Reissues
Sonatas and Interludes
This landmark recording of John Cage’s prepared piano works performed by Mario Bertoncini was recorded back in December 1991. The sonatas are divided into four groups, each divided by the less overtly structured, rhapsodic interlude pieces. Bertoncini sensitivity to the displaced sonic characteristics of the piano is remarkable and suggests a rigorous dedication to Cage’s work.
Atlas Eclipticalis With Winter Music
Originally released as a 4LP set back in the early days of Mode Records, the first two discs of this 3CD set document the two live performances of John Cage's 1961 orchestral work Atlas Eclipticalis played simultaneously with 1957's Winter Music (in a version for three pianos) recorded at Seattle's Cornish Institute on December 11th 1983. Disc three presents what the label rather grandly describes as an "all-star" recording of all 86 instrumental parts of Atlas Eclipticalis, (the first of its ki…
Complete Short Works for Prepared Piano
The complete short prepared piano works collected on 2-CDs. John Cage's works for prepared piano expose his earliest experimentations in finding new and exotic sounds.Brief and attractive, they are among his most accessible work. This release marks the first time all of his short works for prepared piano have been made available in one set. All the prepared piano works are included aside from the magnum opus, Sonatas and Interludes. Pianist Philipp Vandr´e has recorded Sonatas and Interludes for…
44 Harmonies from Apartment House 1776
Cage's "44 Harmonies" were originally written to form part of the sprawling bicentennial commission "Apartment House 1776", and take as their starting point late 18th century anthems and hymn tunes by William Billings, Jacob French, Andrew Law, James Lyon and the wonderfully-named Supply Belcher. Cage's compositional - or rather decompositional - method was to remove certain tones and extend others, and as James Pritchett points out in the (excellent as always for Mode) liners, he was delighted …
Atlas eclipticalis / 103
Two live, unedited performances of Cage's orchestral music: "At last Eclipticalis With Winter Music" (recorded 5/19/93, performed by The Orchestra of the SEM Ensemble, conducted by Petr Kotick, piano by David Tudor) and "103" (recorded 11/21/98, performed by the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Petr Kotik)." Kotik and Cage met for the first time in May, 1964, performing a 3-hour, six percussion version of Atlas Eclipticalis. Kotik's association with Cage continued until the composer'…
A tribute
From the liner notes of Eric Salzman: “John Cage wrote for keyboards throughout most of his life. Most famously, he invented the so-called "prepared piano" but he also wrote for unprepared piano in both traditional and untraditional ways. His later piano works employ an almost ferocious complication and virtuosity at the outer limits of performer possibility. Earlier he used electronic extensions, chance and performer collaboration in complex ways. His early keyboard music was written for himsel…
Voice is the original instrument
Collection of Joan La Barbara early works and her first vocal compositions, originally released on LPs in the 1970s and early 1980s on her own Wizard Records. "One of my earliest pieces, "Hear What I Feel", was a self-exploratory, sensory-deprivation experimental work, designed to help me discover new sounds, delve into psychological aspects, as well as communicate with the audience on a pre-verbal level of awareness. After spending an hour in isolation with my eyes taped shut and not touching a…
Mizu no nai umi
Music recorded in 1990. forgotten about and rediscovered in a box in 2003. live version recorded in 2003 at Roulette, NYC with the addition of Tim Barnes on crotales and Karen Waltuch on Viola. In 2003 i discovered a box of tapes I had thought I had erased, and had long forgot about. the tapes were all from between 1986-1991 , and as i listened back to them, I could clearly hear why i didn't like them at that time. But, youthful obsessions can sometimes be like tying your shoelaces together. Fo…
Tacet
Last copies araound, long deleted..."One of the best-kept secrets in the very wonderful Futura Records catalogue of the late 60's/early 70's (remember Red Noise, Horde Catalytique Pour La Fin, Jacques Berrocal, Semool, Chêne Noir, Mahogany Brain and the others?), this album even missed attaining the cult obscurity status of some of those mentioned, remaining basically unheard because of the difficulty of even getting aware of its existence, not to mention the quasi-impossibility of tracing a cop…
Expériences musicales
