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... happy spring everyone !!! to commemorate our favorite season (and to help* get this place back to some sort of workable condition)* we're having a "spring cleaning" sale !!! please visit the *spring (2013)* cleaning page to view a list** of (recent, mostly 2012) releases that we're now offering at reduced prices (while supplies last, no rainchecks, etc) ...

previous record label: new vague		there are 88 titles on new world in stock. they are listed below.		next record label: nihilist

$14.62

new to stock as of
may 15th, 2013

threads:
modern-composition

new world (usa) #nw 80742 cd

burr van nostrand “voyage in a while building 1” compact disc

fantasy manual for urban survival (33:47) 1972

schwangesang #1 (1:21)
vredens dag (6:34)
9 miracles (6:17)
hälfte des lebens: stanza 1—interlude: schwangesang #2—stanza 2 (12:21)
receding attenuations (5:36)
schwangesang #3 (1:39)
phaedra antinomaes (12:26) 1968

2—fragments (3:20)
1—very slow, suspended (6:00)
3—violent, fast–very slow (3:06)
voyage in a white building 1 (23:51) 1969

whisper exquisitely, cadenza (7:07)
light and edgy, placid (3:35)
oh! oh? oh. . . violent, sad, fragments (13:10)

april 2013 release ; ... the fruit(s) of a years-long project by nec student jason belcher, this collection of seldom-heard pieces by “graphic score” composer burr van nostrand, about which ::

burr van nostrand’s scores combine highly graphic visual elements with conventional notation, and his music emphasizes extreme sonic contrasts, often using amplification. his technique shows near-predictions of what would emerge in the later 70's, and 80's from composers in and outside of the academic world. his work has not been heard publicly since the 1980's.

new world press release...

composer(s): burr van nostrand
album title: voyage in a white building 1
cat. no.: 80742
genre: classical / contemporary
release date: 04/2013

robert stallman, flute
jay humeston, cello
herman weiss, prepared piano
paul severtson, violin

nec chamber ensemble
anthony coleman, conductor

this long-awaited recording includes three extraordinary works by one of america's most original and forward-thinking composers. the music of burr van nostrand (b. 1945), although both born from and deeply rooted in the anti-war counterculture avant-garde of the 1960s and 70s, remains as strikingly fresh and timeless today as when it was first performed.

van nostrand's music is marked by an acute sensitivity to instrumental color and texture, extreme sonic contrasts, gestural freedom, and a signature ensemble fluidity achieved through the use of very precise and detailed conventional notation combined with extraordinarily beautiful graphic notation, resulting in music that places very high technical demands on the performer and at the same time allows for the flexibility and freedom of improvisation.

each work on this disc presents a catalog of extended techniques that would widen the eyes of even the most dedicated lachenmann enthusiast, but is also infused with a pluralistic view that vividly reflects the time and place of composition - boston and new haven at the height of the vietnam anti-war movement. this disc includes three works that represent the extremes of his output, from the most graphically notated and improvisational, voyage in a white building 1, to the most structured and fully notated, fantasy manual for urban survival, with phaedra antinomaes located somewhere in the middle of these two extremes.

$14.62

new to stock as of
may 15th, 2013

threads:
modern-composition

new world (usa) #nw 80739 cd

robyn schulkowsky “armadillo” compact disc

armadillo (1990–2007)

part i (42:33)
part ii (5:05)
part iii (5:29)
part iv (5:12)

january 2013 release ; ... a four-part suite of pieces for percussion trio (performed admirably by the composer along with long-time zorn & frisell collaborator joey baron & euro-improv player fredy studer) by robyn schulkowsky ...

new world press release...

composer(s): robyn schulkowsky
album title: armadillo
cat. no.: 80739
genre: classical / contemporary
release date: 01/2013

robyn schulkowsky, percussion
fredy studer, drums
joey baron, drums

composer/percussionist robyn schulkowsky (b. 1953) has premiered and recorded some of the most important percussion works of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, working with composers such as stockhausen, wolff, cage, feldman and xenakis.

armadillo (1990–2007) is one large-scale piece in four sections, the first of which, at around forty-two minutes, is about three times the duration of the other three combined (these are more or less the same duration, five-plus minutes each). one might think of the image of a mayan temple, with a large broad base rising pyramid-like to smaller structures at the top. almost all of the music’s sound is from drums, in a full range from high to very low. the trio’s playing is virtuosic, precise and finely modulated in color and dynamics.

this is a music at once variously complex and unified or “simplified” by the prevailing sonority of the drums. what gives the music its complexity and richness, what makes it distinctively engaging, is not just the stretches of intricate, overlaid patterning—there are a number of moments when textures thin out and simplify—but the continuous structural shifts, the unpredictable but somehow right moves from one kind of texture and procedure to another. it is a mysterious music, at once highly disciplined and controlled and at the same time full of energy and movement. it is the result of an intense and controlled focus in its composition and performance, a focus that because of its very intensity somehow allows the release of a sense of freedom.

$14.62

new to stock as of
may 15th, 2013

threads:
modern-composition
sound-poetry
1960s-electronic
electro-acoustic-composition
minimalism-drones

new world (usa) #nw 80738 cd

joseph byrd “nyc • 1960 - 1963” compact disc

animals (10:00) 1961
loops and sequences (7:36) 1961
three aphorisms (1960)

movement 1 (1:11)
movement 2 (0:33)
movement 3 (1:33)
densities i (9:53) 1962
four sound*poems (3:22) 1962
string trio (1962)

movement 1 (6:25)
movement 2 (4:39)
water music (for percussion solo and electronic tape) (12:40) 1963
prelude to “the mystery cheese-ball” (for antiphonal rubber balloons) (3:41) 1961

february 2013 release ; ... lovely collection of earlier work from the the united states of america (whose sole 1968 lp for columbia remains one of the major high-points in the early electronic / psychedelic rock nexus alongside silver apples, fifty foot hose, spoils of war, etc.) bandleader, largely inspired by a pair of lessons w/ morton feldman (whose influence, along with that of la monte young, can be heard on the majority of the minimal, slowly shifting music herein) ...

... while the disc’s first half is dotted with periodic, pointillist events, things change drastically with the arrival of a few pieces of sound poetry, then the extremely la monte-esque “string trio”, segueing into an awesome 1963 tape piece (composed purely of tuned cymbal wash ; listen to the sound-sample for a taste) ...

new world press release...

composer(s): joseph byrd
album title: nyc 1960 – 1963
cat. no.: 80738
genre: classical / contemporary
release date: 02/2013

american contemporary music ensemble
clarice jensen, artistic director
and alan zimmerman, percussion

[t]he obligation—the morality, if you wish—of all the arts today is to intensify, alter perceptual awareness and, hence, consciousness. awareness and consciousness of what? of the real material world. of the things we see and hear and taste and touch.

- joseph byrd

the imaginative and carefully crafted music of joseph byrd (b. 1937) assumes an astonishing variety of guises: he was an integral part of the experimental arts scene in new york and los angeles in the 1960s and he founded the psychedelic rock band the united states of america, and its successor joe byrd and the field hippies, to name just the most salient.

byrd’s career resists easy categorization because his collective activities encompass a broader sound world than is typically admitted within the confines of a single genre. in this sense, byrd possesses the spirit of radical exploration that has long characterized composers of the american experimental tradition. he initially moved to new york in 1960 to study with john cage, but among the most influential of his experiences during this period were his two lessons with morton feldman, whose delicately floating music enchanted the young composer. the works on this recording provide a rich musical document of byrd’s activities in new york between 1960 and 1963, when he studied with feldman, served as an apprentice to cage, and participated in the fluxus group. crafted with technical precision, all of the works were designed to explore the “singularity of sound” that was central to byrd’s lessons with feldman.

when byrd’s music was performed at carnegie recital hall in the spring of 1962, eric salzman of the new york times described the concert as a “thimbleful of tiny sounds” that were “generally just this side of the threshold of inaudibility.” initially, the “thimbleful of tiny sounds” assembled on this recording may not appear to anticipate the extraordinary diversity of byrd’s subsequent work, but they reveal the key to his early studies and the foundation of his artistic development. as with much of feldman’s music, the low dynamic levels and subtly shifting timbres and textures persuade the listener to attend to the sounds more carefully, thereby enriching the perceptual experience.

$99.31

new to stock as of
may 15th, 2013

threads:
1960s-electronic
1970s-electronic
1980s-electronic
live-electronic
machine-music
minimalism-drones
modern-composition
harsh-noise

best of 2013 !!!

new world (usa) #nw 80737 cd

david tudor “the art of david tudor • 1963-1992” septuple compact disc boxed set

john cage - variations ii (21:18) 1963
christian wolff - for 1, 2, or 3 people (24:47) 1964
david tudor - bandoneon ! (a combine) (14:15) 1966
david tudor - anima pepsi (23:37) 1970
david tudor - pepsibird (18:25) 1970
david tudor - pepscillator (11:37) 1970
john cage / david tudor - mesostics re merce cunningham/untitled (55:17) 1972
david tudor - weatherings (36:25) 1978
david tudor - phonemes (33:35) 1981
david tudor - rainforest iv (46:41) 1973
david tudor - webwork (25:29) 1987
david tudor - rainforest iv (38:21) 1973
david tudor - virtual focus (28:43) 1990
david tudor - neural network plus (60:30) 1992

may 2013 release ; ... simply a major archival / excavation project, unearthing a veritable king’s ransom in otherwise unreleased material from david tudor’s “live electronic” phase, issued across seven discs chronologically moving from his mid-60’s cage-allegiance through the 1970 osaka expo (the three “pepsi pavillion” pieces are a real revelation) through a series of 70’s / 80’s sets, arriving at a 1992 “neural network” ...

... all of this material is incredible ; if we had any doubts whatsoever as to how incredibly far ahead of his time tudor really was during this second phase of his career have swiftly been laid to rest ... highly recommended !!!

new world press release...

composer(s): john cage, christian wolff, david tudor
album title: the art of david tudor 1963–1992
cat. no.: 80737 (7 cds)
genre: classical / electronic
release date: 05/2013

david tudor's (1926-1996) identity morphed seamlessly from interpreter of mainly acoustic music to composer-performer of predominately electronic music over a period of about ten years, from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. this set of seven cds, the first truly comprehensive survey of tudor's work as a composer, goes beyond any previous attempt to document that process of transformation. it captures his touch and sensitivity and offers an expansive, previously unavailable view onto more than three decades of tudor's astonishingly original work as an electronic musician. it neatly describes the arc of his career, from his first composition, bandoneon ! (a combine), through the fully-realized works of his long collaboration with the merce cunningham dance company.

six works that were issued in excerpted form in music for merce (1952-2009) are issued here complete. other highlights include the live soundscapes for the pepsi pavilion at the 1970 osaka world expo, the marvelous simultaneous performance with john cage of mesostics re merce cunningham / untitled, and two extended binaural recordings of rainforest iv with composers inside electronics, the best recorded documents of this signature work.

while cage has finally more or less received his due, tudor's own accomplishments have been somewhat overshadowed and are ripe for a proper re-evaluation. it is our hope that the release of this set will prompt a thorough reconsideration of his seminal achievements.

$14.62

new to stock as of
may 15th, 2013

new world (usa) #nw 80736 cd

mathew rosenblum “circadian rhythms” compact disc

yonah’s dream (8:44) 2008
circadian rhythms (20:00) 1989

circadian rhythms (9:21)
stargazing (2:47)
monuments (3:11)
circadian rhythms (part 2) (4:33)
two harmonies (2011)

gymnopédie for art jarvinen (3:52)
fantasy for roberta liss (3:00)
under the rainbow (13:35) 2003
the big rip (a science fiction cantata) (19:08) 2009

new world press release...

composer(s): mathew rosenblum
album title: circadian rhythms
cat. no.: 80736
genre: classical / chamber
release date: 09/2012

newband:
stefani starin, flute
dean drummond, conductor
dave eggar, cello
chuck palmer, percussion
rob frankenberry, keyboards
wendy richman, viola
timothy feeney, percussion
shirley yoo, piano
lindsey goodman, flute, alto flute, piccolo

calmus ensemble and raschèr saxophone quartet

mathew rosenblum’s (b. 1954) music is a synthesis of diverse musical elements derived from classical, jazz, rock, and world music traditions, exploring how seemingly independent musical voices and traditions may be woven together into a newly expressive whole. another synthesis, one of the earmarks of rosenblum’s compositional voice, is the use of multiple tuning systems, most commonly the standard western twelve-note-per-octave equal tempered system augmented with notes from various “just” and otherwise altered pitch systems specifically designed for use with twelve-note equal temperament. rosenblum uses his tunings for a variety of expressive purposes—among others, to evoke non-western musics, for “blues” notes, and to create exhilarating hyperchromatic moments and sonic effects.

equally distinctive is the way his music unfolds in time, perhaps the most striking feature of which is his intermittent repetition of discrete phrases. such phrases, each as highly memorable as a wagnerian leitmotif, recur throughout each work with greater or lesser literalness (but always with some variation), setting up large cyclic rhythms that disrupt the linear flow of time. rosenblum in fact toys deftly with our expectations of when they will occur and what they will lead to. their character shifts chameleon-like with each recurrence, most elaborately in circadian rhythms, but to some extent in each of the works on this cd.

$29.23

new to stock as of
may 15th, 2013

new world (usa) #nw 80735 cd

david rosenboom “in the beginning” double compact disc set

in the beginning i: (electronic) (23:48) 1978
in the beginning ii: (song of endless light + sextet) (28:37) 1979
in the beginning iii: (quintet) (18:47) 1979
in the beginning: etude i (trombones) (9:56) 1979
in the beginning: etude ii (keyboard-plucked strings) (7:59) 1980
in the beginning: etude iii (keyboard & two oranges) (6:15) 1980
in the beginning iv: (electronic) (12:09) 1980
in the beginning v: (the story) 1981

movement i (2:49)
movement ii (2:42)
movement iii (3:50)
movement iv (2:15)
movement v (4:31)
movement vi (3:11)

new world press release...

composer(s): david rosenboom
album title: in the beginning
cat. no.: 80735 (2 cds)
genre: classical / contemporary
release date: 11/2012

david rosenboom (b. 1947) is a composer/performer known as a pioneer in american experimental music. this series of eight works, created between 1978 and 1981 and presented on these discs in chronological order of their composition, demonstrates a remarkable extension of rosenboom’s techniques from his …plymouth rock… series of 1969–71 using the harmonic and sub-harmonic series.

the in the beginning series exemplifies the idea of model-building as a compositional process. a simple process is defined, and is carried out rigorously at as many different levels of the music as possible, producing a complexity from simple elements that can be felt, somehow, while moving one’s attention freely from its micro to macro levels, and everywhere else between. the composer plays inside it, using it freely, stretching it into different forms. the play one experiences in hearing the work is a reflection of the purposeful play that went into its creation.

in the beginning i: (electronic) (1978)

david rosenboom, buchla & associates 300 series electric music box

in the beginning ii: (song of endless light + sextet) (1979)

mike svoboda, trombone
william winant, percussion
erika duke-kirkpatrick, aniela perry, derek stein, and april guthrie, cellos

in the beginning iii: (quintet) (1979)

midnight winds:
amy tatum, flute
jennifer johnson, oboe
andrew leonard, clarinet
maciej flis, bassoon
allen fogle, horn

in the beginning: etude i (trombones) (1979)

mike svoboda, eight trombones

in the beginning: etude ii (keyboard-plucked strings) (1980)

jane grothe, harp
david rosenboom, piano and computer
jerónimo (jxel) rajchenberg, requinto, charango, and coco banjo samples

in the beginning: etude iii (keyboard & two oranges) (1980)

david rosenboom, piano

in the beginning iv: (electronic) (1980)

david rosenboom, buchla & associates 300 series electric music box

in the beginning v: (the story) (1981)

amy tatum, flute
claire chenette, oboe
andrew leonard, clarinet
briana lehman, bassoon
daniel rosenboom, trumpet 1
marissa benedict, trumpet 2
steven suminsky, trombone
doug tornquist, tuba
danny holt, piano 1
richard valitutto, piano 2
nicholas terry, percussion 1
matthew cook, percussion 2
andrew tholl, violin
mark menzies, viola
derek stein, cello
maggie hasspacher, contrabass
david rosenboom, conductor

$29.23

new to stock as of
may 15th, 2013

threads:
modern-composition

new world (usa) #nw 80734 cd

christian wolff “8 duos” double compact disc set

for morty (6:03) 1987
for a medley (11:32) 2012
violist and percussionist (13:30) 1996
percussionist 5 (9:12) 2002
rosas (11:20) 1990

no. 1 (1:31)
no. 2 (3:17)
no. 3 (1:22)
no. 4 (1:36)
no. 5 (3:26)
pulse (12:26) 1998
one coat of paint (26:57) 2004

part 1 (6:38)
part 2 (2:12)
part 3 (18:01)
duo 7 (6:05) 2007

new world press release...

composer(s): christian wolff
album title: 8 duos
cat. no.: 80734 (2 cds)
genre: classical / contemporary
release date: 03/2013

robyn schulkowsky, percussion

with
frederic rzewski, piano
joey baron, percussion
kim kashkashian, viola
reinhold friedrich, trumpet
rohan de saram, cello
christian wolff, melodica

christian wolff’s is a spare, prosaic music, with little interest in straining after sonic novelty. recalling the memorable title of philosopher david rothenberg's book on improvisation, we can hear in wolff a "sudden music" of emergent simultaneities, where both intuitive and fortuitous moments are bathed in an eternity of timelessness.

but what does this kind of music offer us right now?

to paraphrase benjamin franklin, it offers us freedom-if we can keep it. - george lewis

...

since 1987 i have been making duos for percussion with another instrument. the first was a memorial piece for morton feldman, for morty, in 1987, with piano. then in 1990 rosas, commissioned for the pianist marianne schroeder and the percussionist robyn schulkowsky. a few years later i met robyn and began a working association with her that has now been ongoing for eighteen years. apart from a series of solo pieces, there have been duos, with viola (for robyn and kim kashkashian), violist and percussionist (1996); with trumpet (for reinhold friedrich), pulse (1998); with cello (rohan de saram), one coat of paint (2004) - the title of a john ashbery poem; and most recently (2012) for a medley (a duo of percussionists, with joey baron). there is in addition a recent shorter duo with melodica, written for myself to play with her, duo 7 (2007).

the thread is percussion and the remarkable and distinctive playing and musicality of schulkowsky, but also the other musicians, all of whom have extensive association with her and are of course of special distinction themselves. the whole set, which now extends over 25 years, reflects my compositional trajectory over that time, and provides a series of exceptional, indeed, for me, ideal performances.

- christian wolff

$14.62

new to stock as of
may 15th, 2013

threads:
fluxus
modern-composition

new world (usa) #nw 80729 cd

annea lockwood “in our name” compact disc

jitterbug (28:36) 2007
in our name (11:55) 2009–10
thirst (20:18) 2008

new world press release...

composer(s): annea lockwood
album title: in our name
cat. no.: 80729
genre: classical / contemporary
release date: 06/2012

david behrman, zither, psalter, rattle, rainstick, processing
john king, electric guitar, viola, processing
william winant, percussion; tape
thomas buckner, baritone
theodore mook, cello; tape
simone fattal, narrator
kristin norderval, soprano; tape

annea lockwood (b. 1939) distinguishes herself with works ingeniously combining recorded found and processed sounds, live-performance and visual components, and exhibiting her acute sense of timbre. while perhaps best known for her 1960s “glass concerts” featuring manifold glass-based sounds and her notorious piano transplants—burning, burying, and drowning obsolete pianos—she was drawn to the complex beauty of sounds found in the natural environment, which she captured on tape. lockwood was especially fascinated with the sonorities of moving water and water’s calming and healing properties and thus started an archive of recorded river sounds. from the 1970s, she explored improvisation and alternative performance techniques and asked her performers to use natural sound sources and instruments including rocks, stones, and conch shells. having long been an attentive listener to nature and having given fragile and volatile nature a voice in many of her works, lockwood has also occasionally drawn attention to vulnerable humans, such as a dying friend and prisoners deprived of their rights, in works like delta run (1981) and in our name (2009–10). the current cd brings together three such works—jitterbug* (2007), in our name**, and thirst*** (2008), emphasizing non-human and human dignity and imaginatively merging musique concrète techniques with live performance.

$14.62

new to stock as of
may 15th, 2013

threads:
digital-musics
electro-acoustic-composition
live-electronic
modern-composition

new world (usa) #nw 80728 cd

earl howard “granular modality” compact disc

bird 3 (20:00) 2006
crupper (16:19) 2009
2455 (11:14) 2009
strasser 60 (20:05) 2009

new world press release...

composer(s): earl howard
album title: granular modality
cat. no.: 80728
genre: jazz
release date: 03/2012

earl howard, alto saxophone, synthesizer, live processing
miya masaoka, koto

in many respects earl howard’s (b. 1951) music is an anomaly that resists categorization and the seductiveness of genre. he is an important force in improvised music and yet his work employs complex structures and rigorous transitions of sound and texture. his electro-acoustic music is realized with a k-2600 kurzweil that for howard is not merely a keyboard synthesizer but an open system, a computer with a most effective interface with modules and a key map that enable more freedom in the composer’s creation of textures. in the three solo works (bird 3, strasser 60, 2455) presented on granular modality, one can observe the striking continuity of howard’s aesthetic approach. all three pieces employ a flexible script of material that transforms and modulates from texture to texture. each section in the composition represents a complex sound world that is not simply multiphonics or sub-harmonics, for example, but an exchange, an interplay that is both directional in terms of an overall sense of form and discursive in its oppositional characteristics.

the discursive elements in earl howard’s playing on the saxophone and on the synthesizer convey a restless approach toward material. musical material and texture always change and evolve. on the synthesizer this is accomplished with a scripted succession of programs, textures and behaviors that can overlap and be revealed over time. the scripted flow of events creates a coherent overall structure that is malleable in terms of duration and nuance. distinction between the improvised and the composed becomes irrelevant, as the order of events, the script, remains the same as the details are revealed in the action of improvisation. crupper (2009) features miya masaoka on koto with the composer on synthesizer. the piece has a fascinating tension between tonality and sound finding a delicate balance between the stochastic and the melodic.

$14.62

new to stock as of
may 15th, 2013

threads:
digital-musics
live-electronic
modern-composition

new world (usa) #nw 80727 cd

john bischoff “audio combine ” compact disc

audio combine (12:53) 2009
sidewalk chatter (12:32) 2010
local color (11:47) 2004
decay trace (11:46) 2006
surface effect (11:00) 2011

new world press release...

composer(s): john bischoff
album title: audio combine
cat. no.: 80727
genre: classical / electronic
release date: 02/2012

john bischoff (b. 1949) is an early pioneer of live computer music. he was a founding member of the league of automatic music composers (1978), considered to be the world’s first computer network band. his long experience teaching music theory, harmony, and counterpoint is evident in his work: in the elegant balance of elements in his pieces can be heard an intuitive understanding of traditional musical forms expressed in sonic palettes far removed from the ones around which those forms were originally constructed. he describes his work as “a music built from the intrinsic features of the electronic medium at hand: high definition noise components, tonal edges, digital shading, and non-linear motion, all evolving in the variable context of live performance.” while these features are all prominent, his work can also be considered fundamentally as a form of “expanded counterpoint,” one in which the juxtaposition of sonic elements and their compositional development is a central concern. his work possesses a clear and intuitive sense of formal clarity combined with a nuanced deployment of audio events and textures.

the title of this collection refers most literally to the methods of assembling the elements of bischoff’s work. in one brief phrase it describes both a methodology that is used to build the pieces and the concrete results of that activity. by terming the process combine rather than combination, he focuses on the act and experience of juxtaposing sounds over their semantic results once they are combined. though some of the processes heard here involve recycling timings or sounds, their deployment is always in the present and they are imbued with a clarity that only listening in the moment can provide. as new combinations and permutations of sonic materials emerge, the perceptual focus is always on the physical sound, whether acoustic or electronic in origin.

$14.62

new to stock as of
may 15th, 2013

threads:
modern-composition
live-electronic

new world (usa) #nw 80725 cd

kyle bruckmann “on procedural grounds” compact disc

cell structure (11:15) 2009
on procedural grounds (29:17) 2010
orgone accelerator (7:59) 2010
tarpit (16:06) 2009

new world press release...

composer(s): kyle bruckmann
album title: on procedural grounds
cat. no.: 80725
genre: classical / contemporary
release date: 04/2012

wrack:
kyle bruckmann, oboe
jen clare paulson, viola
jason stein, bass clarinet
anton hatwich, contrabass
timothy daisy, percussion

rova saxophone quartet:bruce ackley, larry ochs, jon raskin, and steve adams

gino robair, tim perkis, live electronics

sfsound:
kyle bruckmann, oboe
matt ingalls, bass clarinet
john ingle, alto saxophone
gino robair, prepared piano
benjamin kreith, violin
tara flandreau, viola
monica scott, cello
kjell nordesen, percussion
with electronics

in his compositions, composer/performer kyle bruckmann (b. 1971) seeks to integrate rigor and internal logic with raw immediacy while fully engaging his fellow performers as not simply dutiful interpreters, but creatively invested collaborators. aesthetically, the results evoke much from european modernism, but realized via idiosyncratic modular forms and process-oriented strategies equally indebted to the new york school and the jazz avant-garde.

on procedural grounds (2010) is a half-hour work conceived as the framework for a summit between his current bay area community and that of chicago, his former home. the eleven-piece ensemble features his long-standing project wrack together with boundary-defying west coast pioneers rova, tim perkis (of the league of automatic music composers and the hub) and gino robair. orgone accelerator (2010) was composed for 8-channel sound diffusion, and premiered at the 2011 san francisco tape music festival. the other two pieces are products of the unique creative environment of sfsound (the collective with which bruckmann has performed the works of such composers as braxton, cardew, feldman, ferneyhough, ligeti, subotnick and xenakis) and feature members of that ensemble. cell structure (2009) is a duet written for the composer on oboe and matt ingalls on clarinet, with an electronic accompaniment realized through modular analog synthesis. tarpit (2009) is scored for an octet of winds, strings, and percussion with similarly pre-recorded electronics.

