The first collaboration between John Cage and Scottish traditional music group The Whistlebinkies occured in Edinburgh in 1984. Cage was fascinated by their instrumentation of Lowland pipes, clarsach, fiddle, wooden flute, concertina, drum and voice. This led on to the commissioning of Scottish Circus for the ensemble in 1990, a way of performing traditional Scottish music as individuals of an ensemble together. The September 1990 premiere in Glasgow, in Cage's presence, also included his newly devised version of 4'33" (which lasted 10 minutes!). These recordings showcase Edinburgh's historic Inverleith House as not only the recording venue, but the acoustic of the house as a performer in it's own right. This DVD presents two first recordings of Scottish Circus, demonstrating how no two performances of the piece are the same. Also included are both outdoor and indoor performances of 4'33". Additional features: - Scottish Circus films presented with 5.1 Surround and Dolby Stereo options - Scottish Circus studio version (PCM 24-bit stereo, no video) - John Cage, Scottish Circus and The Whistlebinkies: McGuire and Eydmann in conversation - John Cage in Conversation, Edinburgh 1984 (mono, no video) Includes a 24-page booklet of photos with essays by Eddie McGuire, James Pritchett, Prof. Bjorn Heile and Brian Brandt. Plus interviews with John Cage by Steve Sweeny-Turner and Stuart Eydmann by Neill Martin.

Sarah Maria Sun's "Killer Instincts" is an incredibly creative and colorful collection of songs about bad people doing bad things. Perhaps no longer "hip" thing to do, it is a concept album - pleasurable journey in bad people's shoes. To assemble the collection, Sarah brought together songs from a wide range of genres - classical art song and melodrama, opera, Broadway, movie soundtracks, and classic rock and pop. How can this work? In these songs, Sarah inhabits a wide range of characters, at the same displaying her amazing abilities in disparate styles. The arrangements, by Max Renne and Sarah, are as clever as the repertoire. Bernstein's virtuoso "Glitter and Be Gay" arranged for an ensemble of banjos and guitar, and his "There's a Law About Men" sung to an electronic background of the orchestral accompaniment chopped and minced with filters. Joe Walsh's rock classic "Life's Been Good" sung accompanied by just bass guitar. Tom Waits' "Just the Right Bullets" in a wild west meets surf music arrangement. Others are sung basically straight: the Schubert melodrama "Abschied von der Erde" and the first recording of Stefan Wolpe's harrowing "Hitler." And on and on. Keep an open mind and enjoy the ride!

“Memory in Motion: Percussion in Surround” was a research project developed to examine how percussionists memorize musical actions within ensembles. As part of this research, director Aiyun Huang commissioned new works to compliment selected existing repertoire. Zihua Tan wrote “Sorites” to compliment Iannis Xenakis’ “Persephassa” and alcides lanza wrote “mnais mnemes” to compliment his own earlier composition “sensor VI.” In both cases, the composers were asked to use the identical setup and notational system as that of the existing works. By sharing this common DNA, these unique compositions synergistically flow together to form an unusually powerful listening experience. “Persephassa” is a classic of the percussion repertoire for 6 spatialized percussionists surrounding the audience. This, along with Tan’s “Sorites” make for extraordinary listening in surround, with the listener placed in the center of the circular ensemble as acoustic sounds often ricochet or spin around the listener. The recording on this Mode release accurately places each percussionist in the soundstage (in the stereo version as well as the surround). Mâche’s “Aera” is also for 6 percussionists. Using tuned gongs, vibraphones, marimbas, tubular bells, and timpani as the main colors in this 20-minute work, Mâche directs our ears to hear the inner resonance of these instruments and how the timbres and harmonies mingle and evolve when combinations of instruments shift. Lanza’s two works are scored for percussion quartet. “sensor VI” was inspired by the first moon-landing by the Apollo astronauts in 1969. Lanza chose to reference the devices that sensed and transmitted the astronauts’ life-signs through space to technicians on the ground, and the relation these instruments have to the body's sense organs. His “mnais mnemes” draws formal and textural inspiration from freely-derived characteristics of the mnais mneme, a unique dragonfly found in China — its very elongated cylindrical body contrasts strongly with its large head and enormous glassy spherical eyes.