32pp book in French, lavishly illustrated. Born in 1901 Jean Dubuffet studied painting, gave it up to become a wine merchant. Then in 1943 he became a full time artist, working in various media, including what we would now call installations, in a style often referred to as Art Brut ( now associated with the art of children, the mentally ill, or naifs) - a term coined by Dubuffet himself, though not to describe his own work but that of outsiders who had no stake in the artworld, and who eschewed…
Jani Christou (Enantiodromie / Praxis / Epicycle / Anaparastasis)
An expanded version of the previous rz LP by Jani Christou. All works by Christou, the late, legendary "freely-atonal" Greek composer. Features: "Enantiodromia" (1965-68, for orchestra); "Praxis" (1966-69, for string orchestra and piano), "Epicycle" (1968, for instruments, actors and voices); "Anaparastasis III" (1968-69, for soloist, ensemble and continuum [tapes]); "Mysterion" (1965-66, for narrator, actors, 3 choirs, orchestra and tapes)"Jani Christou tried to use and incorporate philosophica…
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…
Jesus Makes You High
A very strange 'paycheck' project for Conny Plank and Achim Reichel's Gorilla Musik production company. Wonderland-esque German rock with heavy Christian lyrics! A.R. is nowhere to be seen on the sleevenotes, but his fingerabdrücke are everywhere. You can make up your own punchline for the album title. First-ever reissue includes full lyrics and two bonus tracks from their only 7" release
Eloge de la betise ou les peripeties des Ubu
Funambulesqueries en 14 séquences adapted from Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi, for voices, saxophones and tape. Jacques Lejeune studied music at the Schola Cantorum and the Paris Conservatory with Daniel-Lesur and Pierre Schaeffer before working with François Bayle at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales. He entered the GRM in 1968, taking charge of the “music cell for images”, where he completed various projects for stage and television. It was at his insistence that in 1978 the Ateliers de la Musique Él…
Catalogue
2005 reissue. Released in 1979 in a limited edition on his own d'Avantage label, Catalogue, with its overt theatricality is every bit as wild as the previous Paralleles. Not really jazz, not rock, having nothing to do with contemporary music either, Catalogue is a kind of sonic postcard which features not the group of the same name but instead numerous Jacques Berrocal associates including Potage (co-founder of the d'Avantage label in 1976), Parle, Ferlet, Pauvros and recording engineer Daniel D…
Prière
long out print item by Jac Berrocal, a 10” picture-disc, text by Antonin Artaud spoken by Berrocal himself, including excerpts from 'Voyage au bord de la ville' a very abstract and dissonant track with music by Berrocal, Gilbert Artman and Jack Belsen. Private edition of 250 copies only.
Open secrets
"Aphoristic bursts of music separated by silences played with efficiency and fleeting beauty." - New York Times Open Secrets features Mac Low and Anne Tardos performing works for multi-track voices; and Robert Bethea, Andrew Bolotowsky, Daniel Goode, and Gabriela Klassen performing instrumental pieces. Winds/Instruments for flute, clarinet, trombone, violin, and narrator, could well become a classic of new music, not only being beautiful, but also displaying Mac Low's witty use and …
More time - Hits & variations 1968-1970
This is the only available collection of sound works by the influential Finnish artist J.O. Mallander. More Time - Hits & Variations 1968-1970 collects two sought-after vinyl EP's Extended Play and Decompositions (the only Finnish entries in Broken Music catalog), and a previously unreleased piece. J.O.mallander began his artistic activities in 1960's within the blooming Finnish Underground movement, taking part, amongst other things, in the notorious music-performance collective Sperm. He has s…
Buzz soundtrack
One of my Iskra's favourite album " The slow motion unfolding of these pieces isolates the beautiful sounds embedded in even their most cantankerous outbursts. The luminosity of Rutherford's long tones, Guy's glissandos and Bailey's pedal-enveloped chords are undiminished despite a marginal mono recording. At times, the music is almost too inviting and too accessible, given Iskra 1903's revolutionary aura. Buzz Soundtrack will force enthusiasts who thought they knew this trio inside out to liste…
Agitation
two albums of 'agitprop' electronic music -- Tract & To Kill A Sunrise cut between 1968 and 1975 -- by mysterious & controversial Turkish composer Ilhan Mimaroglu -- one of the truly underrepresented pioneers of the golden age of the Princeton-Columbia electronic music scene. Produced as a direct reaction to an extended period of intense repression, counterrevolutionary terror, & execution style murder in Turkey, Tract is a scrambled mash up peppered with spunky electronic bursts, radio ads loop…