Matti Bye, a renewed film music composer responsible for many of recent years most intriguing Swedish movie soundtracks presents his latest outing. Previously only featuring on NE trough the many collaborations with Varg2(TM), Between Darkness and White Snow is Bye's first solo LP on the Stockholm label. Melancholic tones for a dark winter landscape.
In the midst of the pandemic, Enjoy Jazz Festival has developed a musical project whose members will be recruited new every year and then debut at a concert on UNESCO International Jazz Day, April 30. The members come from the jazz scene of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. "We wanted," festival director Rainer Kern stresses, "not only to revitalize the fragile network of outstanding creative minds, but also to rethink it artistically as a rolling system." Two experienced and renowned band leaders, Alexandra Lehmler and Erwin Ditzner, now curate an annually changing ensemble of outstanding artists of the most diverse provenance. As part of a voluntary commitment, the ensemble is to be organized in a sustainable, diverse, and, in three years at the latest, completely gender-equal
and climate-fair manner. Thus, as a commitment to the goals of the "European/Local Green Deal" (and with reference to the jazz standard "On Green Dolphin Street"), the name Green Dolphin Orchestra was created. Another special feature: The renowned Oriental Music Academy Mannheim (OMM), a long-standing partner of the Enjoy Jazz Festival, receives a white card, so that musicians with a migration background or protagonists from other musical cultures are always part of this "orchestra of many" and constantly expand its sound language.
The project has a free improvisation approach with changing personnel. "We actually even thought of drawing lots for the different formats within the band pool," explains saxophonist Alexandra Lehmler. "We decided against it in the case of the first concert and instead put together curated formations." And drummer Erwin Ditzner adds, "In principle, however, this procedure remains an option." It was important to the two of them to also mix the genres represented by the individual musicians in such a way that free space for something truly new could emerge. "We wanted to challenge ourselves," Lehmler sums it up. The only restriction: a time code was assigned to each sub-project. "Each formation was given a time limit, although it was possible to virtually override this limit by spontaneous
reshuffling," says Ditzner, explaining one central of the few rules. "In concrete terms, this meant that after eight minutes, the improvisation in progress was either ended or new musicians simply joined in the ongoing creative process, while others took themselves out of the game."
Alexandra Lehmler summarizes the artistic impact of the ensemble as follows: "We really cross-fertilize each other. In order to push this process even further, we forced ourselves when putting together the ensemble not to fall back on our 'favorite playing partners', i.e. musicians with whom one feels particularly at home. In other words, we consciously wanted to step out of our comfort zone with this project." The present pieces were recorded live in Heidelberg during the ensemble's premiere concert on the occasion of International Jazz Day on April 30, 2022.
ECORDS
Born out of the creative genius of the two founding members, Alfred Morris III
and Kim Martin, FORCE's 12" EP is a landmark in the Maryland metal scene, in
addition to being a highly sought after record by collectors and Doom Metal
aficionados. Soon available in a limited replica edition, to which will be added
extensive liner notes written by Kim Martin himself, detailing the band's history,
creative process, musical background and much more!
This release will be eternally dedicated to the memory of Alfred Morris III, who
unfortunately left us in 2018. Rest in peace, Alfred! Keep on rocking forever!
The Chronicles Of Father Robin ist eine norwegische Prog-Rock-Supergruppe, deren Mitglieder von den norwegischen Symphonie-Prog-Masters Wobbler, den immer undefinierbaren Tusmørke, den erfahrenen Post-Rockern The Samuel Jackson Five und dem schwer fassbaren Prog-Juwel Jordsjø stammen. 'The Songs & Tales Of Airoea', an dem seit 30 Jahren gearbeitet wird, ist ein zusammenhängendes Dreifach-Konzeptalbum mit insgesamt 18 Songs, die über einen Zeitraum von drei Jahrzehnten in einer alternativen archaischen Welt angesiedelt sind. Die erste beiden Alben, 'Book I' & 'Book II', erscheinen nun als CD und LP. Durch lange Jam-Sessions und fein abgestimmte Arrangements entwickelte die Band ein fortlaufendes System, in dem jeder Song mit den anderen verknüpft ist. Ganzheitliche Impulsivität und Ideen, altruistische Freundschaft, Musik, Fantasien und ein schlüssiges Konzept.
