A portrait of instrument builder and microtonal composer Harry Partch presented through representative work, in a beautiful limited 180g vinyl LP with a 12 page booklet of rare photos and essays, plus an MP3 download; essential listening from an extraordinary composer.

Edwin Alexander Buchholz performs this beautiful work by John Cage on accordion, originally written for the Japanese sho, where sounds are single tones and chords, up to six part harmonies, or as Cage wrote, "sounds brushed into existence as in oriental calligraphy".

Burkhard Schlothauer presents two works by John Cage written for septet, using indeterminacy in a score where each instrumental part is given twenty time brackets, allowing overlapping sounds which will be shaped depending on choices from each performer.

Composer Jurg Frey's 1988 work "String Quartet" realized by Nadia Francavilla, Clemens Merkel, Stephanie Bozzini and Isabelle Bozzini, exploring ideas of audibility: the moment when sound waves move in space and the air touches the body.

Composer Pisaro made a series 10 minute field recordings from different locations in Los Angels between 2004-2006, mixing them with sine tones and punctuating them with silence, mastered for home stereo playback to create a dynamic set of impressions of the city.

Henri Pousseur was associated with Pierre Froidebise and Andre Souris, and worked closely with Karlheinz Stockhausen through the 50s and 60s; this LP presents early electronic compositions from 1954-1972, a fascinating and diverse set of works from this important composer.

Carl Ludwig Hubsch (tuba); Ole Schmidt (bass clarinet); Chris Weinheimer (bass flute); Robert Schleisiek (piano); and Tom Lorenz (vibraphone) interpret Christian Wolff's composition based on "Union Maid", a song from the 1920's, transforming the work through temporal expansion.

Composer Pisaro made a series 10 minute field recordings from different locations in Los Angels between 2004-2006, mixing them with sine tones and punctuating them with silence, mastered for home stereo playback to create a dynamic set of impressions of the city.

Third collaboration between Keiji Haino, one of the most prolific artists of the Japanese experimental / noise scene, and the critically acclaimed ensemble Zeitkratzer who enthuse with stunning interpretations of Stockhausen compositions.

Early compositions from John Cage performed on accordion by Edwin Alexander Buchholz and violin by Joanna Becker, presenting "Dream" (1948); "In a Landscape" (1948); "Six Melodies" (1950); and "Souvenir" (1983).

Pisaro's Harmony Series revolve around the process of translating poetic works into text scores, which are then analyzed to find change in the implicit sound of the text, and developed into graphic scores for the performers; here presenting 9 of 34 pieces from the series.

Jurg Frey on clarinet and Irene Kurka on soprano vocals perform Wandelweiser composer Antoine Beuger's extended composition "Two"; then the duo of Rhodri Davies on harp and Ko Ishikawa on sho are layered on the first recording, creating a refreshingly new take on the piece.

Antoine Beuger introduces this album with a short poem by Amy Lowell in reference to the larkspur, in two discs with 17 tracks on each of Beuger whistling, quietly and with a silence and patience of intense concentration emerging from near silence.

John Cage's "Empty Words" (1974) is drawn from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau, written in four parts: Part I omits sentences, Part II omits phrases, and Part III omits words. Part IV, which omits syllables, leaves us nothing but a virtual lullaby of letters and sounds.

The duo Contour of Stephen Altoff (trumpet) & Lee Forrest Ferguson (percussion) perform Antoine Beuger's "dedekind duos" dedicated to mathematician Julius Wilhelm Richard Dedekind; and Jurg Frey's "22 Sachelchen" or "small things", 22 focused miniature compositions.

John McAlpine performs composer Tom Johnson's beautiful piano cycle "Counting Keys", using mathematical progressions to create the structure of its 5 movements; plus 8 parts from his "Organ and Silence for Piano"; and two other compositions using mathematical processes.

Greg Stuart realizes Michael Pisaro's first and haunting "Hearing Metal" on tam-tam, a large piece of metal which is mic-ed and recorded to create a vast and rich sound when played by bow or hand, here in 3 compositions layering the instrument in combination with sine tones.

Composer Jurg Frey's "Landscape with Words" presents 27 compositions, 24 of which are based on individual words in orchestration with piano and violin, understated and minimal yet sumptuously lyrical and evocative, using space and tension to illustrate each segment.