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threads:
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live-electronic

new world (usa) #nw 80723 cd

chris brown “iconicities • 3 pieces for percussion and live electronics” compact disc

stupa (for josé maceda) (15:12) 2007
gangsa (for ramón santos) (19:17) 2010
iceberg (for william winant) (17:38) 1985

new world press release...

composer(s): chris brown
album title: iconicities ¢cat. no.: 80723
genre: classical / contemporary
release date: 09/2011

iconicities
3 pieces for percussion and live electronics

william winant, percussion
the william winant percussion group
chris brown, piano and electronics

chris brown’s (b. 1953) music has evolved within the intersections of many different traditions and styles. following early training as a classical pianist, he was influenced by studies of indonesian, indian, afro-american, and cuban musics, and then took off on branches provided by the american experimentalists in inventing and building a personal electronic instrumentation. collaboration and improvisation have been primary in the development of his music for various traditional instruments and interactive electronics. an “iconicity” is the analogy between the form of a sign and its meaning. all three of these pieces are through-composed using simple processes applied to both the sounds of the instruments and their real-time electronic transformations. the players must synchronize exactly with the rhythms produced by these transformations, and together the acoustic and electronic layers of sound create closely interwoven textures that evolve gradually into more complex forms. the acoustic sounds and the patterned variations of their recurrence affect the listener’s experience of time, and provide a metaphor for its transcendence

stupas (2007): a stupa is a southeast asian monumental architectural form, which in buddhism is also viewed as a symbol of enlightened mind and a path to its realization. the form of a stupa, a square base with circular domes rising above it, is used to structure this piece. gangsa (2010): gangsa are bronze flat-gongs from the mountainous regions of the northern philippines played in ensembles in which each player plays one gong of a different pitch. subtitled invention #8, this piece is one of a series that focuses on polyrhythmic interaction of performers with electronics. iceberg (1985): the electronic sounds are all live transformations of the percussion, and the performer plays in time with the automated switching of effects, starting simply, and then playing more complex and syncopated patterns against it.

$43.85

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threads:
electro-acoustic-composition
electro-acoustic-improvisation
modern-composition
minimalism-drones
live-electronic
analogue-synth
psych-prog
musique-concrète
field-recordings
1970s-electronic
1980s-electronic

best of 2010 !!!

new world (usa) #nw 80713 cd

alvin curran “solo works • the '70s ” triple compact disc set

songs and views from the magnetic garden (canti e vedute del giardino magnetico) (1973)

i (26:42)
ii (23:14)
light flowers dark flowers (fiori chiari fiori oscuri) (1974)

i (24:48)
ii (26:50)

canti illuminati (1977)

i (26:19)
ii (19:00)

the works (1976)

i (25:34)
ii (19:42)

october 2010 release ; wow - didn’t see this one coming !!!

herein lies the entirety of musica elettronica viva member alvin curran’s first four solo lps (the ananda-label “canti e vedute del giardino magnetico” & “fiori chiari fiori oscuri” from 1975 & 1978, respectively, then the fore-label “the works” & “canti illuminati” sets from 1980 & 1982 - original cover-art detailed below) ... along with a 24-page booklet with extended liner notes by joan la barbara & curran himself, all stuffed into a 3-disc cd-box ...

musically, this takes terry riley’s keyboard-based “time-lag” ideas to a new stage, incorporating field recordings & musique concrète techniques, extended synthesizer & piano flourish, and ten-deep layerings of wandering, modal improvisations to yield a perfectly psychedelic & always placid drone-scape with little equal ...

curran’s best work, easily available in one convenient place ; highly recommended !!!

new world press release...

composer(s): alvin curran
album title: solo works - the '70s
cat. no.: 80713 (3 cds)
genre: classical / contemporary
release date: 10/2010

i am happy to stand again in front of all these free-wheeling tone paintings and look back—embracing both their concrete and their purely ephemeral, abstract qualities—while reflecting on how much these four seminal works determined the music i made afterward, similarly inspired by the rhythms, colors, and eternal durations of nature and the immediacy and knowledge of making music with anything at hand.

—alvin curran

this historic collection gathers together the four seminal solo albums recorded by alvin curran (b. 1938) in the 1970s. two, fiori chiari fiori oscuri and the works, are making their first appearance on cd. author/critic tim page, an early advocate of these works, writes ::

curran weaves electronic technology, an occasional acoustic instrument, voices and musique concrète (“found” music) into a multi-hued tapestry of sound. he holds these dissimilar elements together with a compelling subliminal musical consciousness; the listener never feels that curran is deliberately being clever, or that he is out to impress, shock or self-consciously ‘expand the musical language.’ curran’s eclecticism is not willful; his sounds are there because they fit, and they convey a subtle and ingratiating sense of mysticism. these challenging, multi-faceted compositions manage, through their very catholicity, to synthesize and perfect a striking new musical syntax uniquely curran’s own.

$144.48

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threads:
1950s-electronic
1960s-electronic
1970s-electronic
1980s-electronic
electro-acoustic-composition
electro-acoustic-improvisation
experimental-instruments
live-electronic
machine-music
sound-art
site-specific
concert-recordings
circuit-bending
analogue-synth
digital-musics

best of 2010 !!!

new world (usa) #nw 80712 cd

“music for merce (1952-2009)” decuple compact disc set

christian wolff - for magnetic tape (1952) [pt. 1 of 4] (5:24)
christian wolff - for piano i (1952) (5:19)
john cage - music for piano 1–20 (1954) (16:13)
earle brown - indices (1955) [excerpt] (20:51)
bo nilsson - quantitäten (1958) (12:31)
morton feldman - ixion (1958) (20:21)
john cage - variations v (1965) [excerpt] (13:41)
gordon mumma - mesa (1966) (19:38)
toshi ichiyanagi - activities for orchestra (1962) (24:09)
david behrman - … for nearly an hour… (1968) [excerpt] (3:23)
pauline oliveros - in memoriam: nikola tesla, cosmic engineer (1969) [excerpt] (9:44)
christian wolff - for 1, 2, or 3 people (1964) [excerpt] (12:07)
christian wolff - burdocks (1971) [excerpt] (16:59)
john cage, gordon mumma, david tudor - /3 (1972) [excerpt] (16:39)
gordon mumma - telepos (1972) (18:27)
david tudor - toneburst (1975) (17:45)
takehisa kosugi - s.e. wave/e.w. song (1976) [excerpt] (13:03)
maryanne amacher - remainder (1976) [excerpt] (14:55)
jon gibson - equal distribution (1977) [excerpt] (12:14)
john cage - inlets (1977) [excerpt] (10:17)
david tudor - weatherings (1978) [excerpt] (14:54)
yasunao tone - geography and music (1979) [excerpt] (21:18)
david tudor - phonemes (1981) [excerpt] (14:00)
david tudor - sextet for seven (1982) (18:15)
takehisa kosugi - spacings (1984) (23:52)
john king - gliss in sighs (1985) (16:19)
john cage - voiceless essay (1986) [excerpt] (10:58)
david tudor - webwork (1987) [excerpt] (10:46)
michael pugliese - peace talks (1989) [excerpt] (11:44)
takehisa kosugi - spectra (1989) (20:29)
john cage - sculptures musicales (1989) [excerpt] (12:14)
david tudor - virtual focus (1990) [excerpt] (15:15)
john cage - four3 (1991) [excerpt] (15:24)
david tudor - neural network plus (1992) [excerpt] (13:28)
john king - blues ’99 (1993) [excerpt] (19:10)
stuart dempster - underground overlays (1995) [excerpt] (15:22)
john cage - four6 (1992) [excerpt] (11:17)
takehisa kosugi - wave code a–z (1997) [excerpt] (14:42)
christian wolff - or 4 people (1994) [excerpt] (6:16)
john cage - and one8 (1991) [excerpt] (14:18)
john king - longtermparking (2002) [excerpt] (15:31)
david behrman - long throw (2007) [excerpt] (18:25)
annea lockwood - jitterbug (2007) [excerpt] (20:19)
event - february 16, 1993, red wing, minnesota (5:58)
event - september 14, 1996, annemasse, france (5:53)
event - june 5, 1997, frankfurt (7:30)
event - september 12, 1998, minneapolis (5:22)
event - september 29, 2002, oslo (4:12)
event - october 30, 2002, munich (6:51)
event - december 14, 2004, new york city (3:54)
event - december 15, 2004, new york city (6:56)
event - december 18, 2004, new york city (6:35)
event - june 14, 2005, london (5:21)
event - june 17, 2005, london (8:44)

december 2010 release ; just incredible ...

inside this mammoth, 10-disc behemoth lies a veritable king’s ransom of largely otherwise un-issued pieces, all composed for merce cunningham’s dance company, performed by a who’s who of 20th century experimental & electronic music ...

... before you balk at the price, let me point out just some of the contents ::

an absolute treasure-trove of archival david tudor material(s), ranging from his premiere of christian wolff’s “for piano i” in 1952 & his performance of piano pieces by earle brown, bo nilsson, & morton feldman ... through his “jerry-rigged” electronic work with john cage, gordon mumma, malcolm goldstein, max neuhaus, toshi ichiyanagi, pauline oliveros ... and finally his 80’s & 90’s solo live electronic pieces ...

an otherwise never-released recording of takehisa kosugi playing a “catch-wave” lineage piece in 1976, plus three other unreleased live-electronic pieces from the 80’s & 90’s, all of which are insane (listen to the sound-sample for one of the 80’s one ; an “automated” bleep-out par excellence) ...

unheard 70’s & 80’s compositions by maryanne amacher, jon gibson, yasunao tone, john king, michael pugliese, and annea lockwood ... along with several ensemble pieces from the 90’s with jim o’rourke & folks like stuart dempster, kosugi, paul de marinis, and company ... and a disc of “events” featuring folks like christian marclay, ikue mori, george lewis, steve lacy ... and oddly, led zeppelin’s john paul jones & radiohead drummer phil selway ...

... comes as a nice, matte cd-box (similar form-factor as the “music from the once festival” set) with a pull-ribbon, all ten discs (housed in five single-wide double-cases) & a 120-page book offering a succinct history of the cunningham company’s involvement with all of this essential stuff, plus tons of key photos of the happenings & dance-events documented herein ...

easily my single favorite release of 2010 ; highest conceivable recommendation !!!

new world press release...

composer(s): christian wolff, john cage, earle brown, bo nilsson, morton feldman, gordon mumma, toshi ichiyanagi, david behrman, pauline oliveros, david tudor, takehisa kosugi, maryanne amacher, jon gibson, yasunao tone, john king, michael pugliese, stuart dempster, annea lockwood
album title: music for merce (1952-2009)
cat. no.: 80712 (10 cds)
genre: classical / contemporary
release date: 12/2010

the late merce cunningham was renowned for his legendary collaborations with the most significant experimental musicians of the late 20th century. particularly notable is his association with john cage, who served as the founding musical director of the merce cunningham dance company until cage’s death in 1992.

spanning six decades from the early 1950s onward, these recordings capture the breadth of the cunningham repertory and the rich diversity of cunningham’s musical collaborations. composers whose work features prominently in this collection include seminal figures of late-20th-century experimental music such as john cage, david tudor, gordon mumma, christian wolff, and takehisa kosugi, among others.

for the most part, these compositions have not been recorded elsewhere and are making their first appearance on cd. this is a document of enormous historical import that will be a revelation to both listeners and scholars interested in the evolution of american experimental music over the past five decades. also included is a 124-page booklet featuring a 15,000-word essay by amy beal, one of the foremost scholars of contemporary american music.

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threads:
modern-composition
folk
experimental-instruments

new world (usa) #nw 80710 cd

lou harrison “scenes from cavafy • music for gamelan ” compact disc

scenes from cavafy: i, gending cavafy (6:46)
scenes from cavafy: ii, gendig bill/lancaran jody (9:21)
scenes from cavafy: iii, gending ptolemy (6:19)
con for pno with javanese gamelan: i, bull's belle (10:22)
con for pno with javanese gamelan: ii, untitled (8:54)
con for pno with javanese gamelan: iii, belle's bull (5:35)
a soedjatmoko set: i (7:41)
a soedjatmoko set: ii, isna's song (10:42)
a soedjatmoko set: iii (6:56)

september 2010 release ; premiere recordings of these three sets of pieces for javanese gamelan by lou harrison, composed during the 1980s ... gorgeous recording really captures the woofer-rattling radiations of the gong ageng !!!

new world press release...

composer(s): lou harrison
album title: scenes from cavafy - music for gamelan
cat. no.: 80710
genre: classical / contemporary
release date: 09/2010

john duykers, voice
adrienne varner, piano
jessika kenney, voice

gamelan pacifica
jarrad powell, artistic director

lou harrison’s (1917–2003) long-term love affair with the indonesian gamelan had its roots in a course he took from henry cowell in the spring of 1935. as harrison refined his understanding of traditional gamelan procedures during the 1980s, he began to transfer these compositional ideas to works for western instruments. at the same time, harrison continued to compose for the indonesian ensemble itself, indulging a fascination for asia that had been part of his life since his youth while simultaneously bringing this fascination into close interaction with his western musical training. he simply found in gamelan music some of the most beautiful sounds he could imagine and he hastened to add these sounds to his toolbox of compositional resources as an extension of his personal artistic voice. in so doing, he honored the culture that had inspired him, and offered his works as an admiration for its artistic products.

this is the world-premiere recording of these three major works in authoritative performances by gamelan pacifica, which had a long association with the composer, performing and giving the northwest premieres of all his major works for gamelan.

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threads:
modern-composition
minimalism-drones

new world (usa) #nw 80705 cd

tom johnson “rational melodies ” compact disc

rational melodies: i (1:27)
rational melodies: ii (1:18)
rational melodies: iii (2:13)
rational melodies: iv (1:27)
rational melodies: v (1:37)
rational melodies: vi (2:58)
rational melodies: vii (2:13)
rational melodies: viii (2:06)
rational melodies: ix (1:41)
rational melodies: x (2:57)
rational melodies: xi (1:27)
rational melodies: xii (2:07)
rational melodies: xiii (2:51)
rational melodies: xiv (6:07)
rational melodies: xv (1:50)
rational melodies: xvi (1:11)
rational melodies: xvii (1:50)
rational melodies: xviii (1:44)
rational melodies: xix (4:56)
rational melodies: xx (2:01)
rational melodies: xxi (1:15)

january 2010 release ; ensemble realization(s) of tom johnson’s 1982 “process music” suite ...

new world press release...

composer(s): tom johnson
album title: rational melodies
cat. no.: 80705
genre: classical / contemporary
release date: 01/2010

dedalus:
didier aschour, guitar, music director
amlie berson, flute
eric chalan, bass
denis chouillet, piano
thierry madiot, trombone
pierre-stphane meug, saxophone
silvia tarozzi, violin
fabrice villard, clarinet
deborah walker, violoncello

i am particularly pleased, because the result is so different from the solo flute recording of eberhard blum and the solo clarinet recording of roger heaton. it is not just another interpretation, but a case where interpreters have added so much insight to the music that the music itself has grown. when i was composing this music around 1982, i really thought i was simply writing melodies, but now these little pieces, though remaining melodies, have become something much more, something i would never have imagined. they have become what you hear on this cd.

- tom johnson

tom johnson (b. 1939) belongs to a generation of american composers who founded musical minimalism. we know that this term was first applied to the visual arts, notably to donald judd, robert morris, and particularly sol lewitt, whom johnson recognizes as an influence. however, it wasn't the repetition in itself that interested him, but rather the idea of music as a process. steve reich applied this idea brilliantly in his phase pieces. but after 1975, while the same reich distanced himself from the radicalism of his first works, and younger american composers came out with music that was lusher, more expressive, even sentimental, johnson insisted on the unrelenting rigor of formalized processes.

the rational melodies, composed in 1982, may be regarded as the outcome of this research, first of all by their sheer quantity, but also by the fact that they summarize brilliantly and clearly procedures from the past, present, and future, which together characterize his work: combinations of cycles of different lengths (i, iv, xi, xvii, xviii), permutations (vii, x), the paper-folding or "dragon" formula (ii, xix), other automata (xvi, xx), or self-similar structures (xiv, xv).

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1970s-electronic
modern-composition
minimalism-drones
live-electronic
electro-acoustic-composition

new world (usa) #nw 80704 cd

ingram marshall “september canons” compact disc

september canons (13:17) 2002
peaceable kingdom (17:58) 1990
woodstone (17:28) 1981
fragility cycles ("gambuh") (14:59) 1976

december 2009 release ; excellent collection of various strains from ingram marshall’s present & past, including the 1976 recording of his “fragility cycles” (realized here on serge modular synthesizer & live electronic processing of balinese flute playing) that rates as one of his finest moments (listen to the extended sound-sample ; bathe in the warm glow, recalling artemiev’s tarkovsky scores, alvin curran’s contemporaneous work, and even prime-era kosugi / taj mahal travelers) ...

new world press release...

composer(s): ingram marshall
album title: september canons
cat. no.: 80704
genre: classical / contemporary
release date: 12/2009

todd reynolds, violin, with electronic processing

members of the yale philharmonia
julian pellicano, conductor

the berkeley gamelan
daniel schmidt, director

ingram marshall, gambuh (balinese flute), serge synthesizer, live electronic processing

the pieces on this compact disk span almost three decades and represent the principal threads that have run through ingram marshall's (b. 1942) work: his remarkable skill in using electronics to create expressive and voluptuously beautiful pieces; the influence of indonesian music, particularly in the slowed-down sense of time and melodic repetition; a thorough knowledge of some of the most stirring and poignant compositions of the western tradition, especially sibelius and bach; and the hovering presence of charles ives, particularly his use of quotation and juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated elements.

the works on this cd can be thought of as an archeological dig, flowing in reverse chronological order from a recent work to one of the composer's earliest. they range from the dramatic and gripping 2002 work relating to a horrible event in new york city to a timeless ethereal 1976 piece relating to an idyllic period in indonesia. along with these dynamic contrasts, there's surprising consistency: marshall's lifelong efforts to combine electronics with instruments and to render them with warmth and expressivity; but moreover, his extraordinary ability to capture profound human feeling and create works of poignancy and depth.

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threads:
1970s-electronic
digital-musics
electro-acoustic-composition
modern-composition

new world (usa) #nw 80701 cd

charles dodge “a retrospective” compact disc

cascando (32:47) 1977
fades, dissolves, fizzles (14:07) 1995
violin variations: i. (1:46) 2009
violin variations: ii. (1:41) 2009
violin variations: iii. (1:27) 2009
violin variations: iv. (3:30 2009)

june 2010 release ; ... the centerpiece of this disc, dodge’s 1977 setting of beckett’s 1963 radio play “cascando” for stereo-heavy computer vocoding, speech synthesis & re-synthesis algorithms is one of his crowning achievements ; very glad to have it on disc & readily accessible ...

new world press release...

composer(s): charles dodge
album title: a retrospective
cat. no.: 80701
genre: classical / electronic
release date: 06/2010

baird dodge, violin

the music on this disc was written over a period of more than thirty years. over the course of those years, so much has changed in technology, in music, in life in general. but throughout the work represented here one can recognize the remarkable, entirely original voice of charles dodge (b. 1942). he is truly a composer who writes music that does not sound like anybody else's. he has never been part of any “ism” or movement; he is his own category. and although his stylistic approach and his interests have changed over the course of the years, that voice retains the same unique, focused nature, a restrained expressivity, and an unapologetic economy of means.

this voice is supported by a technique so flawless that it recedes entirely into the background, drawing no attention to itself while allowing the music to speak with exceptional clarity. dodge has always been a true musician, an artist for whom the computer is only a means to an end, not an end in itself. and we as listeners are fortunate to have the opportunity to experience that artistry here, in three works that showcase it in all its nuanced simplicity, its variety, its similarity, and its surprising beauty.

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modern-composition
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digital-musics

new world (usa) #nw 80700 cd

larry polansky “the world’s longest melody ” compact disc

ensemble of notes (7:37)
tooaytood 1: _< too (0:20)
tooaytood 2: _< too < - (0:20)
tooaytood 3: /2 (0:12)
tooaytood 5: boo k (lullaby for anna) (0:23)
tooaytood 6 (0:12)
tooaytood 7: iiviinii (0:13)
tooaytood 9: loopitood (0:32)
tooaytood 11: onceaii (0:23)
for jim, ben and lou: preamble (for jim tenney) (5:39)
for jim, ben and lou: (rue plats) (resting place) (for ben johnston) (5:05)
for jim, ben and lou: the world's longest melody ("the ever-widening halfstep") (for lou harrison) (6:12)
"...getting rid of the glue..." (4:08)
ivtoo (11:19)
the world's longest melody (ensemble version) (7:17)
ontslaan (toontood) (10:26)
toovviivfor (7:18)
34 chords (christian wolff in hanover and royalton) (3:07)

july 2010 release ; lively set of guitar pieces (acoustic & electric, solo & group) from larry polansky ...

new world press release...

composer(s): larry polansky
album title: the world’s longest melody
cat. no.: 80700
genre: classical / contemporary
release date: 07/2010
toon callier, larry polansky, guitars
jutta troch, harp
jeroen stevens, live guitar tuning & percussion
w. victor, voice
stefan prins, live electronics

zwerm—electric guitar quartet
toon callier, matthias koole, johannes westendorp, kobe van cauwenberghe

[sic]—saxophone quartet & drums
bertel schollaert, soprano sax
eva vermeiren, tenor sax
thomas van gelder, baritone sax
maarten jan huysmans, alto sax
mattijs vanderleen, drums

the world’s longest melody is a collection of experimental music written for the guitar by composer/guitarist larry polansky (b. 1954). the guitar has long been an important component in polansky’s musical explorations, and this cd has grown from the enthusiasm for his work by the musicians of the belgian electric guitar quartet zwerm.

the acoustic and electric guitar are featured both solo and in small and large combinations; a few pieces not originally conceived for the instrument are also presented here in guitar-oriented guise. these works explore new techniques of experimental intonation, computer composition, and extraordinary and new modes of playing the guitar. it includes the premiere recording of his radically difficult for jim, ben and lou (harp, guitar, and percussion) in which the percussionist retunes the strings to different just intonations as the piece progresses.

given the endlessly fluent and fertile nature of polansky’s imagination one is somehow reluctant to describe any of his individual compositions as a masterpiece: but certainly this work powerfully encapsulates a wide range of his preoccupations and integrates them into a coherent whole that could not be mistaken for the work of any other composer.

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new world (usa) #nw 80699 cd

christian wolff “long piano (peace march 11) ” compact disc

long piano: beginning (9:40)
long piano: #21 (7:32)
long piano: #44 (9:04)
long piano: #61 (7:53)
long piano: #63 (6:32)
long piano: #66 (9:30)
long piano: #75 (8:52)

november 2009 release ; ... as implied via the title ; an hour-long work for solo piano from christian wolff, rife with his trademark rhythmic & temporal invention(s) ...

new world press release...

composer(s): christian wolff
album title: long piano (peace march 11)
cat. no.: 80699
genre: classical / contemporary
release date: 11/2009

thomas schultz, piano

the melodic and, in the case of the solo piano music, timbral materials from which christian wolff's (b. 1934) music is made are rarely unusual; these are ordinary, everyday things. however, wolff's rhythmic invention is of great range and variety: complex polyrhythms, speech-like-rhythms, the music flowing at a freely fluctuating rate or proceeding in a plain, straightforward manner, silences. this mix of unusual and ordinary results in a music unlike any other. and, in a piece of such length as long piano, the ongoing appearance and accumulation of a great number and variety of short passages results in the constant renewing and refreshing of the listener's perception. this is the world-premiere recording of the composer's largest solo keyboard work to date.

[long piano] seems to me like a kind of geological agglomeration. my hope is that it forms a possible landscape on one extended canvas. at first i just started writing and kept going. my tendency is to work in smaller patches. after the piece was finished i saw jennifer bartlett's wonderfully engaging and cheerful work rhapsody, first shown in 1976. it's a 154-foot sequence of an arrangement of 988 one-foot-square silk-screened and painted enamel plates running around at least three walls of a gallery space. an extreme instance of what i've got in mind.

i had decided not to use the commonest procedure for long keyboard pieces, variations (e.g., frescobaldi, bach, beethoven, rzewski), but sometimes there are series of patches that use tunes (for instance, the very old standby "l'homme armé" and the round "dona nobis pacem") for material. the piece has 94 numbered patches, a few of which are blank (silence) (in bartlett's piece there are the occasional blank squares). the 57th to 67th patches refer to eleven larger sections of a square-root rhythmic structure, each of which has eleven subdivisions whose time proportions are the same as those of the larger sections. the piece also incorporates partial versions (more or less "parodies" in the old music sense) of schumann (the toccata and one of the kinderszenen) and ives's three-page sonata.

- christian wolff

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new world (usa) #nw 80696 cd

gordon mumma “music for solo piano (1960-2001)” double compact disc set

jardin, for michelle fillion (13:57) 1958–97
9 songs without words (25:58) 1990s
suite for piano (4:45) 1960
graftings, for daan vandewalle (7:41) 1990–96
four pack ponies, for the taylor cousins (10:10) 1996
basket of strays (9:46) 1970-2001
19 from the sushibox: 5 sushiverticals (8:38) 1996
3 perspectives, in memoriam jacqueline leuzinger (4:09) 1966–96
11 sushihorizontals (16:06) 1986–96
sixpac sonatas (15:41) 1985–97
threesome (9:50) 1996
eleven note pieces & decimal passacaglia (5:39) 1978
large size mograph (8:02) 1962

december 2008 release ; double-disc set covering gordon mumma’s writing for solo piano ...

new world press release...

gordon mumma: music for solo piano (1960- 2001)
80686 (2 cds)daan vandewalle, piano

gordon mumma (b. 1935) is best known for his pioneering role in the development and evolution of electronic and live-electronic music. the piano has played a significant if underestimated role in his career. with a few notable exceptions, this collection by pianist daan vandewalle marks the first commercial recordings of mumma’s music for solo piano composed over more than forty years. it provides an important new perspective on his work as a composer.

the spare textures, irregular rhythms, and pungent dissonances of bartók’s mikrokosmos echo in mumma’s piano music. the keyboard music of bacH and haydn, of schoenberg, webern, ives, ernst krenek, carl ruggles, and ruth crawford also shaped his early piano ideal, as did the experience of superb recitalists in detroit and ann arbor, including walter gieseking, dame myra hess, and glenn gould. the works of the early 1960s were written for the concert hall, but much of the later piano music is more personal—the solitary dreams of a long musical life. and like dreams it filters memories—of music of the distant and recent past, of artistic friendships and loved ones living or dead—to create a uniquely contemporary approach to the piano.

in contrast to mumma’s epic electronic works, his keyboard music is predominantly poetic in its brevity, concentration, and psychological depth. it is music of high specific gravity, each piece a microcosm of finely etched ideas that unfold without literal repetition. for daan vandewalle, it is also “music of dialogue” that communicates—both with the listener and within itself—through its deep concern with sound, phrasing, color, dynamic range, and rhetorical nuance.

