Avant-Garde / Contemporary

Limited edition LP Translucent green vinyl. Musica Elettronica Viva, or MEV for short, was formed in 1966 in Rome by Allan Bryant, Alvin Curran, Jon Phetteplace, Carol Plantamura, Frederic Rzweski, Richard Teitelbaum and Ivan Vandor. From the very beginning the group was based on musical freedom and the shunning of convention. Using contact microphones to record and manipulate sound wherever it could be found – from box springs to vibrators – and improvisationally combining those recordings with tenor sax, homemade synths and the very first Moog to trek cross the Atlantic, MEV made some of the most imaginative and abrasive sounds of the time.  

Recorded in live performance at the Academy of Arts (Akademie der Künste) in Berlin on October 5, 1967, Spacecraft is made up of a single piece of the same name – a slow building, jarring and disquieting work that reveals the entire MEV ethos in its lone half hour. As group member Alvin Curran put it “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.” Our Swimmer is pleased to present this first ever vinyl issue of MEV’s Spacecraft, an early piece from the most free-spirited group of the 20th century avant-garde. Translucent green vinyl.

Pitchfork gave it a "9.0" and called it "Best New Reissue"! Ten Years Alive On The Infinite Plain is the quintessential work of artist / filmmaker / composer Tony Conrad. Comprised of both film installation and minimalist score for amplified strings, Ten Years leaps across genre and medium to connect his revolutionary structural filmmaking with the experiments in long-duration sound that Conrad had begun in the 1960s as part of the Theatre of Eternal Music. "Ten Years began with image before sound," writes Andrew Lampert, "a row of quadruple projections arranged side-by-side, all the shuffling stripes cascading into each other. Over the next two hours the music throbbed and the projectors incrementally shifted inwards, their beams gradually uniting to form one pulsating, overlapping picture." For its 1972 premiere at New York's The Kitchen, Ten Years included Conrad on violin as well as Rhys Chatham and Laurie Spiegel performing on instruments of the composer's own making. Chatham played the Long String Drone – a 6-foot long strip of wood with bass strings, electric pickup, tuning keys, tape, rubber band and metal hardware – while Spiegel carried out an arrhythmic bass pulse throughout. Superior Viaduct is honored to present this previously unreleased recording of Ten Years Alive On The Infinite Plain's breathtaking premier performance. As Chatham recounts in the liner notes, "When I first listened to this recording after not hearing it for over 40 years, it transported me back to the early Kitchen and the heyday of early minimalism, played outside the Dream Syndicate."

When Cyro Baptista moved to New York in 1980 from his home city of São Paulo, he brought with him an arsenal of percussion instruments, including the cuica (friction drum), surdo (the booming bass drum associated with samba), berimbau (single-string bow with resonating gourd), and cabasas galore, in the next few years deploying them most notably in numerous ensembles curated by John Zorn, who helped set up this studio session in 1982.
As you might expect from someone whose infectious grooves have graced the work of Herbie Hancock, Astrud Gilberto and Cassandra Wilson, Baptista expertly fires off cunning polyrhythms, even traces of thumping samba, with restless fluency. Bailey the wily old fox skirts and eschews the bait, which is quickly conjured away and newly fashioned. The guitarist homes in on the delicious squeaks of the cuica and the twanging drones of the berimbau with truly awesome tonal precision. You could sing along if you wanted, after a caipirinha or two. And he gets almost as many different sounds from his instrument as Baptista can from his kit – check out the stratospheric plings and string-length fret-sweeps of Tonto, which sound more like a prepared piano than an acoustic guitar.

Wonders abound, from the berimbau/bent-string exchanges that open Quanto Tempo to the delightful collision of howling cuica and spiky bebop on Polvo, and the spare, preposterous Webernian samba of Improvisation 3. These days, ‘improvisation’ often appears without its customary qualifier ‘free’. If there were ever a case to be made for its reinstatement, this album is the best supporting evidence. Freedom means you’re free to get into the groove, free not to, free to play with each other, free to play against each other. Sometimes frustrating, even scary, but more often than not in the hands of these two great masters it’s hilarious, exhilarating and utterly irresistible.