Two works from composer Frey performed by Montreal's string ensemble Quatuor Bozzini: "String Quartet No. 3", a minimal work of colors, sensations, shadows, durations; and "Unhorbare Zeit" exploring durations without sound, or empty volumes, to achieve lucidity and transparency.

Pianist Samuel Vriezen performs Tom Johnson's work presenting what Johnson describes as a natural phenomenon within a musical scale: progressions in 1 to 5 voices of all possible combinations of notes with each voice being limited to 3 steps, a perfect 4th or a perfect 5th.

Christian Wolff initiated his "Microexercises" series when the Miniaturist Ensemble asked for a piece with no more than 100 notes in it; he went on to create 21 more pieces, 13 of which are performed here by the South African duo of Beat Keller & Reza Khota on electric guitar.

Three extended compositions using field recordings and electronic processing from Vanessa Rossetto and Matthew Revert, using obscure references in song titles to mask subtle dovetailing and transitioning of concrete sound and mysterious tones.

A fascinating collaboration from two minimalist/Wandelweiser figures: Christian Wolff on prepared piano, whistles, and stones, and Michael Pisaro on guitar, harmonica and stones, recording together in Caimbridge, MA for two extended works, "Looking East" and "Looking West".

Russian industrial/electronic/free improv artists Alexei Borisov and Olga Nosova in a trio with Swiss experimenter Dave Phillips in works that pass from transcendental to insanely complex and halucinatory - play loud!

The second release on Intakt pairing pianist Ulrich Gumpert and percussionist Gunter Baby Sommer in an album that borrows from blues, boogie-woogie, hard bop, German folk songs, and free jazz.

An amazingly creative quartet led by composer and reedist Jan Klare with trumpeter Bart Maris, bassist Wilbert de Joode and drummer Michael Vatcher recording in the studio in Bruxelles, Belgium.

Beautifully packaged PAL DVD of 6 films by Elio Martusciello (Taxonomy) including two original texts by Tim Hodgkinson & Sebastiano Giacobello & visual works by Ester Curcio & Ale Sordi.

New York/Ohio skronkers Scarcity of Tanks with Jim Sauter of Borbetomagus plus Kid Millions in a hard free rock free improv blast.

Third collaboration between Keiji Haino, one of the most prolific artists of the Japanese experimental / noise scene, and the critically acclaimed ensemble Zeitkratzer, who enthuse with these stunning interpretations of Stockhausen compositions.

The Spring 2016 issue of Canada's best creative music magazine covering composed, improvised and experimental music. Articles include: Juan Camilo Vasquez' Caliope (canto de las abejas); First-Place Winner, Musicworks' 2015 Electronic M...

Electroacoustic composer and performer Anthony Pateras in a beautiful 5-CD box set documenting a broad variety of works from ensembles to solo work, an excellent overview of one of Australia's most vital composers and performers.

A 6 part work based on immersive listening with a smartphone featuring a GPS and audio headphones made during a train trip across the Arc Jurassien, developed into 6 rich and detailed compositions, performed with violinist Julia Eckhardt and cellist Silvia Platzer.

Using saxophone and electronics in unexpected ways, Warszawa composer Kamil Szuszkiewicz's 9 movement "Robot Czarek" is described as a "sound cartoon", using odd punctuation of voice and effected interactive instrumental interjections to tell his libretto's strange tale.

Polish conceptual composer Zygmunt Krauze meets pianist John Tilbury, who studied in Warsaw in the 1960s, and returned in 2015 for a residency; this delicate and beautiful work was recorded at the Concert Studio of Polish Radio in Warsaw with 4 pianos and a percussionist.

Two works for piano and orchestra from Polish composer Kazimierz Serocki, recorded for Polish Radio in Krakow in 1973 with Jerzy Witkowski on piano (Forte e piano) and for Great Polish Radio in Katowice in 1979 with Szablocs Esztenyi on piano ("Pianophonie").

Barbara Kinga Majewska and Emilia Sitarz interpret Franz Schubert's "Winterreise" (Winter Journey), a song cycle of 24 poems by Wilhelm Muller, exposing new tensions and interrelations existing in Schubert's cycle in unexpected and unusual ways.

Vocalist Joanna Halszka Sokolowska interprets Franz Shubert's "Winterreise", a 19th century work setting the poems of Wilhelm Muller to music, recorded in a single take on a winter night in Warsaw, Poland at the Komuna Theater, a fragile and unique look at this famous work.

