Outermost Melodies
Double CD of percussion works by Jürg Frey, featuring definitive recordings of works composed between 1994 and 2022. Performed by Ian Antonio, with members of Talujon percussion ensemble on one track. Comes with a pdf of the cover artwork, plus jpegs of the photos used on the cover, and an interview with Ian Antonio about the music
Inner Beauty
*150 copies limited edition* The Finnish composer, producer, and pianist Otto Taimela is ticking at 6000+ monthly listeners on Spotify with streams in the 100s of thousands. His discography covers everything from avant-garde piano to breakbeat, ambient-dub techno back to cinematic contemporary classical music, with releases on labels such as Cold Blow, Ultraääni, Cudighi Records, Reflections by Anjunadeep and Finite Source. Otto has performed in festivals such as Ilmiö and Solstice. Kimmeltie LP…
Clouds/Waterland
*100 copies limited edition* "Couldn't find any acoustic covers of these two masterpieces by Gigi Masin from 1989, so decided to give it a go with one of my biggest local musical idols, Olli Aarni who I am proud to call my friend. I consider the original tracks quite holy, so it took me years of courage to ask Olli to record these with me. Never had any goal to release these in any professional way, we just had an idea, for fun, to salute the golden era of YouTube when people made these poorly r…
Keyboards and Strings
Albert Alan Owen was born in Wales in 1948 to parents of Welsh and Latvian heritage. His family later moved to Zimbabwe, where his father took up a teaching position. There, Owen was deeply influenced by local music and culture, while also exploring American RnB and jazz. It was during this period that he became acutely aware of the harsh inequalities under British colonial rule, which instilled in him a lifelong aversion to discrimination and racism.
In 1967, Owen returned to Europe to pursue h…
Motor Tapes
Closing the achingly long four years wait since her last full-length, the American composer/percussionist Sarah Hennies returns with “Motor Tapes”, her second release with New World Records. Comprising three astounding new pieces, made in collaboration with three acclaimed ensembles - ensemble 0, Talea Ensemble, and Ensemble Dedalus - that simultaneously encounter her moving into new uncharted territory, while remaining rooted in her singular practice, exploring musical, sociopolitical, and psyc…
Reverse Bloom
On the evening of July 13th, 2023, I trekked up to Arnold Hall for a very special performance at The Stone. I sat in the front row and took out my notebook then turned to my right and looked around the space. The dimly lit room buzzed with quiet activity and conversation. After a few more minutes, the lights went even lower and out walked three shadowy figures. Each clicked on a small bulb that lit their individual music stands. This was my third time seeing the Jessica Pavone String Ensemble. T…
Piano
Piano is an album of three pieces, 'A Luca Marenzio ll', 'Ma fin est mon commencement', and 'Gebrechlichkeit', written by Slovak composer Adrián Demoč between 2018 and 2023. 'Ma fin est mon commencement' and 'Gebrechlichkeit' were written with three performance options in mind: specific instrumentation, open instrumentation with a similar quality of timbre and register, and a "monochromatic polyphonic" instrument, preferably the piano. 'A Luca Marenzio ll' was originally written as 'A Luca Maren…
Renewal Manifestation
Builder’s anticipated 2024 release is a unique blend of contemporary classical and ambient music. Renewal Manifestation approaches the organ like a living creature - being taught to breathe and sigh. Written for organ, alto saxophone, and Crush string trio, the music brings forth an immense wave of spirit and sound that washes over the listener. As author and critic Tim Rutherford - Johnson writes (The Wire, Tempo, Positionen, Nutida Musik) : “In Renewal Manifestation, Calum Builder, an Australi…
Organic Music Tapes Vol.3
*100 copies limited edition* In keeping with tradition, the new year brings another offering from Portuguese pianist and composer Tiago Sousa. "Organic Music Tapes Vol.3," the third instalment in Tiago’s ongoing series, continues to develop a freeform dual approach to organic and fluid compositions for Piano and Organ - this time adding a real church tube organ to the proceedings.