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new world (usa) #nw 80694 cd

lejaren hiller “a total matrix of possibilities” compact disc

computer cantata (23:04) 1963

prolog to strophe i; strophe i (6:35)
prolog to strophe ii; strophe ii (2:07)
prolog to strophe iii; strophe iii; epilog to strophe iii (5:42)
strophe iv; epilog to strophe iv (3:16)
strophe v; epilog to strophe v (5:15)
quartet no. 6 for strings (23:56) 1973

arrabiato (6:05)
tranquillo (8:30)
vivace (9:15)
a portfolio for diverse performers and tape (21:51) 1974

august 2008 release ; new world’s treatment of this prior cri title of lejaren hiller’s 60s & 70s mixed-media computer, electronic, & chamber music ... worth it for the 22:00 “a portfolio for diverse performers and tape” alone (howling avant-vocal freakouts coupled with copious stretched out electronic drone-sound(s) & feral rattle) ; coupled with the crude lo-bit synthesis of “computer cantata” & it’s a win-win situation ...

new world press release...

lejaren hiller
lejaren hiller: a total matrix of possibilities
80694

lejaren hiller (1924–1994) was a musically eclectic composer, often combining several different types of techniques in the same piece. in the mid-sixties, he asserted that his “objective in composing music by means of computer programming is not the immediate realization of an aesthetic unity, but the providing and evaluating of techniques whereby this goal can eventually be realized.” in this sense hiller was a forward-looking composer, in that each piece was an experiment that lead toward the next piece. the three works contained in this collection—computer cantata (1963), quartet no. 6 for strings (1973), a portfolio for diverse performers and tape (1974)—demonstrate his love of musical diversity and eclecticism. these works also exhibit other trends that are common in hiller’s music, including collaboration, an interest in microtonality, symmetrical and arch forms, and indeterminate instrumentation. the works span a little more than a decade, from 1963 to 1974, which were amongst his greatest years as a composer. the works also use a variety of instrumentations, from purely acoustic to electronic, and computer music with live ensemble.

these three works are drawn from the cri lp back catalog and will be making their first appearance on cd. virtually none of hiller’s music is currently available on disc and this reissue restores some of his most representative works to circulation.

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new world (usa) #nw 80693 cd

ben johnston “string quartets 1, 5, and 10” compact disc

string quartet no. 5 (13:51) 1979
string quartet no. 10 (19:57) 1995
string quartet no. 1, "nine variations" (17:11) 1959

january 2011 release ; premiere recordings of these three string pieces by ben johnston, spanning over 35 years (from the late 50’s through the mid 90’s) expertly handled by the kepler quartet ...

new world press release...

composer(s): ben johnston
album title: string quartets 1, 5, and 10
cat. no.: 80693
genre: classical / chamber
release date: 01/2011

kepler quartet:
sharan leventhal, violin i
eric segnitz, violin ii
brek renzelman, viola
karl lavine, cello

this disc, with premiere recordings of ben johnston’s first, fifth and tenth string quartets, presents his earliest and latest essays in the genre and one from roughly the middle of his output. the three pieces are highly different from one another in style, technique and expressive intent.

johnston’s string quartet no. 1, “nine variations” (1959) manifests his belief in the progressive nature of serialism and embraces it as a satisfying means of creating musical order. there is no theme per se: each of the work’s brief sections may be thought of as a transformation of an underlying idea that is never directly stated.

string quartet no. 5 (1979) is one of johnston’s most impressive achievements, music of radical innovation that speaks an expressive and engaging language with a visionary intensity reminiscent of ives. it is a single-movement variation form based on “lonesome valley”, an old appalachian traditional gospel song of unknown authorship.

by the time he embarked on string quartet no. 10 in 1995 his music had evolved yet again. johnston’s use of extended just intonation was a way of revivifying tonal relations in music without lapsing into a nostalgic appropriation of idioms from an earlier era, which has always seemed to him a kind of escapism, and aesthetically negligible. listening to the tenth quartet, especially on first encounter, we may feel as though we have entered a parallel universe in which haydn has become a microtonalist with a predilection for complex proportional rhythms. the whole history of western music flashes before our eyes—almost literally so in the last movement—but with all the colors different: seasons, decades and centuries all tumble into one another.

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new world (usa) #nw 80692 cd

james tenney “spectrum pieces” double compact disc set

spectrum 1 (15:10)
spectrum 2 (15:02)
spectrum 3 (18:10)
spectrum 4 (16:06)
spectrum 5 (16:07)
spectrum 6 (15:10)
spectrum 7 (15:51)
spectrum 8 (14:53)

october 2009 release ; ... double-disc collection offering both sets of “spectrum pieces”, written by the late james tenney during the final decade of his life ... churning, evocative works for small chamber ensemble (and the occasional “tape delay system” ; as utilized in the spectrum heard via the sound-sample) performed by the endlessly capable barton workshop ...

new world press release...

composer(s): james tenney
album title: spectrum pieces
cat. no.: 80692 (2 cds)
genre: classical / contemporary
release date: 10/2009

the barton workshop james fulkerson, frank denyer, co-directors

james tenney (1934-2006) was one of the most versatile figures in contemporary american music. apart from creating a large, wide-ranging, and fascinating body of compositions, more than a hundred of them, he was one of the key music theorists of the late twentieth century.

this cd set offers complete recordings of one of the most important of tenney's later sets of pieces-spectrum pieces 1-8, the first five of which were written in toronto in 1995 and the last three in 2001, after he moved to valencia, california, to teach at the california institute of the arts. they offer a summation of much of tenney's compositional practice and at the same time break open new and fertile territory that he had regrettably little time to explore in subsequent compositions.

the eight works were not intended to be listened to sequentially or as a whole set, nor need they be; tenney thought of them as a "family" of pieces, with certain shared features, not as a cycle. collectively they form a body of work in which many of tenney's musical and theoretical preoccupations converge, interact, and yield music of deep fascination and strange beauty.

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1970s-electronic
electro-acoustic-composition
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analogue-synth
1980s-electronic
experimental-instruments
electro-acoustic-improvisation

new world (usa) #nw 80689 cd

david rosenboom “how much better if plymouth rock had landed on the pilgrims” double compact disc set

section i (essential tension to universe) (2:22)
section ii (symmetrical harmonies in chaotic orbits) (13:03)
section iii (world) (2:17)
section iv (life) (9:11)
section v (humanity) (34:38)
section vi (culture) (16:52)
section vii (impression) (13:37)
section viii (unification) (12:45)
section ix (links) [aka, piano etudes i] (12:41)

may 2009 release ; first complete performance / realization of this late 60’s / early 70’s piece by david rosenboom, recorded over a 30-year period & including some incredible segments featuring donald buchla (heard on a series 300 electric music box in 1979) and rosenboom himself (on, i quote, “neurona company omnivoila electronic music modules”, “chaotic frequency divider circuits”, “eico waveform generators”, “heathkit analog computer”, “heathkit malmstadt-enke analog/digital designer”, and “three-deck tape accumulation system” ... the majority of the latter can be heard in the sound-sample) ...

new world press release...

composer(s): david rosenboom
album title: how much better if plymouth rock had landed on the pilgrims
cat. no.: 80689 (2 cds)
genre: classical / contemporary
release date: 05/2009

david rosenboom (b. 1947) has been widely acclaimed as an innovator in american experimental music since the 1960s. although much of his work has been collaborative, virtually none of his large-scale collaborative works has hitherto been documented on record. how much better if plymouth rock had landed on the pilgrims (1969-71) is considered to be one of the most important, prompting the following washington post review after a 1970 performance:

if there were a device whereby one could plug into the deepest levels of human consciousness, and then translate this input into sound, what we would hear would probably resemble how much better if plymouth rock had landed on the pilgrims, the radical composition by david rosenboom ... the elemental pulsations of the piece seem to echo not only our fundamental biological cycles, but those innate psychical tides that govern the flux of human thought and feeling . . . the listener becomes receptive to fantasy and hallucination and instants seem stretched to eternities . . . rosenboom's idiom poses a new esthetic ... against the ascetic, disciplined, puritanical streak that one associates in this country with the pilgrims, this new music hurls a rejuvenated sensuality and mysticism.

this is the world-premiere recording of the complete work.

section i: erika duke-kirkpatrick, cellos
section ii: david rosenboom, electronics, computer
section iii: vinny golia, contrabass saxophones
section iv: erika duke-kirkpatrick, cellos; vinny golia, winds; david rosenboom, field recordings
section v: swapan chaudhuri, tabla; vinny golia, winds; aashish khan, sarode; daniel rosenboom, trumpet; david rosenboom, piano, computer; i nyoman wenten, pemade

section vi: plotz! and dr. mint (double rock bands)
section vii: david rosenboom, piano in expanded pelog tuning; i nyoman wenten, pemade; william winant, jegog, calung
section viii: daniel rosenboom, trumpets; david rosenboom, piano, drawbar organ, computer
section ix: david rosenboom, piano, computer; i nyoman wenten, balinese drum; william winant, marimba

on historical recordings in sections ii & v: donald buchla, thomas mcfaul, lynn newton, gerald shapiro, michael slevin

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new world (usa) #nw 80687 cd

james mulcro drew “animating degree zero” compact disc

animating degree zero (11:49)
bonaroo breaks (8:43)
12 centers breathing (12:13)
the lute in the attic (7:28)
solemn acts in rain (8:45)
in memoriam j.c. higginbottom (14:17)

february 2009 release ; fascinating overview of “outsider” composer james mulcro drew’s work ...

new world press release...

composer(s): james mulcro drew
album title: animating degree zero
cat. no.: 80687
genre: classical / contemporary
release date: 02/2009
the barton workshop
charles van tassel, baritone
eleonore pameijer, flute/alto flute
john anderson, clarinet/bass clarinet
marieke keser, violin
manuel visser, viola
nina hitz, cello
anne magda de geus, cello
jos tieman, contrabass
frank denyer, piano, celesta
james fulkerson, hilary jeffery, trombones
enric monfort barbera, glockenspiel, vibraphone, chimes, gongs, tam-tam
tobias liebezeit, gongs, drums
jos zwaanenburg, flute, conductor

i aspire to incorporate spiritual immensities in my music through masses of sound which intensifies by the process of refraction or blurring, while allowing submerged melodic lines to appear and disappear. it's like painting with a very large brush. like those old fresco guys-or like asian calligraphy on a massive scale-even with one tone. you know, like a big swipe with a very loaded brush.

- james drew

nicolas slonimsky has described james mulcro drew (b. 1929) as an "authentic member of the american experimental tradition." thinking about what slonimsky might have meant by his statement, one thinks of another member of that tradition-harry partch. drew, like partch, has always been a loner-not a member of any school or movement, he has remained largely outside the us university patronage system and has remained "on the move" rather than settling in one environment. like partch, james drew has made his own brand of theater as well as being a composer, and he has no hesitation to run against the fashion or canon of our time. he is a composer who is fascinated by all kinds of music, and as a result his own musical surfaces may be more highly varied-for instance, bonaroo breaks vs. 12 centers breathing vs. the lute in the attic-than those of other composers.

this composer portrait, spanning the length of his career, is the first recording devoted entirely to drew's music and is an excellent introduction to his idiosyncratic sound world. it features several of his important chamber pieces, ranging from a key early work, the lute in the attic (included in the score anthology notations assembled by john cage in the mid-1960s, a collection that illustrated the breadth of notational approaches being employed by composers at that point in musical history) to a recent large-ensemble work, animating degree zero. these are all world-premiere recordings.

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1970s-electronic
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digital-musics
minimalism-drones

new world (usa) #nw 80684 cd

larry polansky “the theory of impossible melody ” compact disc

b'rey'sheet (in the beginning...) (13:23 1985
four voice canon #3 (1:52) 1975
epitaph (four voice canon #21) (4:10) 2006-2008
four voice canon #23b (freehorn canon) (8:08) 2008
simple actions/rules of compossibility (22:43) 1989
psaltery (16:42) 1978-1979

january 2009 release ; very nice collection of electro-acoustic and digital works from larry polansky, including a late-70’s tape piece (quite grating/aggressive modes for bowed psaltery & electronics) and several pieces (dating from the 80s through present day) casting various solo instrumentalists through a maze of live-computer processing ...

new world press release...

composer(s): larry polansky
album title: the theory of impossible melody
cat. no.: 80684
genre: classical / contemporary
release date: 01/2009

jody diamond, chris mann, voice
phil burk and larry polansky, live computers
larry polansky, fretless electric guitars
robin hayward, tubas

among the lineages of knowledge that larry polansky (b. 1954) has woven together in his creative work, as both a composer and theorist, have been mathematics, intonation theory, cybernetics, systems theory, artificial intelligence, musicology (both western and non-western), american sign language, and jewish mysticism. he has combined these and many other fields of study together into some of the most important music written by anyone of his generation while retaining status as the composer who is most worthy of being called a true theorist. in many ways his compositions are themselves injunctive demonstrations of his theoretical insights that stand as critiques of the theoreticism that is now endemic to the art world.

this intellectual integrity and facility has also been responsible for one of the most interesting characteristics of polansky's compositional output. his music is one of the most successful, and rare, examples of a confluence between two, generally conflicting, twentieth-century musical streams. like his mentor, james tenney-and many other late twentieth-century century experimental masters who were inspired by the aesthetic innovations of cage-polansky creates musical expositions of phenomenal reality. sometimes these are based in psychoacoustic science and sometimes they are grounded in mathematical formalisms. sometimes they explore both at once. what he also manages to do-and this is where he succeeds at the above mentioned confluence-is so often reveal these concepts within an expressive musical frame that is strongly linked to more traditional musical values.

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new world (usa) #nw 80676 cd

malcolm goldstein “a sounding of sources” compact disc

configurations in darkness (10:11) 1995
configurations in darkness (26:38) 1995
ishi/timechangingspaces (20:13) 1988
ishi/“man waxati” soundings (13:16) 1988

march 2008 release ; cd issue of four pieces from the 80’s & 90’s by composer improvisor malcolm goldstein (feat. radu malfatti, amongst others) ... the “ishi / timechangingspaces” tape-collage piece is esp. visceral ...

new world press release...

malcolm goldstein
malcolm goldstein: a sounding of sources
80676

malcolm goldstein, solo violin
radu malfatti, trombone
philippe micol, bass clarinet
philippe racine, flute
beat schneider, violoncello

as a composer/violinist/improviser malcolm goldstein (b. 1936) has been active in the presentation of new music and dance since the early 1960s in new york city as a co-founder with james tenney and philip corner of the tone roads ensemble and as a participant in the judson dance theater, the new york festival of the avant-garde, and the experimental intermedia foundation. his “soundings” improvisations have received international acclaim for having “reinvented violin playing,” extending the range of tonal/sound-texture possibilities of the instrument and revealing new dimensions of expressivity. since the mid-1960s he has integrated structured improvisation aspects into his compositions, exploring the rich sound-textures of new performance techniques within a variety of instrumental and vocal frameworks.

goldstein has been labeled an “improviser” and a “composer-violinist” (or merely a violinist). what this cd once and for all shows is that he is indeed those things, but encompassing them all is the fact that, profoundly, he is a composer. as he points out, “at the core of baroque music was the integration of composition and improvisation,” and goldstein brings the perspective and focus of a seasoned performer to this undertaking. in this way his music represents a further evolution of that compositional-improvisational dialogue begun in the early 1950s in the aleatoric, “chance” pieces of composers like john cage, earle brown, christian wolff and morton feldman.

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live-electronic
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1960s-electronic
1970s-electronic
1980s-electronic
free-improvisation
analogue-synth

best of 2008 !!!

new world (usa) #nw 80675 cd

musica elettronica viva “mev40” quadruple compact disc set

spacecraft (30:49) 1967
stop the war (44:39) 1972
stedelijk museum, amsterdam, pt. 1 (43:07) 1982
kunstmuseum, bern (24:37) 1990
stedelijk museum, amsterdam, pt. 2 (44:05) 1982
new music america festival (30:51) 1989
ferrara, italy (67:03) 2002
mass. pike (10:57) 2007

december 2008 release ; seemingly out-of-nowhere release - a mammoth 4-disc set of otherwise unreleased recordings from mev, dating back to the late 60s !!!

starting with a 1967 recording of “spacecraft” (inarguably the highlight here ; it’s worth noting that this is a completely different take/recording of the piece as featuring on the titular alga marghen disc, here captured at the berlin concert vs. the köln date there) the raucous electro-acoustic banter between allan bryant, alvin curran, carol plantamura, frederic rzewski, richard teitlebaum, and ivan vandor is a force to be reckoned with (utilizing, amongst other things, the first moog synthesizer in europe) ...

comes with an extensive booklet including many texts such as “the spontaneous music of musia elettronica viva,” alvin curran, frederic rzewski, and richard teitlebaum’s composers’ notes, and bios of every performer herein (including later members such as steve lacy, george e. lewis, karl berger, etc ...) and reprints of gig & appearance posters & flyers (see below for a few examples ; would love to have these hanging on the wall here in the office !!!) - i feel like a kid in a candy store going through all of this material (somewhat surprisingly, the later 80s/90s/00s recordings don’t immediately trail off into the kind of general midi / yamaha dx7 tomfoolery you’d normally associate with era “improvised electronic music” - in fact some of the finer moments herein come from the later dates !!!) ...

i’m going to give this set my highest recommendation ; anyone who needs a reminder of just how forward-thinking these ensembles were up to 40 years back need only listen to the first few pieces herein, predating the contemporary electro-acoustic improv wave, industrial music, harsh noise & power electronics, and other such movements held dear here @ mms ...

new world press release...

musica elettronica viva - mev40
80675 (4 cds)

allan bryant, alvin curran, carol plantamura, frederic rzewski, ivan vandor, karl berger, garrett list, gregory reeve, richard teitelbaum, steve lacy, george lewis

musica elettronica viva (mev) was begun one evening in the spring of 1966 by allan bryant, alvin curran, jon phetteplace, carol plantamura, frederic rzweski, richard teitelbaum and ivan vandor in a room in rome overlooking the pantheon. mev’s music right from the start was also totally open, allowing all and everything to come in and seeking in every way to get out beyond the heartless conventions of contemporary music. taking its cue from tudor and cage, mev began sticking contact mics to anything that sounded and amplified their raw sounds: bed springs, sheets of glass, tin cans, rubber bands, toy pianos, sex vibrators, and assorted metal junk; a crushed old trumpet, cello and tenor sax kept us within musical credibility, while a home-made synthesizer of some 48 oscillators along with the first moog synthesizer in europe gave our otherwise neo-primitive sound an inimitable edge. in the name of the collectivity, the group abandoned both written scores and leadership and replaced them with improvisation and critical listening. rehearsals and concerts were begun at the appropriate time by a kind of spontaneous combustion and continued until total exhaustion set in. it mattered little who played what when or how, but the fragile bond of human trust that linked us all in every moment remained unbroken. the music could go anywhere, gliding into self-regenerating unity or lurching into irrevocable chaos—both were valuable goals. in the general euphoria of the times, mev thought it had re-invented music; in any case it had certainly rediscovered it. —alvin curran

this 4-cd set, covering the years 1967–2007, comprises the best surviving recorded documents from four decades of performances, personally curated by its three core members — alvin curran, frederic rzewski, and richard teitelbaum. as such, it is an invaluable historical anthology of one of the pioneering and truly legendary exponents of live-electronic music.

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new world (usa) #nw 80671 cd

“league of automatic music composers 1978-1983” compact disc

tim perkis, john bischoff, jim horton - dense drone (3:21) 1980
tim perkis, john bischoff, jim horton - martian folk music (7:41) 1980
rich gold, paul de marinis, jim horton - finnish hall (3:37) 1979
tim perkis, john bischoff, jim horton - oakland one (5:38) 1980
tim perkis, john bischoff, jim horton - radio air check (2:58) 1981
tim perkis, john bischoff, jim horton - oakland three (3:21) 1981
tim perkis, john bischoff, jim horton - oakland four (4:22) 1981
david berhman, rich gold, john bischoff, jim horton - blind lemon (5:16) 1978
tim perkis, john bischoff, jim horton - pedal with twitter (11:23) 1980
tim perkis, john bischoff, jim horton - oakland two (6:53) 1980

superb and eye/ear-opening collection of music recorded at the tail end of the 70s & early 80s by this collective of bay-area “improvising computer musicians” including john bischoff, james horton, tim perkis, david behrman, paul demarinis, and rich gold. check this out ::

... that image speaks volumes !!! obnoxious, speaker-shredding stuff (for the most part) rivalling today’s new breed of raw computer-speak blat; i’m flabbergasted that the majority of this music has been ignored until now; kudos to jon “wobbly” leidecker for his work here... this feels like one of the early electronic music reissues of the year; highly recommended !!!

new world press release...

producer’s notes
by jon leidecker

the story of how this music came to be released nearly thirty years after it was performed has a simple enough beginning. after an afternoon spent recording improvisations with my friend tim perkis at his home in the summer of 2004, i asked him why the infamous league had never released an album—surely some of that music had been recorded. he laughed, walked across the room, took a small shoebox off the top of his bookshelf and brought it back over to me, opening it to reveal perhaps thirty tape cassettes and a small walkman with a built-in speaker. popping a tape into the walkman and pressing “play,” he said “the problem was that there were too many recordings.” less than thirty seconds of automatic music had sounded before i offered to produce a compilation for release—this was not merely music of historical interest, it was very much alive and ready to be heard. i took the shoebox home with me, and soon afterward procured another fifteen cassettes after a visit to john bischoff’s office at mills college.

it wasn’t impossible to understand why they hadn’t managed to compile an album for release during the actual lifespan of the group. the focus needed for musicians to improvise often precludes the ability to confidently choose from recordings of those same improvisations for a definitive representation, especially with so many recordings to choose from: for every cassette document of a public performance, there were three more recorded at home during one of their countless sunday marathons. several extremely well-engineered tapes from professionally recorded studio sessions do exist, including their contribution to the lovely little records compilation released in 1980. but nothing matches the performances or the mix of sounds that i found on the later cassettes from 1980 and 1981, which, fortunately, had held up quite well over the years.

choosing the selections for this release was an extended process. first, roughly forty hour-long cassettes were transferred into a pro tools hd system over several weeks. the tapes ranged from audience and board recordings of concerts, radio interviews on kpfa-fm that often featured carefully chosen excerpts from pieces, set pieces with fixed durations performed live in studios, and home recordings of long improvisations. many of the more interesting tapes were simply filled with nonstop music, often leader-to-leader—someone had been just alert enough to occasionally remember to turn the cassette over and press “record” again. as the tapes were being transferred, i’d leave the music to play while going about other tasks, occasionally taking down notes whenever the music appeared to peak or take on a particularly distinctive texture. using those notes, the forty hours were quickly pared down to ten. sustained listening to those ten hours revealed stretches which seemed self-contained enough to be excerpted, and these sections were lifted out to join the discrete compositions from the radio and concert tapes. these candidates and a potential track sequence were then mailed to john and tim, and after several changes we settled on the material featured on this album. though there’s a lot to be said for the fully immersed listening offered by the many hours of unedited music, this disc’s goal is simply to present a selection of the group’s best performances and the widest variety of approaches and sounds taken from the cassettes.

as this is improvised music, almost all of the pieces here are presented with no internal edits. two invisible cuts were made to martian folk music to include all the material of a fifteen-minute composition within an eight-minute track. a handful of coughs and other audience noises were carefully removed from the room recording of pedal with twitter (though this piece was performed and recorded many times, there was no way around including this version, without a doubt the definitive take of one of their most evocative pieces). the improvisation from may 25, 1981, stretches with no break in sound over tracks 6 and 7, though the transition between tracks represents a cut of about seven minutes. save for a minimum of equalization and noise-removal processing, all other tracks are presented as they were recorded onto the cassettes in real time.

by the late seventies, computer music was more than twenty years old, decades since the pioneering work done at bell labs, and years since john chowning’s discovery of fm synthesis. pieces by james tenney, jean-claude risset, curtis roads, michael mcnabb and françois bayle (among others) had already established the extended computer sound palette to such a degree that the league’s embrace of machines only capable of 8-bit synthesis seemed to some like an unacceptable loss of two decades of progress. but in a discipline that required musicians to code their compositions entirely in advance, sound unheard, and then wait for hours, if not days, for the computer to produce an audible result, the freedom to control and play with sounds in real time (and in collaboration with other living people) might have seemed more like a forgotten luxury than one of the most important prerogatives of musical practice. if the league had returned to the initial vocabulary of computer music’s first sounds made in the late fifties, they did so to regain the use of the computer as a musical and social instrument. even in recorded form, it is clear that this was music that had been performed live.

in the decade that followed the work of the league, those “primitive” 8-bit sound engines were adopted by the first wave of arcade and home video-game consoles, and the character of the tunes and sound effects of these games embedded themselves in a generation of listeners. the sounds in the williams’s games berzerk and defender, the home game systems by atari and nintendo, and the infamous sid chip designed for the commodore 64 home computer then infiltrated electronic dance, pop, and hip-hop music of the nineties in sampled form, usually for simple nostalgic effect but often appearing in abstract contexts—for the sake of the sounds themselves. the cult of 8-bit went into overdrive in the early 2000s, with an explosion of artists, cd compilations, hardware and software simulators, and even annual festivals exclusively devoted to music made from 8-bit technology. the sounds the league used by necessity have been vindicated by the broadened tastes of the generations that followed.

against this background, it shouldn’t be surprising that when software synthesis programs such as max/msp and supercollider found a wider user base in the late nineties, low bit rate and digital aliasing techniques made a huge return to the vocabulary of experimental computer music. the work showcased by the austrian record label mego, as exemplified by composers such as florian hecker and peter rehberg, explicitly utilizes and explores these basic sounds as raw material—taking a direct interest in the basic characteristics of digital audio sound reproduction. if newman guttman’s pitch variations, composed at bell labs in 1957, was a nascent shot in the dark that unearthed a range of glitchy digital sounds that his colleagues instantly shied away from in favor of other techniques allowing greater control and smoother sounds, the aesthetics unearthed with that piece were investigated again by the league using their kim-1s as musical improvisers, and again later by modern digital computer music artists designing sound-generating patches from scratch on their laptops. the improvised recordings of the league most likely sounded more primitive in 1981 than they do now, given how familiar these sounds have become to modern ears. but not too familiar—for all we’ve heard before, these recordings suggest a trio of video game consoles, all jamming their way through a burning brain, playing just intonation free jazz and beyond. i love listening to these tapes and i’m happy they’re finally available for other people to listen to as well.