Beginnend mit dem sakralen und atmosphärischen Over Westwinds führt 'Book II' weiter auf eine dynamische musikalische Reise durch üppige und abwechslungsreiche Klanglandschaften, die Visionen der goldenen Ära des Progressive Rock hervorrufen. Mit dem geschmackvollen Einsatz verschiedener Instrumente wie Flöte, Mellotron und Glockenspiel und alles verpackt in einer dynamischen und organischen Produktion, sind beide Alben Juwelen, die es für jeden Fan von Progressive Rock zu entdecken gilt.
'Book III' erscheint hoffentlich zeitnah.
Epic, grooving, dazzlingly creative, perfectly attuned blends of complex mbalax drumming, field recordings, thumping kick-drum, and cosmic, bubbling, jamming synths and electronics.
The opening is suitably liminal, haunted by a diachronic sense of times past, present, and to come: ancestral ghosts, scratched playback, scraps of old recordings, voices strangulated or just out of range; puttering drums; futuristic, kosmische keys. Part II picks up the pace; III gives the drummers some, and heightens the atmosphere of enchantment. Jon Hassell’s Fourth World music courses through a kind of Dream Theory In Dakar.
Toco SOS, the second side, is a thumping, throbbing, mesmeric future-classic; perfect for fahr’n fahr’n fahr’n on the Autobahn… in a spacecraft. Expert hand percussion, call-and-response singing, bin-trembling foot-drum, spaceways keys. Sleekly funky as prime Popol Vuh.
Both sides range expansively by way of Berlin, where Lamin resided for a few years: you can hear something of T++’s brilliant, landmark HJ record on the A, and elements of Mark Ernestus’ crucial Ndagga project, on the B.
Half an hour of stunning music; in a beautiful sleeve, with mirror lettering, and an intricate spot-gloss rendition of salt crystals, laid over a photograph of the salt mines at Lac Rose, outside Dakar.
2023 Reissue
Berlin based HipHop producer S. Fidelity presents his sophomore and full packaged concept album “Fidelity Radio Club” via Jakarta Records.
Four years after his Jakarta Records debut “A Safe Place to Be Naked” S. Fidelity has matured as a producer and as an artist: working and recording in London, Los Angeles, Paris and Johannesburg while building up his Manolo Purple Studios in Berlin with longtime collaborator, labelmate and soul brother Bluestaeb.
In 2021 S. Fidelity finally returns to the main program with his brand new solo album “Fidelity Radio Club” shaped in form of a genre crossing radio show exploring HipHop, R&B, Jazz, House and Funk in all their depths, creating the multi-layered album he always dreamt to do as he orchestrates a stoking line-up of equally talented friends and fellows like Bluestaeb, Melodiesinfonie, Suff Daddy, K, Le Maestro, Àbáse and many more while still delivering that very personal note every classic producer album needs and comes with. Or as the artist himself would put it: “17 different artists, producers and instrumentalists from all over the world helped me to bring this vision to life.”
According to that the albums 1st single features Singer NDO from Florida, giving life to the hard hitting R&B gem “Mixed Signals” where warm neo soul harmonies meet with classic R&B vibes of early 2000. The song made it to Spotify’s Butter Playlist right away and was picked for Deezer’s “Date Night” Playlist and Apple Music’s New Music Daily as well and received shout outs and further Playlist-placements by music blogs like Stereofox or MOW Mag.
The 2nd single comes as a double single featuring pianist, producer and main protagonist of Berlin’s prog-jazz scene Àbáse on “Me At The Zoo” (reminding its listeners of London’s new wave of jazz around Kamaal Williams or Yussef Dayes) on one side and the energetic, funk influenced disco tune “Something Good” on the other side.
The 3rd and final single “Love International Inc.” then comes with a bumpy up tempo drum beat, which develops into an energetic and jazzy lo-fi house/deep house loop, featuring none other than Zürich’s finest Melodiesinfonie as well as Paris-based Bluestaeb, marking this supergroup’s 2nd appearance and giving a glimpse of what’s yet to come.
