Robert Ashley's minimal masterpiece centers on John Barton Wolgamot's experimental poem "In Sarah, Mencken, Christ and Beethoven There Were Men and Women," consisting of one sentence repeated over and over, only changing names inserted into the sentence with each iteration.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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".

Six compositions from Lucier, Wolff, Schlothauer, and Frey, exploring harmonic beats on the acoustic clarinet, deriving melody in unexpected ways; seeking static tones between sound and noise; and investigating melodic variations; inquisitive, thought-provoking, alluring work.

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").

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 "Grand Orchestra" of Zeitkratzer and guests create a complex sound using an assembly of players with 40 winds, including bagpipes, developed by both Zeitkratzer and lay people, playing not only pure intensity but also dense and complex sound aggregates.

Though using the piano to develop his complex and astonishing works, Shea has never himself released an album of his own piano playing; until Lawrence English challenged Shea to do so, the result of which is this album, playing acoustic, prepared, or electro-acoustically treated.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The "Viking of 5th Ave" Moondog (Louis Thomas Hardin) was a blind musician noted for his unique garb, but also for his beautiful compositions that blended creative and rhythmic music with lyric and song, here in a collection of 25 songs from his "Madrigal Book 1".

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.

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.

Commissioned for the 2013 Stop Time festival in Belgium and performed by Robin Hayward on microtonal tuba with 3 players on electronics, cello and baritone sax, written on his Tuning Vine software to explore possible interactions between sound, vision, space, and time.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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").

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

An homage to Greek-French composer Iannis Xenakis from Reinhold Friedl and his Zeitkratzer Ensemble including Frank Gratkowski, Hild Sofie Tafjord, Hilary Jeffery, &c., conceived for nine amplified instruments for a work exploring microsounds, textures, sound mass and density.

An homage to Greek-French composer Iannis Xenakis from Reinhold Friedl and his Zeitkratzer Ensemble including Frank Gratkowski, Hild Sofie Tafjord, Hilary Jeffery, &c., conceived for nine amplified instruments for a work exploring microsounds, textures, sound mass and density.

Henri Pousseur was associated with Pierre Froidebise and Andre Souris, and worked closely with Karlheinz Stockhausen through the 50s and 60s; this CD 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.

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.

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.

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.

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".

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.

Antoine Beuger's minimalist work for American painter Marcia Hafif, known for her monochrome paintings, in 24 tonal works each 3 minutes long using stationary waves of eight frequencies from a different octave and punctuated by silence.

One composition each from Antoine Beuger and John Cage performed on the oboe by Kathryn Gleasman Pisaro; Beuger's work presents tones in regular intervals offset by silence; Cage's piece uses pitch and tone color with microtonal inflections, mutes and harmonic fingerings.

Antoine Beuger, Burkhard Schlothauer, Chico Mello, Jurg Frey, Kunsu Shim, Michael Pisaro, and Thomas Stiegler participate in this realization of Christian Wolff's compositions to make sounds or draw sounds out of stones, alone or with other surfaces, acoustically or amplified.

Not chamber music, not world music, not jazz, Serbian composer and instrumentalist Boris Kovac has for 40 years perfected his unique blend of compositional music, rich in the region's folk history while stunningly lyrical and sophisticated in execution.

Composer John Zorn presents two books of "Madrigals" scored for six acappella female voices, rich and seductive compositions intertwining voices in beautiful, electrifying and riveting ways through 10 works inspired by the 19th century British poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley.