Improvisaciones
*2020 stock* The double CD Improvisaciones is an homage to the Iberian baroque organ. Germán Valverde Usano’s music reminds one of the rich music tradition of the autonomous community of Castile and León as well as its rich cultural heritage with over 100 conserved Iberian baroque organs. The recordings took place in 2016 in San Agustín in Capillas not far from the capital city Palencia (Spain).
Germán Valverde Usano’s passion for the Iberian organ as well as his extraordinary musical talent are…
De Puro Amor & En Amor Duro
*2021 stock* What is one to make of Maria de Alvear’s two long solos for piano, De puro amor (‘Of pure love’) and En amor duro (‘In hard love’), both composed in 1991. The scores themselves, if one decides to start from here, are completely perplexing. Pages and pages are marked with hastily scratched notes, sometimes repeating themselves dozens of times. Little priority seems to have been given to rhythm, dynamics or articulation; even less to the notational conventions such as barlines, spacin…
Preludes: Books 1 & 2
It may seem odd to some to find a release of Claude Debussy’s music on Mode Records. But actually not, for Debussy is one of the forefathers of the developments of the second part of the 20th century. This recording of the complete Preludes by Haydée Schvartz had its genesis during her studies with pianist and new music specialist Yvar Mikhashoff. Mikhashoff intrigued Schvartz with the titles of the Preludes, which Debussy curiously placed at the end of each. The lavishly illustrated booklet’s…
KRAFFT
KRAFFT for orchestra was composed in 2016 as a commission of the French State, and was premiered in Paris and Marseille, France. The composition has a similar kind of metric structure as String Quartet No.3: all instruments play in rhythmic unison throughout. KRAFFT is an ironic-onomatopoetic wrong spelling of the German term "Kraft", meaning "power" or "force". The listener should feel exposed to a sonic undertow. The notion of huge power and force is often connected to the existence of clandes…
Guitars
Taku Sugimoto is a Tokyo-based guitarist and composer. Improvisation is one aspect of his work, but currently his main activities are composing and performing composed pieces (including those of other composers). He continues his global and concentrated interaction with composers from around the world, particularly those closely connected with Wandelweiser. Ftarri had previously released two albums under Sugimoto's name alone—Septet (2015) and Quintets: Berlin, San Diego (2017). On both CDs, his…
Louange à l’Éternité de Jésus (from Quatuor pour la fin du temps) - 10"
Louange à l'éternité de Jésus is the fifth movement for cello and piano from Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time), adapted here for cello and organ. It was composed while Messiaen was a prisoner of war in Stalag VIII-A, Görlitz, Germany, and first performed with other detained musicians inside the Nazi camp in January 1941. Inspired by the Book of Revelation, this music invokes the composers vision of "immutable peace", in its infinitely slow, ecstatic pa…
Baobab
Co-released with Umland Records, Germany. On one night in 2019, The Dorf (German for "village") took a heavy dose of the music of Phill Niblock. The impact on the musicians, gathering to play a double-length version of Niblock's Baobab and (in a second set) three "Dorf" tunes, was deep. It felt a bit like going to church -- a truly spiritual experience. At first, the audience did not believe the announcement that the "drone" piece would last for 46 minutes. Afterwards, their reactions showed the…
Hyazo
A new album from the trio who released Tse in 2016, and - along with violinist Angharad Davies - Awire in 2018. Three compositions of quiet and delicate beauty, two by Christoph Schiller, and the title track by Cyril Bondi.Cyril Bondi: Indian harmoniumPierre-Yves Martel: viola da gambaChristoph Schiller: spinet
Antifona
Following on from the wonderful "Cantilena", four new chamber works by the Paris-based Italian composer Giuliano d'Angiolini. Performers include Apartment House, Manuel Zurria, Mark Knoop and the composer.
Let Pass My Weary Guiltless Ghost
Magnus Granberg and Skogen return with another exquisite hour-long piece recorded in Stockholm in November 2019. With Ko Ishikawa, Rhodri Davies, Toshimaru Nakamura, Simon Allen and others.Magnus Granberg - prepared piano & compositionKo Ishikawa - shoAnna Lindal - violinLeo Svensson Sander - celloSimon Allen - vibraphoneErik Carlsson - percussionHenrik Olsson - objectsPetter Wästberg - contact microphone, mixing board, loudspeakerToshimaru Nakamura - no-input mixing board
Fűr Biliana
Four chamber works for strings by the veteran German composer Ernstalbrecht Stiebler, performed by Biliana Voutchkova, with Michael Rauter and Nurit Stark. From a string trio from 1963 to a violin solo from 2018.