Each of the album’s single cuts comes with a visual treatment by HipHop’s favorite photographer Robert Winter and his team (The Ottos), matching sound and artwork accordingly while the record’s amazing and unique artwork comes from the Swiss based creative studio HOMI. The record itself contains a sticker sheet with customized S. Fidelity and “Fidelity Radio Club” stickers as well.
The whole album campaign is further accompanied by the Fidelity Radio Show hosted by S. Fidelity himself, sitting down with his featured guests talking about the music they love and they draw inspiration from – broadcasted via S. Fidelity’s own youtube channel releasing its episodes in between the album’s single drops.
Die Wiederveröffentlichung eines Klassikers: Deer Ticks Debüt-Meisterwerk War Elephant jetzt erhältlich auf "heavy metal grey" Zweifach-Vinyl mit einer Ätzung auf Seite D und dem Original-Cover-Artwork. Ein bedruckter Einleger liegt bei.
John McCauley III hat das Album im zarten Alter von 21 Jahren geschrieben, arrangiert, eingespielt und aufgenommen. Es ist voll von Liedern, die weiser und nuancierter sind, als man für einen jungen Mann in seinem Alter vermuten könnte. Die Texte sind nachdenklich und warmherzig, ganz im Stil von Johns Singer/Songwriter-Helden wie Townes van Zandt, Neil Young und Richie Valens. Das Album endet mit einer Coverversion des 1962 mit dem GRAMMY? ausgezeichneten Songs des Jahres "What Kind of Fool Am I" von Sammy Davis, Jr.
Ein Debütalbum das sich der Genrekategorisierung entzieht und schon jetzt als Klassiker gilt. Ein Barroom-Rock-Album voller Hooks, das mit der eingängigen Düsternis der 90er Jahre in Seattle ebenso verbunden ist wie mit dem Honky Tonk der späten 80er Jahre in Minneapolis und den 70er Jahren in Austin.
#A1# Eighteen months ago the first evidence of intelligent life off the Earth was discovered.
#A2# It can only be attributable to human error.
#B1# I'm not sure, what do you think? I've got a bad feeling about him.
Roland TR-909
Roland TR-808
Roland TR-707
Roland TR-606
Roland TB-303
Sequential Circuits Prophet 5
Oberheim SEM
Oberheim Matrix 12
Ensoniq DP/2
Alesis Midiverb III
Allen & Heath GL2400
Apocryphonis the fourth studio album by American heavy metal band The Sword and featuring The Veil of Isis, Cloak of Feathers, Arcane Montane and The Hidden Masters Recorded at Magpie Cage Studios in Baltimore, Maryland with producerJ Robbins, it was released by New York label Razor & Tie in October 2012.Apocryphonis the band's first album without original member Trivett Wingo, and the first to feature his replacement Santiago "Jimmy" Vela III, who took over from interim touring drummer Kevin Fender in October 2011; it is also the first of the band's albums to be released by Razor & Tie, with whom the group signed in early 2012 after seven years with Kemado Records. Remastered and pressed on 180 gram vinyl. Housed in a gatefold jacket featuring artwork by the award-winning comic book artist and penciller, J.H. Williams III. "Heavy metal distilled to its purest form." - Consequence
Sistro (Sistrum) is a kind of percussion instrument that has had several incarnations and names in various cultures since the time of the Sumerians and throughout history has always been associated with religious rituals. It’s from this relationship between music and the transcendent that Nuno Oliveira (Nuno O, Judas Triste, José Pinhal Post-Mortem Experience), Tito Silva (Vasco da Ganza, José Pinhal Post-Mortem Experience) and Rodolfo Oliveira (Oficinas TK) were gradually inspired to create a trio that pays homage to this instrument of ancient times.
The project was born casually and without intentionality throughout several incursions into megalithic monuments in the hills and mountains of northern Portugal, culminating in an unusual two-day session of musical experimentation in Esposende, in September 2019. In this two-day session, codenamed “Arménio Sessions”, the trio explored a sound based on sea soundscapes, electronic beats, electric noises and the strings of na altered guitar. Channeling the strength of the elements and the mystique of the place in the form of a musical experience.