The first of two unearthings of the racket made by Derek Bailey and pals at his Company Week festivities in 1982. This is waaay out there improv experimentation which sees musicians like Julie Tippets, Motoharu Yoshizawa and George Lewis go into battle to see who can come up with the most ludicrous squeak. Faint hearted step aside, this is prime freeform improvisation with an all important humorous streak.

Epiphany  i-ˈpi-fə-nē  (1) a manifestation of the essential nature of something (usually sudden) (2) an intuitive grasp of reality through something (usually simple and striking) (3) an illuminating discovery or disclosure.
All three definitions apply perfectly to this span of music recorded at London’s ICA in July 1982. It’s a miracle of group interaction, wonderfully paced, moving steadily between moments of mounting intensity and tension. The passage about halfway through — when Derek Bailey’s harmonics ring out above a sheen of inside piano tremolos and shimmering electronics, topped off by Julie Tippetts’ soaring vocalese — is simply sublime. After which it’s fun to try and tell the two pianists apart. Are those runs Ursula Oppens, with her formidable technique honed from years performing some of the twentieth century’s most difficult notated new music, or are those Keith Tippett’s crunchy jazz zigzags? Are those intriguing twangs from one of Akio Suzuki’s invented instruments or could they be Fred Frith’s or Phil Wachsmann’s electronics? Bah, who cares?

There’s plenty of room for the more delicate instruments too, like Anne LeBaron’s harp picking its way gingerly through a pin-cushion of pings and scratches from Bailey and bassist Motoharu Yoshizawa. Of course, some performers are instantly recognisable: Tippetts, as lyrical and flighty on flute as when she sings, Phil Wachsmann, sinuous and sensitive on violin, and trombonist George Lewis, who, as John Zorn once put it, swings his motherfucking ass off.

So many magical moments abound, from the opening dawn chorus of Tippetts’ voice and Frith’s guitar swooping through a rainforest of exquisite piano cascades, to the Zen calm of the closing moments.

Epiphany, indeed.

Continuing the reissue campaign of legendary synthesizer artist Enno Velthuys, we are proud to offer the Different Places LP. The original tape from 1987 was the second tape Enno produced for EXART and it was his last work before he disappeared into obscurity. By this time, he became disillusioned by the cassette network and his mental condition sadly deteriorated. With Hessel Veldman, label owner of EXART, getting more interested in experimental music, they were both moving into different places and eventually lost contact. Enno was a perfectionist, always looking for better equipment. When listening to the original master tape of Different Places it turned out it had a real nice, clean sound. Definitely an improvement over some of his earlier material. While mastering these songs for vinyl in 2021 we tried to stay as close as possible to Enno’s original intentions. Different Places is probably his most coherent work and includes some magical chord progressions. Shades of Erik Satie and Hiroshi Yoshimura mixed with immersive, spacious, cosmic ambient. Melancholic but less claustrophobic when compared to predecessors Glimpse of Light or Landscapes in Thin Air.

"Axacan" is the fourth album from Daniel Bachman for Three Lobed and his first album in three years. It was recorded in 2020 at various locations in Virginia. It will be pressed on two 140 gram 12" records in Virginia by Furnace and housed within a full color gatefold jacket bearing new photography by Bachman. As a part of the Three Lobed Recordings 20th Anniversary series it features an OBI strip bearing an essay about the LP by Aquarium Drunkard's Tyler Wilcox.