Unfurling
A 52-minute piece jointly composed and performed by Angharad Davies (violin), Klaus Lang (harmonium) and Anton Lukoszevieze (cello). Recorded during a residency at Dai Hall in Huddersfield, March 2020. Thanks to Ryoko Akama.
Approdi 2, Avanguardie Musicali a Napoli - Volume II
**300 copies** Avant-garde and experimental musics are intrinsically connected to community, collectivism, support, and collaboration. Audiences and artists, stretching to every corner of the globe, continuously rely on each other to push into ever more ambitious realms. This spirit of discourse has always been central to the multigenerational contexts of avant-garde and experimental music from Italy. For decades, neglected and over looked by their international peers, the country’s musicians an…
Metamorphoses (Book I) / Five Pieces for Piano
"This historic release couples George Crumb’s earliest work for piano, the Five Pieces for Piano (1962) with his most recent piano cycle, Metamorphoses (2017). Margaret Leng Tan has long been a champion of Crumb’s music, and he composed Metamorphoses (Book 1) for her. This recording is of the German premiere at the legendary Donaueschingen Festival in 2017.Crumb’s Metamorphoses is a natural descendent of his monumental Makrokosmos I & II piano cycle of the early 1970s. With a nod to Mussorgsky’s…
Sextet & Double Sextet
*2022 stock.* "This release couples two of Reich’s “sextets” for the first time: the Sextet of 1984 and the Pulitzer Prize winning Double Sextet of 2007. A striking difference between the two pieces is that the rhythmic world of Sextet mostly consists of a single-meter grooving, while Double Sextet works in the angular, off-kilter shifting meters reminiscent of Reich’s Tehillim (also of Stravinsky). Ekkozone impart a uniquely chamber music feel and color to these works while maintaining their pr…
The Works for Piano 10
"The Solo for Piano is part of the legendary Concert for Piano and Orchestra. It is an indeterminate work, consisting of 63 pages made of 84 different types of composition, each appearing as its own type of notation. The performer creates his own performance by choosing which pages to play and in which order; pages can also be omitted. John Cage began by choosing, using chance operations, a way of composing based on either his Music for Piano series – single notes, or on Winter Music – chords, o…
Works for Flute
"Flutist Roberto Fabbriciani continues his releases dedicated to the flute repertoire of single composers with works by Belgian composer Henri Pousseur (1929-2009). Previous releases on Mode featured Aldo Clementi and Bruno Maderna.As with Fabbriciani’s preceeding Clementi and Maderna releases, this Pousseur release marks the first time Pousseur’s works for flute have been collected in one recording. It is important to note that Fabbriciani had a long working relationship with the composer.The s…
For Bunita Marcus
"For Bunita Marcus opens with a clear call to our attention. With these first six notes, we step over the threshold and into the journey of the piece. We know that we are in this for the long haul: Morton Feldman’s late works are notorious for being marathons. He composed For Bunita Marcus in 1985, immediately after his four-hour For Philip Guston, and two years after his six-hour String Quartet (II) These earlier works make an hour-long solo piano piece seem short. Still, it is a long time to …
The Complete Cello Works
"This album collects for the first time four of the most important works from Horatiu Radulescu’s later period, all composed for cello, and all performed by his widow Catherine Marie Tunnell. Radulescu and Tunnell began working together almost immediately upon meeting in 1995. By the time they were married in 1997, Radulescu had already composed for her two of the pieces on this disc (the solo Lux Animae and the cello sonata L’Exil Intérieur), and revised and rededicated her a third, older work …
Works for Organ & for Cello
"Mode’s Horatiu Radulescu Edition, curated with Radulescu’s widow Catherine Marie Tunnell and his publisher Lucero Press, continues with a collection of his works for organ and works with cello.Radulescu’s complete organ works are performed here by German organist Christoph Maria Moosmann, a long-time Radulescu collaborator with a great understanding of his music and sonic goals. Some of the works were written for or dedicated to him. Further definitive recordings are guaranteed by performances …