In 2021, Sistro collaborated with Mario Klingemann (aka Quasimondo) who created a music video especially for the band, created using a vintage video mixing board. Then using feedback loops and a process that Klingemann calls “Neural Edit”, which uses an artificial intelligence algorithm to correlate the raw video material with the sound.
After a long period of incubation, the group's first full-length release sees the light of day on the 31th October, 2023, moment in which a sequence of rituals begins to present and celebrate the relationship between music and the transcendent. Sistro's debut album will be released by Favela Discos, having been mixed by Tito Silva and mastered by Pedro Augusto. The photography and graphics are by Oficinas TK.
'Of No Fixed Abode' gathers fragmented recordings by the Madrid duo of Pablo Mirón and Juan Vacas, the multi-disciplinary artists behind the collective Real No Real (realnoreal.org) and Ediciones Fontenebro label. Working with field recordings, found materials, instruments such as Violin and Harmonica and by manipulating old radios, turntables and reel to reels the pair have been performing across the world of late taking their collage style process with them. 'Of No Fixed Abode' uses cross-continental sound diaries from the 2019-2022 period and has been central to shows at venues and festivals around Europe and South America.
Contributing to the wider field of post-fluxus 'broken music', the duality of natural sound and decaying, processed tape loops along with gentle instrumentation across the record follows in the footsteps of the Dieter Roth school, Anne Gillis, Leyland Kirby or Henry Krutzen yet is anchored in a charming restraint in which each element seems to fall into place perfectly. Miradasvacas have a long history with presenting experimental music through shows on Madrid's Radio Relativa, concerts and gatherings across the city and self-published mixtapes and sound art, though debut here on 12th Isle with their first proper album. Far-flung gallery sonics at their finest.
Mit seinem neuen Doppel-Album "Baroque Colours" präsentiert Martin Stadtfeld eine einzigartige Palette farbenreicher Werke des Barocks. Und das in einer ganz besonderen Form: Für den ersten Teil wählte er 19 wunderbare kleine Originalstücke aus, u.a. von Bach, Rameau oder Händel, aber auch von weniger bekannten Komponisten wie Johann Kuhnau oder Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer. Für den zweiten Teil hat Stadtfeld einige seiner Lieblingstücke des Barocks ausgewählt und für Klavier neu bearbeitet. So gibt es aus Vivaldis berühmten "Vier Jahreszeiten" die mitreißenden Melodien aus dem "Sommer" und dem "Winter" neu zu erleben - als kurze, wunderbar klingende Piano-Stücke. Oder den berühmten "Kanon" von Johann Pachelbel in einer neuen Fassung für Klavier zu vier Händen, die Martin Stadtfeld mit der Pianistin Lilian Akopova eingespielt hat. Diese ist auch seine Partnerin bei den vierhändigen Fassungen des ersten Präludiums von Bach sowie der "Passacaglia" aus Lullys Oper "Armida". Ein Erlebnis sind auch die Klavierfassungen von Purcells Musik aus der Oper "Fairy Queen". Nahezu meditativ klingen Stadtfelds Improvisationen über Themen von Bach (u.a. das berühmte "Air" und "Menuett"), über Werke von Arcangelo Corelli sowie über das Kirchenlied "Ach bleib mit Deiner Gnade". Aufgenommen wurden die insgesamt 45 Stücke mit einem modernen Steinway mit einem sehr nahen und warmen Klangbild, so dass sich die Farbenpracht und Intensität unmittelbar auf den Hörer überträgt. Es ist, als ob man vor einem farbenreichen barocken Gemälde stehen würde und dabei immer neue Farben entdeckt.
Deer Tick’s debut album, ‘War Elephant’, is back (even though it never went anywhere). It is the same stellar album released in 2007 and then reissued by Partisan in 2008. This version of the album finds us returning to the original 2007 illustrated cover. This cover will become the new standard version of the album across all formats. The music and track listing remains the same.
John McCauley III wrote, arranged, played, and recorded the album at the tender age of 21. The album is full of songs wiser and more nuanced than John should have been able to produce according to natural law. The words are deliberate and heartfelt and follow the lead of singer / songwriter heroes of John’s like Townes van Zandt, Neil Young and Richie Valens.