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threads:
electro-acoustic-improvisation
modern-composition
free-improvisation
live-electronic

new world (usa) #nw 80670 cd

earl howard “clepton” compact disc

clepton (28:01) 2006
improvisation (6:02) 2006
rosebud (14:54) 1989

new world press release...

earl howard: clepton
cat. no.: 80670
genre: jazz
release date: 12/2007

earl howard, synthesizer, live processing
georg graewe, piano
ernst reijseger, cello
gerry hemingway, drums

earl howard’s clepton (2006) is as complex, mysterious and poetic as the outer limits of science he finds inspiration in, and the imagery of particle physics is particularly appropriate for the extraordinary interaction that takes place between the composer and his three playing partners throughout clepton’s 38 minutes. for gerry hemingway, “these are models that might be referenced to help us focus our approach to a given section—a basic understanding of scientific principles and concepts is useful as they often have terminology that better articulates the intent of a player’s actions rather than, say, feelings which are more vague and open to interpretation.”

rosebud, a howard/hemingway duo recorded during a tour of upstate new york back in 1989, is as fresh and challenging as if it had been recorded yesterday. what’s particularly remarkable is the range of color and timbral sophistication of howard’s electronics. milton babbitt’s famous line about nothing growing old faster than a new sound certainly applies to the world of electronic keyboards; tune in to your local top 40 station and if you hear a mellotron, an arp odyssey, a yamaha dx7 or a korg m1 you have a pretty clear idea as to when the song was recorded. very few musicians have taken the time to explore these instruments in depth and go beyond the standard patches that soon sound dated, even clichéd. sun ra was one, thomas lehn is another, and you can add earl howard’s name to the short list. the sounds he conjures forth from his dx7, a lexicon pcm 70 and what today would be considered a relatively primitive akai sampler are extraordinarily subtle, and haven’t aged in the slightest.

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threads:
modern-composition
electro-acoustic-composition
analogue-synth

best of 2007 !!!

new world (usa) #nw 80668 cd

david rosenboom “future travel” compact disc

future travel (43:48) 1981

station oaxaca (3:26)
time arroyo (5:14)
corona dance (4:10)
nazca liftoff (2:20)
desert night touch down (5:10)
palazzo (8:17)
nova wind (14:59)
and out come the night ears (28:13) 1978

october 2007 release; the reissue of david rosenboom’s “future travel” lp, originally released in 1981 on the detroit-based street records (i’m picturing the electrifying mojo spinning this alongside “cosmic cars”) ; arguably rosenboom’s “pop record” - the songs here, mostly performed on the buchla music box 300, all keep regular tempo(s) throughout. the sounds are by and large of the “tinkly” variety (this was the early 80s; chowning’s fm algorithms were still something of a focus) - the tunes occasionally “cheesy” (the liquid-sky-esque vocal on “station oaxaca” says it all) - but given the dearth of rosenboom’s music on disc; we’ll take what we can get...

“future travel” is here augmented by the 1978 cecil-taylor-meets-morton-subotnick meltdown of “and out come the night ears” - a showcase for rosenboom’s keyboard skills, the piano triggering all kinds of resonant bleep from said buchla. great stuff.

new world press release...

david rosenboom: future travel
cat. no.: 80668
genre: classical / electronic
release date: 10/2007

david rosenboom, buchla touché & 300 series electric music box, piano, violin, percussion, texts

david rosenboom (born 1947) is a composer, performer, interdisciplinary artist, conductor, author, and educator. since the 1960s he has explored ideas about spontaneously emerging musical forms, languages for improvisation, new techniques in scoring for ensembles, cross-cultural collaborations, performance art, and multimedia, the interactive music of the infosphere, an approach to compositional modeling termed propositional music, and extended musical interface with the human nervous system. his work is widely published, recorded, distributed, and presented around the world, and he is known as a pioneer in american experimental music.

“future travel (1981) is a journey in sonic imagery. it is set sometime in the future and its starting point is earth. the traveler, whose point of view we imagine, is a spirit being, representing the first awareness of a new form of consciousness to which humans have evolved. at an earlier point in the evolution of the earth human beings had become aware of the unstoppable momentum of the course they had set and the unlikelihood of their surviving. consequently, attention was turned towards learning to direct the process of their evolution to a new form. this form is a macroscopic one, a large-scale organism, to which all, individual entities of earlier earthly forms contributed. the first awareness of this new form of existence is beginning now.

“and out come the night ears (1978) is a solo for piano interfaced with an electronic system developed through a particular improvisation practice that manifests anew in each performance. because this practice has an identity in my mind associated with specific piano exercises i composed for myself, certain musical materials, particular interactive electronics techniques, and a body of performances, it is as such a piece that is not a piece and i call it a piece. the recording presented here is extracted from an approximately one-hour-long performance given in a concert that was coincident with the rollout of the then new buchla 300 electric music box. i sometimes think of the piano as if it was an orchestra, and in this rendition, the buchla 300 provided a means of extending that orchestra.” —david rosenboom

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new world (usa) #nw 80665 cd

margaret lancaster “io” compact disc

johanna beyer - have faith! (2:00) 1936
lois v. vierk - io (10:14) 1999
joan la barbara - atmos (14:37) 2008
james tenney - seegersong #2 (12:10) 1999
larry polansky - daughter of piker (2:56) 1998
larry polansky - i know you! (3:17) 1998
larry polansky - you're no piker (2:12) 1998
larry polansky - you're a piker (2:37) 1998
larry polansky - piker (9:10) 1998

june 2009 release ; assorted pieces for flute - in solo and small-ensemble settings - performed by margaret lancaster ...

new world press release...

composer(s): johanna beyer, lois v. vierk, joan la barbara, james tenney, larry polansky
album title: io
cat. no.: 80665
genre: classical / solo instrumental
release date: 06/2009

margaret lancaster, flutes;

beth griffith, soprano
larry polansky, electric guitar
matthew gold, marimba, percussion

margaret lancaster has burst onto the scene as our leading proponent of the avant-garde flute ... what distinguishes lancaster is her versatility, her willingness to let her flute be the focus of anything from technopop to theater to tap dancing, along with a breathless fluidity of line that raises every performance above the merely technically correct.

- kyle gann

this gathering of music by five composers spanning more than 70 years demonstrates the richness and possibility of the stylistic freedom that is sometimes called the american experimental tradition. timelessly potent for their careful exploration of musical material, these are works which have no cause to be esoteric, by leading american composers who deserve much higher regard. and in the hands of a performer and new-music advocate, margaret lancaster, who curates her repertoire with an attention to a continuum which composer johanna beyer calls "future, present, past," we are given the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of how this tradition lives. these are all, with the exception of seegersong #2, world-premiere recordings.

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threads:
modern-composition

new world (usa) #nw 80664 cd

john cage / morton feldman “music for keyboard 1935-1948 / the early years” double compact disc set

john cage - two pieces - slowly (2:18) 1935
john cage - two pieces - quite fast (1:21) 1935
john cage - metamorphosis (16:18) 1938
john cage - bacchanale (9:24) 1940
john cage - the perilous night (13:25) 1944
john cage - tossed as it is untroubled (2:36) 1943
john cage - a valentine out of season (4:01) 1944
john cage - root of an unfocus (4:22) 1944
john cage - two pieces for piano - i. (4:43) 1946
john cage - two pieces for piano - ii. (7:44) 1946
john cage - prelude for meditation (2:27) 1944
john cage - music for marcel duchamp (6:01) 1947
john cage - suite for toy piano (7:46) 1948
john cage - dream (9:18) 1948
morton feldman - piece for four pianos (7:13) 1957
morton feldman - intersection 3 for piano (2:42) 1953
morton feldman - extensions 4 for three pianos (6:06) 1953
morton feldman - two pieces for two pianos i (1:13) 1954
morton feldman - two pieces for two pianos ii (1:17) 1954
morton feldman - projection 4 for violin and piano (5:09) 1951
morton feldman - structures for string quartet (5:17) 1951
morton feldman - extensions 1 for violin and piano (5:48) 1951
morton feldman - three pieces for string quartet i (4:30) 1956
morton feldman - three pieces for string quartet ii (6:12) 1956
morton feldman - three pieces for string quartet iii (3:48) 1956

new world press release...

this double-cd set combines two of the key titles of columbia records’s legendary “music of our time” series curated by david behrman. jeanne kirstein’s recording of cage’s early keyboard works remains a touchstone of cagean interpretation notwithstanding the passage of time. christian wolff recalls, "i remember cage saying that jeanne kirstein’s playing caught the spirit in which the pieces were written at the time he wrote them—a kind of simple excitement and enthusiasm (also, surely, out of the discovery of the preparing of the piano and the great new sounds)."

the seminal 1959 columbia lp that introduced feldman’s work to the listening public features historic performances that still resonate with passion and conviction more than four decades later. the works maybe divided into three categories: the earlier, precisely notated music (extensions 1 for violin and piano, extensions 4 for three pianos, two pieces for two pianos, structures for string quartet, three pieces for string quartet); the first graphic notation pieces (intersection 3 for piano, projection 4 for violin and piano); and the first free durational composition (piece for four pianos).

to quote a prescient critic of the time, "[all eight works are] are full of spots, sparks and spangles of radiant color; a single note becomes an event of epical portent; the final result is to compact hours into seconds with an almost overwhelming intensity and depth of feeling."

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threads:
guitar-themed
modern-composition
minimalism-drones

new world (usa) #nw 80661 cd

seth josel “the stroke that kills” compact disc

eve beglarian (b. 1958) - until it blazes (10:33) 2001
alvin curran (b. 1938) - strum city i, ii, iii (12:23) 1999
michael fiday (b. 1961) - slapback (12:18) 1997
david dramm (b. 1961) - the stroke that kills (11:34) 1993
gustavo matamoros (b. 1957) - stoned guitar / tig welder (9:20) 2005
tom johnson (b. 1939) - canon for six guitars (4:53) 1998

december 2008 release ; recital set from guitarist seth josel, whose name should be familiar from his performance(s) on a number of classic recordings of pieces by phill niblock, mauricio kagel, gavin bryars ...

consisting mainly of solo electric guitar pieces, takes here run the gamut from the twisted wreck of gustavo matamoros’ “stoned guitar” (a billy tk reference ? god, i hope so ...) to the more staid guitar/delay-box ruminations of the eve beglarian & alvin curran pieces ...

new world press release...

the stroke that kills
80661

eve beglarian, alvin curran, michael fiday, david dramm, gustavo matamoros, tom johnson

seth josel, electric guitar, electric bass

over the past twenty-plus years, seth josel has established himself as a leader in helping to shape the electric guitar’s burgeoning future as a “classical” instrument. this album is a statement not only of his artistry as a performer, but also as a curator of new music for the guitar. the six pieces on this recording demonstrate a variety of means and approaches spanning the reified electric flamenco of david dramm to the sound-art abstractions of gustavo matamoros.

david dramm’s (b. 1961) the stroke that kills (1993) is rooted in the fierce rhythmic strumming of the flamenco style, but its translation to the electric guitar propels the music to a harder, more vicious place. michael fiday’s (b. 1961) slapback (1997) is inspired by a live recording of the who in which the guitarist pete townsend plays a duet with himself as his sound echoes off the arena wall. in slapback, the guitar performance—heard in the right stereo channel—is repeated, by means of an electronic delay unit, one eighth-note later in the left stereo channel. like slapback, eve beglarian’s (b. 1958) until it blazes (2001) utilizes an electronic delay to augment the guitarist’s performance, but unlike in the fiday, beglarian’s use of echo does not create a separate contrapuntal line. rather, it helps create a soundspace in which the delay effect promotes a sense of ambient depth and a more subtle sense of syncopation. tom johnson’s (b. 1939) canon for six guitars (1998) is a process piece where rigorous adherence to its initial conditions of pitch and rhythm ultimately produces something of a commentary on itself.

the idea of building a composition around a formalized exploration of the guitar as a harmonic medium is also taken up by alvin curran (b. 1938) in strum city (1999). the first movement is relatively straightforward and presents a long series of chords, not unlike a chorale, through the aural gauze of the strum. while strum city’s first movement is uncritically and unabashedly strum-centric, the second and third movements break apart the strum’s dual temporal nature, each focusing on one of the strum’s dual aspects. gustavo matamoros’s (b. 1957) stoned guitar (2005) comprises two separate sub-pieces: stoned guitar and tig welder. tig welder is a recording of the eponymous device that is played simultaneously with the performance of the stoned guitar score. the balance between guitar and recording is determined by means of external electronics as stipulated by the composer.

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threads:
electro-acoustic-composition
modern-composition
digital-musics

new world (usa) #nw 80660 cd

david dunn “autonomous and dynamical systems” compact disc

lorenz (22:43) 2005
autonomous systems: red rocks (9:56) 2003
nine strange attractors (20:00) 2006
gradients (14:16) 1999

new world press release...

a relentless explorer, composer, performer and theorist, david dunn (born 1953) uses electro-acoustic resources, voice, non-human living systems, as well as traditional instruments. a creator of text-sound compositions, environmental installations, works for radio and video, he has also written and published extensively. underlying all his work is a common regard for music as a communicative source with a living world. growing up in san diego in the sixties and seventies, he encountered people like harry partch and kenneth gaburo. he worked with partch for about five years, and continued to be in his ensemble for a decade after his death. his association with gaburo was even longer, and lasted until gaburo’s death in the early 1990s.

this cd features four new compositions, all for electronic sound makers of one sort or another, and all four reveal his innate musicality. these are works that live between the arts and the sciences, coming from his lifelong involvement with interdisciplinary ideas.

lorenz (2005) is a collaboration between dunn and chaos scientist james crutchfield. in this piece, crutchfield’s program for exploring chaos equations, mode (multiple ordinary differential equations), is linked through an interface program called osc into a sound synthesis program. the sound synthesis program feeds information back through osc into mode, so the whole thing is not only a use of chaos to control sound—it’s a feedback loop itself, embodying the principles of chaos not only in its mathematics, but also in its very structure.

another aspect of dunn’s work has been setting up interactive systems within nature, whereby humans, machines, and the environment interact with each other. in the mid-1980s, as the technology became smaller, and cheaper, he began a series of works where he tried to set up interactive systems in which the environment could interact with itself. autonomous systems: red rocks (2003) is the latest in this series of works, and possibly the most elegant realization of the idea yet.

in nine strange attractors (2006), dunn guides us through a whole zoo of chaotic attractions. each one has different behavior, and each produces a different sound world. this is a work that is not simply about playing with new mathematical toys—it’s a work that exemplifies the structure of those toys, placing human, computer, and sound-making machine into a feedback loop that embodies the essential characteristics of that new science (chaos), and then lets us live within it for an extended period of time.

gradients (1999) is a work dunn made with a freeware graphics-to-sound conversion program. in this program, graphic lines become sounding sines, each single pixel-wide line being realized as one sounding pure electronic sine wave. if the sound world of red rocks represents nature at her messiest, and the attractor pieces show the slightly less messy world of mathematical abstractions of natural processes, in this piece we have the clean lines and simple shapes of man-made geometry. it is best heard at high volume, where the dynamism of the sound is revealed—gloriously.

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threads:
modern-composition
fluxus

new world (usa) #nw 80659 cd

philip corner “extreme positions” double compact disc set

two discs of early and recent fluxus-lineage compositions !!

disc 1: trombones

for 2 trombones no. 2 (1960)
calling! om (“from the ’70s”)
attempting whitenesses (1964)
round sound (1963)
one note more than once (2005) (two performances)
an earth breath trilogy (2005)
big trombone (1963)

disc 2: ensemble

zen om (“from the ’70s”)
just another 12-tone piece (1995)
sang-teh, movement iii (1960–61)
passionate expanse of the law (1959)
lovely music (1961–62)
when they pull the plug (2002)
chopin prelude i: the v9 chord which begins the chopin d major prelude . . . as a revelation (1969)

new world press release...

philip corner: extreme positions

composer(s): philip corner
album title: philip corner: extreme positions
cat. no.: 80659 (2 cds)
genre: classical / chamber
release date: 03/2007

description:
the barton workshop:
jos zwaanenburg, flute
john anderson, clarinets
james fulkerson, hilary jeffery, trombones
nina hitz, cello
boris m. visser, violin
manuel visser, viola
rozemarie heggen, contrabass
krijn van arnhem, bassoon/contrabassoon
dante oei, piano (chopin prelude…)
tobias liebezeit, percussion
taylan susam, conductor (passionate expanse of the law)

philip corner (b 1933) studied composition with henry cowell and otto luening and musical analysis with oliver messiaen. during the 1960s and 70s he was an active member of fluxus, a founder (along with james tenney and malcolm goldstein) of the tone roads chamber ensemble, the resident musician and composer for the judson dance theatre, and co-founder of gamelan son of lion (with barbara benary and daniel goode).

the musical opportunities that these ensembles and their performances offered corner insured that he was both prolific and had or developed a deep understanding of the important artistic influences of that time. corner uses a variety of scoring methods—some scores are conventionally written out, some are graphic scores with added commentary and some are, indeed, only text or commentary by which corner creates an attitude to sound-making materials, the manner of eliciting sounds and the manner of responding to the activities of others.

he is truly the equal of john cage in forcing us to examine what we call music and how we understand music-making. he is a master of the art of presenting what amounts to a zen koan to the performer or performing ensembles. he sets interpretive challenges of the highest order while often creating music which can be realized by amateur or professional musician alike.

corner has commented that being drafted into the us army and sent to korea was in fact a “fortuitous” event in his life: “one of the things i learnt in korea was to go into the quality of sound … to enter into this thing that the orient had explored that the west hadn’t.” this set of recordings includes two of the seminal pieces from this period—sang-teh (situations) and lovely music—and proceeds to explore music from five decades of work under the direction of corner’s earlier collaborator, james fulkerson, and the composer himself.

this 2-cd set is the first comprehensive overview of his work, including many of his key compositions, and is an ideal introduction to an important but overlooked figure of the american avant-garde.

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modern-composition

new world (usa) #nw 80658 cd

christian wolff “ten exercises” compact disc

exercise 18
exercise 11
exercise 18
exercise 10
exercise 7
exercise 16
exercise 8
exercise 14b
exercise 3
exercise 1
exercise 15
exercise 10

new world press release...

10 exercises exercises 18 (two versions), 7, 16, 8, 14b, 3, 1, 15, 10 (two versions), 11

natacha diels, garrett list, larry polansky, michael riessler, frederic rzewski, robyn schulkowsky, chiyoko szlavnics, christian wolff.

this marvelous recording of these elusive works features composer-supervised performances by a hand-picked group of renowned new-music exponents. “your first encounter with the music of christian wolff leaves you with the impression you’ve just heard (or played, or read) something totally strange, unlike anything else you know. and yet, upon reflection, you realize it is at the same time something completely ordinary and normal, as familiar in its way as any number of repetitive actions characteristic of everyday life, getting up in the morning, going to school, work, church, washing the dishes, performing the daily tasks of home and family.

weird little tunes, sounding as if they had been beamed at some remote point in the universe and then bounced back again as a kind of intergalactic mutant music; recognizable melodic and rhythmic patterns, somehow sewn together in monstrous pairings, sometimes reminiscent of the demons of hieronymus bosch, composites of animals, fish, flowers, and common household objects: there is order, but also constant interruption, intrusions of disorderly reality upon regularity and lawfulness, combining to create an effect of both familiarity and strangeness: shklovsky’s ostranenie.

you could say this music is surrealist—not reproducing familiar forms, but revealing, behind these, life’s unpredictability. you could say it is political; improvisatory; concerned with collaborative, non-hierarchical forms of social organization; but you can’t really say what it is like (although john cage came close when he said, after a performance of the exercises in new york, that it was like the classical music of an unknown civilization).”

—frederic rzewski

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threads:
modern-composition

new world (usa) #nw 80657 cd

morton feldman “the viola in my life” compact disc

the viola in my life
false relationships and the extended ending
why patterns?

new world press release...

morton feldman - the viola in my life

the music on this recording (reissued from cri cd 620) illustrates the essential integrity of the work of morton feldman (1926–1987) and one of its fundamental strengths—its continuously unfolding unanimity of purpose. there are few composers of his generation whose first and last published work (in feldman’s case journey to the end of night of 1949 and piano and string quartet of 1986) span youth and final years with such a concentrated viewpoint.

there are, however, landmarks in the music of feldman that are largely technical and notational. there are the graphic pieces, the first from 1950 and the last from 1964, in which some parameter of composition is not specified (often pitch). there are the “free duration pieces,” both solo and ensemble, in which there is instruction either for sections of the piece or for its entirety. false relationships and the extended ending (1968) is a late example of this kind, although why patterns? (1978) is a variant of the principle. there are also the conventionally notated works in his oeuvre, one of which is the viola in my life (1970).

it may be that feldman’s music will always strike a certain kind of listener as idiosyncratic—a denial of the time-honored ways in which music articulates itself. i think that feldman was deeply offended by this response, by this notion that his music was singular because it was, as some might say, “missing something.” though it is true that his values of graduation can be exceedingly fine, when one enters this scale and comprehends it, something truly new and wonderful opens up in the art of music—a world in which the relative and the absolute become engaged with themselves.

karen phillips, viola
anahid ajemian, matthew raimondi, violin
seymour barab; cello
david tudor, paul jacobs, yuji takahashi, pianos
eberhard blum, paula robison, flute
arthur bloom, clarinet
arnold fromme, trombone
jan williams, richard fitz, raymond desroches, percussion
morton feldman, piano, conductor

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new world (usa) #nw 80656 cd

peter zummo “zummo with an x” compact disc

song iv (trio)
instruments (1980)
lateral pass (1985)

new world press release...

peter zummo - zummo with an x

arthur russell, amplified cello and voice
bill ruyle, tabla, marimba
peter zummo, trombone
rik albani, trumpet
guy klucevsek, accordion
mustafa ahmed, percussion

with accuracy and humor, peter zummo (born 1948) often describes his unique music as “minimalism plus a whole lot more.” he is an important exponent of the american contemporary classical tradition whose compositions explore the methodologies of not just minimalism, but also jazz, world music, and rock, while seeking to create freedom in ensemble situations. zummo’s realization of the contemporary urge to make music that behaves like “nature in its manner of operation” (john cage) is to encourage spontaneous, individual decisions within a self-structuring, self-negotiating group of performers. his scores provide unique strategies (such as a “matrix of overlapping systems,” freely modulating repetition rates, etc.) and materials for achieving that aim. song iv (1985), a trio version of the final song from the four-song suite composed for the trisha brown dance company’s lateral pass, is a continuous tabla-and-amplified-cello groove with trombone (with voice multiphonics) and vocal (russell) melodies and harmonies. instruments (1980) is a composition in seven movements for duet, trio and quartet. short phrases based on intervallic jumps are repeated at individual repetition rates; the ensemble listens for a unison playing of the phrase, and reverses the phrase at that moment. different notes sound together in unplanned ways, resulting in combination (bass) tones. the complete version of lateral pass (1985) makes its first appearance on disc and features a previously unissued performance of song iv for quintet. zummo with an x is an essential document for anyone interested in the multifaceted evolution of american experimental music, especially in the vibrant downtown new york scene of the 1970s and ’80s.

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new world (usa) #nw 80654 cd

vladimir ussachevsky “electronic and acoustic works 1957-1972” compact disc

metamorphosis (5:22) 1957
linear contrasts (3:42) 1958
wireless fantasy (4:36) 1960
of wood and brass (4:21) 1965
computer piece no. 1 (3:42) 1968
two sketches for a computer piece (3:08) 1971
three scenes from the creation (20:46) 1960; rev. 1973
missa brevis (17:30) 1972

more recent disc from new world (part of their cri reissue campaign) compiling the few electronic pieces absent from the two earlier ussachevsky-themed collections (and a few that they’ve already released !), along with a pair of choral works...

the first five 50s & 60s electronic pieces are essential for the ussachevsky enthusiast/completist, but this is by no means the one to start with (aim for “film music” first, then the “pioneers of electronic music” disc second...)

new world press release...

in 1950, the columbia university music department requisitioned a tape recorder to use in teaching and for recording concerts. in 1951, the first tape recorder arrived, an ampex 400, and vladimir ussachevsky (1911–1990), then a junior faculty member, was assigned a job that no one else wanted: the care of the tape recorder. this job was to have important consequences for ussachevsky and the medium he developed. electronic music was born.

over the next ten years, ussachevsky and his collaborators established the columbia-princeton electronic music center, which ussachevsky directed for twenty years. the center became one of the best-known and most prolific sources of electronic music in the world. this composer portrait (originally issued as cri 813) features six of his pioneering works in the medium as well as two of his choral works, an aspect of his output that was just as important to him.

the final two works on this cd make extensive use of the human voice. the first of these, three scenes from the creation (1960; rev. 1973), is based on texts from ovid’s metamorphosis and the akkadian creation epic enuma elish, telling the story of the primordial gods and their struggle to create order out of chaos. the recorded choral tracks were edited, assembled, and manipulated "with electronic accompaniment" in the studio. the prologue was played in concert and also issued on a columbia recording. the interlude, originally interlude and conflict, dates from the same time and used recorded soprano and bass voices with electronic and concrète sounds and a live mezzo-soprano. in addition to the vocal and electronic sounds, recordings of piano, bell, and chinese dinner plate sound are used, modified with the studio techniques that the composer had developed over the years.

in the early 1970s, ussachevsky returned to acoustic music after nearly two decades of immersion in the electronic medium. it was natural for him to use choral music as the medium of this return. the composer wrote that "growing up as i did in the russian orthodox church, serving as reader and altar boy, the sound of the choir singing the traditional service and works by all the best nineteenth-century russian composers left an indelible impression…" the missa brevis (1972) uses the traditional core texts of the mass—kyrie, sanctus, benedictus, and agnus dei—without any particular reference to electronic music.

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new world (usa) #nw 80653 cd

“new music for electronic and recorded media: women in electronic music—1977” compact disc

music of the spheres (1938) (johanna m. beyer)
world rhythms (1975) (annea lockwood)
bye bye butterfly (1965) (pauline oliveros)
appalachian grove i (1974) (laurie spiegel)
i could sit here all day (1976) (megan roberts)
points (1973–74) (ruth anderson)
new york social life (1977) (laurie anderson)
time to go (1977) (laurie anderson)

classic compilation (originally released on the 1750 arch label in 1977) containing a thorough selection of pieces by women composers from the 60s & 70s.

new world press release...

new music for electronic and recorded media: women in electronic music—1977

this is a long-awaited reissue of the cri cd of the classic 1750 arch lp.