Bernard Parmegiani (1927–2013), the grand old man of French electroacoustic music, did not write much music for tape with live performers. Among them is “Stries” for the unusual combination of three live synthesizer players and tape. Until recently, “Stries” had not been played live for some 30 years. This is the first complete recording, only part of it had been previously released on LP on the INA/GRM label. “Stries” was written for the three synthesizer players of the Paris-based electroacoustic trio TM+, Yann Geslin, Laurent Cuniot and Denis Dufour, founded at the INA/GRM. Over the span of the ensemble’s lifetime, TM+ used a range of different instruments — analog synthesizers in the late 1970s and early digital synthesizers in the mid-1980s — and amassed a repertoire of about 40 compositions written especially for them. Fortunately, Yann Geslin, of the INA/GRM, archived the original score by Parmegiani, as well as the parts for the instrumentalists. Also in GRM’s archives was the original analog reel-to-reel tape for the piece, as well as the analog 8-track recordings from the recording session. Armed with this material, the electronic music trio of Colette Broeckaert, Martin Lorenz and Sebastian Berweck, together with Yann Geslin, recreated the piece with the aim of bringing it back to the stage as well as producing generic scores that could help get the piece into the repertoire of many instrumentalists. Their work is realized on this release.

This release documents Roger Reynolds’ most recent string quartets in composer supervised first recordings by the acclaimed JACK Quartet. “FLiGHT”, commissioned by JACK Quartet, arose from a collaborative process lasting almost five years. Its four movements reflect upon the stages of humanity’s aspirations for flight: IMAGINING, PREPARING, EXPERIENCING, and PERSPECTIVE. Of “not forgotten” Reynolds writes: “As the years pass, one notices that certain elements in one’s days have unusual persistence in the mind. Such elements may involve individuals encountered, sometimes places experienced, or momentary intersections that are unexpectedly luminous. The point is that they not only don’t go away, they play roles as one’s own life evolves. … Three composers with whom I had extensive and formative interactions were Elliott Carter, Toru Takemitsu and Iannis Xenakis. Geographic parallels include Ryoanji in Kyoto, Monet’s sumptuous Giverny gardens, and the glitteringly patterned surface of the Aegean.” These experiences form the movements to “not forgotten.” The outer movements, “Giverny” and “Now,” are fixed, while the inner movements may be played in whatever order the quartet chooses. Each movement begins with a solo by one of the quartet’s members. The unique liner notes take the form of a communication between the composer and members of the JACK Quartet. This is the first of a projected two volume set celebrating Reynolds’ 85th birthday and his recent music, to be released on Mode.

This quintet was gathered by John Heward to open the Guelph Jazz Festival in September 2014. The recording is from a concert given in Montreal several days before the festival opening. The music is free improvisation: no score, just a resolution to make music. It was a special occasion to have Heward and legendary bassist Barre Philips, both at the age of 80 at the time of the recording, at the core of the quintet. They are joined by a stellar group of long-time Heward collaborators: Lori Freedman, Joe McPhee and Dana Reason. The release of this record is sadly a memorial tribute to John Heward (1934–November 2018). Heward, from Montreal, was an internationally recognized percussionist in free jazz as well as a renowned painter and sculptor. He was an influential figure in the development of abstraction and improvisation in both visual art and music.

Harawi is a cycle of twelve songs scored for soprano and piano composed in 1945. Harawi (known to Spanish speakers as yaraví) designates a song about a fated love that ends in the death of both lovers. Messiaen remarked that "it is the story of Tristan and Isolde." The surrealistic text of Harawi is Messiaen's own. Using the musical structures Messiaen had created for Harawi, he built massive phrases in these songs, expanding space and time, creating extreme tenderness, vastness, clarity and abysses. In Harawi both lovers are not only human, but beings, which transform again and again. Destruction, pain, death, creation, joy, dance and love are not final - they are all everchanging particles of our interwoven cosmic existence. Already chosen as ONE OF THE BEST RELEASES OF 2019 (from a pre-release review copy) by Lynn René Bayley of Art Music Lounge: "This stunning album... features the still-young and somewhat outré German soprano Sarah Maria Sun... From the first notes of La ville qui dormait to the dying piano sound in Dans le noir, this is a performance that will absolutely rivet you... This clearly goes straight to the top of performances of this unusual and somewhat difficult song cycle..." Sarah Maria Sun is one of the foremost singers in the contemporary music scene with a repertoire of more than 900 compositions from the 20th & 21st centuries, including more than 320 world premieres. She was nominated for singer of the year by Opernwelt in 2017 for her role as Elsa in Sciarrino's monodrama Lohengrin and as Gwen in 4.48 Psychosis by Philip Venables. From 2007-2014, she was first soprano of the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, a chamber ensemble of 7 singers that has been one of the world's leading pioneers of contemporary music for 30 years.