The album concludes with a cover of the 1962 GRAMMY-winning Song Of The Year, ‘What Kind of Fool Am I’, made famous by Sammy Davis, Jr.
It can safely be said that this debut album is a genre defying classic; it’s a hook filled bar room rock album that is as connected to 90’s Seattle catchy gloom as it is to left-of-the-dial late 80’s Minneapolis and 70’s Austin honky tonk.
140g Heavy Metal Grey (gun metal grey) coloured double LP with an etching on side D, housed in a single sleeve jacket with printed insert.
Original release press included reviews from Pitchfork and The Line of Best Fit plus support from Billboard, Brooklyn Vegan, All Music and American Songwriter.
ONLY AVAILABLE ON PREORDER!!
The first-ever LP box set gathering the entire 10 albums collection of Obscure Records produced by Brian Eno’s.
Curated by Gavin Bryars
Originally issued between 1975 and 1978, nearly 50 years on the output of Obscure remains radically forward-thinking - offering glimpses of a future yet to be fully seen - and amounts to one of the most important, influential, and creatively accomplished album series ever conceived.
Co-curated by Eno and the composers Gavin Bryars and Michael Nyman - issuing the recording debuts of Bryars, Nyman, John Adams, Christopher Hobbs, David Toop, Max Eastley, Jan Steele, Simon Jeffes / The Penguin Café Orchestra, and Harold Budd, in addition to important works by John Cage, Tom Phillips, and John White - Obscure’s collective output is a groundbreaking landmark in the histories of Minimalism, modern composition, and Experimental music, and laid much of the groundwork for the soon to emerge movement of Ambient music.
Illuminating the remarkable, and largely otherwise undocumented, creative ferment within and between the British and American scenes of experimental music during the mid to late 1970s, this collection - made in full collaboration with all of the composers or their estates - contains the entire 10 album output of Obscure, the majority of which have been out of print for years, with a number having never received a CD reissue.
Offering each of Obscure’s albums, completely remastered and housed in faithful replicas of their original covers and liner notes, as well as a 80-page book (LP dimension) for LP-BOX SET, filled with rare photos, archival material and texts by - among others - Gavin Bryars, Bradford Bailey, David Toop, Max Eastley, Richard Bernas, and Tom Recchion, this historic collection marks the first time this seminal series has received a complete LP repress.
»Arches« is the first collaborative album by brothers Simon and Tobias Lanz. It was written for and performed on self-built prototypes of wind instruments that were inspired by the classic pipe organ, but allowed the two composer-performers to go beyond its limitations in several ways. The music on this 40-minute long album for the Swiss Hallow Ground label was conceived and recorded by the two co-founders of the CRTTR collective and label during an artist residency in May 2022 in their home town of Bern. More than a mere document of a performance however, »Arches« combines the artists’ interest in exploring uncharted new creative and tonal ground inside of and beyond the realm of drone music with their background in visual art and design as a conceptually concise whole.
Simon and Tobias have a combined background in electronic music as well as a shared penchant for drone music. They hence designed these novel instruments in a way that allows for microtonal tuning to be able to overcome the restrictions inherent to the dominance of a twelve tone-based scale in Western music and work with a sonic palette that is much wider and nuanced than that of the conventional pipe organ. Furthermore, the physical design of these instruments widely differs from that of those which inspired them. This allows—or more precisely, forces—the musicians to freely invent and explore entirely novel playing techniques.
These factors, of course, also have an impact on the compositional process, which by design needs to be unconventional. The Lanz brothers worked with a graphic score for the four movements of the piece that forms »Arches« so as to adequately visualise the manifold tonal nuances of their instruments. This graphic score in turn was reinterpreted for the album release by Ramon Keiming, adding another dimension to it. Read from left to right, this remix of the score allows the listeners to follow an interpretation of the evolution of these dronescapes while the record plays, urging them to add their own interpretation.