Following their recent solo releases Soniscope (Dauw) and Cells #5 (SAUNA 064CS), Berlin-based multi-instrumentalist Midori Hirano and Tokyo based string experimentalist Atsuko Hatano have teamed up for their first collaborative full-length: Water Ladder. An intense, multilayered continuation of earlier collaborations (Atsuko was featured on Midori's debut LP back in 2006), the foundation for this new collaborative album was laid when they shared stages in Berlin (Ausland) and Japan in 2019. Working remotely at first, they later recorded parts of the album in Nara's snoihouse (using omnidirectional polyhedral speakers). "As we rallied back and forth with our recordings in the process of creating this album, unanticipated fluctuations and irregularities emerged, coming together into a kind of music with a unique resilience and buoyancy that cannot be confined to existing molds. It was as though we had built a Water Ladder to bridge the gap between us," explains prolific composer and viola player Atsuko Hatano, who's been busy recording solo and with colleagues such as Jim O'Rourke, Eiko Ishibashi, Mocky, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, Takeo Toyama, and Anzu Suhara (Asa-chang and Junrei). Kyoto-born, Berlin-based Midori Hirano, who's also been releasing music under her MimiCof moniker, adds multiple instruments to the ever-changing sonic landscapes of Water Ladder -- an album defined by suspenseful and seemingly suspended compositions that often feel like floating in midair, a sensation the musicians compare to "that distinctive feeling you get from riding a high-speed elevator, where you can no longer tell whether you're going up or down." Devoid of birdsong, the late summer air is nevertheless full of buzzing, whirring, hissing sounds on foreboding album opener "Summer Noise," a cinematic intro with slow-moving piano chords and an ominous build-up over the course of its sprawling eight minutes. Elsewhere, sudden bursts of viola cut through nighttime peace ("Nocturnal Awakening"), followed by "Cotton Sphere" -- which makes the sensation of floating in midair complete: harmonies and melodies rise and form to fall apart again. Whereas the title track truly explodes half-way in, the final "Cascade" brings closure to the electro-acoustic six-track collection: the floating continues. "Water cannot retain its form on its own, and can take any shape as effected by external forces. Its movements cannot be captured by eyesight alone: A body of water that appears to be crashing down into a deep, bottomless waterfall could actually be rising up very slowly into midair," says Atsuko. "This is an invitation for you to cross the ever-transforming Water Ladder built between Midori and myself."

Daydream Nation was Sonic Youth’s sixth full-length, their first double-LP, and their last for an indie label before signing with Geffen. 

Widely considered to be their watershed moment, the album catapulted them into the mainstream and proved that indie bands could enjoy wider commercial success without compromising their artistic vision. 

More recently, Daydream Nation has been recognized as a classic of its era: Pitchfork ranked it #1 on their “100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s”; Spin listed it at #13 on their “125 Best Albums of 1985-2010”. Daydream Nation was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry in 2006 and it was voted "One of the Greatest Albums of All Time" by Rolling Stone. 

Curious, eccentric pop experiments, steeped in the melody of the Far Eastern tradition. Strange, hypnotic incantation and another winner on The Trilogy Tapes!

Prime improvisations from masters of the genre such as Fred Frith, Keith Tippett, Derek Bailey and Ursula Oppens on this unearthed treasure where violin, guitar, double bass, flute and sax (the latter compared to a flock of geese) all vying for attention. The music is both ear hurtingly spiky and humorously daft as the musicians seemingly go into battle with their various instruments.

Black Truffle is thrilled to announce ViewFinder / Hide & Seek, a new release from acclaimed American experimental composer David Behrman, presenting recordings made in collaboration with Jon Gibson and Werner Durand between 1989 and 2020. Last heard from on Black Truffle as part of the collaborative art song/live electronics madness of She’s More Wild, these recordings find Behrman continuing the pioneering work in interactive electronics that have established him as one of the major living experimental composers. Side A presents excerpts from two live realisations of Unforeseen Events (1989), the fourth in a series of pieces focussing on the interactions between instrumental performers and responsive software. Like the classic earlier works in the series, On the Other Ocean (1977), Interspecies Smalltalk (1984) and Leapday Night (1986), Unforeseen Events is an “unfinished composition” in which a computer system listens for and responds to specific pitch cues from an instrumentalist. Performed by the composer on electronics and Werner Durand on soprano saxophone in Berlin in 1989, the first realisation immediately ushers the listener into an environment of long soprano notes, lush, sustained synth harmonies, randomised percussive interjections and distantly burbling arpeggiated patterns. The 1999 realisation recorded in New York with Jon Gibson on soprano shows how much room for the instrumentalist to affect the course of the music exists in Behrman’s interactive pieces, in which, as he notes, ‘performers have options rather than instructions’. Beginning in a roughly similar area to the version with Durand, this later recording eventually becomes substantially more active, as polyrhythmically layered arpeggios and percussive patterns respond to fast chromatic lines and dynamic phrases from the saxophone, moving Gibson in turn to respond with cycling figures and moments of extended technique that touch on the soprano languages pioneered by players like Steve Lacy and Evan Parker. Yet even at its most active, the lack of conventional forward movement in the music allows it to retain what Behrman’s friend Jacques Bekaert called its ‘fragile tranquillity’, as episodes of activity appear only as momentary disruptions of an underlying calm. On the B side, we are treated to a new collaborative work from Behrman and Werner Durand, building on the 2002 installation work ViewFinder, in which a camera detecting physical motion triggered changes to electronic sound. The piece presented here is a long-distance studio construction, recorded by Behrman in the Hudson Valley and Durand in Berlin, offering up an expansive duet between Behrman’s lush, gliding synth tones and the alien, untempered tones of Durand’s invented and adapted wind instruments. Presented in a stunning gatefold sleeve with art from Terri Hanlon, archival photographs and new liner notes from Behrman and Durand,ViewFinder / Hide & Seek is an essential release showcasing the continuing vitality of a legendary figure in experimental music.

