A fascinating multitude of tonal colors! We are presumably all familiar with the soprano recorder. But who would have imagined that this instrument from our childhood could also become the subcontrabass recorder or a bass gemshorn? In her "Book of A Hundred Melodies" Barbara Heller (70th birthday on 6 October 2006) has collected musical ideas, condensed them, and thus given each piece it's own character. The freedom the composer has granted in the choice of instrument enables Johannes Fischer to exploit for his interpretation not only all available means of artistic expression but the type of recorder as well. Nearly fifty different instruments, some of them rare and exotic, were used for the recording. Sheet music from Schott Musik International: ED 9484 Barbara Heller: Hundertmelodienbuch for Solo Recorder or other instruments (flute, oboe, clarinet).

Born in Ludwigshafen in 1936, the composer Barbara Heller is addicted to sounds. The search for sounds – lost, buried, undiscovered, or previously unnoticed – shapes her life. She has no choice: “Composing for me means finding my own filter for the permanent flood of sounds, both within and without. Listening, imagining, and discovering music is like building a bridge between the material and the immaterial worlds.” This album presents a small portrait of the sounds Barbara Heller has found for string instruments. It opens with her third string quartet, “Patchwork”, from 2008. Playfully flowing figures, often in pizzicato, alternate with static layers of sound. Conceived by Heller as a study in tritons, the pitch material consists throughout of whole-tone relationships. Heller’s second string quartet, “La Caleta”, was written in November of 2008. “A coming and going …” is how Heller describes the essence of this work. She was inspired by the calm, gentle, and steady movement of waves on the beach of a small bay on the island of La Gomera, one of the Canary Islands. The comparatively more substantial String Quartet No. 1 was written in 1958 at the end of Barbara Heller’s time as a student at the Music Hochschule in Mannheim, where she studied with Hans Vogt (1911-1992). In terms of sound, this is an entirely different universe from the works written in 2008. At the end of this recording, there comes “Lalai – Schlaflied zum Wachwerden?” [Lalai – lullaby for an awakening?], one of Barbara Heller’s best known and most performed works. The expressive power of its simple folksong melody makes “Lalai” a sensitive and many-sided portrait of human feeling.

As a composer Barbara Heller was always en route - in search of new forms of expres-sion, of possibilities of articulation, and of forms for her musical language. As an artist she always took a path toward ever-increasing openness and formal freedom, including graphic notation, tape collages, sound installations, and collaborative projects. It is sensuous, playful music that Barbara Heller composes, characterized by being both contemplative and experimental. Like a scarlet thread the idea of a "game" passes through all of her compositions. She describes the space un poco, she initiates the rules: resulting in constantly new and constantly different motion in which the figures and the sounds develop in continuously new and endlessly varied constellations.

Sometimes even a musician’s life can turn out to be a dream concert. The Cologne saxophonist Paul Heller is one of those who has so far fulfilled all of his wishes regarding fellow musicians, and this remains the case with his latest recording. But first, let’s take a step back to 2011. The first album in his series “Special Edition Vol 1” was played with the Dutch drummer John Engels. When recording the second album in the series, Heller managed to get the American drumming legend Al Foster on board (fulfilling a childhood dream in the process). His latest guest list also includes prominent and exciting names from the world of jazz. For the new album, Heller won over the pianist Simon Nabatov, whose expressive playing enjoys an international reputation far beyond the boundaries of jazz. Paul’s brother Ingmar Heller plays the bass; while a permanent member of the NDR Big Band, Ingmar’s musical abilities are also regularly demonstrated within smaller lineups. Heller’s current quartet is completed by the American veteran Adam Nussbaum on drums, a man who has kept the beat for greats such as Stan Getz, Michael Brecker and John Scofield.

HELLER: Preludes Opp. 81 and 150

Hungarian pianist and composer Stephen Heller lived and worked at the same time as Schumann. Heller’s oeuvre includes 158 opus numbers, and several unnumbered pieces, most of which are piano works. For the first time, Heller’s Notenbuch fur Klein und Gross (Op. 138) is recorded on this album, alongside his Kinderszene (Op 124). With his remarkable techniques, Heller transports the listener back into the world of childhood. Pianist Luigi Gerosa performs these pieces.

Bassoonist for the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Rebekah Heller releases her debut CD with a collection of works for bassoon and electronics. This recording also marks the launch of ICE's own imprint, Tundra, which will be dedicated to the ensemble's recordings. Featured are premiere recordings of some of the new music world's most intrepid and exciting composers, including Dai Fujikura, Nathan Davis, Marcos Balter, Edgar Guzman and Marcelo Toledo, with a special bonus track by Du Yun.