This retroactive visualisation and thus spatialisation of the music is perfectly in line with its performance, which at all times factored in the acoustic affordances of the Prozess Bar in Bern. In many different ways, the Lanz brothers now invite their audience to join them there and explore the near-infinite possibilities of their curious instruments together with them. Much like Hallow Ground label mates such as Kali Malone or FUJI||||||||||TA, they are dedicated to enriching and expanding upon the musical and sonic qualities of pipe organs, but with widely different aesthetical results. To call »Arches« a unique record with an unheard-of sound is not hyperbole, but only factually correct.
Cologne-based afro-fusion collective Muito Kaballa announces their signing to Batov Records with the new single "Live A River Part I": Acting as the introduction to the musical world and lyrical narratives of the upcoming record "Like A River, the track leans into the river theme, providing an all-encompassing, flowing journey. Tim von Malotki"s percussive bass clarinet lines cut through the meandering wash of Benjamin Schneider"s rootsy, highlife-inspired guitars and atmospheric piano flourishes, courtesy of Jan Janzen. Vocalist Nora Beisel floats across the arrangement, backed by emotive horn harmonies whilst reflecting on the change of path at the end of a relationship; a new orientation and course set.
God knows enough has been written about Workshop. Surely you haven't read it, but this group has been around since 1985, and what they did was this: musically quite limited, they made the music they wanted to hear, but in an ingenious way. Some played the instruments skillfully and others not so much. Something came out of it! One says: that's just the way I like it. The other one boasts: yes, I understood everything how you play here, sometimes you hit it, or sometimes you play so that the parents cry with joy. In fact, seven records were recorded, which, with the exception of the second LP, are still more than worth listening to today. Are they in danger of being forgotten?
Yes and no. What is worth listening to here has often been banned. One must bring it out again. Make attentive. Against the forgetting. These impetuous songs - just let them get close to you again and listen to them in a new context and forget all the smart-ass talk that was said about them. That means to put the self with all its reality entanglements in the pillory. This is of course not only pleasant. Bravo!
When Kronos plays a piece, they become fellow composers, true collaborators. Without them, we wouldn’t have the kind of string quartet playing that we find around us today. There are two kinds of string quartet playing: the ‘Before Kronos’ and the ‘After Kronos’.” – Philip Glass
‘Kronos Quartet has broken the boundaries of what string quartets can do.’ – New York Times
Nonesuch releases Kronos Quartet’s acclaimed album Kronos Quartet Performs Philip Glass on vinyl for the first time to coincide with Kronos Quartet: Five Decades, a year-long celebration marking the quartet’s 50th anniversary. Originally released in 1995, the album features David Harrington (violin), John Sherba, (violin), Hank Dutt (viola) and Joan Jeanrenaud (cello) performing Quartet No. 2 (Company) (1983), No. 3 (Mishima) (1985), No. 4 (Buczak) (1990), and No. 5 (1991), the first piece Glass wrote especially for Kronos. Recorded at Skywalker Sound in California, the album was produced by Judith Sherman, Kurt Munkacsi and Philip Glass. The cover art features Francesco Clemente’s painting The Four Corners (1985). At the time of the album’s release, the New York Times said, ‘It contains some of Glass's best music since Koyaanisqatsi. His ear for sumptuous string sonorities is undeniable,’ while the Washington Post called it ‘An ideal combination of composer and performers.’ It was a top 10 hit on Billboard’s Top Classical Albums, and spent 12 weeks on Billboard’s Classical chart.
In his original liner note, critic Mark Swed wrote, ‘Glass’ string quartets may contain his most intimate music. They are works through which a very public composer, perhaps the most important opera reformer of our age and a longstanding collaborator in large-scale music theater, holds up a mirror to himself and his way of composing. “In an odd way,” Glass explains, “string quartets have always functioned like that for composers. I don’t really know why, but it’s almost impossible to get away from it. It’s the way composers of the past have thought and that’s no less true for me. It’s almost as if we say we’re going to write a string quartet, we take a deep breath, and we wade in to try to write the most serious, significant piece that we can.” Glass says that as he sat down to write String Quartet No. 5, he had discovered that perhaps not taking a serious tone might be the most serious way to deal with it. “I was thinking that I had really gone beyond the need to write a serious string quartet and that I could write a quartet that is about musicality, which in a certain way is the most serious subject.”’