Evolving from the foundation laid in the first two volumes, Sousa introduces the pipe organ into his signature piano…
A Curving Abacus
In 1968, Steve Reich coined the term Process Music to describe compositional designs that resemble “pulling back a swing, releasing it, and observing it gradually come to rest,” explaining that “once the musical process is set up and loaded it runs by itself.” In the mid-1970s, Brian Eno began using the expression Ambient Music to refer to atmospheric compositions that “must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular,” music that “must be as ign…
Vanishing Points / A Cappella
CD digipack. In his “Pulse Music” compositions of the mid-1970s, composer John McGuire forged a unique interpretation of European serialism. A student of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Krzysztof Penderecki and Gottfried Michael Koenig, McGuire moved to Cologne, Germany in 1970, where he become associated with the world-leading Studio for Electronic Music at Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) in Cologne. Like Stockhausen, McGuire found his musical imagination both constrained and inspired by the technology tha…
his master's voice / aus den fliegenden blättern eines fahrenden waldhornisten / lose verbunden -- Performed by Kei Kondo and Takahiro Kuroda
*300 copies limited edition* Eva-Maria Houben (born in 1955) is a German composer, organist, pianist and musicologist. She is a member of the Wandelweiser Group. Her compositions, performed by herself and many other musicians, have been released on CDs and LPs as well as digitally by Edition Wandelweiser and other international labels. On May 15, 2023, composer Takahiro Kuroda (born in 1989) presented the concert "Square of Thoughts Vol. 2: Eva-Maria Houben and Horn + x" in the performance space…
echo fantasy lI -- Performed by Takahiro Kuroda and Kei Kondo
*300 copies limited edition* Eva-Maria Houben (born in 1955) is a German composer, organist, pianist and musicologist. She is a member of the Wandelweiser Group. Her compositions, performed by herself and many other musicians, have been released on CDs and LPs as well as digitally by Edition Wandelweiser and other international labels. On May 15, 2023, composer Takahiro Kuroda (born in 1989) presented the concert "Square of Thoughts Vol. 2: Eva-Maria Houben and Horn + x" in the performance space…
Turzets
The latest in a prolific string of solo and collaborative releases by James Rushford, Turzets collects a pair of new works primarily created and recorded last year while the Australian composer-performer was in residence at La Becque, an art center on Lake Geneva in Switzerland. The side-length piece “Fallaway Whisk” explores hesitation in its many forms—reticence of speech, sonic restraint—using live, abstracted translations of text from English to German against a lush and swelling soundscape.…
Maniera
With yet another striking and forward-thinking work of contemporary composition, Another Timbre returns with “Maniera”, their second outing with the Italian composer, Marco Baldini, following on from last year's brilliant “Vesperi” which sold out within weeks. Comprising seven works for various configurations of string ensemble, masterfully executed by Apartment House, that nod across time toward Italian polyphonic compositions of the 16th and early 17th centuries, the diverse history of Minimal…
Distant Musics
A portrait CD of the early music of US composer Paul Paccione, all 5 works being originally composed between 1980 and 1990. The pieces were recorded in 2023/2024 and are superbly played by Apartment House.
Cover artwork by Anton Lukoszevieze.
shades
Portrait CD of Boston-based composer Nomi Epstein, featuring three chamber works from 2011 to 2023. Two of the pieces ('shades' and 'Sextet') were recorded by Apartment House in 2023, and 'sounds for Berlin' is a concert recording from Berlin in 2019. Thanks to Samuel Dunscombe for the Berlin recording, and to Heather Frasch & Rebecca Lane for organising the Vibrant Matters concert series of which it was a part. The other two pieces were recorded in London by Simon Reynell.
Cover artwork by Amy …
things that happen again
A portrait CD of UK composer Paul Newland's music, with five pieces dating from 2009 to 2023, all recorded by Apartment House in 2023. A rich variety of music, ranging from string quartet, two different trio combinations, a short work for solo piano, and a score for open instrumentation, realised in this recording by a septet.Cover artwork by Paul Newland
Music for Save Rooms 1 & 2 (2CD)
* Double CD set containing both albums - Music for Save Rooms 1 & Music for Save Rooms 2. First edition of 150 copies * John Also Bennett’s Music for Save Rooms 1 & 2 compiles two volumes of minimal music conceived as infinitely looping and morphing compositions for “save rooms” - temporary safe spaces within video game maps. The compositions primarily stem from a week spent at work in a former military barn in the Marin Headlands just north of San Francisco, spurred on by multimedia artist and …
Whistle Posse
Louie Rice and Luciano Maggiore work together performing score-based works - both acoustic (without a PA system) and amplified (with a PA system). The duo was originally conceived to perform works by other artists as part of an event series at Cafe OTO in London. This series acted as a research period that went on to inform the action-based pieces that Rice and Maggiore are now writing themselves. These pieces explore physical actions and vocalisations in response to pre-defined prompts or rules…