For this recording project, the fearless French musical collective ensemble 0 (pronounced “zero”) began a new kind of collaboration with the Swiss percussion ensemble Eklekto and Gamelan Oksitan- this last the traditional Javanese ensemble of gongs and metallophones based in France. Their transcultural bridge has foundations that go back to Claude Debussy’s fascination with the radiant tones of gamelan music that he heard at the 1889 Paris Exposition. Yet neither Debussy nor many other sympathetic composers who followed actually composed for those instruments. They faced challenges of different tuning systems, intricacies of unfamiliar instruments, the weight of another classical tradition, but perhaps no obstacle greater than the cultural gulf of that colonial era. It was not until the 1970s that non-Indonesian composers began to bridge that divide, none more committed than the American composer Lou Harrison. Compositions by Harrison are paired here with works by Larry Polansky, Petar Klanac, Billy Martin, and Roland Dahinden. The diversity of approaches represented on this collection provides a glimpse towards a vibrant future, a future that Lou Harrison helped create.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Take one Italian guitarist active in the Downtown Improvisation and New Music scene – combine with youthful influences of movie music and Spaghetti Westerns – mix well with a love of ‘60s Surf sound bathed in reverb – top with bass and drums… and you get the Italian Surf Academy! The Italian Surf Academy are back, bringing their surf-rock/jazz/improv sound to the musical soundtrack of Roger Vadim’s 1968 psychedelic science fiction sex comedy — the cult classic Barbarella! This new release is a terrific follow-up to their first album, "The American Dream", revisiting the sound of '60s/'70s spaghetti westerns, noir and horror soundtracks (on Avant 13).

Classical Music

Langston Hughes (1902–67) was an American poet, novelist, social activist and playwright whose work showcased the dignity and beauty in ordinary black life. His African-American themes made him a primary contributor to the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. The hours he spent in Harlem clubs affected his work, making him one of the innovators of “Jazz Poetry.” Hughes’ poetry is still powerful and contemporary today. The Langston Hughes Project came from jazz guitarist Larry Simon, who is the founder of JazzMouth, unique festival in Portsmouth, New Hampshire that combines jazz and spontaneous music with readings by some of the finest poets. Hughes’ texts are brought to life by the rich, soulful delivery of Eric Mingus, son of Charles Mingus. For some years he worked as a session musician and backing singer, playing on dates with artists such as Carla Bley, Bobby McFerrin and Karen Mantler. He has also performed with the Mingus Big Band, Elliott Sharp’s Terraplane, Todd Rundgren, Elvis Costello, Nick Cave, Catherine Sikora and Levon Helm, and a featured performer in many of Hal Willner’s projects. Simon also brought David Amram — composer, conductor, multi-instrumentalist, and author — to the project. As a classical composer and performer, his integration of jazz, folk and world music led him to work with Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Willie Nelson, Charles Mingus, Levon Helm and Betty Carter. Amram has composed more than 100 orchestral and chamber music works, and written many scores for Broadway theater and film, including the classic scores for the films Splendor in The Grass and The Manchurian Candidate. Amram collaborated with Hughes on the cantata "Let us Remember." Importantly, in the 1950s Amram collaborated in clubs with Langston Hughes and Jack Kerouac on the spontaneous creation of words and music which came to be known as “jazz/poetry.” And jazz/poetry is what “Langston Hughes: The Dream Keeper” is. Half of the poems find Mingus with Amram on piano, as a duo. The instrumentally varied balance of the album are Mingus duos with electric guitar or Hammond organ; with woodwinds and percussion or larger ensembles.