Glass’ first numbered quartet was written in 1966; however, he did not return to the string quartet medium until 1983, when he provided incidental music for a dramatization of Samuel Beckett’s prose poem, Company. During those 17 years, Glass had formed an ensemble and developed his style in a series of increasingly elaborate pieces for it. String Quartet No. 3 is also adapted to dramatic music, this time from his score to the 1985 Paul Schrader film, Mishima. It was with the music of Mishima that Kronos became associated with Glass, recording the string quartet sections of the soundtrack and subsequently working extensively with the composer on all five of his numbered quartets. Kronos also gave the first concert performances of Company and Mishima. String Quartet No. 4 was composed in remembrance of the artist Brian Buczak, who died of AIDS in 1988.
As Kronos’ anniversary season continues with further concerts around the world, Nonesuch will reissue Black Angels on vinyl on February 16. First released in 1990, the award-winning album includes George Crumb’s title piece, which inspired David Harrington to found the quartet. Called ‘an unusually elevated and searing Vietnam War protest’ by the New York Times, it sets a dark, powerful tone for this collection, which addresses the political/physical/spiritual consequences of war. Also featured are works by Charles Ives, István Márta, Thomas Tallis, and Dmitri Shostakovich. ‘Stylishly packaged, intelligently programmed, superbly recorded and brilliantly performed,’ proclaimed Gramophone. ‘In short, very much the sort of disc we’ve come to expect from the talented and imaginative Kronos Quartet.’ The Evening Standard included it among its ‘100 Definitive Classical Albums of the 20th Century’.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1937, Philip Glass is a graduate of the University of Chicago and the Juilliard School. By 1974, he had created a large collection of music for The Philip Glass Ensemble. The period culminated in the landmark opera, Einstein on the Beach. Since Einstein, Glass’s repertoire has grown to include music for opera, dance, theatre, orchestra, and film. His scores have received Academy Award nominations (including Kundun and The Hours, as well as Notes on a Scandal) and a Golden Globe (The Truman Show). Recent works include his memoir, Words Without Music, his first Piano Sonata, opera Circus Days and Nights, and Symphony No. 14. Glass received the Praemium Imperiale in 2012, the US National Medal of the Arts from President Barack Obama in 2016, and 41st Kennedy Center Honors in 2018.
Nonesuch’s relationship with Glass began in 1985, with the release of the score for Paul Schrader’s Mishima featuring Kronos Quartet. Over the years other Glass works on Nonesuch have included Einstein on the Beach (1993), Kronos Quartet Performs Philip Glass (1995), Music in Twelve Parts (1996), Glass Box (2008), as well as the soundtracks for Powaqqatsi (1988), Kundun (1997), Koyaanisqatsi (1998), and The Hours (2002), amongst others.
For 50 years, San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet – David Harrington (violin), John Sherba (violin), Hank Dutt (viola), and Paul Wiancko (cello) – has challenged and reimagined what a string quartet can be. Founded at a time when the form was largely centred on long-established, Western European traditions, Kronos has been at the forefront of revolutionizing the string quartet into a living art form that responds to the people and issues of our time. In the process, Kronos has become one of the most celebrated and influential groups of our era, performing thousands of concerts worldwide, releasing more than 70 recordings of extraordinary breadth and creativity, and collaborating with many of the world’s most accomplished composers and performers. Through its nonprofit organization, Kronos Performing Arts Association, Kronos has commissioned more than 1,000 works and arrangements for string quartet – including the Kronos Fifty for the Future library of free, educational repertoire. Kronos has received more than 40 awards, including three Grammy Awards and the Polar Music, Avery Fisher, and Edison Klassiek Oeuvre Prizes.
Kronos is prolific and wide-ranging on recordings. The ensemble’s expansive discography on Nonesuch includes three Grammy-winning albums: Terry Riley’s Sun Rings (2019), Landfall with Laurie Anderson (2018), and Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite featuring soprano Dawn Upshaw (2003); the 40th-anniversary boxed set Kronos Explorer Series; Nuevo (2002), a Grammy- and Latin Grammy–nominated celebration of Mexican culture; Pieces of Africa (1992), a showcase of African-born composers that simultaneously topped Billboard’s Classical and World Music charts; and Folk Songs (2017), Nonesuch’s 50th album with Kronos, which featured Sam Amidon, Olivia Chaney, Rhiannon Giddens, and Natalie Merchant singing traditional folk songs.