A masterpiece returns.
The last five years have seen the reemergence of a towering figure of electronic music. Through multiple boxed set releases, and a dedicated Bandcamp page releasing unheard works at an unfaltering pace, the work of pioneering cybernetic composer Roland Kayn has reached a wider audience than ever before.
Now, a bedrock work in establishing this reputation is available once more, as Tektra, his overarching landmark work of the early 1980s, is finally restored to availability after decades out of print.
Reissued by Reiger Records Reeks – the composer’s own label, now presided over by his daughter Ilse – Tektra here unfolds across 5 CDs. The new edition was mastered by Jim O’Rourke from a transfer of the original tapes present in the Lydia and Roland Kayn Archive. It implements Kayn’s directions on crossfades and edits as fully as possible, while also reincorporating almost 5 minutes of music previously unavailable in digital format.
Kayn’s glacial, otherworldly electronic landscapes have always been somewhat at odds with the world of contemporary composition his background and training located him within. His rejection of compositional dogma and traditional musical structures eventually led him to discover a source of endless inspiration in the cybernetic generation of material, and the curatorial act of listening itself.
Perhaps this is why Kayn’s recognition is only approaching its zenith today: his work is far from the passive, unobtrusive world of “ambient”, but its embrace of extended duration, drone-like textures, and the exploration of space as timbre are undeniable shared attributes. Today’s most forward-looking musical practitioners – many of whom cite Kayn as a direct influence – have perhaps discovered a similar territory, at the threshold point where mindblowing complexity approaches the overwhelming sensation of true immersion.

Laughing Hands worked in the experimental music scene in Melbourne in the very early 1980s. They were an improvisation group using tapes, synthesisers, guitar and hand percussion much of which was then treated through the synthesisers, producing their soft, insistent and rhythmic sound. “Dog Photos” was originally releasedin 1981 by band´s own label Adhesive records. The sounds in these 11 pieces are a combination of direct to tape & cassette to tape recordings, a perfect mix of electronic tape explorations, spectral synths shadings and foreground rhythm abstractions. For fans of Chris & Cosey, Dome, Cabaret Voltaire, Coil… Engineered by David Chesworth. Remastered at Plataforma Continental by José Guerrero. Released under exclusively license by B.F.E records 2020 *Postage prices are for standard mail. It has no tracking code. If you want registered mail with tracking code, airmail or any other way please get in touch.

Guitar and compositions by Myrddin Artistic production by Myrddin Produced by Myrddin & Michiel Lagae Recorded at Eureka Discos by Fernando Vacas Postproduction and mixing by Michiel Lagae Mastering by Emil Berliner Studios Artwork (drypoint) by Myrddin De Cauter

The fusion of African and Brazilian culture and rhythm has deeply penetrated into the roots of Brazil, creating an unprecedented source of diverse sounds ……… Marco Bosco, a cosmic presence of Brazilian percussion who has left a masterpiece in the great sacred place of spiritual music , which has received a huge re-evaluation in the obscure context. The original released in 1986 is an analog reprint of a super rare title that does not fall below $100!! From the synthesized world of digital electronics / musical instruments, a very great second world that antagonizes acoustic aesthetics and maximizes the charm of percussion tones, expanding the world of extraordinary sounds and fantasies. album. This is the first vinyl reissue. Don't miss it.