"the music on this album exhibits an exciting, wide-open, freewheeling approach to the medium of electronic music which has come to be typical of this genre in the late 1970s. no longer are composers obsessively concerned with the agonizing, expressionistic, and purely “electronic” (synthesized) sound formulas which marked much of this music composed between the mid fifties and the late sixties. instead, today we have composers willing to mix media and sonic materials in thoroughly inventive ways to achieve ends which are new-sounding, and often more engaging, than that of the “academic” avant-garde.

this is the outgrowth of a fundamental change in concerns which has been evolving not only among the composers on this album but also in a growing segment of the musical avant-garde, of which these members are some of the most fecund and inspired. these new sources of inspiration certainly were not as widely shared fifteen years ago. several composers represented here are deeply concerned with eastern influences: meditation, healing, trance, states of serenity. others are inspired by traditional (or “ethnic”) musics and their subsequent metamorphoses into such popular forms as rock and roll. still others bring to bear a sense of wit and satire, rarely a prominent feature of avant-garde music in the early 1960s.

this first anthology of women’s electronic music demonstrates great refinement and skill at work in a variety of different styles, several of which are unfamiliar or new even to those who follow contemporary music. the fact that these pieces are more listenable than that of the sixties avant-garde does not point to a musical regression as some critics have overeagerly assumed when discussing modern works using, say, consonant harmonic structures. rather, and i think this is common denominator for these pieces and something which women composers and artists have been instrumental in legitimizing again for this period in time, these works signify a new consciousness of the relationship of art to human life and the important and positive interaction which can be the role of a more personalized art in our day-to-day experience.”

—charles amirkhanian, august 1977

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best of 2006 !!!

new world (usa) #nw 80651 cd

david tudor / gordon mumma “gordon mumma & david tudor” compact disc

david tudor rainforest (1968) 20:10
gordon mumma very small size mograph (1962) 0:26
gordon mumma small size mograph (1964) 2:09
gordon mumma gestures ii section x (1961) 0:23
gordon mumma gestures ii section 7 (1960) 0:53
gordon mumma medium size mograph (1964) 6:04
gordon mumma very small size mograph (1963) 0:15
gordon mumma very small size mograph (1962) 0:27
david tudor rainforest (1969) 41:35
gordon mumma song without words (1996) 3:06

one of the last missing corner-pieces of the historical live-electronic-music / circuit-bending puzzle has long been the recording of david tudor’s “rainforest i” - thankfully new world have reissued here not one but two different performances of the piece (one in rio de janeiro, 1968, the other at cornell, 1969.)

any sentient soul interested in the roots of contemporary electronic squawk/chirrup will see the release of this disc as a blessed event. highest recommendation.

new world press release...

david tudor: rainforest

gordon mumma: 4 mographs, 2 sections from gestures ii, and song without words

david tudor and gordon mumma, keyboards and electronics

this historic recording features the first-ever release of the two earliest surviving recordings of david tudor’s seminal work, rainforest. sandwiched in between are six keyboard works by gordon mumma in recordings featuring the composer and his close collaborator, tudor. together, these works constitute a fascinating and historically important document of the 1960s avant-garde in america.

in early 1968, merce cunningham created a new dance whose apparent impetus was colin turnbull’s the forest people, with its account of life among the mbuti pygmies of the ituri forest in zaire. for the music, cunningham turned to tudor and for the first time asked him for an original work. when he learned that the dance was to be called rainforest, tudor said, “oh, then i’ll put a lot of raindrops in it.” raindrops were just the beginning: using audio transducers originally designed by the navy for hearing under and above water simultaneously—eight small objects programmed with signals from sound generators, phonograph cartridges, and two sets of speakers—tudor created a world of sound in perpetual but unpredictable motion, a steady state at once abstract and evocative. the first recording, made from the teatro novo orchestra pit on july 30, is an excellent document of the sound character of tudor’s rainforest work when it was performed with the cunningham dance company in those early years.

the second recording documents the first concert performance of rainforest, in march 1969, several months after the rio de janeiro dance performance. the venue was a large conference space at cornell university, ithaca, new york. the equipment was set on tables in the center of the space, with the audience seated around the performers. four separate channels of sound were used and widely spaced, with two in the foreground and two in the background. the sound sources had also expanded from the earlier cunningham performances, with tudor now adding recordings of small sounds from insects and birds, in conjunction with the previous electronic sounds, all modified by his acoustical resonant devices. the interactive circuitry was fundamentally the same as previously, but expanded with new devices and interactive connections.

gordon mumma’s gestures ii and the mographs are two sets of pieces for two pianists, composed between 1958 and 1964. during the 1960s robert ashley and gordon mumma toured with their concerts of new music for two pianos, including parts of gestures ii and some of the mographs. later, some of these two works were performed in recording experiments by mumma and david tudor. two sections from the mumma and tudor recordings, x and 7, are presented on this cd. each of the eleven completed mographs includes the year of composition in its title. the first two words of each title indicate the general length of that particular composition, ranging from very small size mograph 1962 to the only solo piece, large size mograph 1962. the structure and activities of each mograph were derived from seismographic recorded p-waves and s-waves of earthquakes and underground nuclear explosions. these seismograph patterns were part of 1960s cold-war research that attempted to verify the differences between their seismic disturbance sources.

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new world (usa) #nw 80650 cd

earle brown “selected pieces” compact disc

times five
nine rare bits (1965)
octet i for eight loudspeakers (1953)
december 1952
novara (1962)
music for violin cello and piano (1952)
from folio: november 1952 december 1952 four systems
music for cello and piano (1954–55)

overview of earle brown’s early compositions...
contains the suitably raw “octet i for eight loudspeakers” from 1953 !!!

new world press release...

earle brown selected works 1952–1965

this long-awaited reissue of the cri recording of earle brown’s (1926–2002) music is the best overview of his seminal early works.

“it is obviously a great pleasure for me that cri is re-releasing its 1974 recording of my work, and an even greater pleasure that i am able to add to the repertoire. the performance of times five and novara (recorded in holland) still seem very fine representations of the works and are performed brilliantly by the dutch musicians. december 1952 as realized by the late, brilliant pianist and composer david tudor is, in my opinion, the best of many performances he made of this graphic score. it is fascinating to hear the realizations by michael daugherty of november 1952, december 1952 and four systems (all published in “folio” (1952–54)—immensely inventive and marvelously performed on piano, tape and computer, with the newer technology that was not available to tudor at the time he recorded his version of december 1952. this recording of nine rare-bits is one of six versions that antoinette vischer (who commissioned the work) and george gruntz surprised me with when i returned to basel after my lectures in stockholm in 1965. although i very specifically compose the sound events, it is an “open-form” score, subject to innumerable formal shapes, arranged by the performers themselves.

music for violin, cello and piano is a very early (1952) twelve-tone serial piece in very strictly metric notation. it uses schillinger-suggested “serial” techniques, very similar to messiaen, as it turned out. in contrast, music for cello and piano is a completely subjectively composed work, in what i called “time notation” (contrary to metric”) which is now referred to as “proportional notation.” i feel this recording to be an extremely authentic and artistically fulfilled representation of these works written between 1952 and 1965 (not all that i wrote during that time, i hasten to add). i hope that future recordings will as successfully represent my work written between 1965 and 2050 as this does the early work.”

— earle brown, january 29, 2000 (from the original liner notes)

performers: govert jurriaanse, flute; arthur moore, trombone; teresia tieu, harp; jaring walta, violin; harro ruijsenaars, cello; ton hartsuiker, piano; john floore, trumpet, harry sparnaay, bass clarinet; roelof van driesten, violin; gerrit oldeman, viola; earle brown, conductor; matthew raimondi, violin; david soyer, cello; david tudor, piano; michael daugherty, piano, computer, electronics; dorothea von albrecht, cello; christine olbrich, piano; antoinette vischer, george gruntz, harpsichords

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new world (usa) #nw 80646 cd

barbara benary “sun on snow” compact disc

aural shoehorning (25:07) 1997

plaingsong (7:32)
northwest (3:30)
smudging (5:37)
amtrak (5:21)
tujuh (3:07)
sun on snow (14:23) 1985

i (4:15)
ii (2:30)
iii (4:28)
iv (1:55)
v (1:15)
barang i (4:00) 1975
barang ii (5:25) 1975
downtown steel (11:39) 1993

i (6:46)
ii (4:53)

new world press release...

among the many composers who have drawn inspiration from the music of indonesia, the one whose outlook became most pervaded by the structure of gamelan music may be barbara benary (b 1946), co-founder and guiding spirit of new york’s gamelan son of lion. a quiet, self-effacing presence on the new york music scene for almost four decades now, benary has maintained a low profile, but behind the scenes she is well connected. a child of manhattan’s conceptualist movement, she was the designated violinist of early minimalism, a pioneer in american gamelan, and an early example of an increasingly frequent type, the ethnomusicologist-turned-composer. chances are you’ve never heard her music on compact disc before this, but new york’s downtown scene has regarded her highly for a long time. hers is a spiritual music, and the spirituality resides in the universality of her lines, universal because they are simple, particular to no one culture. like harrison and virgil thomson, benary has a faith in the power of music’s most basic elements, which she knits into intricate patterns before letting them unravel again.

the title aural shoehorning (1997) refers to the listener’s tendency to confront unusual tuning systems, such as those of javanese gamelan, by trying to “shoehorn” them into the framework of our familiar diatonic scales. heterophony is the overall theme of the piece, and the various ways in which a gamelan and a diatonic ensemble of clarinet/bass clarinet and keyboard percussion can interact as a mixed marriage in which neither partner attempts to convert the other. barang 1 & 2 (1975) are solo and duo explorations of a javanese pentatonic mode called barang. sun on snow (1985) is based on a poem of five lines, five one-syllable words per line, which can be read or sung both horizontally and vertically. the basic melody’s pitches are derived by assigning notes on the basis of number of letters in each word. the melody is then developed and elaborated in five variations. downtown steel (1993) is an adaptation for the instruments of the downtown ensemble of an earlier piece, hot-rolled steel, written for gamelan son of lion, whose keyboards are made of that material. the structure of the piece is based on an english bell-ringing permutation known as grandsire doubles.

members of downtown ensemble & gamelan son of lion:

joseph kubera, piano
steven silverstein, clarinet, bass clarinet
phyllis clark, soprano, percussion
barbara benary, violin, gamelan
daniel goode, clarinet, gamelan
jody kruskal, concertina, gamelan
chris nappi, marimba
nick didkovsky, electric guitar, percussion
jon gibson, soprano sax
peter zummo, trombone
chris nappi, vibraphone, marimba, drum set
bill ruyle, marimba
peter thompson, clarinet
marcus rojas, tuba
david demnitz, patrick grant, lisa karrer, laura liben, david simons, gamelan

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analogue-synth

new world (usa) #nw 80644 cd

“pioneers of electronic music” compact disc

vladimir ussachevsky - sonic contours (7:19) 1952
otto luening - low speed (3:41) 1952
otto luening - invention in twelve notes (3:42) 1952
otto luening - fantasy in space (2:51) 1952
otto luening & vladimir ussachevsky - incantation (2:32) 1953
otto luening - moonflight (2:55) 1968
vladimir ussachevsky - piece for tape recorder (5:38) 1956
pril smiley - kolyosa (6:37) 1970
bülent arel - stereo electronic music no. 2 (14:18) 1970
vladimir ussachevsky - computer piece no. 1 (3:42) 1968
vladimir ussachevsky - two sketches for a computer piece (sketch 1) (0:56) 1971
vladimir ussachevsky - two sketches for a computer piece (sketch 2) (2:10) 1971
mario davidovsky - synchronisms no. 5 (8:32) 1969
alice shields - the transformation of ani (9:04) 1970

essential disc, containing the earliest electronic pieces by vladimir ussachevsky and otto luening, originally released on the 1952 desto lp “tape music: an historic concert,” plus a few key works composed at the columbia-princeton electronic music center during the tail-end of the 60s under ussachevsky’s tutelage...

while this doesn’t contain my personal favorite selection of ussachevsky’s music (for that refer to the “film music” disc :: new world #nw 80389) the pril smiley, bülent arel, and alice shields pieces are all entirely bonkers... the leaps and bounds in both complexity & frequency-range between the ussachevsky/luening 50s material and that from 15 years later as far a single-disc overview of historical east-coast electronic music, this can’t be beat ...

new world press release...

works by vladimir ussachevsky, otto luening, pril smiley, bülent arel, mario davidovsky, alice shields

in 1950, the columbia university music department requisitioned a tape recorder to use in teaching and for recording concerts. in 1951, the first tape recorder arrived, an ampex 400, and vladimir ussachevsky, then a junior faculty member, was assigned a job that no one else wanted: the care of the tape recorder. this job was to have important consequences for ussachevsky and the medium he developed. electronic music was born.

over the next ten years, ussachevsky and his collaborators established the columbia-princeton electronic music center, which ussachevsky directed for twenty years. it was the first large electronic music center in the united states, thanks to the path-breaking support of the rockefeller foundation and encouragement from two of the country’s leading universities. the center became one of the best-known and most prolific sources of electronic music in the world. all of the music on this historic reissue (originally released on cri) is the result of the pioneering work of the center and its composers.

the guest composers and columbia-associated composers who have produced pieces at the center include bülent arel, luciano berio, mario davidovsky, jacob druckman, arthur kreiger, daria semegen, pril smiley, and edgard varèse. ussachevsky’s own students at the center included jon appleton, wendy carlos, charles dodge, robert moog, alice shields, harvey sollberger, and charles wuorinen. of the seven composers most closely associated with the center from its early years, six are present on this disc.

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1970s-electronic
1980s-electronic

best of 2006 !!!

new world (usa) #nw 80632 cd

gordon mumma “electronic music of theatre and public activity” compact disc

megaton for wm.burroughs (22:34) 1963
conspiracy 8 (18:13) 1970
cybersonic cantilevers (19:16) 1973
cirqualz (5:43) 1980

... four of mumma’s all-time classic live-electronic works, together in one handy reference-pack ...

new world press release...

electronic music for theatre and public activity

gordon mumma with the once group

gordon mumma (b. 1935) has played a pioneering role in the development and evolution of “live-electronic” music. “live-electronics” as a concept and practice appears to have originated in the united states in the late 1950s, outside the few institutional electronic studios and often in the context of innovative theatre activity. from its inception, it frequently involved two processes: (1) live performance with accompanying or interacting sound materials on magnetic tape; and (2) the use of electronic circuitry as sound-modifying and sound-producing instruments.

beginning with his classic megaton for wm. burroughs of 1963, mumma’s live-electronic and cybersonic works of the 1960s and 1970s, especially medium size mograph (1963) and hornpipe (1967), display his resourceful use of both live-electronic processes. cybersonic cantilevers (1973) extends them to include the active participation of audience members, many of them children and teenagers who were quick to grasp the artistic potential of cybersonic technology, while conspiracy 8 (1969–70) is an early example of live interaction between performers and computer. a major addition to the contemporary music discography, this is essential listening for anyone interested in the history of electronic music.

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new world (usa) #nw 80628 cd

alvin lucier “wind shadows” double compact disc set

in memoriam stuart marshall (1993/rev. 2003)
40 rooms (1996)
in memoriam jon higgins (1984)
letters (1992)
q (1996)
a tribute to james tenney (1986)
bar lazy j (2003)
fideliotrio (1987)
wind shadows (1994)

new world press release...

wind shadows

the barton workshop:

john anderson, clarinet
frank denyer, piano
james fulkerson, trombone
marieke keser, violin
judith van swaay, cello
jos tieman, double bass

the music on these cds takes us into a new realm of music making, one that alvin lucier (b. 1931) has defined for us and one that demands that we start to listen anew. his work has been more often described in terms of science than of art as if it were a series of quasi-scientific experiments, but to put the emphasis here is to miss the point, for its purpose is never “explanatory” (the goal of science) but, like all art, “revelatory.” this is not to suggest that the composer has some spiritual agenda in the usual sense of this term. on the contrary, it is the physical behavior of sound itself that he so elegantly reveals, each work unveiling an otherwise hidden or ephemeral aspect of aural phenomena and allowing us time to witness its beauty. he achieves this by ruthlessly excluding any trace of self-expression, or indeed anything extraneous to the phenomenon itself.

the barton workshop has been the only group to really work closely with lucier in terms of doing “portraits” of his work (the first in 1995), commissioning new works (40 rooms, bar lazy j, and q) and performing older/extant pieces. this 2-cd set is the fruit of this long collaborative process.

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new world (usa) #nw 80625 cd

alvin curran “maritime rites” double compact disc set

rattlesnake mountain
coastline
mine
improvisation (joseph celli)
soft shoulder
program introductions (disc 1)
from center of rainbow
sounding
improvisation (george lewis)
ice
dew
food
crew
ape
maritime rites
program introductions (disc 2)

new world press release...

featuring the foghorns and other maritime sounds of the u.s. eastern seaboard and solo improvisations by john cage, joseph celli, clark coolidge, alvin curran, jon gibson, malcolm goldstein, steve lacy, george lewis, pauline oliveros, and leo smith.

in the middle 1970s i began to formulate ideas and projects leading to the making of music outside the concert halls—often in large open and naturally beautiful sites. ports, rivers, lakes, caves, quarries, fields, and woods, always ready sources of my musical inspiration, now became my new music theaters. —alvin curran

maritime rites is a series of ten environmental concerts for radio composed by alvin curran (b. 1938) in 1985. this series features the eastern seaboard of the united states as a musical source in collaboration with improvised musical performances by ten distinguished artists in the american new-music scene: john cage, joseph celli, clark coolidge, jon gibson, malcolm goldstein, steve lacy, george lewis, pauline oliveros, leo smith and alvin curran. the programs use specifically recorded natural sounds as musical counterpoint to the soloists whose improvisations are freely restructured and mixed by curran. featured here are the foghorns of virginia, maryland, delaware, new jersey, new york, connecticut, rhode island, massachusetts, new hampshire, maine and new brunswick, canada. also included are maritime bells, gongs, whistles and regional bird and animal life. comments from lighthouse keepers, coast guard personnel and other local people are woven impressionistically throughout.

rich in ambient detail, maritime rites presents the foghorn as indigenous american “found” music par excellence and the source of one of the most enduring minimal musics around us. the series is also a comprehensive aural documentary of our regional and national maritime heritage including such historical sounds as the nantucket ii lightship, now out of service and doing service as a museum docked in boston harbor. the lightship’s horn is the only one of its kind (and the loudest!) on the east coast and was recorded extensively during an exclusive session ten miles off shore with the special cooperation of the ship’s crew. as the foghorn gives way to other electronic navigational aids, this work may serve as a historical document of some of the most beautiful and mysterious sounds of the sea.

as an expression of sonic geography, maritime rites brings together different areas of the seaboard in a single musical moment. the series was expressly conceived for radio, the only medium that can safely accommodate over sixty foghorns at once and bring an entire coastline, seemingly live, into anyone’s home! an essential document for anyone interested in sound art.

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new world (usa) #nw 80624 cd

harry partch “the harry partch collection, volume 4” compact disc

the bewitched - a dance satire (75:43) 1955

new world press release...

meticulously remastered from the original mono master tapes!

the bewitched was partch’s first work solely intended for dance (and mime-dance at that; he was not overly enamored in his lifetime of so-called “modern dance”). drawing heavily from his deep affection for the music-theatrical performance traditions of greek theater, as well as those from africa, bali, and chinese opera, partch conceived of a contemporary american music ritual-theater where musicians not only play, but also function at times as movers-singers-actors. such is the case of the bewitched, where the instruments are the set, in front of (and around) which dancers “dance,” but where the onstage musicians also move and sing. partch’s masterpiece has been lovingly remastered from the original mono masters and the 24-page booklet includes never-before-published photographs from productions of the bewitched. this is the definitive document of this very important work.

“the bewitched is in the tradition of world-wide ritual theatre. it is the opposite of specialized. i conceived and wrote it in california in the period 1952-55, following the several performances of my version of sophocles' oedipus. in spirit, if not wholly in content, it is a satyr-play. it is a seeking for release—through satire, whimsy, magic, ribaldry—from the catharsis of tragedy. it is an essay toward a miraculous abeyance of civilized rigidity, in the feeling that the modern spirit might thereby find some ancient and magical sense of rebirth. each of the 12 scenes is a theatrical unfolding of nakedness, a psychological strip-tease, or—a diametric reversal, which has the effect of underlining the complementary character, the strange affinity, of seeming opposites.” — harry partch

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new world (usa) #nw 80623 cd

harry partch “the harry partch collection, volume 3” compact disc

the dreamer that remains—a study in loving (10:29) 1972
rotate the body in all its planes—ballad for gymnasts (8:51) 1961
windsong (11:36) 1958
water! water! — an intermission with prologues and epilogues (37:49) 1961

new world press release...

the four works on this newly remastered cd are eloquent testimony to harry partch’s aesthetic of corporeality. the music he composed for the dreamer that remains, for rotate the body in all its planes, for windsong, and for water! water!, was intended as only one component in the total artistic experience. in these works music joins with drama, with film, with dance, even with gymnastics, as integral parts of the composer’s vision.

“the eloquent and affecting the dreamer that remains (1972) was partch’s last work. it was commissioned by the patroness betty freeman for her film on partch which was directed by stephen pouliot. rotate the body in all its planes (1961) was a spin-off of the “tumble on” sequence in partch’s large-scale theatre piece revelation in the courthouse park. it was premiered at the national collegiate gymnasts championship in 1961. windsong (1958) was also written for film, the soundtrack to a film by madeline tourtelot in which partch saw the greek myth of daphne and apollo. (a later version of the work was named daphne of the dunes). finally, somewhat akin to a broadway musical, water! water! (1961) is perhaps partch’s most lively and lighthearted work. it pokes fun at many targets, especially the rush of audiences for water at the interval; thus the subtitle: "an intermission with prologues and epilogues.” — jon szanto

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new world (usa) #nw 80622 cd

harry partch “the harry partch collection, volume 2” compact disc

u.s. highball—a musical account of a transcontinental hobo trip (25:20) 1943, rev. 1955
san francisco—a setting of the cries of two newsboys on a foggy night in the twenties (2:28) 1943, rev. 1955
the letter (2:48) 1943, rev. 1972
barstow—eight hitchhiker inscriptions from a highway railing at barstow, california (9:57) 1941, rev. 1968
and on the seventh day petals fell in petaluma (35:50) 1963–64, rev. 1966

new world press release...

harry partch’s compositions of the 1940s—and to some extent his work in general—have remained until recently an unwritten chapter in the history of american music. and yet it was these very pieces—the collection of four works he would later collectively entitle the wayward—that brought him to the attention of the new york musical world. his concert of these pieces for the league of composers (april 22, 1944) established for him a small but permanent reputation as a musical maverick who had wandered off well-worn tracks and had developed a sort of lateral extension of his art, independently of any of the main circles of american music.

the musical starting point of the compositions of the wayward is the inflections and rhythms of everyday american speech. from the beginnings of his mature output in 1930 partch had been devoted to what he called “the intrinsic music of spoken words,” and these four works capture something of the spontaneous musicality of the conversations of the hoboes he befriended during the depression. in their original form these pieces used only the small collection of instruments partch had built or customized by 1943: adapted viola, adapted guitar, chromelodeon, and kithara. the versions recorded here are all later reworkings, sometimes with only small changes (as in the case of san francisco), and sometimes involving a substantial amount of recomposition (as in the case of u.s. highball).

the final work on this disc dates from twenty years later than the compositions of the wayward, and represents one of the high points of partch’s later instrumental idiom. and on the seventh day petals fell in petaluma was composed in petaluma, california, in march–april 1964, and revised at various times and places until the completion of the final copy of the score in san diego in october 1966. it marks a radical departure from the theater works he had written at the university of illinois in the early 1960s, and shows a renewed concentration on technical innovation and on fusing his activities as composer and instrument-builder within the context of a single composition. newly remastered.

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new world (usa) #nw 80621 cd

harry partch “the harry partch collection, volume 1” compact disc

eleven intrustions (20:04) 1949-50
castor and pollux—a dance for the twin rhythms of gemini (15:23) 1952
ring around the moon—a dance fantasm for here and now (9:21) 1952
even wild horses—dance music for an absent drama (22:39) 1952
ulysses at the edge (6:39) 1955

new world press release...

this newly remastered reissue marks a welcome return to the catalog of the first volume of the classic 4-cd collection that was formerly available on the cri label. the works recorded on this disc span the first six years of what harry partch (1901–1974), slightly tongue-in-cheek, called the “third period” of his creative life. they show him moving away from the obsession with “the intrinsic music of spoken words” that had characterized his earlier output (the vocal works of 1930–33 and 1941–45) and towards an instrumental idiom, predominantly percussive in nature. this path was to take him through the “music-dance drama” king oedipus (1951) — the culmination of his “spoken word” manner—to the “dance satire” the bewitched (1954–55), in which his new percussive idiom manifests itself. the three works on this disc show partch before, during, and after this period of transition.

in their quiet, forlorn way, the eleven intrusions are among the most compelling and beautiful of partch’s works. the individual pieces were composed at various times between august 1949 and december 1950, and only later gathered together as a cycle. nonetheless they form a unified whole, with a nucleus of eight songs framed by two instrumental preludes and an essentially instrumental postlude.

although foreshadowed by the dance sequences of king oedipus, the plectra and percussion dances (1952) are the first of partch’s major works to be wholly instrumental in conception. they stand in relation to oedipus as a satyr play in relation to a greek tragedy—hence the work’s subtitle, “satyr-play music for dance theater.” he felt that after the prolonged period of composition and production of oedipus it was “almost a necessity to give vent to feelings and ideas, whims and caprices, even nonsense, that seem to have no place in tragedy.”

the final work on this disc is ulysses at the edge, written at partch’s studio at gate 5 in july 1955. ulysses, which partch describes as a “minor adventure in rhythm,” is unique among his mature compositions in that, in its original form, it did not call for any of his own instruments. the version recorded here, for alto and baritone saxophones, diamond marimba, boo, cloud-chamber bowls, and speaking voice, is considered the third version of the piece.