Euroteuro, die Dritte! November 2023, Die Wiener Pop Gruppe EUROTEURO um Mastermind Peter T. präsentieren ihr neues drittes Album "VOLUME III". Mit ihrem Sommerhit "AUTOGRILL" hat das Wiener Kollektiv EUROTEURO einen ewigen Ohrwurm für alle italophilen Espresso-Freunde geschaffen. Mit dem 2022 erschienenem zweiten Album hat das Popkollektiv bewiesen, dass sie weit mehr als ein One-Hit-Wonder sind. Leichtfüssiger Elektropop trifft auf Cover-Versionen von XTC bzw Georg Kreisler-Songs. Dem folgten Auftritte im österreichischen ORF-Fernsehen, ein Headliner-Slot am Wiener Popfest, eine Einladung zum Fusion Festival nahe Berlin und so manche Cameo-Auftritte in österr. Filmen & Serien. Mit markantem Wiener Schmäh tourt EUROTEURO mit ihrem expressiven Synth-Pop nun in Duo-Besetzung durch den deutschsprachigen Raum. Mit im Gepäck ihre neue Vinylscheibe inkl. der Single "Teuer", wo sie das mittlerweile vom Gespenst zum realen Türsteher mutierte Phänomen der Teuerung besingen. "900 Euro warm. Viel zu teuer! Regelbruch - Strafe zahlen. Viel zu teuer!" Ein atemloses Stück Musik, das den Wahnsinn der uns umgibt ein Stück weit zu kanalisieren versucht. Die aktuelle Single "Zeit" kann als Ode an die Entschleunigung gesehen werden. Nicht alles muss immer sofort sein, manchmal muss man einfach nur um "ein bischen mehr Zeit" bitten. "Sie singen für dein Recht auf Eskapismus, selbst wenn du dir nichts mehr leisten kannst. Euroteuro zelebrieren einen Prekariat und Proletariat vereinenden Scheißdrauf-Hedonismus ("Insel" bzw. das unverwüstliche Debüt "Autogrill") und nehmen dabei auch vor die Song-gewordene Anwendung von Bertrand Russells Lob des Müßiggangs ("Kündigung", "Sag Alles Ab") nicht Halt. In diesem Sinn kann man Zeilen wie "Lassen sie einfach das Studium sein" aus "Wenn das alle täten" ebenso als ironisch wie ernsthaft subversiv interpretieren. Die Verweigerung der vom Neoliberalismus verlangten ständigen Selbstoptimierung trifft dabei auf den gelebten Widerspruch der beiden emblematischen europäischen Fetische von Bewegungsfreiheit und Wachstum." (Robert Rotifer)
The late percussionist Milford Graves was one of the most unique artists the world has ever seen. Born in Jamaica, Queens in 1941, he began his career in the early '60s as a part of New York's vibrant Latin jazz scene. His focus quickly turned inward, shifting towards a practice that explored the very nature of self. From his work in the New York Art Quartet and collaborations with Albert Ayler, Sonny Sharrock and more to his important contributions during NYC's loft era – he is, simply put, free jazz royalty.
In April 1966, the duo of Graves and pianist Don Pullen played at Yale University. As John Corbett writes in the liner notes, "This performance was something of a turning point for Graves. Until then he had been working in other people's bands or collective ensembles. He was phenomenally busy. In 1965 alone, he recorded with NYAQ (two LPs), Giuseppi Logan Quartet, Paul Bley Quintet and Lowell Davidson Trio, and he made his first recording released under his own name, Percussion Ensemble. Every one of these is important in its own way, but none of them quite anticipate how radical was the music that he and Pullen would unleash that evening in New Haven."
Originally released on the artists' own Self-Reliance Program label, this legendary one-night performance would be split into two volumes: In Concert At Yale University and Nommo. While rooted in African rhythms, Graves' music has its own sense of time. As the drummer stated in a 1966 DownBeat interview, "Time was always there, and the time I see is not the same as what man says time is. It works by impulsion."
