Popofoni
This 2CD is a reissue of the holy grail of Norwegian free-jazz and electronic music, Popofoni, released by Sonet in 1973. It features compositions by Arne Nordheim, Terje Rypdal, Kåre Kolberg, Gunnar Sønstevold and Alfred Janson played by an extended Jan Garbarek Quintet.
The Popofoni-project was initiated after a heated debate on Haagen Ringnes’ TV-show Åpen Post in autumn 1969, which dealt with the subject popmusic. Standing on one side you found the defenders of pop, actress and singer Eli…
For Renstemt Klaver
Though the piano arrives on stage without a player, it is not alone. Mounted on steel bars within the instrument are electronic magnets, one per piano key, that have been connected by a thicket of wires—reminiscent of monstrous braces, as though the instrument were suffering youth under orthodontic siege. The magnets come down to the strings, and, as they vibrate at the strings’ own frequencies, the instrument speaks. Wobbling yet fulsome tones suffuse the room, sounding almost nothing like thei…
Upper Air Observation
2025 stock 1992 release. Flutist Barbara Held presents works by Alvin Lucier, Nils Vigeland, and Yasunao Tone and a composition of her own. Known for her collaborations with composers, Held has beautifully chosen and performed this wide-ranging sampling of contemporary musical styles. Vara features Joseph Kubera on piano.
Music with Changing Parts
Founding work of minimalism, Music with Changing Parts is a piece with free instrumentation. The musicians choose which part to play among the 8 staves of the score. At each indicated cue, the musicians can change part, which produces an abrupt change of instrumentation. While the music is based on a melodic material limited to a few notes that are repeated in patterns that expand or contract, the changes in orchestration refresh the listening experience by producing sonic contrasts. These tec…
Turn Liquid Into Dust
Ziúr lines up with The Tapeworm for an exclusive cassette-only release featuring Kenichi Iwasa, exploring the electroacoustic realms. Invited to perform solo at Tarek Atoui's performance series at Kunsthaus Bregenz in October 2024, Ziúr decided to write a new piece for the occasion. This composition, 'Turn Liquid Into Dust', was then performed within the framework of Tarek Atoui's 'Waters' Witness' exhibition as an 8-channel spacial audio piece, transmitting sounds through the installation's str…
Pitched Variations
*200 copies limited edition* Sullivan Johns is a composer and musician from the UK. He studied at Leeds Conservatoire and Leeds Arts University. His previous release, Assembled Parts (Rusted Tone Recordings - 2022), constructs a narrative on themes of loss, grief and memory using minimal drones and field recordings. Described by Bandcamp New and Notable as "Striking experimental compositions that conjure both childhood joy and icy terror”, pieces from Assembled Parts were Broadcast on BBC Radio …
Lac Noir - La Serpente 1992
Unreleased material composed by Bernard Parmegiani in 1992
interius/exterius
*Limited edition of 300 copies.* A striking new addition to the evolving catalog of Berlin-based composer Catherine Lamb, 'interius/exterius' is a long-form chamber nonet developed through a sustained dialogue with the musicians of New York’s Ghost Ensemble. Scored for flute, oboe, accordion, viola, cello, four- and five-string contrabasses, harp, and hammered dulcimer, the work investigates how collective intentions or focal points allow various and sometimes unusual sonic pathways to emerge in…
Night, falling
Gerald Eckert’s third release on Mode, night, falling, is a 2-CD set of mostly works for orchestra, often with electronics. Eckert says: “I am fascinated by orchestral works containing the structures of chamber music. For me, the definition of orchestra is not characterized by its large scale, but genuinely through its individual voices.”His music explores the marginal edges of sound, fractures in tonal constructs, crystalline solidification and instabilities which (for him) always symbolize exi…
Gaku-No-Michi Materials
Big Tip! The 5-CD set Gaku-No-Michi is a grand experiment that shatters conventional musical concepts. Electronic music and soundscapes merge, inviting the listener's consciousness into an infinite universe. With this work, composer Eloy pursues the ‘path of sound’ and opens up new horizons of aural experience. In this work, the composer Eloy combined Western musical traditions with Eastern thought to create a unique musical world. Gaku-No-Michi is not just a musical work, but a meditative exper…
In Memory Of James Tenney
2015 release ** "The tromba marina is a huge single-stringed instrument, played with a bow. For "in memory of james tenney", in four parts, Möller and Maldfeld each wrestle with one such beast, using instruments from the 17th and early 18th centuries. And f it's grain you want, step right up--this thing, especially Part I, sounds like the bow is severely serrated, close to being able to saw wood. A huge rumble that encloses myriad tones high to low. Think of an Eliane Radigue cello piece with yo…
Voiceless Mass
Big Tip! Listening is the foundation of Raven Chacon’s (b. 1977) wide-ranging artistic practice. “I am a listener,” he simply declares, but the attention he gives to sound is complex and vast, encompassing far more than what is immediately audible. From his earliest works, Chacon has been dedicated to amplifying the unheard, calling attention to what is absent or unknown. Although Chacon classifies the compositions on this recording as chamber music, all three of these works “zigzag” through his…
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Tip! *40 copies limited edition, uv-printed tapes with case and no cover* The original tape was found in a very poor condition, luckily transported in caring hands of Nazlo labs and by accident was succesfully restored, digitalized and mastered using special professional vintage French equipment in a medieval castle somewhere in the center of France.