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1960s-electronic

new world (usa) #nw 80616 cd

mel powell “settings ” compact disc

sextet (1996)

first movement (8:21)
second movement (6:13)
invocation (2:25) 1988
sonatine (1996)

first movement (2:31)
second movement (2:28)
third movement (3:17)
amyabilities (4:54) 1988
prelude (2:17) 1988
setting (10:39) 1972
immobiles (for chamber ensemble with tape) (10:31) 1967

new world press release...

composer(s): mel powell
album title: settings cat. no.: 80616
genre: classical

california ear unit:
erika duke-kirkpatrick, cello
robin lorentz, violin
dorothy stone, flute
vicki ray, piano
marty walker, clarinet
amy knoles, percussion
stephen l. mosko, conductor (in sextet)

mel powell (1923-1998) once wrote:

over the centuries, the invention of a music that sounds too lovely to be thought of as ingenious has remained one of the grand deceptions manageable by the great masters. cleverness is not necessarily lovely, nor is loveliness necessarily clever; it is when they are hand-in-hand, in fact conjoined so as to be indistinguishable from one another, that composition proclaims its supreme achievement.

nothing better describes powell's own music. a jazz prodigy in his youth and later one of the country's most distinguished composers, he created a legacy of works both sonically alluring and intellectually compelling.

when he died in 1998, his close friend composer milton babbitt wrote:

we have lost the wit, warmth and wisdom of a singular musician whose creative achievements extend from the biggest of the big bands to the smallest of that small band of distinguished contemporary composers.

a consummate stylist, powell's music couples an apollonian restraint and discipline with a celebration of sonority-a quick splash of castanets and drums in amyabilities, a delicate harmonic and whispering trill in invocation. there is a coolness and reserve to his writing: his music is never indulgent or overwrought; it interrupts itself before it gets too carried away. powell frequently quoted philosopher frans hemsterhuis's definition of the beautiful as "the greatest number of ideas in the shortest space of time." in listening to this album, featuring seven pieces written expressly for the members of the california ear unit, be prepared for an hour's worth of uncommon ideas and graceful, potent fantasy.

$29.23

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new world (usa) #nw 80612 cd

james tenney “postal pieces” double compact disc set

maximusic (1965)
swell piece (1967)
a rose is a rose is a round (1970)
beast (1971)
swell piece #2 (1971)
having never written a note for percussion (1971)
koan (1971)
for percussion perhaps
or . . . (night) (1971)
swell piece #3 (1971)
cellogram (1971)
august harp (1971)

sublime set of meditative psycho-acoustic pieces by the late james tenney, composed during the early 70s.

new world press release...

postal pieces (2 cds)

the barton workshop

jos zwaanenburg, flutes; alex geller, cello; nina hitz, cello; marieke keser, violin; jacob plooij, violin; judith van swaaij, cello; elisabeth smalt, viola; john anderson, clarinets; gertjan loot, trumpet; krijn van arnhem, bassoon, contrabassoon; frank denyer, melodica; charles van tassel, baritone; theo van arnhem, contrabass; jos tieman, contrabass; james fulkerson, conductor

james tenney (b. 1934) is one of the most important american composers and theorists of the past fifty years. for a very long time, his work was known mainly to other musicians and its tremendous influence was belied by its obscurity. in the past twenty years, however, as his music and writings have been more and more published, recorded, performed, and studied, his place in the context of american contemporary music has become far better understood. he has pioneered musical fields as diverse as computer music, tuning theory, and integrating ideas from acoustics and music cognition into his work. tenney has also been important as a teacher, performer, and scholar of other radical american composers.

this cd contains recordings of the complete set of his postal pieces, written primarily during a very brief tenure at california institute of the arts in the early 1970s. these works, although frequently performed over the years, have not been recorded (with a few exceptions). this recording is a natural and important companion to the recent new world reissue of tenney’s computer and electronic music from the 1960s. both collections represent complete, highly individualistic and essential bodies of work by a major american artist.

the postal pieces, which tenney called “scorecards,” are a remarkable series of eleven short works printed on postcards. each card contains a complete if minimally stated work to be performed by instrumentalists. these pieces elucidate to a large degree some of tenney’s bedrock compositional ideas. each is a kind of meditation on acoustics, form, or hyper-attention to a single performance gesture. this set is essential listening for anyone interested in the evolution of american experimental music.

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new world (usa) #nw 80604 cd

alvin lucier “vespers and other early works” compact disc

vespers (1969)
chambers (1968)
north american time capsule (1967)
(middletown) memory space (1970)
elegy for albert anastasia (1961-1963)

new world press release...

vespers and other early works

alvin lucier (b. 1931) is best known for his pioneering work in the mid-sixties in the exploration of sonic environments, particularly sounds that we would never perceive under ordinary circumstances. vespers and other early works restores to the catalog several of his key works from that time. in vespers (1969) performers with sondols (sonar-dolphin), hand-held pulse wave oscillators, explore the acoustic characteristics of given indoor or outdoor spaces by monitoring the echoes of the pulse waves off the walls, floors and ceilings, as well as any objects or obstacles in range of the sound waves. over time, the listener receives an acoustic signature of the room. in chambers (1968), battery-operated radios, tape recorders, and electronically powered toys of various kinds are hidden in paper bags, shoes, kettles, and small suitcases and other small resonant environments. as performers carry these small “rooms” into larger ones, such as concert halls, football stadiums and underground cisterns, the sounds, already altered by the acoustics of the small environments, are altered a second time by the acoustics of the larger ones. this version was recorded in 2002.

north american time capsule (1967), for voices and vocoder, is described metaphorically by lucier as a message to listeners who don’t know about us. these could be very remote and exotic humans or the fabled “beings” in some other part of the universe. the message is encoded in accordance with the empirical fact that purely electronic signals are more easily transmitted through space (and through time) than the more complex waveforms of speech.

(middletown) memory space (1970) is a reenactment of the composition called “(hartford) memory space, for any number of instrumental players with recordings of environmental sounds.” the instructions for the original (city) composition say: “for performances in places other than hartford, use the name of the place of performance in parentheses at the beginning of the title.” the instructions tell the performers to go out into the city and record, by any means—electronic recording, graphic notation, or memory—the sounds of the city, and to return to the inside performance space at any time and “re-create, solely by means of your voices and instruments and with the aid of memory devices (without additions, deletions, improvisation, interpretation) those outside sound situations.” elegy for albert anastasia (1961–1963) is described as composed “for electromagnetic tape using very low sounds most of which are below human audibility.” liner notes by robert ashley.

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1970s-electronic

new world (usa) #nw 80597 cd

paul chihara “forever escher • shinju • wind song” compact disc

forever escher (20;06) 1993-94
shinju (ballet in one act) (22:27) 1973
wind song (cello concerto) (18:45) 1971

new world press release...

paul chihara: forever escher/ shinju/ wind song
cat. no.: 80597
genre: classical

the works of paul seiko chihara (b. 1938) are informed by and continue the rich tradition of the association of music with theater, dance, and film; for at the center of his music lie the conflictual actions of drama, and even the purifying cathartic power of ritual. indeed, not only his music for film and stage, but much of his purely instrumental music reflects his concern for narrative and/or protagonist situations. this tendency is made manifest by such formal devices as pitting a single voice against a sound mass of fused instrumental groups in such works as wind song (1971), or by contrasting and interpenetrating distinct instrumental choirs in an agonistic exchange of timbral colors, as in forever escher (1993–94).

forever escher (double quartet), an octet for saxophone quartet and traditional string quartet combined, is a tour de force of polyphonic writing and acoustical balance. chihara allows each quartet its unique timbral identity (though from time to time they merge) while interchanging and metamorphosing much, but not all, of the melodic and harmonic material associated with each.

the music of shinju (1973) is most notable for its integration of electronically processed authentic ancient japanese song and instrumental music into the orchestral fabric. for his sound source, chihara recorded performances by two japanese master musicians and then transformed these ancient melodies and ensembles via the technique of tape manipulation known as musique concrète. the otherworldly atmosphere evoked by the musique concrète passages greatly enhances the shroud of doom that begins to spread from the first sounds of the orchestral prelude.

the idea for wind song came to chihara while he was working on a re-composition of the cello concerto in a minor by the german composer robert volkmann. while reconstructing the concerto, he began to collate impressions emanating from his interaction with volkmann’s material, eventually forming a concept for a cello concerto of his own. at first, he conceived of a concerto of “heroic” proportions, like those formally typical of nineteenth-century romanticism. what he settled on, however, was a music that is at times both penetratingly understated and vitally lyrical. like the natural phenomenon of wind itself, this music undulates precariously from the subtlety of a spectral whisper to seemingly inconsolable melancholic howls, touching all the gradations between the two extremes.

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1970s-electronic
1980s-electronic
electro-acoustic-composition
modern-composition
live-electronic

new world (usa) #nw 80595 cd

barney childs “a music; that it might be ...” compact disc

take 5 (3:50) 1962
a music; that it might be.... (11:38) 1973
grande fantasie de concert (“masters of the game”) (4:13) 1990
london rice wine (4:35) 1973
pastoral (5:59) 1983
instant winners (9:55) 1986
changes for three oboes (6:02) 1959
quartet for bassoons (7:27) 1958
the golden bubble (9:35) 1967
variation on night river music (0:59) 1969

new world press release...

“sometimes i wonder about what we are doing: the writing of music hardly anyone wants to hear is pretty well the bottom of the list in terms of today’s consumer-approved activities although i concede there is something to be said for the preparation of a dictionary of pre-medieval finno-ugric. anyway, there’s the music; may those who wish use it as they may please.” — barney childs

barney childs (1926–2000) is particularly noted for his innovative and influential scores that invite their performers’ collaboration in the very construction of the works and in which indeterminacy and improvisation sit side by side with traditional forms of structure and notation; his early works show influences of hindemith and carter. eclectic in nature, childs’ compositions freely explored diverse avenues of musical thought and drew inspiration from many sources, including traditional western concert music (especially that of such composers as hindemith, ives, ruggles, and copland), the open form works of john cage, and jazz of all styles.

the present recording is the first that is dedicated exclusively to his works and comprises ten compositions for woodwinds, including the now defunct e flat contrabass sarrusophone. the broad scope of childs’s eclectic compositional style is reflected in the techniques and structural elements used in these pieces—indeterminacy, improvisation, electronics, extended techniques, graphic notation scores, microtones, silence, and the spoken word, among others.

phillip rehfeldt, woodwinds
ron george, percussion
marco schindelmann, reader

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new world (usa) #nw 80585 cd

kenneth gaburo “five works” compact disc

string quartet in one movement
mouth-piece: sextet for solo trumpet
antiphony iii (pearl-white moments)
the flow of (u)
antiphony iv (poised)

new world press release...

five works for voices, instruments, and electronics

thomas howell, piccolo; james fulkerson, bass trombone; thomas fredrickson, double bass; barbara dalheim, voice; kenneth gaburo, conductor; walden string quartet; jack logan, trumpet; new music choral ensemble; linda vickerman, elinor barron, philip larson, vocals

kenneth gaburo (1926–1993) composed works for instruments, voices, electronics, multi-media, theater, and a variety of other resources. foremost among his many interests was a concern with the voice and with language—how we shape language and how we are shaped by it—and with making works that existed somewhere between the boundaries of music and language. of the works on this cd, three are intensely concerned with what gaburo termed “compositional linguistics” (antiphony iii, antiphony iv, and mouth-piece), while concerns with balance and perceptual edges seem to be his foremost concern in the other two [string quartet in one movement and the flow of (u)]. in antiphony iv (1967), for three instruments and two-channel tape, the two channels are literally separate—vocal sounds (each phoneme, in order, of the source poem) on the left channel, and electronic sounds on the right channel, with the instruments in the middle. instrumental timbres relate to vocal phonemes; electronic splats are contrasted with delicate synthetic choirs assembled from recordings of individual phonemes; tremolos, flutters, and waverings alternate among recorded voice, electronics, and instrumental sounds. string quartet (1956) was written just after gaburo had returned from rome, where he studied with goffredo petrassi, and the quartet is dedicated to him. it’s a passionate, driving piece, where an intense concern for the quality of line is manifest in every gesture. in mouth-piece (1970) the trumpeter attempts to present six contrapuntal lines simultaneously and to maintain a sense of coherent timbral identity with each. unlike most trumpet music, where the phoneme “t” or “k” is used to articulate the trumpet, here the trumpet is used as a filter for every phoneme the voice is capable of generating. it is an amazing exposition of vocal sounds and trumpet virtuosity. for antiphony iii (1962), for sixteen voices and electronics, a poem by virginia hommel again provides the basis. here, however, it is articulated contrapuntally, one word at a time, by both the chorus and the tape. each word is clearly heard, sometimes spoken, sometimes whispered, sometimes shouted, sometimes electronically modified on the tape, in the order presented in the poem. the flow of (u) (1974) consists of one note sung by three singers for twenty-three minutes. here, focus is even more intense, and the attention to dynamic shaping given to the lines in the 1956 string quartet is here transferred to the micro-level, and worked on with the singers in an “oral tradition” manner.

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threads:
minimalism-drones
modern-composition

new world (usa) #nw 80578 cd

charlemagne palestine “schlingen-blängen” compact disc

schlingen-blängen (71:38)

one of the better contemporary charlemagne palestine outings: a single solo organ piece lasting precisely 71 minutes and 38 seconds. heart-stopping stuff... includes liner notes by ingram marshall.

new world press release...

charlemagne palestine, organ schlingen blängen is an invaluable addition to the slender but precious discography of charlemagne palestine, one of the legendary figures of the amazingly fertile new york and west coast experimental music/art scene of the sixties and seventies. he is considered to be a seminal figure of early minimalism—as important as his better-documented contemporaries. his performances on the giant bells at st. thomas church and his evening-length bösendorfer shows are still spoken of with awe by those who were present. palestine left the music scene in the mid-seventies to focus on his visual art; he eventually moved to europe where he still resides.

schlingen blängen —a 70-minute long perambulation through the organ’s sonic landscape—was recorded in 1988 (ten years after its initial performance) in a small dutch church near the north sea. it is difficult to describe because so little happens in it, yet at the same time an immensity of activity is going on and there is so much of it that it boggles the mind. we experience sounds set into motion by the initial choosing of a chord and its timbres (the setting of the registers or stops); the melodic changes that occur are subtle and few. in short, it is a relentless and uncompromising exploration of the physicality of sound as well as its spiritual dimensions. palestine's music left its mark on a number of slightly younger composer-performers, among them rhys chatham and glenn branca. absolutely essential for a comprehensive understanding of the roots of minimalism and its offshoots.

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november 22nd, 2006

threads:
musique-concrète
minimalism-drones
sound-poetry
1970s-electronic
electro-acoustic-composition

new world (usa) #nw 80577 cd

ingram marshall “ikon and other early works” compact disc

cortez (8:29)
weather report (12:12) the emperor's birthday (13:36)
rop på fjellet (cries upon the mountains) (6:59)
sibelius in his radio corner (8:26)
ikon (9:06)

new world press release...

ikon and other early works

this cd comprises the text-sound works (1974-1980) on which ingram marshall concentrated throughout the seventies and falls into two parts: the works from the fragility cycles period (cries upon the mountains, sung, sibelius in his radio corner, and ikon) and the earlier works (cortez, weather report, and the emperor’s birthday).

“cortez, weather report, and the emperor’s birthday form a kind of trilogy representing my work with “text-sound” in the early seventies. the techniques used to generate musical fabrics and structures out of spoken text are similar in all three works, but the source materials are all quite different. i used tape loops to create repetitive patterns from words or phrases; musical structures were developed out of the resulting fabric. it is not the original utterance or sound bit that is the building block, but the whole cloth created from it.”

sung and ikon are both based on poems by swedish poet gunnar ekelöf. the first piece, referring to the sung dynasty, is scored initially as a solo/duo recitative by painter jan håfström and dancer margareta åsberg, after which the tape processes multiply their voices into a ghostly chorus as marshall’s spectral bass appears with the english translation, to be in turn transformed into its own small chorus.

ikon, marshall’s setting of ekelöf’s ayiasma, is a mystical meditation on an ancient ikon seen in a greek church. the air of apocalyptic finality in the text is enhanced by the electronics, with the pervasive soundscape being that of an entropic cosmic machine. marshall again intones the english translation; the incantatory recitation of the swedish original is by ekelöf himself.

“rop på fjellet (cries upon the mountains) again uses materials “collected” in scandinavia, most significantly an ancient recording of locklåtar and rop from swedish mountain herdinner (shepherdesses) traditionally used to call goats and cattle from great distances, although clearly also cultivated for their own intrinsic, shrill beauty. the live element is my own voice, a high keening processed through a tape delay system.”

sibelius in his radio corner was inspired by a photograph of the finnish composer during his “forty years of silence,” sitting in an armchair and listening to his own work being performed on the radio. “in his old age sibelius enjoyed pulling in distant broadcasts of his music off the short-wave. i imagined that with all the static and signal drift, some of these listening experiences might have been proleptically like a modern-day electronically processed kurzwellen piece.”

marshall’s brooding, mysterious sonic landscapes are essential listening for anyone interested in minimalism and the musique concrète tradition in electronic music.

$14.62

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threads:
modern-composition
free-improvisation

new world (usa) #nw 80572 cd

scott rosenberg “creative orchestra music, chicago 2001” compact disc

tehr (9:38) 2000
wash (9:02) 1995
7x with sttm (13:36) 1997/2001
forgetting song (13:32) 1997
toys (18:34) 1996

new world press release...

"the orchestra’s main power lies in its ability to consume and transport the listener. the sheer tonnage of vibrations generated by a large ensemble cannot be replicated or approximated by mere volume or electronic reproduction. the raw acoustic phenomena of twenty-or-more instruments working together in a single space to form a single sound entity is a radical and unmatchable kinetic force.

to then add improvisation to the orchestral palette, and the implications that are posed by spontaneous music generation, is to knowingly step completely outside of the institutional orchestral tradition. it is, however, to enter into another tradition established by such pioneers as earle brown, morton feldman, anthony braxton, leo smith, muhal richard abrams, karlheinz stockhausen, john cage, and so on." — scott rosenberg

scott rosenberg (b. 1972) is a multi-reed player and composer focused on creating a body of work that blends experimental composition with free improvisation.

creative orchestra music, chicago 2001 is the second recording of his dark-hued, richly layered orchestral works. rosenberg conducts a 26-piece ensemble, largely comprised of leading lights of chicago’s new-music scene, in six compositions — tehr, wash, 7x with sttm, forgetting song, and toys — that incorporate elements of improvisation, including conducted improvisations in some sections.

albums like braxton’s classic creative orchestra music 1976, the large-band work of abrams, and the improv-dominated transmissions of the globe unity orchestra can all register as antecedents to rosenberg’s music in disparate ways, each using composition and improvisation in different measures. william parker’s and barry guy’s orchestras suggest that the creative orchestra is still alive and well, but unlike those composers rosenberg is more willing to let go of the jazz vocabulary while retaining its improvisational energy and edge, giving his rigorous writing an often-changing complexion.

creative orchestra music, chicago 2001

lisa goethe-mcginn, flute
kyle bruckmann, oboe
matt bauder, jesse gilbert, paul hartsaw, laurie lee moses, todd munnik, aram shelton, reeds
todd margasak, nathaniel walcott, trumpets
jeb bishop, nick broste, trombones
megan tiedt, tuba
carol genetti, voice
nathaniel braddock, john shiurba, guitars
jen paulson, viola
chris hoffman, drew morgan, violoncellos
kyle hernandez, elizabeth kennedy, jason roebke, contrabasses
steve butters, jerome bryerton, tim daisy, percussion
jim baker, piano/synthesizer
scott rosenberg, conductor

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threads:
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digital-musics
electro-acoustic-composition
plunder-phonic
musique-concrète

best of 2006 !!!

new world (usa) #nw 80570 cd

james tenney “selected works 1961-969” compact disc

collage #1 (“blue suede”) (3:22) 1961
analog #1 (noise study) (4:23) 1961
dialogue (4:08) 1963
phases (for edgard varèse) (12:20) 1963
music for player piano (5:48) 1963-64
ergodos ii (for john cage) (18:24) 1964
fabric for ché (9:50) 1967
for ann (rising) (11:47) 1969

utterly fantastic disc, reissuing the long o/p collection of james tenney’s early electronic & computer music issued a decade or so back on the artifact label...

some just ridiculously raw early digital music, plus some of the first attempts at plunderphonics (”blue suede” is a bona-fide classic...)

new world press release...

james tenney
selected works 1961-1969

the work of james tenney (b. 1934) as a composer, theorist, performer, and teacher, is of singular importance in american music of the past four decades. he is by nature a quiet, almost publicity-shy musician, but his musical and theoretical works are steadily becoming widely known, despite the fact that few have been published and only a relatively small number, to this date, are readily available on recordings. this recording is a reissue of the 1992 frog peak/artifact cd, the first recorded collection of james tenney’s music of the 1960s. many of the pieces on this cd were realized at bell telephone laboratories from 1961 to 1969, where tenney used max mathews’s digital synthesis program that eventually became music iv. this software became the model for many of the common computer music environments of the last forty years, and was the first system of its kind available to composers. tenney’s pieces from 1961–64 constitute the first significant and developed body of computer-composed and synthesized music by an american composer.

tenney was a very young composer when he wrote these pieces. he was working with a new medium, a technology that was still being developed, and a new aesthetic. it is perhaps easy to overlook the importance of the latter in the light of the tremendous technical and historical importance of these pieces—but it is characteristic of tenney that he was not content just to explore the sonic and technical capabilities of a new technology. to this day, his work from this period remains an important example for composers who work with new technologies: the new world of “computer music” needed a radically new definition of music itself.

the 32-page booklet includes greatly expanded liner notes by composer and former tenney pupil larry polansky.

$73.08

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threads:
electro-acoustic-composition
electro-acoustic-improvisation
modern-composition
musique-concrète
1960s-electronic

new world (usa) #nw 80567 cd

“music from the once festival 1961-1966” quintuple compact disc set

five discs of live-electronics and early electronic realizations !!!!!

disc 1: 1961 [72:56]

robert ashley – sonata (7:44) 2/25/61
donald scavarda – groups for piano (1:03) 2/25/61
george cacioppo – string trio (10:23) 3/4/61
roger reynolds – epigram and evolution (8:50) 3/4/61
gordon mumma – sinfonia for 12 instruments and magnetic tape (12:03) 3/4/61
donald scavarda – in the autumn mountains (7:01) 3/4/61
bruce wise – two pieces for piano and chamber group (6:23) 3/4/61
robert ashley – the fourth of july (18:37) 2/25/61

disc 2: 1962 [72:23]

donald scavarda – matrix for clarinetist (9:07) 6/2/62
roger reynolds – wedge (7:56) 2/10/62
gordon mumma – meanwhile; a twopiece (7:16) 2/10/62
donald scavarda – sounds for eleven (10:55) 2/16/62
gordon mumma – from gestures ii (13:14) 2/16/62
george cacioppo – bestiary i: eingang (7:16) 2/16/62
robert ashley – details (2b) (7:09) 12/16/62
robert sheff (aka blue gene tyranny) – ballad (8:31) 12/16/62

disc 3: 1962–63 [74:21]

gordon mumma – large size mograph (8:09) 12/16/62
robert ashley – fives (12:36) 2/9/63
gordon mumma – a quarter of fourpiece (4:56) 2/9/63
george cacioppo – two worlds (6:02) 2/10/63
roger reynolds – mosaic (9:38) 2/10/63
george cacioppo – pianopieces 1-3 (8:19) 2/16/63
roger reynolds – a portrait of vanzetti (20:27) 2/16/63
gordon mumma – greys (3:19) 12/3/63 (stereo electronic music for the film/score greys by donald scavarda)

disc 4: 1963–1964 [76:32]

philip krumm – music for clocks (10:24) 2/17/63
robert sheff – diotima (18:58) 2/28/64
george crevoshay – 7ptpc (5:57) 2/29/64
donald scavarda – landscape journey (9:31) 2/25/64
george cacioppo – advance of the fungi (15:54) 2/25/64
robert ashley – in memoriam … crazy horse (symphony) (15:12) 2/25/64

disc 5: 1964–1966 [76:52]

bruce wise – music for three (29:30) 2/26/64
george cacioppo – time on time in miracles (9:44) 2/12/65
david behrman – track (10:11) 2/13/65
pauline oliveros – applebox double (17:07) 3/28/66
robert ashley – quartet (9:51) 3/28/66

utterly essential set collecting live-concert recordings from the early 60s once festival in ann arbor, michigan. here we have the roots of live-electronic music and/or circuit bending by the sonic arts union, amongst others.

new world press release...

ann arbor, michigan, seems an unlikely site for the establishment of a major avant-garde festival that would shake the new-music community. tucked away in america’s heartland, the city is equally removed from the eastern metropolises whose artists pride themselves on sensing the pulse of the times, and from the nonconformist west coast. yet during the 1960s ann arbor played host to one of the most extraordinary adventures in american music history: the annual once festival and its nexus of related activities.

the primary aim of once’s founders—robert ashley, gordon mumma, george cacioppo, roger reynolds, and donald scavarda—was to create a forum for the presentation of cutting-edge music. to this end they were phenomenally successful. performers and composers—whether little-known or renowned—embraced the endeavor, demanding almost nothing in return. perhaps most important, however, once acted as a creative stimulus for its organizers. scavarda describes the adventure as an explosion of pent-up energy: “suddenly we could write anything we wanted and have it heard.” and they did. the once composers—and many guest artists—wrote a host of new works, some experimental, others more traditional.

what united the once composers was their exploration of sound, whether through the medium of extended techniques on traditional instruments, electronic (or electronically modified) timbres, or the intersection of musical sounds with those of the environment.

a major slice of once’s rich musical legacy—35 works constituting six hours of music—is presented here, almost all for the first time. these pieces are as diverse in style as they are compelling in expression. this landmark set, the most comprehensive document ever released of this legendary event, is an opportunity for anyone interested in contemporary music to hear history in the making. included in the set is a 140-page booklet with a lengthy scholarly essay by musicologist and biographer leta miller and numerous rare photos of once personages and performances.

$14.62

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threads:
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electro-acoustic-composition
live-electronic
analogue-synth

new world (usa) #nw 80563 cd

“works by robert erickson, harvey sollberger, peter westergaard, phillip rhodes, edwin dugger” compact disc

phillip rhodes - duo for violin and cello (12:43)
harvey sollberger - grand quartet for flutes (7:56)
robert erickson - ricercar for 5 trombones (12:39)
peter westergaard - variations for six player (9:15)
edwin dugger - music for synthesizer and six instruments (6:58)

... mainly for the edwin dugger piece, which i discovered when i ran across the acoustic research lp containing it a few years back ... a nice, obscure blip in the early “synthesizer with ensemble” radar ...

new world press release...

edwin dugger’s 1966 music for synthesizer and six instruments represents another development of the sixties avant-garde, experiments in electronic sound. as computers and synthesizers increasingly dominate pop idioms—often with a mechanical, homogenizing effect—it is useful to recall their poetic, largely unrealized potential. as a colorful example of their unresolved status in the past, dugger’s piece raises tantalizing questions: is electronic sound the music of the future, or is it all too often, in pierre boulez’s phrase, the music of science fiction? do synthesizers constitute, as edgard varèse hoped, new materials for a new music, or do they merely enhance traditional ensembles with an illusion of revolutionary novelty?

dugger’s music for synthesizer and six instruments plays with all these possibilities. as with the other works on this recording, instruments imitate and blend into each other, distributing among themselves individual notes in the melodic line—yet the electronic element creates a different sound and sensibility. in the first movement, the instruments and synthesizer act independently, alternating in an antiphonal pattern that emphasizes the independence of each. only in a single tutti shortly before the end do the two forces come together. in the somber second movement, the synthesizer and six instruments play simultaneously, reinforcing their similarities, teasing the ear into deciding just where electronic music ends and acoustic begins. in the finale, an elaborate cadenza for synthesizer alone steals the show. the expressive content is similarly varied: hisses, squawks, and gurgles—the loopy “science fiction” sound associated with electronic music—gradually elongate into a more chordal, lyrical discourse. a final sigh from the strings ends the music on a note of quiet mystery.