This is the second of two volumes celebrating “Roger Reynolds at 85,”and marks the first recording of his Piano Etudes, in two Books. Book I was written between 2010 and 2011, Book II in 2016–2017. Reynolds’ Etudes allows the performer to not only choose the number of Etudes to be presented (even repeating them, if desired) as well as their order. In this way, the performer becomes a co-creator with the composer. All 12 Etudes are presented in this recording by Eric Huebner. Each etude inhabits a world distinctly its own. Reynolds dares a remarkable leap from the first to the second book. Rather than merely continue the premises and promises established by the first six etudes, the second six constitute a difference in kind rather than an extension. Their complexity is intensified, their investigations more extreme, even though they make comparable technical demands. The Etudes carry subtle quotations from Reynolds’ own, earlier piano works as well as the traditional literature of piano etudes. The lineup Reynolds has chosen includes Chopin, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Debussy, and Ligeti. Yet these allusions are not mere homages, and these quotations range from fleeting to obsessive. Reynolds collaborated with Huebner on the 2009 Mode release, Epigram and Evolution (mode 212/13), an anthology of Reynolds’ piano works to that date. This led the composer to value Huebner’s extraordinary capacity to combine virtuoso technique with Zen-like concentration. Their artistic bond inspired Reynolds to contemplate writing his own brand of etudes.

REVIEW:

This is the second of two volumes celebrating “Roger Reynolds at 85” (see 11W050 for the first), and marks the first recording of his Piano Etudes, in two Books. Book I was written between 2010 and 2011, Book II in 2016–2017. Reynolds’ Etudes allows the performer to not only choose the number of Etudes to be presented (even repeating them, if desired) as well as their order. In this way, the performer becomes a co-creator with the composer. Each etude inhabits a world distinctly its own. Reynolds dares a remarkable leap from the first to the second book. Rather than merely continue the premises and promises established by the first six etudes, the second six constitute a difference in kind rather than an extension. Their complexity is intensified, their investigations more extreme, even though they make comparable technical demands. The Etudes carry subtle quotations from Reynolds’ own, earlier piano works as well as the traditional literature of piano etudes. The lineup Reynolds has chosen includes Chopin, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Debussy, and Ligeti. Yet these allusions are not mere homages, and these quotations range from fleeting to obsessive.

-- Records International

Classical Music

Classical Music

CAGE – SA TIE – FELDMAN – TAKAHASHI sums up the focus of this album. All of these works by Cage are influenced by Satie. Cage’s friend and colleague Morton Feldman made an arrangement of Cage’s solo piano “Cheap Imitation” for a trio of piano, flutes/piccolo and glockenspiel. Feldman’s admiration for the pianist Aki Takahashi caused him to gift this arrangement to her. And, full circle, we have the repertoire of this album. The major discovery is Feldman’s arrangement of Cheap Imitation for this very Feldmanesque instrumental ensemble. It is unknown why Feldman made this arrangement in 1980. Knowing of Takahashi’s reputation as a pianist specializing in new music, Feldman had invited her to be an artist in residence at the university where he taught. When she was leaving, Feldman gave a musical score to Takahashi as a gift. It was a copy of John Cage’s solo piano piece Cheap Imitation with annotations by Feldman. He told her that this was an instrumental version of this piece: flute, piano, and glockenspiel.

Flutist Roberto Fabbriciani continues his releases dedicated to the flute repertoire of single composers with works by Belgian composer Henri Pousseur (1929-2009). Previous releases on Mode featured Aldo Clementi and Bruno Maderna. As with the preceding Clementi and Maderna releases, this Pousseur release marks the first time Pousseur’s works for flute have been collected in one recording. It is important to note that Fabbriciani had a long working relationship with the composer. The series of Flexions was composed in 1979 for the performance examinations at the Conservatory in Liège, where Pousseur had been director for 3 years. It aims to introduce students to the diversity of post-tonal harmonic materials without discarding any contact with tradition and the harmonic qualities of the standard repertoire. Two pieces belong to the category of open or mobile form works. The score of Éclipticare (2001) is a proposal to be elaborated (completed). Fabbriciani has made two different versions, including extended playing techniques prominent in the contemporary flute repertoire but largely unused by Pousseur in his written scores. Éclipticare builds a kind of bridge to Zeus jouer de flûtes (2006), a score that is co-signed Pousseur-Fabbriciani for good reasons. Pousseur provided the tape (Hymne à Zeus ornothologue, extracted from the eight Études paraboliques, 1972) as well as a “plan of action” indicating the specific time-spans and the choice of instrument to be used according to the tessitura (from bass-flute to piccolo). All the other details remained in Fabbriciani’s hands. This type of collaboration had long been part of Pousseur’s practice and is also the outcome of his firm belief in the social and human importance of sharing. In addition to the flute repertoire, this release also includes Pousseur’s Scambi for electronic tape, composed in 1957 and realized by Pousseur at the Studio di Fonologia in Milan at the invitation of Luciano Berio.

