★Edition RZ
A Catalogue of Sounds
Jakob Ullmann's music realizes an infinite variety of gradations in all areas of musical formation. That the music of the "catalogue" is nearly always played very softly leads to the ear noticing the smallest differentiations; the listener is put into a state of constant, acute attentiveness. The musical stream is constantly subjected to small irritations, sometimes its flow quickens, sometimes there are brief splashes like those caused by pebbles thrown into water. Performers: Ensemble Oriol Be…
Iannis Xenakis
Trifold glossy slipcase includes two CDs, label catalogue and 16-page booklet of liner notes and images. For new initiates and avant-garde fiends alike, this Iannis Xenakis collection renders a breathtaking survey of works by the radical composer, theorist, architect and engineer, spanning the period 1956-1974 and featuring some of the greatest works of the 20th century, including the awe-inspiring sonic architecture of ‘Persepolis’.Inarguably one of the most important composers to blend electro…
Streichquartett N°4 Opus 33
String Quartet No 4, opus 33 (1976-87). Performed by the Arditti String Quartet. "infinite to be cannot be infinite, infinite anti-be could be infinite" (for nine string quartets or a string quartet surrounded by an imaginary 128 string-"viola da gamba"). "Among contemporary composers, Horatiu Radulescu is one who has something essential to express about the enigma of time: multi-layered lines of events, their structuring, perception and potential for poetic-religious message are -- together wit…
Clepsydra, Astray
**Restock of a rare, must-have record for contemporary music lovers. Comes with 4-page 12" booklet ** Great dense orchestral scraping and bowing from 1982 & 1983 by Romanian composer Horatiu Radulescu (1942-2008), among the great masters of Spectralism and subharmonics. This absorbing LP includes two groundbreaking works centered around the 'Sound Icons' - pianos standing on their sides, played with bows between the strings. On side A is the hypnotic, otherworldly Clepsydra for 16 Sound Icons (E…
s/t
Sparse, minimal but sometimes heavy works from 1969-1978 by german composer Helmut Lachenmann (*1935), slow-motion instrumental breathing, plucking and string-scraping. Including the pieces 'Guero' for prepared piano (H. Lachenmann), 'Pression' for cello solo (W. Taube), 'Pression' for cello solo (M. Bach), and 'Gran Torso' (original version) for string quartet (Società Cameristica Italiana). Comes with 4-pahe 12" booklet.
Gottfried Michael Koenig
Restocked, reduced price: beautifully prepared overview of Gottfried Michael Koenig's work (including early 60s WDR electronic classics), produced in conjunction by the Instituut of Sonologie and NEAR/Donemus w/ Edition RZ. During the early '60s, Koenig began writing a program -- named simply 'Project 1,' or PR1 -- designed to compose and generate music via the computer; when in 1964 he accepted the position of creative director with the Institute for Sonology in Utrecht, Holland, he took the so…
Giacinto Scelsi
**Comes in glossy gatefold sleeve with 20-page booklet ** Features 6 works by the influential Italian avant-gardist of the 20th century, dating from 1961-1990. Pranam I (for voice, 12 instruments and tape, 1972); Anagamin. Celui qui choisit de revenir ou pas (for 12 strings, 1965); Quattro pezzi su una nota sola (for chamber orchestra, 1959); Quartetto n. 4, (1964); Okanagon (Tam Tam and double bass, 1968); Quartetto n. 2 (1961). "For Giacinto Scelsi, music was above all a manifestation of the e…
Franco Evangelisti
The first CD release of works by Franco Evangelisti (1926-1980), the founder of Nuova Consonanza (infamous early '60s Italian avant garde ensemble that included Mario Bertoncini, Roland Kayn, Ennio Morricone, Frederic Rzewski and others). This two disc retrospective features studio audio-footage and lab-experiments, featuring performers Aloys Kontarsky, David Tudor, Eberhard Blüm and the LaSalle Quartet. Spanning the last 40 years, virtually all forms of post-1950 invention are represented here …
Hortexte
Six radio texts by Ferdinand Kriwet in a beautifully designed 3 LP Picture Discs Luxury Box. Ferdinand Kriwet (born in Duesseldorf in 1942) is a multimedia artist and poet who has produced many seminal films and sound works for radio and television, in particular throughout the 1960's and 1970's. His works 'Apollo Amerika' 1969 and 'Campaign' 1973, rank today as outstanding artistic documents of these spectacular events in the history of mankind. Kriwet created the work 'Apollo Amerika' whilst i…
Music for piano
Douvle CD set with recordings by the legendary 20th century avantgarde pianist performing compositions by (and with) John Cage, Sylvano Bussotti, Morton Feldman, Christian Wolff.
Dreaming of a major third
The second Christina Kubisch CD on RZ, from one of Germany's more important sound composers. This features is a composition for the clocktowerof the MA Museum of Contemporary Art. All the sounds derive directly from the original bells from the MASS MoCA clocktower. The sounds have been pitch shifted and attack shaped, but have not been electronically altered. The result is a CD of ultimate installation drone and a must for fans of the Het Apollohuis aesthetic, sound artists like Bill Fontana, et…
Vier Stücke
Four pieces from arguably the most cited sound-sculpt of our time, recently fêted via an exposé in The Wire (October 2001). 'Vocrolls II' (1988) consists of recordings of a glass sphere coming to rest in a Tibetan metal bowl, processed in physics-defying fashion through an early desktop port of the now-prevalent phase vocoder algorithm. 'Mouse Ware' (1998) is the soundtrack to an installation (10 different makes and models of computer mouse are preserved in alcohol, accompanied by 10 user-friend…
Horbare Okosysteme: Live elektronic compositions 1993-2005
Live electronic compositions from 1993-2005 by composer Agostino Di Scipio, using acoustic instruments and digital sound processing to create unusual and previously unheard sound worlds.
Tubridge 99 -00
RESTOCKED, reduced price “I think of Akio Suzuki as a kind of magician, perhaps the most charming, engaging artist I’ve seen, Japanese musician and inventor, instrument builder and shaman Akio Suzuki is probably unknown to most of you. But we think his work is utterly captivating and crucial; it deserves a much bigger audience. Akio has been performing, teaching and building instruments for nearly 40 years. His music is simple and pure, and beautifully unworried by the rules of modern music. He …
Na-Gi 1997
A CD of minimalist environmental sounds by this Japanese sound-artist Akio Suzuki. This music was recorded in Takano, Tango-cho, the northern-most coast of Kyoto, where I live. The bay surrounded by volcanic rock caves is the place where the mighty sounds of waves of the open sea have their muffled echo. Seawater flows into the hollows in the rock again and again like breathing in and breathing out. Spring water constantly drips in the cave, and now and then the wind from the meadow above the ch…