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new world (usa) #nw 80558 cd

terry riley “assassin reverie” compact disc

uncle jard

part 1 (5:17) 1998
part 2 (8:36) 1998
part 3 (5:32) 1998
assassin reverie (18:43) 2001
tread on the trail (9:56) 1965

new world press release...

a free spirit, maverick par excellence, creator of a personal compositional style that has spawned entire generations of epigones, terry riley (b. 1935) embodies the best aspects of the american pioneer spirit, the positive and uncorrupted image of america (and california in particular) that still holds abroad: an america free from the weight of european tradition, a privileged space where a fusion of western and eastern cultural trends can be produced.

it is interesting to note that the most significant musical influences on riley’s style—blues, jazz and indian classical music—share relevant common features: modal structures and improvisatory practices intended as careful treatment of a set of more or less strict, codified rules. by emphasizing common ground, riley reconciles different cultures within the same inventive fusing process.

uncle jard (1998) (saxophone quartet, piano, harpsichord, and voice) is a particularly compelling example of this. in this piece, indian classical music and blues/jazz elements co-exist in a stylistically coherent whole: ragtime and raga have never been so closely intertwined. the piece is divided into three parts. while in the first and second parts the texture of the saxophone ensemble is enriched by the voice and keyboard, in the third part the voice is not featured.

assassin reverie (2001), for saxophone quartet and tape, is a piece in a single movement, but structured in three different sections differentiated by sound material and stage direction. it is one of the more disturbing pieces written by riley; the second section features an extremely aggressive audio track — gunshots and helicopter sounds are heard throughout it.

written right after in c, tread on the trail (1965) (this version for 12 saxophones is by the arte quartett) is in fact based on similar construction principles. the music in both pieces is a ludus, a game in which riley re-injects into western music a new-found vitality. through a free exploration of the score, musical performance recovers here its true essence as a playful collective ritual.

arte quartett:

beat hofstetter, soprano saxophone
sascha armbruster, alto saxophone
andrea formenti, tenor saxophone
beat kappeler, baritone saxophone

terry riley, vocals, piano and harpsichord (uncle jard)

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threads:
1960s-electornic
1970s-electronic
electro-acoustic-composition
minimalism-drones
musique-concrète

best of 2006 !!!

new world (usa) #nw 80555 cd

richard maxfield / harold budd “the oak of the golden dreams” compact disc

richard maxfield - pastoral symphony (4:03) 1960
richard maxfield - bacchanale (8:14) 1963
richard maxfield - piano concert for david tudor (12:29) 1961
richard maxfield - amazing grace (3:26) 1960
harold budd - the oak of the golden dreams (18:44) 1970
harold budd - coeur d’orr (19:46) 1969

for the longest time i couldn’t figure why exactly these two sets of pieces by two very different composers were bashed into the same 1/0 stream ... until i recently heard the tale of lamonte “milk ‘em” young’s ownership of dick maxfield’s oeuvre ... and the insane price he has asked of new world for the (temporary!) licensing of maxfield’s music for this release, resulting in the producers-in-question adding the harold budd material to the proceedings in attempts to break even on the whole affair (both sets of music were initally released in the lp-era by the advance label, originals of the maxfield at least fetch a pretty penny). which kind of justifies it... but still...

the maxfield pieces herein are incredibly sharp (previously i’d only read about them in the great george maciunas remembrance-guide mr. fluxus wherein someone, probably joe jones, recounts a concert at lamonte young’s new york art-space in the early 60s of maxfield’s music) - ranging from tight, analogue-synth-based tape constructs (“pastoral sympony”), kind-of beatnik tape pieces (“bacchanale,” performed by an ensemble including terry jennings...), musique concrète piece sinvolving some serious inside-piano scraping (“piano concert for david tudor,” piano c/o its namesake...), and short, almost plunderphonic-feeling jump-cuts (”amazing grace”)...

i had only known budd as an eno-sympathizer/collaborator, so hearing the terry riley-esque buchla-workout that is “oak of the golden dreams” is kind of an earful... but then the... terry riley-esque “coeur d’orr” kind of hurts my head/feelings a little bit with its longing soprano sax lines & organ pedal tones...

even still, one of the better discs on new world (a catalogue already rife with gems...) - very much worth it for the maxfield material alone...

new world press release...

richard maxfield: pastoral symphony , bacchanale, piano concert for david tudor, amazing grace

harold budd: the oak of the golden dreams, coeur d’orr

david tudor, piano
terry jennings, saxophone
edward fields, narration
fahrad machkat, violin
robert block; prepared violin
nicholas roussakis, underwater clarinet
harold budd, buchla electronic music system
charles oreña, soprano sax

this timely cd reissue combines two lps from the advance label — richard maxfield’s electronic music and harold budd’s the oak of the golden dreams — both containing seminal works which are key to a better understanding of the musical landscape of the sixties as well as the origins of minimalism.

a mostly forgotten figure, richard maxfield (1927-69) exerted a powerful influence over a broad range of composers through his classes at the new school. the works here predate the minimalist movement while forecasting a wide range of developments in the future of electronic work. the prophetic pastoral symphony (1960) is composed of continuously generated electronic tones while bacchanale (1963) is a musique concrète collage juxtaposing jazz with korean folk music, spoken word, and various instrumental contributions including terry jennings on saxophone. piano concert for david tudor (1961) draws its multifarious noises from a single source — antedating in that respect stockhausen’s mikrophonie i for amplified tam-tam (1964). tudor plays live alongside a three-channel montage constructed from sounds made on the inside of the piano with chains, spinning a gyroscope on the strings, showering the strings with tiddlywink discs, and other unusual operations. amazing grace (1960) mixes tape loops from two sources which are played back at various speeds, causing the fragments to overlap in complex ways, predating both riley’s and reich’s tape-loop pieces. if the maxfield pieces represent the state of new music in the months before minimalism was born, harold budd’s (b. 1936) works from 1970 reflect minimalism’s initial impact. the oak of the golden dreams was made on the buchla box which budd uses here as an electric organ capable of the kind of fast modal improv, over an unchanging e-flat drone, that terry riley and la monte young had been doing on saxophone and piano. coeur d’orr features a soprano sax improv against an electronic background on organ comprised of two tracks, one of which is another 1970 budd work, the famous candy apple revision.

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threads:
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minimalism-drones

new world (usa) #nw 80550 cd

stefan wolpe / morton feldman “for stefan wolpe” compact disc

stefan wolpe - zwei chinesische grabschriften (two chinese epitaphs)

i. zwölf bauern (twelve peasants) (4:17) 1937
ii. von eine handvoll reis (by a handful of rice) (4:02) 1937
morton feldman - christian wolff in cambridge (3:02) 1963
morton feldman - chorus and instruments ii (3:32) 1967
stefan wolpe- four pieces for mixed chorus (a.k.a. three pieces for mixed chorus)

i. psalm 122 (2:28) 1955 - samahtî beomrîm lî (i was glad when they said to me)
ii. piece by gershon shofman (5:08) 1955 - sh(e)lu na`alêkhem (remove your shoes from your feet)
iii. isaiah 43: 18-21 (3:50) 1955 - 10 al tizkeru rishonot (remember ye not the former things)
iv. jeremiah 31: 6-12 (4:25) 1955 - ronnu leya `akov simhah (sing aloud with gladness for jacob)
morton feldman - for stefan wolpe (31:07) 1986

new world press release...

stefan wolpe (1902–1972), one of the great teachers in twentieth century music, is also now recognized as one of its most significant composers. his two chinese epitaphs, composed in jerusalem in 1937, illustrates the composer’s deep allegiance to socialist issues. he wrote the work swiftly and in anger, just after learning that the basque town of guernica had been bombed by the fascists the previous week. he chose to set two poems by louise peter that decry, in a few short phrases of stark imagery, the atrocities committed against oppressed workers. the four pieces for mixed chorus (1955) were composed for a contest sponsored by the government of israel. it is a setting of four hebrew texts—three from the bible and one from israeli poet gershon shofman. all the texts express hope for the new nation of israel.

morton feldman (1926–1987) studied with wolpe for several years and was deeply influenced by his modernist aesthetic, particularly his interest in the visual arts. for stefan wolpe (1986), for chorus and two vibraphones, is feldman’s tribute to his venerated teacher. it alternates between vocal and instrumental passages. the two never intermingle, even though feldman lets the vibraphones ring into the voices. as is characteristic of his late music, the piece combines the quiet, atonal, austere textures of his earlier music (of which christian wolff in cambridge [1963] and chorus and instruments ii [1967] are stellar examples) with several new elements—greater duration, minimalist repetition, and bigger gestures.

all five works are making their first appearance on cd. an indispensable addition to the discographies of both composers.

choir of st. ignatius of antioch, new york city / harold chaney, conductor
benjamin ramirez, thomas kolor, percussion
stephen foreman, tuba

$29.23

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threads:
1970s-electronic
live-electronic
sound-poetry
modern-composition

best of 2006 !!!

new world (usa) #nw 80540 cd

david tudor / john cage “rainforest ii & mureau” double compact disc set

rainforest ii / mureau (43:02)
rainforest ii / mureau (continued) (51:17)

premiere of this recording of the simultaneous performance of david tudor’s rainforest ii and john cage’s mureau by the composers themselves.

new world press release...

this historic release of a simultaneous performance by david tudor and john cage of rainforest ii and mureau, recorded live by radio bremen on may 5, 1972, preserves the only surviving performance of the second of tudor’s "rainforest" series. in addition, it documents one of the precious few recorded collaborations between these two visionaries. in 1970 cage composed the piece called mureau, in which phrases from thoreau’s journals (in particular, passages which touch on the subject of music) are used as the springboard for an elaborate collage. the resultant fabric combines elements of sense and nonsense, as it veers between contextual meaning and a sort of abstract, linguistic vocalise. in cage’s public readings of mureau, he explored a number of performance variables—differences in tempo, vocal timbre, pitch, register, and dynamics. a similar range will be apparent, in fact, when listening to this recorded performance. this simultaneous performance of mureau and rainforest ii took place in a large concert hall before an audience, rather than privately in a recording studio. whereas in other performance realizations (such as their legendary indeterminacy collaboration) the two men had been placed in separate isolation booths, here the two shared the same performance space, so that each could hear and see the other person’s activity. in fact, cage and tudor sat quite close to one another at the center of the stage, cage performing mureau as a four-channel realization—one live channel against three pre-recorded tracks, all of them his own voice—and tudor actively engaged in real-time processing of cage’s vocal material, using it to generate electronic loudspeaker-filter events.

essential listening for anyone interested in the work of either composer.

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threads:
1960s-electronic
1970s-electronic
electro-acoustic-composition
musique-concrète

new world (usa) #nw 80521 cd

“columbia-princeton electronic music center 1961-1973” compact disc

bülent arel - postlude from “music for a sacred service” (3:56) 1961
charles dodge - earth’s magnetic field (14:01) 1971
ilhan mimaroglu - prelude no. 8 (to the memory of edgard varese) (3:54) 1966
bülent arel & daria semegen - out of into (16:32) 1972
ingram marshall - cortez (8:30) 1973
daria semegen - electronic composition no. 1 (5:47) 1971
alice shields - dance piece no. 3 (5:46) 1969
alice shields - study for voice and tape (5:17) 1968

another gem from new world; here offering a splendid overview of goings-on at the columbia-princeton electronic music center during the 60s & (early) 70s...

stand-out work from daria semegn (whose “electronic composition no. 1” it only outshined by her extended collaboration with bülent arel, “out of into” ... also arel’s solo “postlude” is fantastic...) and alice shields (both pieces here are absolutely bubbling with psychedelic-era modular synth grankle...) - the charles dodge piece is fun in a kind of plink-plonky way... but the mimaroglu piece is nowhere near as interesting as his finnadar-label output...

new world press release...

works by bülent arel, charles dodge, ingram marshall, ilhan mimaroglu, daria semegen, alice shields. the columbia-princeton electronic music center was the first electronic music center to be established in the united states. from 1959 to the late 1970s, it was one of the premiere sound facilities in the world. the vast majority of pieces composed at the center—approximately three hundred—were composed during this period. some have become classics of music history. this selection, drawn from those seminal years, is an excellent overview of the wide variations in musical style and aesthetic that was encouraged by the center’s guiding spirit, vladimir ussachevsky. charles dodge’s earth’s magnetic field is a relaxed, expressive piece in which he captures a sense of radiance. the new york times called it one of the “ten most significant works of the 1970s.” ingram marshall’s cortez manipulates a speaker’s voice to create a brooding meditation on an apocalyptic poem by poet-friend snee mccaig. alice shields was a young member of the center’s initial team. musique concrète sound sources and the composer’s prerecorded voice form the basis for dance piece no. 3 (1969) and study for voice and tape (1968). bülent arel was also a member of the center’s initial staff. his brightly colored postlude from “music for a sacred service” builds from a stately beginning to a virtuosic conclusion. ilhan mimaroglu’s prelude no. 8 (to the memory of edgard varèse) was inspired by a presentiment of his friend’s death and is expectedly somber in mood. daria semegen studied with lutoslawski and arel. electronic composition no. 1 was a winner of the 1975 international society for contemporary music prize. both it and out of into, a collaboration with arel, are prime examples of her muscular, dramatic style, full of timbral and dynamic contrasts that gives her music the breadth and the seriousness of orchestral drama.

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new world (usa) #nw 80487 cd

lawrence d. “butch” morris “conduction #41: new world, new world” compact disc

conduction #41 (27:08)
conduction #41, e i (7:02)
conduction #41, e ii (5:40)
conduction #41, e iii (7:49)
conduction #41, e iv (6:24)

new world press release...

conduction no. 41, new world, new world
opperman music hall, florida state university school of music, february 4, 1994.

ensemble:
jesse canterbury (clarinet)
mimi patterson (clarinet)
scott deeter (saxophone)
philip gelb (shakuhachi)
gregor harvey (guitar)
ethan schaffner (electric guitar)
elisabeth king (voice)
daniel raney (trombone)
david tatro (trombone)
michael titlebaum (alto saxophone).

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file under:
free-improv

new world (usa) #nw 80485 cd

lawrence d. “butch” morris “conduction #31, #35, & #36” compact disc

conduction #31, e i (4:30)
conduction #31, e ii (3:53)
conduction #35, part i (24:17)
conduction #35, part ii (12:55)
conduction #36 (13:59)
conduction #36, e (4:12)

new world press release...

conduction no. 31, angelica
angelica festival of international music, bologna, italy,may 16, 1993

ensemble:
dietmar diesner (soprano sax)
peter kowald (bass),wolter wierbos (trombone)
steve beresford (piano)
hans reichel (guitar, daxophone)
tom cora (cello)
han bennink (drums)
catherine jauniaux (voice)
ikue mori (drum machines).

conduction no. 35, american connection 4
antwerp, belgium, may 26, 1993

maarten altena (contrabass)
michael barker (recorder, blockflutes)
peter van bergen (bass clarinet, tenor saxophone)
wiek hijmans (electric guitar)
alison isadora (violin)
jannie pranger (voice)
michael vatcher (percussion)
wolter wierbos (trombone)
michiel scheen (piano).

conduction no. 36, american connection 4
amsterdam, holland, may 27, 1993.

maarten altena (contrabass)
michael barker (recorder, blockflutes)
peter van bergen (bass clarinet, tenor saxophone)
wiek hijmans (electric guitar)
alison isadora (violin)
jannie pranger (voice)
michael vatcher (percussion)
wolter wierbos (trombone)
michiel scheen (piano).

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new world (usa) #nw 80483 cd

lawrence d. “butch” morris “conduction #25 & #26: the akbank conduction, akbank ii” compact disc

conduction #25 (45:00)
conduction #26, e (7:04)

new world press release...

conduction no. 25, the akbank conduction
istanbul,turkey, october 16, 1992.

ensemble:
the süleyman erguner ensemble:
hasan esen (kemence)
mehmet emin bitmez (ud)
göksel baktagir (kanun)
süleyman erguner (ney)
lê quan ninh (percussion)
bryan carrott (vibraphone)
j. a. deane (trombone, electronics, drum machine)
elizabeth panzer (harp)
brandon ross (acoustic guitar)
steve colson (piano)
hugh ragin (pocket trumpet).

conduction no. 26, akbank ii
istanbul, turkey, october 17, 1992.

ensemble:
the süleyman erguner ensemble:
hasan esen (kemence)
mehmet emin bitmez (ud)
göksel baktagir (kanun)
süleyman erguner (ney)
lê quan ninh (percussion)
bryan carrott (vibraphone)
j. a. deane (trombone, electronics, drum machine)
elizabeth panzer (harp)
brandon ross (acoustic guitar)
steve colson (piano)
hugh ragin (pocket trumpet).

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new world (usa) #nw 80482 cd

lawrence d. “butch” morris “conduction #23: quinzaine de montreal” compact disc

conduction #23, part i (43:25)

new world press release...

conduction no. 23, quinzaine de montreal
the spectrum, montreal, quebec, canada,april 11, 1992.

ensemble:

tristan honsinger (cello)
martin schütz (cello)
eric longsworth (cello)
michelle kinney (hybrid broom-cello)
ken butler (hybrid broom-cello)
helmut lipsky (violin)
j.a. deane (trombone, electronics, live sampling)
guillaume dostaler (piano)
mike milligan (bass)
pierre dubé (percussion).

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new world (usa) #nw 80481 cd

lawrence d. “butch” morris “conduction #22: documenta: gloves & mitts” compact disc

conduction #22, part i (47:24)

new world press release...

conduction no. 22, documenta: gloves & mitts
documenta 9, kassel, germany, june 14, 1992.

ensemble:

christian marclay (records and turntables)
lê quan ninh (percussion)
j. a. deane (trombone, electronics, live sampling)
martin schütz (cello)
günter müller (drums, electronics)
lawrence d. "butch" morris (cornet).

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new world (usa) #nw 80480 cd

lawrence d. “butch” morris “conduction #15: where music goes ii” compact disc

conduction #15, part i (21:37)
conduction #15, part ii (11:07)
conduction #15, part iii (35:22)

new world press release...

conduction no. 15, where music goes ii
sponsored by and presented at the whitney museum of american art at philip morris,new york city,november 15 and 16, 1989.

ensemble:
arthur blythe (alto sax, guest artist)
thurman barker (vibraphone, percussion)
marion brandis (flute, alto flute, piccolo),vincent chancey (french horn)
curtis clark (piano)
j. a. deane (trombone, electronics, live sampling)
janet grice (bassoon)
bill horvitz (electric guitar)
jason hwang (violin)
taylor mclean (percussion, glockenspiel)
jemeel moondoc (flute)
zeena parkins (harp)
brandon ross (acoustic guitar, octave guitar).

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new world (usa) #nw 80478 cd

lawrence d. “butch” morris “testament : a conduction collection” decuple compact disc set

conduction #11, part i (19:33)
conduction #11, part ii (32:15)
conduction #15, part i (21:37)
conduction #15, part ii (11:07)
conduction #15, part iii (35:22)
conduction #22, part i (47:24)
conduction #23, part i (43:25)
conduction #25 (45:00)
conduction #26, e (7:04)
conduction #28, part ii-x (20:56)
conduction #28, e (2:59)
conduction #31 (46:57)
conduction #31, e i (4:30)
conduction #31, e ii (3:53)
conduction #35, part i (24:17)
conduction #35, part ii (12:55)
conduction #36 (13:59)
conduction #36, e (4:12)
conduction #38 (46:05)
conduction #38, e (5:51)
conduction #39, e (3:01)
conduction #40, e (7:59)
conduction #41 (27:08)
conduction #41, e i (7:02)
conduction #41, e ii (5:40)
conduction #41, e iii (7:49)
conduction #41, e iv (6:24)
conduction #50, part i (37:15)
conduction #50, part ii (33:42)
conduction #50, e i (1:57)
conduction #50, e ii (3:12)

massive, sprawling, 10-disc boxed-set of lawrence d. “butch” morris’ “conductions” ...

new world press release...

conduction no. 11, where music goes
the great american music hall, san francisco, ca, december 18, 1988.

sponsored by rova saxophone quartet.

ensemble:
rova preechoes ensemble:
bruce ackley (soprano saxophone)
dave barrett (alto saxophone)
larry ochs (saxophone)
jon raskin (alto saxophone, baritone saxophone)
chris brown (electric percussion piano)
j.a. deane (trombone, electronics)
jon english (bass)
jon jang (piano)
bill horvitz (electric guitar)
blk lion (guitar, electronics)
kash killion (cello)
kaila flexer (violin)
hal hughes (violin)
william winant (percussion).

conduction no. 15, where music goes ii
sponsored by and presented at the whitney museum of american art
at philip morris,new york city,november 15 and 16, 1989.

ensemble:
arthur blythe (alto sax, guest artist)
thurman barker (vibraphone, percussion)
marion brandis (flute, alto flute, piccolo)
vincent chancey (french horn)
curtis clark (piano)
j. a. deane (trombone, electronics, live sampling)
janet grice (bassoon)
bill horvitz (electric guitar)
jason hwang (violin)
taylor mclean (percussion, glockenspiel)
jemeel moondoc (flute)
zeena parkins (harp)
brandon ross (acoustic guitar, octave guitar).

conduction no. 22, documenta: gloves & mitts
documenta 9, kassel, germany, june 14, 1992.

ensemble:
christian marclay (records and turntables)
lê quan ninh (percussion)
j. a. deane (trombone, electronics, live sampling)
martin schütz (cello)
günter müller (drums, electronics)
lawrence d. "butch" morris (cornet).

conduction no. 23, quinzaine de montreal
the spectrum, montreal, quebec, canada,april 11, 1992.

ensemble:
tristan honsinger (cello)
martin schütz (cello)
eric longsworth (cello)
michelle kinney (hybrid broom-cello)
ken butler (hybrid broom-cello)
helmut lipsky (violin)
j.a. deane (trombone, electronics, live sampling)
guillaume dostaler (piano)
mike milligan (bass)
pierre dubé (percussion).

conduction no. 25, the akbank conduction
istanbul, turkey, october 16, 1992.

ensemble:
the süleyman erguner ensemble:
hasan esen (kemence)
mehmet emin bitmez (ud)
göksel baktagir (kanun)
süleyman erguner (ney)
lê quan ninh (percussion)
bryan carrott (vibraphone)
j. a. deane (trombone, electronics, drum machine)
elizabeth panzer (harp)
brandon ross (acoustic guitar)
steve colson (piano)
hugh ragin (pocket trumpet).

conduction no. 26, akbank ii
istanbul, turkey, october 17, 1992.

ensemble:
the süleyman erguner ensemble:
hasan esen (kemence)
mehmet emin bitmez (ud)
göksel baktagir (kanun)
süleyman erguner (ney)
lê quan ninh (percussion)
bryan carrott (vibraphone)
j. a. deane (trombone, electronics, drum machine)
elizabeth panzer (harp)
brandon ross (acoustic guitar)
steve colson (piano)
hugh ragin (pocket trumpet).

conduction no. 28, cherry blossom
p3 art and environment,tokyo, japan, march 28, 1993.

ensemble:
yukihiro isso (nokan)
shonosuke okura (ohtsuzumi)
makiko sakurai (shomyo, music box)
michihiro sato (tugaru syamisen)
kizan daiyoshi (shakuhachi); haruna miyake (piano)
asuka kaneko (voice)
shuichi chino (computer)
koichi makigami (voice),yoshihide otomo (turntables, cd player)
kazutoki umezu (bass clarinet)
sachiko nagata (percussion)
motoharu yoshizawa (electric vertical bass)
kazuo oono (butoh dance)
koichi tamano (butoh dance).

conduction no. 31, angelica
angelica festival of international music, bologna, italy,may 16, 1993

ensemble:
dietmar diesner (soprano sax)
peter kowald (bass),wolter wierbos (trombone)
steve beresford (piano)
hans reichel (guitar, daxophone)
tom cora (cello)
han bennink (drums)
catherine jauniaux (voice)
ikue mori (drum machines).

conduction no. 31, angelica
angelica festival of international music, bologna, italy,may 16, 1993

ensemble:
dietmar diesner (soprano sax)
peter kowald (bass),wolter wierbos (trombone)
steve beresford (piano)
hans reichel (guitar, daxophone)
tom cora (cello)
han bennink (drums)
catherine jauniaux (voice)
ikue mori (drum machines).

conduction no. 35, american connection 4
antwerp, belgium, may 26, 1993

maarten altena (contrabass)
michael barker (recorder, blockflutes)
peter van bergen (bass clarinet, tenor saxophone)
wiek hijmans (electric guitar)
alison isadora (violin)
jannie pranger (voice)
michael vatcher (percussion)
wolter wierbos (trombone)
michiel scheen (piano).

conduction no. 36, american connection 4
amsterdam, holland, may 27, 1993.

maarten altena (contrabass)
michael barker (recorder, blockflutes)
peter van bergen (bass clarinet, tenor saxophone)
wiek hijmans (electric guitar)
alison isadora (violin)
jannie pranger (voice)
michael vatcher (percussion)
wolter wierbos (trombone)
michiel scheen (piano).

conduction no. 38, in freud's garden
muffathalle, germany, december 11, 1993

ensemble:
myra melford (piano)
zeena parkins (harp)
bryan carrott (vibraphone)
brandon ross (acoustic guitar)
j. a. deane (trombone, electronics, live sampling)
motoharu yoshizawa (electric vertical bass)
lê quan ninh (percussion)
martin schütz (electric five string cello)
tristan honsinger (cello)
martine altenburger (cello)
edgar laubscher (electric viola)
hans koch (clarinet, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone).

conduction no. 39
thread waxing space, new york city, november 11, 1993

ensemble:
christian marclay (turntables)
elliott sharp (dobro)
chris cunningham (guitar)
gregor kitzis (violin)
dana friedli (violin)
jason hwang (violin)
myra melford (piano)
damon ra choice (vibraphone, snare drum)
reggie nicholson (vibraphone, tomtom)
michelle kinney (cello)
deidre l. murray (cello)
elizabeth panzer (harp),william parker (bass)
mark helias (bass)
fred hopkins (bass).

conduction no. 40
thread waxing space,new york city, november 12, 1993.

ensemble:
christian marclay (turntables)
elliott sharp (dobro)
chris cunningham (guitar)
dana friedli (violin)
jason hwang (violin),myra melford (piano)
damon ra choice (vibraphone, snare drum)
reggie nicholson (vibraphone, tom-tom)
michelle kinney (cello)
elizabeth panzer (harp)
william parker (bass)
mark helias (bass).

conduction no. 41, new world, new world
opperman music hall, florida state university school of music, february 4, 1994.

ensemble:
jesse canterbury (clarinet)
mimi patterson (clarinet)
scott deeter (saxophone)
philip gelb (shakuhachi)
gregor harvey (guitar)
ethan schaffner (electric guitar)
elisabeth king (voice)
daniel raney (trombone)
david tatro (trombone)
michael titlebaum (alto saxophone).

conduction no. 50, p3 art and environment
tokyo, japan, march 5, 1995.

ensemble:
shonosuke okura (ohtuzumi)
michihiro sato (tugaru syamisen)
yumiko tanaka (gidayu)
hikaru sawai (koto)
kim dae hwan (percussion)
yoshihide otomo (turntables)
keizo mizoiri (bass)
haruna miyake (piano)
asuka kaneko (electric violin)
tomomi adachi (voice)
motoharu yoshizawa (electric vertical bass)
ayuo takahashi (zheng).

