURU GURU) and Luigi Archetti (GURU GURU). Funny, crazy, Melodic and romantic! Japan press only.
Guitar Album
This enterprising programme of 20th century music, recorded in England by the distinguished Japanese guitarist Azusa Shimizu, contains first recordings of pieces by Højsgaard and Mamiya, as well as offering a rare opportunity to hear the sonata by Antonio José, who was brutally murdered during the Spanish Civil War. An outstanding CD for all guitar music enthusiasts.
Magnog
Debut from a guitar/bass/drums/moog trio from Washington state. Not since the heyday of early Guru Guru and the original Ash Ra Tempel have we experienced such unrestrained, free playing taking place within the confines of a 'rock' band. More recent examples of this aesthetic might include the early recordings of Dif Juz on 4AD, Milwaukee's F/i, the recent collection of 4-track recordings from Cul de Sac or the homespun psych of Charalambides...
Psychoneurose
Italian Avant-Noise legend M.B. and Land Use collaborate on dramatic, subterranean wall-of-noise constructions and swirling textural storms, dense and complex arrangements, shifting and shimmering tones barely under control, streaming toward some distant and indefineable precipice. Not noisy, but way too tense and corrosive to be called ambient. These vibrant monoliths of sound shift the listeners pysche into a restless sort of zen, a blissful chaos - truly mind and mood-altering. Bianchi releas…
Discreet Music
Orignal master series reissue: a real masterpiece...after a car accident put Brian Eno in the hospital in 1975, he came out with the idea of creating Ambient music, or music that was essentially to be used as atmosphere. Discreet Music was the first of his ambient experiments and is therefore a landmark recording in addition to being a beautiful combination of tape-delay and composition.
Orchestral Works & Chamber Music
Hardly any other composer has ever been as far removed from conservatism as Helmut Lachenmann. In all his oeuvre his listeners are never permitted to lean back comfortably even for a moment in expectation of the well-known and familiar. Again and again Lachenmann succeeded, and still succeeds, in shaking the "aesthetic apparatus," the system of conventional formulas and phrases established throughout decades and centuries, to its very foundations. Intérieur I (1966), a piece for percussion solo,…
Solitudes
Hirschfeld deliberately distinguished solitude, or loneliness, from a state that leads to depression or despair. For him, the contemplation of one’s self leads to the “dialogue with one self and with nature”, as is the case, e.g., in his Chant of the Night, which is based on poems by Walt Whitman. Hirschfeld chose Whitman’s Leaves of Grass with its portrayal of human solitude in the plains as a starting point in order to develop the music from a simple melodic cell, “which, like human consciousn…
Qvaris
Their first label release in many years & represents their most polished work to date. One of the most enigmatic, mysterious, & defiantly anti-commercial groups to emerge from the NYC loft scene during the '90s. Incorporating elements of folk, drone, psychedelia, free jazz, noise, & just about everything else, NNCK has nevertheless carved out a distinctive sound despite the seemingly random component elements.
Natura renovatur
Giacinto Scelsi (1905-88) has featured prominently in my music writing life for a decade and a half, ever since I wrote Discovering Scelsi on my first computer for Piano Journal (Oct. 1986), one of the first UK articles about this fascinating and elusive composer.There are particular reasons why the Scelsi CD in the latest, indispensable batch from Kairos prompted a trawl of my files. Scelsi applauded my analysis of his piano music and we had a cordial correspondence, after which I met him tw…
Electrostatic Deflection
"Electrostatic Deflection" is a new industrial-music masterwork, created through collaboration with Maurizio Bianchi, and Israeli musician Maor Appelbaum. It's represents Bianchi's more extreme direction... a sample of whats comming in the future from the historic Italian composer. Amazing impact, immense slabs of industrial sound in motion. Sweeping vistas of intense static energy, storm-fronts moving across the stereo field, an acoustic tidal wave approaching landfall, breathtaking deep and da…
Tau
Main is back in grand form... After finalising his Firmanent CD's it's been a bit quiet around Robert Hampson. Although very busy with other projects as Comae (with Janek Schaefer), Chasm (Fatcat), his main output has been a bit low. Tau shows the first full album in years from a talent whom showed us the way to turn guitars into ambient. His unique way of concrete sounds and manipulating these into something of his own has always been his identity. Tau is no more or less a classic mover for qui…
L\'oiseau / L\'arbre / Le Béton
his first solo album, included in the NWW list. Influenced by musicians as diverse as Django Reinhardt and Cecil Taylor, French guitarist Raymond Boni has developed a unique and dazzling style derived from gypsy technique. After studying the piano and switching to the harmonica, Raymond Boni learned how to play the guitar with Gypsies living near his home. This empirical experience would leave a permanent imprint on Boni's approach to the instrument. In the early '60s, still a teenager, he decid…
Opus 3.1
special price offer: Opus 3.1 consists of 20 tracks divided into five acts. Each cut--or scene--represents a different percussion instrument. Some are quiet, others cacophonous, but even the slow, stark resonance of a ringing gong maintains a sharp level of intensity. The sole drawback is inconsistency: After being soothed into a reflective trance state, the listener is occasionally jolted by the strident opening clang of the subsequent cut. Ghost Stories, a 1-track, 68-minute live recordi…
Gran Torso / Salut für Caudwell
In 1988 the first issue of these recordings of Gran Torso and Salut für Caudwell was awarded the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Record Critics' Award); and neither compositions nor recordings have lost any of their value up to today. In Gran Torso, Lachenmann tried to explore the “mechanic and energetic conditions of sound production”. This resulted in singular, unusual sounds which simultaneously exploded the barriers of audibility, playing technique and sound as such. The guit…
Sooner or later
Long out of print, now reissued in limited edition metal boxes by Bob himself,Sooner or Later is a powerful piece (for sampler) derived from the sounds of a Salvadorian boy burying his father: a shovel striking rock, a voice, a buzzing fly. Some guitar sounds by Fred Frith are added in part two. This tells only of the sources; what Bob does with them is compelling and hypnotic.categories CC, SAPT, EL, C
Jugendlieder - Songs From The Youth
Berg's early lieder owe their existence largely to the young composer's great interest in literature; nevertheless it was his friend Hermann Watznauer, who actually inspired him to embark on composing his first lieder around 1900/01. And Berg enjoyed himself so much that he continued along the same lines until 1903, completing another 30 lieder; even Arnold Schönberg was essentially fascinated by them: "Berg's earliest compositions, however clumsy they may have been, already reveal two qualities…