Mode’s Radulescu Edition, curated with Radulescu’s widow Catherine Marie Tunnell and his publisher Lucero Press, continues with a collection of his works for organ and works with cello. Radulescu’s complete organ works are performed here by German organist Christoph Maria Moosmann, a long-time Radulescu collaborator with a great understanding of his music and sonic goals. Some of the works were written for or dedicated to him. Further definitive recordings are guaranteed by performances from cellist Catherine Marie Tunnell, Radulescu’s widow and the director of Lucero Press. The organ and its interaction with its acoustic environment compliments Radulescu’s “spectral music” palette and what he referred to as “sound plasma”— a special state of sound beyond equal temperament. "Intimate Rituals III" is presented in its version for cello and “sound icons.” During 1965-69, Radulescu had transformed his Bösendorfer grand piano into a kind of harp, putting it vertically on its side and without cover, naming it sound icon. The strings are tuned spectrally, played with a V-form bow of horse hair or with other objects like coins, spheres etc. (The keyboard is not used at all). Due to the special tuning and the bowing technique, if one just touches a string all other strings begin to resonate, creating a rich harmonic halo around each sound. In 1985 Radulescu, together with Petra Junken, recorded two improvisations, each of them on two sound icons. The superimposition of those tapes is used here to accompany Tunnell’s cello.

Since their founding in 2007, the Madrid-based ensemble Sigma Project has premiered more than 85 works and introduced hundreds more to audiences from Teatro alla Scala in Milan to Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. Their commitment to commissioning new works is the saxophone quartet's parallel to the Kronos Quartet. Juan Antonio Cuéllar's Cuatro Artificios is a four-movement work that follows the classical structure of the quartet or symphony (Allegro-Adagio-Scherzo-Allegro Finale) and draws on both Baroque and early 20th-century techniques. Each movement is an artificio: a skillful and inventive creation. From Fanfarrias (Fanfares) and it's rhythmic ostinatos and canon to Tocatas (Tocattas), a dizzying moto continuo culminating in an explosive finale. Carolina Noguera Palau's Cánticos del Azar utilizes extended techniques to evoke the chirimías caucanas (flute-led ensembles from Cauca), while also introducing dance-like rhythmic patterns that evoke Cali's vibrant dance culture, emphasized by expressive markings in the score such as con sabor (with spice), sonero (in the style of son music), or movido (swinging). The title of Rodolfo Acosta's Pidiendo agua, traían leña (Asking for water, they brought firewood) is drawn from The First New Chronicle and Good Government, a 1615 Peruvian chronicle describing how chapetones (newly arrived Spaniards) and Indigenous Peruvians were often caught in linguistic misunderstandings. The piece's form is conceived as a series of unrelated episodes that challenge monothematic development. Instead, the episodes function as what Acosta calls "single isles" that one must "visit" without pretending to understand them through the same logic. They are meant to be grasped in their uniqueness. The collaboration between the Spanish ensemble Sigma Project and the Colombian composers featured on this album evokes the narrative behind the work. This collaboration is a 21st-century update of the encounter between the Spanish and the Abya Yala people (the Americas)-an encounter rooted not in conquest, but in mutual recognition and respect for difference.