Mesías Maiguashca: Música para cinta magnética (+) instrumentos (1967-1989) (Mesías Maiguashca: Music for magnetic tape (+) instruments 1967-1989) Mesías Maiguashca is a relevant figure on the map of contemporary avant-garde composers. Born in Ecuador but currently based in Germany, he has been a composer who, since the 60s, would constantly expand his possibilities in fields such as electronic music (where he stands out as a pioneer), mixed works, expanded interdisciplinary pieces and the creation of unconventional instruments, where the encounter between his country of origin’s popular folkloric tradition and the new European music has produced a universe of tension, as fascinating as it is startling. Mesías Maiguashca: Música para cinta magnética (+) instrumentos (1967-1989) presents for the first time a sample of the essential work of Maiguashca, covering a period that goes from 1967 to 1989. This is the first of a new collection, a new series of albums that seeks to document the extensive recorded work of Maiguashca, with pieces that date from the mid-60s to the present. This first release is a good introduction to understand the various aesthetic options developed by the artist throughout his career. It includes his historical pieces of electronic music, such as "El mundo en que vivimos" (1967) or "Ayayayayay"(1971), which are early references for electronic music in Latin America, and also mixed pieces, such as "Intensidad y altura" (1979) for six percussionists and magnetic tape, "The wings of perception" (1989) for a string quartet and tape, and "Nemos Orgel" (1989) for organ and magnetic tape. As the critic Fabiano Kueva has pointed out: “During six decades of musical creation, Maiguashca has outlined diverse aesthetic axes, raising questions about the aural experience and generating a sound flow, a permanent oscillation between Latin America and Europe. Therefore, the blend of Western and non-Western concepts, techniques and timbres, the literary references or the historical approach are perceived as a complex gesture that reveals the tensions, the memories, the place of the artist.” Mesías Maiguashca studied at the Quito Conservatory, the Eastman School of Music (Rochester, N.Y.), the Di Tella Institute (Buenos Aires) and the Musikhochschule Köln (Cologne). He has made recordings at the WDR music studio (Cologne), Center Européen pour la Recherche Musicale (Metz), the IRCAM (Paris), the Acroe (Grenoble) and the ZKM (Karlsruhe). In 1988, together with Roland Breitenfeld, he founded the K.O.Studio Freiburg, a private initiative for the cultivation of experimental music. He has been living in Freiburg since 1996. Mesías Maiguashca: Música para cinta magnética (+) instrumentos (1967-1989) is released as a double vinyl LP, in a limited edition of 300 copies, including photos and detailed information on the pieces. Liner notes by Mesías Maiguashca and Fabiano Kueva. Mastering: Alberto Cendra at Garden Lab Audio. Desing by Martín Escalante. Project carried out thanks to the Ibermúsicas fund.

Released three years later in 1975, “Continente Nero” - issued by the composer’s Omicronis imprint - is the perfect complement to “Africa”. Where the former channeled sounds and influences drawn from the African diaspora into decidedly abstract terms, with “Continente Nero” Umiliani pays a similar homage by incorporating a vast pallet of rhythmic variations into a visionary rethinking of the idiom of jazz, channeling Fela Kuti, Art Ensemble of Chicago, John Coltrane, Max Roach, Charles Mingus, Freddie Hubbard, and hundreds of others into a free-flowing vessel that’s entirely his own. Chugging and free flowing, driven by tonal and rhythmic depth that only large bands can achieve, “Continente Nero” possesses such a remarkable sense of emotiveness and creative honesty that the fact that it was made for use in films, rather than being issued within the broader context of jazz, seems to defy reason. It easily stands among the greatest documents of the idiom to have emerged from Italy during any period. Closely related to multiple threads of spiritual jazz that were emerging within the United States during roughly the same period, the band locks in and plows forward with African tinged melodies and carefully orchestrated distances, guided Umiliani’s startling vision, repetitive structures - often bordering on the minimalistic - and unique rhythmic sensibility that runs like a river beneath it all, sending the listener plunging into a deeply personal, imagined world; a hypothetical forth world concept of jazz. Impossible to sum up, “Continente Nero” is incredible from start to finish. Long deserving of wide recognition, if not outright celebration, Dialogo’s reissue of this masterpiece is nothing short of momentous event. Pressed onto glorious vinyl, the format for which it was conceived, remastered from the original analogue master tapes, and housed in a sleeve that immaculately reproduces the album’s stunning, original cover design and also include a obi-strip.