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threads:
1960s-electornic
contemporary-classical
electro-acoustic-composition
1960s-electronic
1970s-electronic

new world (usa) #nw 80466 cd

milton babbitt “philomel” compact disc

philomel for soprano - recorded soprano - and synthesized sound (1964)
phenomena for soprano and piano
phonemena for soprano and tape
post-partitions
reflections for piano and synthesized tape (1975)

... cd reissue of two prior new world lps ...

babbit’s powerhouse epics for live instrumentation and tape accompaniment (3/5 of the cd anyways) ...

new world press release...

bethany beardslee, lynne weber, sopranos; jerry kuderna, robert miller, pianos; tape and synthesized sound

the four works on this recording span a period of a decade and are among the best of babbitt’s output, tape and otherwise. philomel (1964), for soprano, recorded soprano, and synthesized sound, is one of the undisputed classics of electroacoustic music and this is its definitive recording. two versions of phonemena (1969)—one for soprano and piano, the other for soprano and tape—another virtuosic vocal piece written for the unique talents of bethany beardslee, are included on this recording. post-partitions (1966) for solo piano, and reflections (1975), for piano and tape, contrast babbitt’s complex yet pellucid writing for solo piano with that of his writing featuring the interplay between live performer and tape.

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digital-musics

new world (usa) #nw 80460 cd

robert ashley “superior seven” compact disc

superior seven (30:17)
tract (23:49)

new world press release...

“i am finally able to say that i write for orchestra— even if i have to make the orchestra myself.” — robert ashley

robert ashley is known primarily for his theater-based pieces and television operas. this new release presents the world premiere recordings of two of his “orchestral” pieces, superior seven (concerto for flute), and tract (for orchestra and voice), where the orchestra is provided by a midi synthesizer.

in superior seven, the flute floats freely in and out of an atmospheric electronic sound tapestry. it is a colorful, kaleidoscopic, ever-changing soundscape pervaded throughout by a sense of playful whimsy.

tract, on the other hand, is cut from an altogether darker cloth. the voice is used as one of the orchestral timbres in a piece that is resolutely mournful and dirge-like in tone, a wordless lament.

barbara held (flute)
thomas buckner (voice)

midi orchestra

...

superior sevenconcerto for flute and orchestra (for barbara held)
the midi sequencer programming was done by tom hamilton and barbara held.
synthesizer orchestra voices were designed by robert ashley and tom hamilton.
the cd realization of superior seven was processed and mixed by tom hamilton.

tract
for orchestra and voice
the recording engineer for thomas buckner’s voice was tom hamilton.
the midi sequencer programming was done by nathaniel reichmann and robert ashley.
synthesizer orchestra voices were designed by robert ashley, tom hamilton, and nathaniel reichmann.
the cd realization of tract was processed and mixed by tom hamilton.
superior seven and tract were produced by robert ashley.

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1970s-electronic
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modern-composition

new world (usa) #nw 80457 cd

donald erb “drawing on the moon” compact disc

...and then toward the end... (8:29) 1971
cenotaph (for edgard varèse) (7:49) 1979
woody (11:05) 1988
symphony for winds (10:05) 1989
drawing down the moon (15:04) 1991

...mainly for “...and then toward the end...” for trombone and tape; more than capably performed by stuart dempster ...

new world press release...

donald erb’s mature style—encompassing elements of jazz, electronic music and serialism within traditional forms—is captured on this recording of five wind ensemble and chamber works dating from 1971 to 1991. when asked what he tries to achieve through his music, erb responds, “the clarity of classical music, the passion of romanticism, and the freedom of jazz.” that succinct response pretty much captures the essence of these angular pieces, scored for winds, brass and percussion, unmollified by strings. improvisation, or at least its quality of spontaneity and unlimited choice, is incorporated. the ensemble pieces develop massive walls of sonority and crushing climaxes while solo passages push instrumental boundaries and the limits of the players’ capabilities in terms of range and technique.

university circle wind ensemble
gary ciepluch; stuart dempster, trombone
ross powell, clarinet
jan gippo, piccolo
kirk brundage, percussion

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1960s-electornic
electro-acoustic-composition
musique-concrète
1960s-electronic
analogue-synth

new world (usa) #nw 80389 cd

vladimir ussachevsky “film music” compact disc

suite from no exit (14:28) 1962

(3:04)
(2:17)
(2:48)
(1:10)
(1:41)
(2:42)
line of apogee (43:37) 1967

(9:17)
(5:44)
(4:47)
(5:51)
(3:17)
(10:15)
(4:23)

possibly my favorite of ussachevsky’s work, in the form of two scores for two very different films; “suite from no exit” (directed by orson welles from a sartre play) and “line of apogee” (avant-garde film by lloyd williams)...

the former suite is absolutely terrifying</i>; distant, disembodied voices sing in choir over an array of machine-shop clanks & electrified field-events... despite the short-stature of the indivudal pieces, there’s much room for drones and slow development...

the latter combines synthesized sounds with the concrète noises of the former, resulting in a denser, more edit-oriented piece... approaching 45 minutes it’s the longest single piece in ussachevsky’s oeuvre, an absolute master-class in form...

two of the columbia-princeton electronic music center’s more classic moments... highly recommended !!!

new world press release...

ussachevsky was one of the most significant pioneers in the compositon of electronic music, and one of its most potent forces. he produced the first works of “tape music,” a uniquely american synthesis of the french musique-concrète and the german pure electronic schools. he co-founded the columbia-princeton electronic music center in 1959 and directed its course for the next twenty years as the leading electronic music studio in the united states.

this release couples two of his most powerful and innovative scores: suite from no exit (1962), from the film of sartre’s play no exit directed by orson welles, and the soundtrack for the avant-garde film, line of apogee (1967). ...

vladimir ussachevsky: film music

new world 80389-2

by alice shields

vladimir ussachevsky was one of the most significant pioneers in the composition of electronic music, and one of its most potent forces. born in 1911 in manchuria, china, ussachevsky was the son of a russian army captain. his childhood was spent on the windswept and sparsely settled manchurian plain, visiting with the nomadic tribesmen in their tents, and singing old slavonic chants as an altar boy in the local russian orthodox church. by the time he arrived in california, at the age of nineteen, he was a skilled pianist gifted in the interpretation of romantic music, and a fluent improvisor. after receiving his undergraduate degree in music from pomona college, he earned a ph.d. in composition from the eastman school of music. from 1947 until his retirement in 1980, ussachevsky taught at columbia university, where he was known for his teaching of sixteenth-century counterpoint. but in his career there, he began experimenting with the use of tape recorders to manipulate sounds. through much experimentation he developed the first works of “tape music,” a uniquely american synthesis of the french musique-concrète and the german pure electronic schools. in 1952, ussachevsky's first works of tape music were performed at an historic concert at the museum of modern art in new york city, along with works of his colleague otto luening. through a five-year grant awarded by the rockefeller foundation in 1959, ussachevsky co-founded the columbia-princeton electronic music center, and directed its course for the next twenty years as the leading electronic music studio in the united states.

ussachevsky's electronic compositions include many milestones of the genre, covering a wide spectrum of solo tape pieces, pieces for live instruments and tape, tape music for radio plays, live theater productions, film and television. among his solo tape compositions are such classics as piece for tape recorder (1956), metamorphoses (1957), and especially, of wood and brass (1965). perhaps the most beautiful of his works for tape and live musicians is the oratorio creation prologue (1961) for tape and four choruses.

on this recording are two of ussachevsky's most powerful and innovative scores: suite from no exit (1962), from the film of jean-paul sartre's play no exit directed by orson welles, and the soundtrack for lloyd williams's avant-garde film line of apogee (1967). ussachevsky's score for no exit is a traditional soundtrack in that the music was meant to be a background to spoken words. line of apogee is quite different: there are only a few spoken words, and the images on screen shift quickly and wildly between weird, dreamlike sequences and partial animation. here, ussachevsky's music becomes the primary organizing element, as the various sections of music f low into one another smoothly, easing the shocking effect of the visual changes.

in both film scores we hear ussachevsky's favorite musical form: variations on several alternating themes. his themes are significantly different from those of his serialist colleagues, who often choose themes consisting of the same pitch material they would

write for traditional musical instruments. ussachevsky instead chose themes that often do not have traditional pitch or timbral characteristics.

in no exit, for example, he used three main sound sources: electronic, vocal and concrète. the electronic sounds range from searing and slicing noises, to the ominous, bell-like tolling at the end. here his use of the human voice is especially effective, starting with the torturous, electronically manipulated screams of the opening scene, through the voices of distant children, a woman humming, echoing male voices, and at the end, men laughing—suddenly silenced by rifle fire. the concrète sounds in no exit include a threatening, pulsing loop of hog sounds (which appear in varied form in line of apogee), the rising wind (also developed in line of apogee), the crackling of fire, a clock ticking, and the rifle fire.

in line of apogee, ussachevsky used an intriguing variety of sources:

environmental: wind, footsteps, splashing water, telephone, creaking chair. animal: hog, songbirds, owl. vocal: infant crying and laughing, woman humming and laughing, choruses singing gregorian chant; jewish cantor intoning. instrumental: piano (ussachevsky improvising), flute, organ, brass, glockenspiel, drums.

these sources were electronically modulated through such devices and techniques as the electronic switch, echo chamber, feedback, ring modulation, tape loops, speed variation, volume control, complex mixing and detailed tape editing.

due to his choice of such timbres, what constitutes a “melody” in his tape music can vary from the tempered scale of the piano in line of apogee to the simple intervals of high, medium, or low in the “wind” parts of the same score. by using the medium of tape music for its unique capabilities, ussachevsky extended the orchestral resources of his time just as composers have done in every century, by developing an instrument with previously unknown musical possibilities.

but perhaps ussachevsky's most remarkable achievement is that he did not fall into the common trap of electronic composers: he did not become obsessed with technology as an end in itself. instead he concerned himself with the musically expressive possibilities of a sound or technique. clearly, he brought to the development of electronic music an ear highly skilled in the perception and expression of emotion in music. this may be attributed to his early and intensive training in romantic music and russian orthodox choral music, both characterized by the powerful expression of emotion.

ussachevsky's uncannily sharp ear could detect the slightest technical defect in a recording. but more important, he would go to extraordinary lengths to remedy anything musically dissatisfying. those of us who assisted him in the tape studio can attest to the often excruciating hours of work to which he would submit himself and us to gain the sublest increases in musical effect. as we worked with him in the studio, we saw the means by which he transferred such emotional expressivity onto the tape: in a word, he danced. as he turned the controls of a machine, his whole body moved in graceful

choreography in response to his simultaneously listening and sculpting ear. any machine under his sensitive hand became a fully responsive musical instrument. —alice shields

alice shields, composer of electronic and theatrical music and former associate director of the columbia-princeton electronic music center, is heard in line of apogee as the laughing and humming woman.

$14.62

back in stock as of
may 15th, 2013

first in stock on
october 3rd, 2007

threads:
free-jazz

new world (usa) #nw 80303 cd

cecil taylor “3 phasis” compact disc

3 phasis (57:20)

new world press release...

cecil taylor: 3 phasis
cat. no.: 80303
genre: jazz

cecil taylor, piano
jimmy lyons, alto saxophone
raphé malik, trumpet
ramsey ameen, violin
sirone, bass
ronald shannon jackson, drums

3 phasis is the companion disc to the cecil taylor unit, both set down over four miraculous days in april 1978. it too is a testament to the perfectionism and unpredictability that are hallmarks of taylor’s music. as always, he is the instigator and barometer of the torrents of energy channelled through his able and sympathetic collaborators. this is music of a fierce and uncompromising beauty which sweeps all before it.

$14.62

back in stock as of
may 15th, 2013

first in stock on
november 28th, 2007

threads:
modern-composition
electro-acoustic-composition
1970s-electronic

new world (usa) #nw 80237 cd

paul chihara / chou wen-chung / early kim / roger reynolds “from behind the unreasoning mask” compact disc

roger reynolds - from behind the unreasoning mask (17:13) 1975
paul chihara - ceremony ii (”incantations”) (6:33) 1974
chou wen-chung - suite for harp and wind quintet (6:45) 1950
earl kim - earthlight (15:06) 1973

... mainly for the title piece; roger reynolds’ “interplay between a four-channel tape and live performers (trombone, two percussionists)” ...

new world press release...

clearly influenced by varese’s concept of "pure sound," the four works on from behind the unreasoning mask privilege the exploration of sound as a means of musical expression. in the 1970s, the integration of new vocal and instrumental techniques and, sometimes, electronic sound sources into the composer’s vocabulary broadened the tonal, textural—and, consequently—expressive palette immeasurably.

roger reynolds’s (b. 1934) from behind the unreasoning mask (1975) presents an interplay between a four-channel tape (at first sparse, but becoming a dense sonic tapestry) and live performers (trombone, two percussionists) who respond in diverse ways both to the prerecorded sounds and to each other.

paul chihara (b. 1938) dedicated ceremony ii (incantations) (1974) to flutist paul dunkel, and it is the agile cadenzas and decorative melodies of the flute that dominate the work. by contrast, the two cellos tend to move in regular rhythms, and the percussionist adds washes of cymbal and vibraphone color.

chou wen-chung’s (b. 1923) beautiful five-movement suite for harp and wind quintet (1950) is based on chinese melodies and is a work of shimmering colors and calligraphic delicacy.

the final work, earl kim’s (b. 1920) earthlight (1973) is subtitled "romanza for violin con sordino, high soprano, piano, and lights," with a text adapted from several works of samuel beckett. kim’s subtly inflected music explores the coloristic and textural possibilties, both vocal and instrumental, primarily in the upper register, to create a muted but intense monodrama.

martha potter, violin
merja sargon, soprano
earl kim, piano
timothy eddy, fred sherry, cellos
paul dunkel, flute
miles anderson, trombone
stephen taylor, oboe
virgil blackwell, clarinet
frank morelli, bassoon
stewart rose, french horn
tom rainey, richard ritz, roger reynolds, percussion

...

from behind the unreasoning mask presents an interplay between a four-channel tape (at first sparse, but becoming a dense sonic tapestry) and live performers who respond in diverse ways both to the prerecorded sounds and to each other. imitation, contradiction, and independence (even between the percussionist's hands, or the breath- and hand-impulses of the trombonist) variously guide the three performers in an evolving strategy for penetrating the growing authority of the tape. the work is carefully notated, but there are improvisatory details. the trombone part is a veritable dictionary of special techniques recently made possible on that instrument.

the four-channel tape is the metaphoric “mask” of the title behind which the performers act. the forceful, prerecorded events that define the tape are arranged in precisely measured time patterns that, in general, accelerate or retard during the course of the work, constituting a system of reference cues for the performers. widely spaced in time, these prerecorded attacks — electronically modified instrumental sounds — are meant to evoke a kind of "unreasoning" monolithic authority, sometimes imitating, sometimes contrasting with, the live sounds.

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may 15th, 2013

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october 3rd, 2007

threads:
free-jazz

new world (usa) #nw 80201 cd

cecil taylor “cecil taylor unit” compact disc

idut (14:40)
serdab (14:13)
holiday en masque (29:41)

new world press release...

cecil taylor: cecil taylor unit
cat. no.: 80201
genre: jazz

cecil taylor, piano
jimmy lyons, alto saxophone
raphé malik, trumpet
ramsey ameen, violin
sirone, bass
ronald shannon jackson, drums

this record presents further evidence of taylor’s genius and awesome ability to work within the group context, in which he furthers his exploration of the piano “as catalyst feeding material to soloists in all registers.” this music at times gets very intense. it will take you down forgotten little streams in your mind and swell them with rivers of sound as taylor pours notes on your ears. listen.

$46.81

back in stock as of
december 19th, 2008

first in stock on
november 28th, 2007

threads:
modern-composition
free-improvisation

new world (usa) #cri 2001 cd
composers recordings inc. (usa) #nwcr 2001 cd

scott fields “(blueshift) 96 gestures” triple compact disc recordable set

96 gestures: performance 4
96 gestures: performance 4
96 gestures: performance 5

new world press release...

stephen dembski, conductor
carrie biolo, vibraphone
damon short & dylan van der schyff, drum kits
françois houle, clarinet
hans sturm & jason roebke, double bass
joseph jarman, alto saxophone, eb flute
matt turner, cello
myra melford, piano
rob mazurek, cornet
robbie lynn hunsinger, oboe, english horn
scott fields, electric guitar

$14.62

back in stock as of
may 15th, 2013

first in stock on
october 3rd, 2007

threads:
modern-composition

new world (usa) #cri 0815 cd
composers recordings inc. (usa) #nwcr 0815 cd

paul chihara “paul chihara” compact disc recordable

concerto for saxophone & orchestra (13:25) 1980
forest music for orchestra (12:53) 1970
willow, willow (10:17) 1968
logs (6:05) 1969
branches (6:32) 1966
driftwood (7:28) 1968-69
missa carminum brevis (folk song mass) (12:39) 1972
magnificat (5:52) 1965

... mainly for “logs”; “tape realized at ucla electronic studio, on moog and buchla synthesizers.” - but also “willow, willow” (featuring craig kupka!) and “branches” ...

new world press release...

paul chihara: paul chihara
cat. no.: nwcr815
genre: classical
release date: 02/2007

chorus of the new england conservatory;
lorna cooke devaron, conductor
the louisville orchestra; akira endo, conductor
the philadelphia quartet

alan iglitzin, viola
arthur weisberg, bassoon
bertram turetzky, string bass
charles brennand, cello
craig kupka, trombones
donald maccourt, bassoon
harvey pittel, saxophone
irwin eisenberg, violin
karen ervin, percussion
kenneth watson, percussion
kenny sawhill, trombone
paul chihara, percussion
robert ose, trombone
roger bobo, tuba
sheridon strokes, bass flute
veda reynolds, violin

$14.62

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may 15th, 2013

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october 3rd, 2007

new world (usa) #cri 0781 cd
composers recordings inc. (usa) #nwcr 0781 cd

jacob druckman “jacob druckman” compact disc recordable

windows for orchestra (21:13) 1972
dark upon the harp for mezzo-soprano, brass quinet and percussion (21:58) 1961-62
animus ii for mezzo-soprano, percussion, and electric tape (20:07) 1967-68

new world press release...

jacob druckman: jacob druckman
cat. no.: nwcr781
genre: classical
release date: 02/2007

new york brass quintet
orchestra of the 20th century

arthur weisberg, conductor
jan degaetani, mezzo-soprano
gerald carlyss, percussion
gordon gottlieb, percussion
richard fitz, percussion
robert ayers, percussion

...

“before the run of orchestra pieces that begins with windows, the composer pitted the individual against the terrible power of electronic media. in 1965 druckman began a fruitful association with the columbia-princeton electronic music center. there he began a series of four works entitled “animus.” in animus i (1966) for trombone and electronic tape and in animus iii (1970) for clarinet and tape, the live soloist jockeys with recorded sound for the attention of the audience. the power of the electronic tape drives the trombonist off stage in animus i, but with new resolve the player returns to complete the piece and show up the tape. in animus iii the tape wins the competition and drives the clarinet soloist to the brink of insanity. the other pieces in the series have instrumental forces intervening between a vocal soloist and the tape: two percussionists in animus ii (1967–68) and a mixed ensemble in animus iv (1977). in these works a sexually suggestive chase and the adventures of a bon vivant, respectively, are enacted. the electronic tapes for all four “animus” works are concoctions of freely mixed synthesized sounds and musique concrète—music made from real sounds and noises. in each piece the concrète sounds involved recordings, altered or not, of the soloist.

the results were exciting, but hardly reflected a purist’s approach to the electronic medium. mario davidovsky, working at the columbia-princeton studio at the same time, created a series of more orthodox works, synchronisms, true dialogues for live performer and tape, which ignored the visual and potentially theatrical simultaneous presence on stage of human beings and mixers with loudspeakers. in contrast, these theatrical elements were jacob druckman’s springboard for the animus pieces.

in his program note for animus ii the composer discusses the series in general and reveals his sympathy for the live performer:

“each of the works is involved with the actual presence of the performers theatrically as well as musically. each work limits its focus to a particular area of human affections as well as a limited body of musical materials, (histrionic ‘themes’ as well as musical ‘themes’). each work presumes that the theatrical and musical elements are inseparable; that the ideal performance of the music already embodies the performance of the drama.”

“animus ii deals with the sensuality of ensemble playing within the rite of the concert. there are five groups of instruments distributed in the concert hall; three on the stage and two in the audience. the performers enter through the audience with the first tape sounds in a slow processional. throughout the work they move between the groups of instruments. the epilogue is a ceremonial exit.

“the performance of the work is a celebration of a sybaritic ritual. the tape underlies this as a mirror, memory, inner voice, greek chorus, catalyst; it is the framework upon which the pageant is played. the sound sources of the tape are real (concrete) and electronic. the concrete sources are entirely vocal [the voice of mezzo-soprano barbara martin], the electronic mainly synthesized with the aid of voltage-controlled devices. the finished tape presents a continuous interplay between real and electronic sounds, but the differences between the two are basic. a simple superimposed rhythm (such as four against five) can be charged with energy and excitement when played by people, but the same rhythm played by a machine presents only the decorative symmetries of a moiré pattern. therefore, for me, the real, the animal, is fundamental; the electronic is the ornamental with which the animal is adorned and through which the animal is mirrored and amplified.

“animus ii was composed in 1967–68. the tape was realized at the columbia-princeton electronic music center. the world premiere was by the domaine musical at the théâtre de la ville in paris, february 2, 1970, and the american premiere by the present performers at columbia university, may 6, 1970.”

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back in stock as of
may 15th, 2013

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threads:
guitar-themed
free-improvisation
modern-composition
minimalism-drones

new world (usa) #cri 0698 cd
composers recordings inc. (usa) #nwcr 0698 cd

“new york guitars” compact disc recordable

john king: white buffalo calf woman blues (4:09)
carolyn master: en masse (7:21)
mark howell: the quakening (8:56)
nick didkovsky: flykiller (1:49)
david first: jade perches for silvia (8:41)
brandon ross: o people (5:12)
judy dunaway: fifty 210 (8:53)
loren mazzacane connors: departure (2:56)
ken valitsky: meaning-less (5:44)
phil kline: a fantasy on one note (7:33)

new world press release...

new york guitars
cat. no.: nwcr698
genre: classical
release date: 02/2007

brandon ross, guitar
carolyn master, guitar
david first, guitar
john king, guitar
judy dunaway, guitar
ken valitsky, guitar
loren mazzacane conners, guitar
mark howell, guitar
nick didkovsky, guitar
phil kline, guitar

the electric guitar was born into a hostile climate…

when the first amplified guitars were put on the market in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the first significant public campaigns against ever-increasing city noise were also taking place. among the anti-cacophony mottos: “the silence of each assures rest for us all.” thus, from its inception, the electric guitar was a symbol of noise, imprecision and rebellion. its weapon: amplification, the enemy of restful sleep. though the new york composers and improvisers on this record coax everything from dissonance and drones to blues and jazz out of their guitars, they all have one thing in common: they are by nature defiant, undermining so-called serious music by making it on an electric guitar.

playing avant-garde music on an electric guitar is nothing new. the tradition in new york goes back at least to minimalist composer la monte young writing for guitar in 1958 (which was later transposed to electric guitar) and sonny sharrock making a name for himself as a free-jazz guitarist in the 1960s. what sets the composers here apart is that they grew up in an era of rock and roll. some of them were even playing in rock bands before finding other outlets for their musical experimentation. with all the baggage of rock history now attached to the electric guitar, separating it from the tradition of rock (or blues or jazz) has become not an act of appropriation but subversion. so when mark howell flips through sixty-five years of guitar styles and techniques in nine minutes and judy dunaway composes with the noise inherent in the technology of amplification, they are not celebrating the history of guitar music and technology but exploring its limits.

is there a “new york guitar” school of style? some would like to think so. after all, new york became a melting pot of influential experimental guitarists in the late 1970s, with guitar symphonists glenn branca and rhys chatham, noise makers thurston moore and lee ranaldo of the acclaimed underground rock band sonic youth, mathematically-based composer and improviser elliot sharp, and no-wave cacophonists arto lindsay and pat place, all circulating in the same scene. but here, you’ll find no discernible line linking john kings’s blues, david first’s microtonal play and loren mazzacane connor’s abstractions.

if there is anything these new york composer/guitarists have in common it is the environment they live in, not the musical terrain they’re mapping. the noise of the city—which continues unhindered despite the noise-pollution fighters of the 1920s and 1930s—has a significant effect on the psyche of musicians. it raises their threshold for extreme sounds while exacerbating their need to avoid them. the result is that composers either incorporate the cacophony of the city into their pieces or try to escape from it altogether. examples of the former are ken valitsky merging guitar, typewriter, ringing phones, sirens, and other computer-modified sounds in meaning-less, phil kline evoking the doppler effect created by passing car horns in a fantasy on one note, and nick didkovsky building a distorted, pointillist collage in flykiller. examples of the latter are carolyn master retreating into the colors of the inner world that is en masse and brandon ross meditating on the purity of the jazz saxophone in o, people. as the lyrics to one anonymous blues tune go:

you can take the guitar outside,
you can take the guitar inside
jes don’t take it no place, young man,
where there ain’t no ear open wide.

—neil strauss

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... this page was last updated on thursday, may 16th, 2013 @ 6:18 pm