Polish Radio Experimental Studio presents 2 version of Boguslaw Schaeffer's polyversional composition "Assemblage", where the performer must play potential aggregates encompassing possible versions the composer intended; with Bogdan Mazurek, Thoman Lehn, Wolfram, &c.

A tribute to one of the most significant figures in contemporary Polish music, minimalist composer Tomasz Sikorski, featuring music created at PRES between the 1960s and the early 2000s by Sikorski and his followers, including Esztenyi's Concerto for prepared piano and tape (1971).

Electronic composer Jean Schwarz in two large works composed in the Ina GRM's numerical composition studio exploring exaggerated amplification, inversion, transformation, and include tributes to Kenny Clarke and John Coltrane.

World premieres of new compositions by spectral composers Iancu Dumitrescu and Ana-Maria Avram performed live with the Hyperion International Ensemble under the batton of Ilan Volkov at the 15th George Enescu Festival in 2015.

A double CD featuring all of Wandelweiser composer Jurg Frey's music for solo acoustic guitar, beautifully interpreted by the Chilean guitarist Cristian Alvear, including a new piece written specially for Cristian Alvear; beautifully unfolding, concentrative music.

Referencing sci-fi, C.S. Lewis, and alien worlds, the compositions of Marek Poliks each have a central metaphor like alien environment and warmth, spaceship and cradling, performed by ensembles using traditional and electronic instruments and objects.

Conceptualist/composer Alessandro Bosetti in a 4CD box set and extensive booklet presenting large and unusual radio works that he's composed from 2003-2011, using "translations, misunderstandings, travels, microphones, headphones and sonorous telephone games as creative tools."

Drummer/percussionist Hubert Zemler's second solo album with two compositions inspired by electronic music, particularly by works of the ensemble Suaves Figures, recorded in the vaults of the Camaldolese Church in Bielany, Warsaw with Milosz Pekala on vibraphones.

Four recent pieces by Berlin-based instrumentalist, composer and improviser, Lucio Capece, all focusing on the process of listening, one performed by Konzert Minimal, the other solo performances including a work for hanging speakers and helium balloons.

An extended group improvisation and compositions by Lely, Sarah Hughes, and Jurg Frey, subtle and beautiful performances by Angharad Davies (violin), Rhodri Davies (electric harp), Michael Duch (bass), Lina Lapelyte (violin), John Lely (objects & electronics) & John Tilbury (piano).

A site-specific sound installation in the nave and choir of Minoritenkirche in Krems/Stein that engages with the architecture and sound of this church space from composer Michael Moser working with Berndt Thurner, Klaus Lang, Hannah Schwegler and Nik Hummer.

Earle Brown conducts a chamber ensemble including John Tilbury on piano through a number of compositions, including versions of "October", "November", & "December", "Corroboree 1964 For Three Pianos", "Trio For Five Dances", and "Tracking Pierrot For Ensable".

Recorded live at the Huddersfield Festival of Contemporary Music in 2006, this is the 3rd and final volume of works by Morton Feldman performed by the Smith Quartet with John Tilbury on piano, recorded in high quality DVD audio and with extensive liner notes by Tilbury.

Free and open-ended improvisation and amplified sound work from Mats Gustaffson with the duo of Gennaro and Newman AKA Wrist Error.

In the 1960s Eugeniusz Rudnik and Krzysztof Penderecki used the Polish Experminental Radio as a laboratory for their experiments in electronic and tape music, here in a 2 CD release presenting these remarkable and forward-thinking works of great technical skill and creativity.

The debut album by the chamber-jazz quartet resAUnance of Jonathan Golove on electric cello, Michael McNeill on piano, John Bacon on vibraphone and percussion, and Esin Gunduz on voice, blending compositional, improvisation, & Turkish folk music into passionate and beautiful works.

The Riviere Ensemble led by bassist Kent Carter with Christiane Bopp (trombone), Albrecht Maurer (violin), Katrin Mickiewicz (viola) and Laura Tejeda Martin (mezzo soprano) recording original works in historic churches in France, blending classical, jazz, free improv & traditional musics.

Pauline Oliveros surrounded by Belgian ensemble Musiques Nouvelles, performing two long pieces for orchestra, using her Expanded Instrument System and 5.1 Surround Sound System in a mix of conducted and improvised music using metaphors and listening concepts.