This is a very rare album, the original of which has been sold for over 20,000 yen. Brazilian guitarist Luis Sérgio Carlini, along with other members of Rita Lee's (Os Mutantes) backing band Tutti Frutti, led the legendary experimental project Persona, which has been reissued! Spoken-word vocals, intoxicating percussion, nihilistic psychedelia, and even ambient elements are included. A crazy record that builds a unique and tripped out world! Includes two additional unreleased tracks!

finally! Haruomi Hosono, who has been active in a wide range of fields from Japanese rock to alternative music, techno pop to ambient, including activities at Happy End, Tin Pan Alley, and YMO, created based on the inspiration when he visited India with Tadanori Yokoo. The 1978 masterpiece is a vinyl reissue from Light In The Attic!

A fictional Bollywood OST work by Haruomi Hosono and Tadanori Yokoo, created from the experience of traveling to India, "Cochin Moon" in 1978. A great fun board where the mysterious scent of bubbly electronic sounds repeats, sings pop, and takes you to the sacred place as it is. Limited to 1500 pieces with liner notes and deluxe gatefold jacket specifications described in the English version interview by Mr. Hosono himself. Now in the streaming era, this is vinyl!

“Jürg Frey is inextricably tied to the group of Wandelweiser composers and musicians, and like that group, his music continues to elude easy categorization. The last year has been a particularly fruitful one, revealing extensions to his compositional approach. There was the release of the two-disc set Grizzana and other pieces 2009-2014 for small ensemble on the Another Timbre label as well as his residency at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, featuring multiple performances of his pieces. Two other releases, Circles and Landscapes and String Quartet No. 3 / Unhörbare Zeit deserve special focus as each represents the continued development of Frey’s compositional sensibilities.

Circles and Landscapes features a program of solo piano pieces performed by Philip Thomas, one of the preeminent interpreters of contemporary piano compositions as well as an accomplished improviser. Pitch relationships have always been central to Frey’s compositions, and in these pieces, composed over the last five years (with the exception of the opening “In Memorium Cornelius Cardew” from 1993) the harmonic underpinnings are even more pivotal to the structural foundations. In an interview on the Another Timbre site, Frey states, “I'm looking to find a confidence in chords, dyads and single notes, and I hope that accordingly they will resonate with confidence. This applies to every material, whether stones or a piano, but with the piano it seems to be more challenging because of the clarity of the material and how the instrument itself suggests it should be used.” The opening “In Memorium Cornelius Cardew” moves with slow assurance back and forth between low register intervals and a resonant chord, pausing midway to progress to a deliberately paced, falling phrase which pools in darkly voiced chords. Three pieces from the “Circular Music” series, composed a decade later, distill that concentration on intervals and resonance with poised consideration. Here, the notes and harmonies are allowed to sit. It is not about motion or development, but rather about simply letting the sounds unfold across the duration of the piece.

Frey has stated about his music, “A sequence of notes is most composers' starting point. And it's where I stop. Not that I cease to do anything at all; sometimes it takes a bit more, sometimes a bit less. There are so many traps, so many ways of destroying the sequence, because people think it needs a little compositional help ... More important is the relation of the material to elapsing time.” Listen to the half-hour reading of “Pianist, Alone (2),” and one hears these elemental building blocks accrue with a steadfast forbearance. Thomas places each phrase and chord-set evenly across the duration of the piece and the music advances with an unwavering beauty bereft of any standard notion of melody or harmonic progression. “Extended Circular Music No. 9,” composed over 2014 and 2015 layers in even more brooding consonance over its half-hour course. Yet even here, the music proceeds with notes and chords sounding alone with a sense of succession rather than melodic or harmonic progression.