Slåtter På Kontrabass
*2025 stock. 300 copies limited edition* Håkon Thelin is a generation-defining double bassist whose exuberant musicality and high-level technique have been heard in a wide array of album releases and concert performances over the past 25 years. Known both as an interpreter of contemporary music, where the notes resemble mathematical equations with both 8 and 9 unknowns, the musically omnivorous three-headed troll Poing with Frode Haltli and Rolf-Erik Nystrøm, and as a composer of both solo and e…
Crystals Of The Zodiac
1991 release ** "Alexander Kandov graduated from the State Academy of Music majoring in Composition under Professor Dimitar Tapkoff and in Piano under Professor Liuba Obretenova. He worked as a music editor at the Bulgarian National Radio and in Musica Publishing House, and as a lecturer in Polyphony at the State Academy of Music. From 1982 to 1990 he was Chairman of the Young Composers’ Section at the Union of Bulgarian Composers. One of the founders of the Society for New Bulgarian Music (1990…
Luca Mosca - Pianoforte
1989 release (RARE) ** Contemporary Italian music for piano by: Arduino Gottardo, Bruno Cerchio, Nicloas Bacri, Elisabetta Brusa, Alessandro Lucchetti, Paolo Ugoletti, Riccardo Riccardi, Luca Mosca.
Mural
*2025 stock* New York City-based, Puerto Rican-born composer, guitarist, and visual artist Gabriel Vicéns releases his fourth studio album Mural, a recording devoted to his chamber works.
Vicéns continues his musical journey by releasing a record of contemporary classical music including pieces for piano trio, wind quintet, Pierrot ensemble and more; featuring some of today's finest performers of the New York City classical scene.
The immersive and mood-inducing music on this record spans a four…
Nozomi
Pianist Masako Ohta and trumpet player Matthias Lindermayr are back on Squama with 'Nozomi', the follow-up to their 2022 debut 'MMMMH'.The Japanese title, which translates to ‘hope’, felt fitting, as the album was conceived during a time of personal loss for Ohta, during and after which music proved itself as a beacon of hope.
The music on Nozomi unfolds gently, with Lindermayr’s airy tone and lyrical playing being wrapped in Ohta’s chordal backing that moves from tender to tense and back over t…
Fluit Douceur - Recorder Music From The 20th Century
1998 release ** Music for recorder by Paul Hindemith, Harald Genzmer, Francis Poulenc, George Auric, Jacques Ibert, Walter Leigh, Gail Kubik, Ulrich Staeps, Benjamin Britten, Hans Poser, Ervin Henning, Konrad Boehmer, Marjo Tal. "In thinking of the recorder, one normally sets his or her sights upon the many composed musical works from the 16th and 17th centuries, when the instrument was accorded the status of an official court instrument, as well as being the choice for regional folk and ceremon…
Kurtág, Lutoslawski, Gubaidulina
1994 release ** "The Arditti Quartet here performs all three of Kurtag's string quartets, along with Lutoslawski's one quartet, and Gubaidulina's second as well -- the recordings are from 1990. Kurtag's quartets are some of the finest of the 20th century, clearly fusing Webern and Bartok. What distinguishes Arditti's Kurtag from the Keller Quartet on ECM? (see my review). The AQ takes the tempos slightly faster. Not too fast, in fact I'd say if anything the KQ has slowed them down for dramatic e…