Pauline Oliveros surrounded by Belgian ensemble Musiques Nouvelles, performing two long pieces for orchestra, using her Expanded Instrument System and 5.1 Surround Sound System in a mix of conducted and improvised music using metaphors and listening concepts.

Canada's premier new music magazine in their 125th issue, articles include Ayo Leilani; Ocean Bug and Bird Songs; Gabriel Dharmoo; crys cole; Thin Edge New Music Collective; plus a CD with tracks from Witch Prophet; Gabriel Dharmoo; Tim Brady; crys cole; Marc Saba; &c. &c.

A work for two quartets of voices about our relationship with the world, using four text sources from Rutherford Bowey & Westerberg, John Cage, Fernando Pessoa/Alberto Caeiro, and a critiques of "Vermeer's painting The Little Street"; a fascinating weaving of voice and song.

The Ensemble Daswirdas performs John Cage's "Branches" composition, which is based on a previous work, "Child of Tree", but here each performer plays an 8 minute variation of that work, which is performed on amplified pods, cacti, and other plant materials.

Austrian trombonist and composer presents two works: a solo piece for trombone comprised of a series of detached sonic events; and a work performed with the Wandelweiser String Quartet, using bowing and blowing techniques to create punctuations of unusual sound.

Recollection GRM assembles Greek experimental composer Iannis Xenakis' works for Groupe de Recherches Musicales circa 1957-1962: "Concret PH" (1958); "Orient-Occident" (1960); "Diamorphoses" (1957-58); "Bohor" (1962).

The Brazilian duo of Silvia Ocougne and Chico Mello, residing in Berlin, create a sonic collage of traditional popular and contemporary elements influenced by both Berlin and Brazil, using the unusual orchestration of instruments including tuba, matchbox, clarinet, &c.

Clarinetist Jurg Frey performs two works, one composed by Antoine Beuger and one by John Cage, both related to time, or of becoming and of unceasing becoming, pieces using silence in powerful sound structures, contrasting empty moments with the complexity of individual sound.

Violinist Clemens Merkel interprets compositions by Wolfgang von Schweinitz's "Sonata for Violine Solo"; Antonie Beuger's "Unwritten Page"; Bruno Madema's "Piece Pour Ivry"; and Thomas Stiegler's cycle "Kammerkomplex" ("quasi una fantasia", "gran partita" and "sonata facile").

German composer Alfred Zimmerlin presents 3 pieces that balance compositional and improvisational approaches, with a 7-part work for strings, a large Klavierstruck work for microtonal piano, and an improvised chamber work, "Klarinettenquintett," with Jurg Frey on clarinet.

Taken from 2 concerts during the 2013 Angelica Festival in Santa Caterina, with the Apartment House Ensemble, percussionist Robyn Schulkowsky, and Wolff himself; compositions include several "Excercises", his "Duo for Violins", and a variation on a Morton Feldman work.

Four works interpreted for accordion performed by Edwin Alexander Buchhol, including John Cage's "Cheap Imitation"; Michael Pisaro's "Here (2)"; Jurg Frey's "Sam Lazaro Bros." and Antoine Beuger's "die geschichte des sandkorns".

A superb program of string trios from minimalist composers Beat Keller, Tom Johnson, and Joseph Kudirka, from cinematic to spacious sound work, as realized by the trio of Julia Schwob on violin, David Schnee on viola, and Nicola Romano on cello.

Pushing the envelope on minimalism, Manfredd Werder's 3 scores for "2003" present just 6 tones, the instructions telling 3, 2 or 1 performers to play a pitch or sound for 3-7 seconds twice during the performance; realized by Erik Carlson, Stephanie Richards, and D. Edward Davis.

An epic, hypnotic work for three choirs, three pairs of noise musicians, and church organ, to be performed in a cathedral or similar location with musicians surrounding the audience, here from a live performance at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2012.

Percussionist Michel Blanc's astounding 12-part work was composed around news events that occurred between 1972-89, in a tour-de-force of music drawing from improvised music, RIO oriented rock, and concrete sound; with Marc Ducret, Annabelle Playe, Anne Gimenez, & Antonin Rayon.

Two interpretations of Luigi Russolo's 1914 Futurist noise composition "Risveglio Di Uns Citta" ("The Awakening Of A City"), performed forwards and backwards, from a live performance at Squidco headquarters in Wilmington, NC.

Written for musicians from Toronto's burgeoning music scene, this album explores an area of saxophonist Kyle Brender's compositional systems allowing independence in group improvisation.