Frey’s string quartets, particularly “Striechquartett II,” are some of his most absorbing pieces, particularly as performed by Montreal-based Quatuor Bozzini. In these pieces, the composer makes potent use of the microtonal nuances of the string instruments to elicit fragile, almost vocalized voicings of his poised harmonic structures. Where his second string quartet created a diaphanous scrim of sound, on “String Quartet No. 3,” he opens things up, introducing a spaciousness to the deft voicings. The members of the quartet are completely synched in to Frey’s strategies, fully embodying the tonal structures into a singular sound. Frey writes about this piece, “Elemental materials and constructions are thereby perceived as a sensation, and mindfulness consists in hanging these sensations in balance before they have arrived at the limitations of expressiveness.” And it is the way that the quartet hangs at the edges of expressiveness, letting the sensations of the notes and harmonies play out without investing them with dramatic expression. It is this equanimity and stability that allows the piece to play out in a totally absorbing way.

“Unhörbare Zeit” (inaudible times) adds two percussionists to the mx and here the structure opens up even more. The durations of silence are as central to the piece as the sounds of strings and the low rumbles of percussion. Frey states that he is working with “audible and inaudible durations that appear partly simultaneously and partly consecutively. They give the piece lucidity and transparency, as well as materiality and solidity.” While silence as a structural element has been fully absorbed into the vocabulary of contemporary composition, it is the way that Frey gives the silences weight and dimension within this piece that really stands out. The balance of the timbre of strings, low register percussion, the rustle of room sounds and the mercurial pacing of sound and silence is fully entrancing.”
–Michael Rosenstein, Point of Departure

“A few months ago I noticed the change in Jürg Frey’s music in recent years, when discussing two contrasting but very fine albums of his earlier and later music. A similar impression was made by the concert of his 2nd and 3rd string quartets by the Quatuor Bozzini in Huddersfield last November: that Frey is moving away from ideas and towards music. Frey has long been associated with the Wandelweiser collective, but his recent music has been compromising the “purity” Wandelweiser’s reverence for silence. With this supposed loss of aesthetic purity, Frey has embraced a purity of sound.

After releasing the quietly beautiful Grizzana album, Another Timbre released a CD of Philip Thomas playing Frey’s recent piano music at the end of last year. I previously wrote of his third string quartet that Frey was joining Morton Feldman as a fellow master of non-functional harmony, adapting some of the more rhetorical elements of classical and romantic music, but piecemeal, on his own terms and his own ends. In this piano music, most of it composed between 2010 and 2014, there is a similar sense of exploration, without any perceived goal, to that found in Feldman’s “middle period” before he discovered the tenuous equilibrium found in repeating patterns.

At that time, Feldman was also moving away from abstraction and responding to the need to create melodies (“big Puccini-like melodies”). An interview on the Another Timbre website shows Frey seeking a common solace in a material understanding of music, and in negotiating the paradoxes that arise when wanting to compose without disturbing the music’s material.

When composing for the piano, the notion of harmony is more prominent – although we know all the (lovely) extended techniques that have been developed for the piano, to make it sound unlike a piano. But yes, the piano remains the instrument to represent harmony…. When I write for piano, I shouldn’t rely on the piano itself, but on the composition. The piano gives single notes, dyads and chords too easily. Also, if I write consonant dyads, it could suddenly sound wrong, ironic, like a quotation rather than the real sound. In this context to compose means to build a basic confidence in the clear and restricted material that you are working with.

The shorter pieces have a meditative quality, alternating between pedal tones and chords. The longer pieces take on a resemblance to a journey through a succession of musical terrains. Sometimes progress is slow, tentative, with long periods stranded in one particular harmony or register, before unexpectedly moving on. It becomes clear that the journey is its own destination. If there is a structure underneath it all, Frey does his best to conceal or disrupt it or render it irrelevant to the listener.

The album begins with a much older piece, the brief In Memoriam Cornelius Cardew from 1993, with a tonal palette that anticipates the later works. Has Frey allowed a space for emotional expression in his new music, however abstracted? It’s interesting that when philosophy is raised in the interview, he demurs but admits that he feels “a closeness” to Deleuze and Spinoza, two Western thinkers who tried to reason without a dichotomy between mind and body.

