Il Pianoforte, amato...
Very rare private CD re-issue of Franca Sacchi's privately released artist's records from the mid 70's "Ho sempre desiderato..." and (one piece from) "Essere". "In the early 70's Franca Sacchi approached feminism thanks to the group Rivolta femminile and began a period of reflection that led her to repudiate formal research and to dedicate herself solely to improvisation as a method to manifest her deepest and most universal authenticity. She then shifted her attention from the organization of s…
Piriforms
*150 copies limited edition* A beautiful edition of only 150 glass mastered CDs in a clear poly sleeve with hand stamped cover and a 22 page full color booklet featuring photos, drawings, and text by Laura Steenberge, with additional text by Michael Winter, Rebecca Lane, and Catherine Lamb.
"In medieval chant, music seems to have come from elsewhere. It is the angels that are singing, they said, like gourds hung up for purple martins. By the time notation started coming around, hundreds of …
Chamber Works 1943-1951
"There is something quite ephemeral and special about the prepared piano – it’s mostly to do with how every instrument responds differently to these treatments but also that it’s not very exact, even if, in the case of Cage, is quite precise. His instructions seem quite prescriptive: although, unless you know actually piano model he was using and the objects he was talking about, you’re always making adjustments. The preparing is just like other notation – there is quite a bit of interpretation …
Mine but for its sublimation
A 64-minute piano solo composed in 2021, performed by Jack Yarbrough. "'Mine but for its sublimation' is about resonance, register, and touch. It is about where we lead ourselves when we trust ourselves. It is experiencing trust as a chain of clearings, a sequence of becomings, openings, centerings. It is about letting go; othering; finding presence through evaporation. Obliteration." - Timothy McCormack
Homestead
"The idea for Homestead came in 2023 during my time as Artist in Residence at Homestead National Historical Park in Beatrice, Nebraska, in whose archives I found the materials referenced in the titles of the movements, as well as the images on this album. As a fifth-generation Nebraskan, growing up on the native lands of the Chatiks si chatiks people (Pawnee), this project is a part of my process of learning, listening, and developing a relationship with the land and its stewards in my home stat…
Listening Time
A 45-minute piece from 2024 composed by Ferdinand Schwarz in collaboration with AREPO ensemble.
Dust Book
A 50 minute solo for viola d'amore played by Marco Fusi. The piece was composed in 2022-2023, and has six movements.
Patience
*300 copies limited edition* Patience is the debut full-length album by Sante Fe-based artist Theodore Cale Schafer. Alternately murky and narcoleptic and bristling with grit and light, this collection of eight pieces is a delicate play of contrasts. Impressionistic settings unfurl with an unhurried gait, opening with the dream-like disorientation of "Gold Chain" in which a degraded location recording gives way to a soft web of treated piano motifs. Schafer's compositions are sumptuous yet unfus…
The Sound Of Arvo Pärt
2025 stock The sound of silence: Estonian-born Arvo Pärt is considered the contemporary composer par excellence, a cult figure of the avant-garde, a man who redefined modernism with music of hypnotic tension and fascinating spirituality. The performers of the orchestral and choral music on this release are top-quality artists and ensembles from Pärt’s native Estonia, notably the conductors Paavo Järvi and Tõnu Kaljuste, who present uniquely authentic readings.
Kaivajaiset
*300 copies limited edition* Students of Decay presents "Kaivajaiset" by Finnish composer Niko-Matti Ahti. Best known for his work alongside his partner Marja as Ahti & Ahti, Niko-Matti has been an active participant in the Finnish underground since the late 1990s. "Kaivajaiset" is his first solo recording and was originally conceived of as an installation. Part horspiel, part musique concrete, it is a piece of music that draws comparisons to the work of pioneering avant-garde composers such as …
Very Slow Disco Suite
2007 release ** "In Very Slow Disco Suite (2006), De Bièvre slows down a disco song from 120 bpm to 20 bpm. Against this languid harmonic background, three musicians play material that is dictated at random by a microcontroller. In this way, De Bièvre tried to guarantee the spontaneity of the performance."
