Dach
*2024 stock* When two worlds collide, you clean up afterwards. That's how the first impression of Dach, the joint work by the Frankfurt sound collective Ensemble Modern and Paul Frick, known from Brandt Brauer Frick, feels. Few people know that Paul studied classical composition and that it is therefore not particularly surprising that, in addition to his work with BBF and Tangerine Dream, where he has been dribbling synthesiser capers with the electronic music legend from Spandau for some time …
Hereafter
Sofa is proud to mark its 100th release with the stunningly beautiful double album Hereafter, a new major work from guitarist/composer Kim Myhr, written for the 15-piece Stavanger-based ensemble Kitchen Orchestra. “Hereafter can be seen as a meditation on mortality and transience”, Myhr explains. “It was written at a time where the prime minister of Norway told the country’s population that ‘you have to be prepared to lose someone dear to you’. It was like taken out of Tarkovsky’s “Sacrifice”. T…
Paesaggi con macerie
“Not all artists manifest social and political ideals. This is a contradictory fact in itself, since they are committed to improving society,” says Salvatore Sciarrino in his album Paesaggi con macerie, which presents four remarkable recordings for ensemble or voice and ensemble, written between 1986 and 2022 and performed by mezzo soprano Monica Bacelli and Icarus vs Muzak conducted by Marco Angius.
musique noire
Julia Purgina’s works tell musical stories. Abstract stories, which usually initiate her working process. It is her goal “to write works that are clearly located in the present through their musical language and by speaking of the present, but which both touch people in their innermost being and force them to reflect. In a way that would be ultimately timeless,” said the composer in an interview for the Ludwigsburger Kreiszeitung. Through the musical description of mysterious characters, clouds …
Born In Waves
“Born in Waves is Estonian composer Elis Hallik’s first album, a gateway into the sounds and thoughts of an original artist. The album mainly features chamber compositions that represent important ideas from her oeuvre over the past decade. A versatile soundscape unravels before the listener through nine pieces, shaped by composition studies in Estonia and France, and in particular by her contact with the expressive means of spectral and electronic music. At the heart of her musical thought are …
My Strong Will
My Strong Will is a new album of "Ethiopian Classical Music" by Girma Yifrashewa. Recorded with Bulgarian musicians and the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra in Sofia, Bulgaria, the album is a return to where Yifrashewa completed his own conservatory training in the late 1980s and early 1990s, across both sides of the fall of Communism. Guided by Yifrashewa's piano, these chamber works bring the music of Ethiopia into a Western Classical format, uncovering meditative and emotional new vistas for both…
Neha
Two orchestral works by Adrián Demoč, the highly-acclaimed Slovak composer currently based in Spain. The title track 'Neha' (2018) creates a shimmering tension by overlaying 'well-tempered' chords with the same chords using natural harmonics outside of the tempered tuning system. This doubling creates a gentle trembling of interferences. The second piece, 'Popínavá hudba', evolves from a single melodic line, which is repeated with slight variations such that it curves and is bent into fascinatin…
Apophany
If you were to connect seemingly unrelated things – Heavy Metal and the symphony orchestra, for example – you might be guilty of apophenia. That friction between opposites has never been a problem for Nick Vasallo, though – his music is equally at home in both worlds. Melding Xenakis, Varese, Extreme Metal, and Dark Ambient with gothic charm, Vasallo conjures up a muscular sonic battle that leads you on an inexorable musical journey to a conclusion where surrender is your best option. Catharsis …
Transmutation of Things
There is a venerable history of popular songs used as the starting point for elaborate classical compositions, but 500 years ago Josquin and Dufay never imagined using a gargantuan digital orchestra with up to 300 layered tracks pushing architectural proportion and human perception to the max. And yet, that is exactly what composer, MC Maguire, does in his Toronto studio. It’s daunting, it’s overwhelming, and it has to be heard (preferably loud) to be believed. Dubbed “the most irritating and sp…
Pacifica
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Pacifica is a major new composition by the world-famous guitarist, improvisor and composer, Fred Frith. Over an hour in length and composed for a large ensemble of winds, strings and percussion, Pacifica sets the poetry of Pablo Neruda into a seductive and hypnotizing sound world that slowly metamorphoses into something altogether different. Lyrical written passages, inspired improvisations, sensual vocals and provocative sound effects all come together into…
Hoch-Zeiten
*2022 Stock.* Hoch-Zeiten (High-Times, 2001/02, 5th scene of Sonntag aus Licht) for orchestra and choir. The 5th scene of Sonntag aus Licht is actually a 2-part conception. One part is staged as an instrumental orchestral work, and the other is a simultaneous a cappella choral work performed in another room. However, sounds from the orchestral part are piped into the choral work, and vice-versa. This CD presents the orchestra point of view (WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne), followed by that of th…
Hoch-Zeiten für orchester
*2022 Stock.* Hoch-Zeiten für orchester (High-Times for orchestra) features each of the orchestral sub-groups from Hoch-Zeiten (presented in its staged form on the Stockhausen Edition no. 73) as individual tracks. These tracks essentially allow the listener to hear the orchestral parts more clearly in smaller ensembles. Musically, each ensemble explores static harmonies but with a dynamic emphasis on polyphonic embellishment and articulation. A version for the complete ensemble (all together as …