The piano is close-miked on this CD, focussing on the grain of the instrument’s sounds. Thomas’ playing is softly-spoken but full-voiced – well suited to the quiet but indomitable character marking out a trail through an empty expanse, as in the longest piece on the album. It’s titled Pianist, Alone (2); a title which seems nakedly descriptive at first but takes on a narrative aspect after hearing it. This time, the protagonist is a little more experienced.”
Ben Harper, Boring Like a Drill

A double CD with five beautiful pieces that engage with the work of the extraordinary French-Swiss poet Gustave Roud. Performers include Dante Boon, Stefan Thut, Andrew McIntosh and Jürg Frey himself.
“I think my process of work is similar to Roud’s: roaming with my sketchbook, taking a movement here, adding some notes there, following an impression, writing a little melody or a rhythmic constellation, deepening a feeling, extending a pitch, waiting and letting it happen…”
Interview with Jürg Frey

Disc One:
1 Paysage pour Gustave Roud (2007 / 2008) 14:25
Jürg Frey clarinet, Stefan Thut cello, Dante Boon piano
2 Haut-Jorat (2009) 7:51
Andrew McIntosh violin, Jürg Frey clarinet, Dante Boon piano
3 La présence, les silences (2013-2016) 41:07 Dante Boon piano

Disc Two:
1 Farblose Wolken, Glück, Wind (2009-2011) 48:10
Regula Konrad soprano, Stephen Altoft trumpet, Stefan Thut cello, Lee Ferguson percussion
2 Ombre si fragile (2007 / 2008 /2010) 15:09
Andrew McIntosh violin, Stefan Thut cello, Dante Boon piano

A double CD with five beautiful pieces that engage with the work of the extraordinary French-Swiss poet Gustave Roud. Performers include Dante Boon, Stefan Thut, Andrew McIntosh and Jürg Frey himself. “I think my process of work is similar to Roud’s: roaming with my sketchbook, taking a movement here, adding some notes there, following an impression, writing a little melody or a rhythmic constellation, deepening a feeling, extending a pitch, waiting and letting it happen…” Interview with Jürg Frey Disc One: 1 Paysage pour Gustave Roud (2007 / 2008) 14:25 Jürg Frey clarinet, Stefan Thut cello, Dante Boon piano 2 Haut-Jorat (2009) 7:51 Andrew McIntosh violin, Jürg Frey clarinet, Dante Boon piano 3 La présence, les silences (2013-2016) 41:07 Dante Boon piano Disc Two: 1 Farblose Wolken, Glück, Wind (2009-2011) 48:10 Regula Konrad soprano, Stephen Altoft trumpet, Stefan Thut cello, Lee Ferguson percussion 2 Ombre si fragile (2007 / 2008 /2010) 15:09 Andrew McIntosh violin, Stefan Thut cello, Dante Boon piano

Another legendary album which was issued on LP by Multhipla label, "The Entire Musical Work of " Marcel Duchamp realized by Petr Kotik and S.E.M Ensemble. Work planned and composed in 1913, based on chance operation. Recorded 7 May, 1976. B2 is a track for player piano, recorded in Buffalo, New York on a Steinway player piano.
In the turbulent years from 1912 to 1915, Marcel Duchamp worked with musical ideas. He composed two works of music and a conceptual piece -- a note suggesting a musical happening. Of the two compositions, one is for three voices and the other combines a piece for a mechanical instrument with a description of the compositional system.
Although Marcel Duchamp's musical oeuvre is sparse, these pieces represent a radical departure from anything done up until that time. Duchamp anticipated with his music something that then became apparent in the visual arts, especially in the Dada Movement: the arts are here for all to create, not just for skilled professionals. Duchamp's lack of musical training could have only enhanced his exploration in compositions. His pieces are completely independent of the prevailing musical scene around 1913
"Song Cycle Records present a reissue of The Entire Musical Work Of Marcel Duchamp, originally released by Multhipla Records in 1976. The Entire Musical Work Of Marcel Duchamp is a collection of experimental pieces composed in 1913 by the legendary artist, and executed by Petr Kotik and the S.E.M. Ensemble in 1976. Employing chance operations and non-musical sounds, Marcel Duchamp's musical oeuvre predated some radical concepts developed forty years later by John Cage. Presented here on 180 gram vinyl." label press

The first album was released on Prestige in 1956. The music is avant-garde and more original than anyone else's in the 1950s, with field sounds from the street and birdsong, percussion and string instruments, and the voice of his wife Suzuko. I have no idea what kind of music was in the background, but it is a wonderful performance full of vitality and creativity born from the depths of humanity. The jacket is a reproduction of the original.