Degrees Of Iconicity
2000 release (visible storage wear) ** "These ten singular compositions by Gregorio share one thing in common: a rare ability to express astonishing collages of sound, interspersed with outstanding individual improvisation, resulting in surprisingly accessible sounds that baffle as they fully absorb the listener. In an incisive essay the composer cites varieties of constructivism and concrete art as influences and wisely eschews the self-expression of so much of free improvisation in favor of ".…
On Thin Ice / Sub Music And Song For Solo Flute / Obomobile / Triptych, For Brass Trio / Sensazione II / Refractions / Moreso
1995 release (visible storage wear) **
De l’art d’induire en erreur
The music of Fabien Lévy thrives on ambiguity, paradox and sonic illusion. With a deep interest in cognitive perception, he creates complex textures where clarity meets mystery, virtuosity blends with playfulness, and every composition becomes a daring exploration. Influenced by spectralism and his mentors Grisey and Risset, Lévy embraces musical allusions – from visual arts to world traditions – creating pieces that challenge and transform the listener’s perception. Whether through kaleidophoni…
The Living Mountain
*2025 stock* Austrian composer Thomas Larcher’s new album features premiere recordings of three strongly contrasting works. The Times has hailed Larcher’s music as a world “of haunting landscapes and dreams, stylistically disparate but fused by the composer’s astonishing ear and quizzical attitude to traditional forms”, a description borne out by the compositions here. The Living Mountain, for soprano and ensemble, draws upon the memoir of the Scottish poet and nature writer Nan Shepherd. Unerzä…
Bending The Tonic (Twice)
2005 release ** "Bending the Tonic (2004), a work for ensemble that November Music commissioned De Bièvre to compose. In this work, a computer records all the audio signals of the musicians (except for those of the contrabass and percussion) and plays these signals back according to a fixed temporal system. The harmonic basis is formed by a stereotypical blues progression, that De Bièvre stretches over 144 measures. The title refers to the importance of the tonic in blues music."
In Resonance With Elsewhere
"Composer-performer & visual artist Charlotte Hug: Shaman of contemporary music. Reflections on her solo-album «In Resonance with Elsewhere». This fourth solo album by Charlotte Hug presents the distilled version of a composition commissioned by the Ruhrtriennale in 2022. On that occasion, Hug performed in a huge former machine hall and created various acoustic-imaginary spaces with Son-Icons (expansive Visual-Music on semi-transparent paper, usually painted on both sides with both hands and lon…
Moving
Moving is the abstract translation of long travels through the southern US into music for pedal steel guitar, chamber ensemble, organ, and electronics. The live performances of Moving feature 5 video projections with video art by Chaz Underriner which form the basis of the design of the CD. Moving particularly focuses on waterways in the south, including recordings from Blue Springs in Florida and the Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana, the largest wetland and swamp in the US.
Chaz Underriner (b. 1…
Zahra Fugues
2009 release ** "Part two of the epic, numerology-inspired Tetralogy series, Zahra Fugues is Frank Rothkamm's first all-acoustic release since his Chamber Ensemble, which dates back to 1984. These 26 individual pieces, all in the fugue form, are the results of the composer's experiments with the Steinway Model M grand piano that resides in Zahra's apartment in Manhattan. Rothkamm demonstrates that he knows his way around a piano, crafting his counterpoint-fuelled missives as effortlessly as most…
How Do I Know If My Cat Likes Me
Inspired by minimalistic icon La Monte Young and guitarist Allan Holdsworth, Nightclouds is a powerful collection of jazz pieces for solo pipe organ. Over long improvisation and shorter compositions, Swedish composer and installation artist Ellen Arkbro employs her usually epic chord structures and adds in a more self-reflective tone than previously.