1. A Pierre. Dell'azzurro silenzio, inquietum (1985) for contrabass ?ute in G, contrabass clarinet in B ?at and live electronics 2. Das atmende Klarsein, fragmente (1980/87) for bass flute, magnetic tape and live electronics 3. Musiche per Manzù (1969) for magnetic tape (acousmatic version) 4. Roberto Fabbriciani: A "Omaggio a Luigi Nono" (2006) for piccolo, tape and live electronics Roberto Fabbriciani, flutes, piccolo (1, 2, 4) Ulrich Krieger, double-bass clarinet (1) Alvise Vidolin, live electronics, sound direction Alessandro Fiordelmondo, live electronics assistant Luigi Nono (1924 -1990) was a great innovator in the use of spatialization of sound and experimentation with performance space, non-linear time and the collapsing between sound and silence. Beginning in 1959, he distanced himself from serial orthodoxy and the Ferienkurse compositional scene. His new works reflected a concern in political and cultural events and introduced the use of tape and electroacoustic technology. His compositional process was increasingly involved with specific performers, whom he chose for their tone and expressive characteristics. This trust reflects on Nono's interest in collaboration, developing the idea that traditional musical notation is limited and cannot reproduce the complexity of performance he reached with every performer. This recording represents one of Nono's most fruitful collaborations, the one he developed with flutist Roberto Fabbriciani during the 1980s. The track list presented here - selected by Fabbriciani and Alvise Vidolin - explores Nono's music as it is defined by space (and/or the acoustic space) rather than time - the auditory impression of a labyrinthine acoustic environment in which the works seem to ?oat on the threshold of sound and silence and seem to fluctuate from one place to another. The creative process of A Pierre. Dell'azzurro silenzio, inquietum (1985) took place during rehearsals for the ?rst performance of Prometeo. Tragedia dell'ascolto (Venice, 1984). Fabbriciani recalls suggesting to Nono that he should write a work, based on section VIII of Io, frammento dal Prometeo because he felt that the live electronic potential explored in that work had not been completely exploited. The interplay between flute, clarinet and live electronics and their timbral fusion or a continuum of timbre, are at the core of the compositional process. Once the live electronic manipulation of sound moves above the threshold of silence, the listener should no longer be able to detect whether a given sound heard was produced by one of the two performers or reproduced by electronic/digital equipment. Das Atmende Klarsein, fragmente is a reduced version of Nono's work for small choir, bass flute soloist and live electronics. It is the first composition of the 1980s which led to Prometeo and the first outcome of the intense collaboration between Fabbriciani and Nono. In the original piece, Nono composed two distinct worlds, one of choir, the other of bass flute. As they never perform together, the bass flute part later became a solo piece after undergoing changes, cuts and transformations with the various performances by Fabbriciani (this is typical of Nono's work in progress). Musiche per Manzù, for magnetic tape (1969), was created for a short documentary that shows the work that Italian sculptor Giacomo Manzù did to realize the bronze doors of St. Francis church in Rotterdam. Space and spatialization are only illusory in the original version of the work, which antedates Nono's live electronics research. But space is so deliberate here that this piece is suitable to live electronics interpretations. Alvise Vidolin re-interprets Musiche per Manzù using the original mono version published by Ricordi, with a multichannel 5.1 surround sound system. A "Omaggio a Luigi Nono"is Fabbriciani's tribute to his collaboration and friendship with Luigi Nono. The tape part has been recorded by Fabbriciani at the Experimental Studio of the Heinrich-Strobel Stiftung in Freiburg, the same studio where he worked with Nono in his important sound research for a decade. It contains the natural acoustic sounds of the piccolo. It explores this instrument and reflects Fabbriciani's research on extended yet simple sounds. A "Omaggio a Luigi Nono"is also an homage to the last years of their friendship, which culminated in the piece Post-praeludium n. 3 "BAAB-ARR". "We got as far as the Post-praeludium n. 3 "BAAB-ARR", structured on a single note with all it's possible universes. After the performance in the Kammersaal of the Berlin Philharmonie on 4th September 1988 Gigi [Luigi] smiled and said to me, "the next time I'll write less!" (Fabbriciani, 1999). The score is so non-existent and deprived of any meaningful indications to any flutists but Fabbriciani that the Committee for the Edition of the Works of Luigi Nono set up by Casa Ricordi has decided to withdraw it from the catalogue. A "Omaggio a Luigi Nono"by Fabbriciani reflects both his own research on extended techniques, and Nono's reduction to the essential nature of sound and music. The acoustic part interacts with the tape part made with prerecorded piccolo sounds. The assembling, mixing and spatialization of the recorded sounds is conceived by Alvise Vidolin. Liner notes by Laura Zattra.

David First's "Revolutions" is a large scale, long duration exploration of the drone. Perhaps First explains it best: "my best intention, and greatest hope, is to simply take you, the listener, to a place where you experience something beyond the daily, infinite cycles. Or better yet, tune you into them - all the way to the far-flung galaxies and back into your infinite bodily atoms and molecules. If you feel you can, trust us for an hour or so. Open yourself up and let us all in. Maybe you'll find yourself on a journey of your own creation-your own story of discovery." And, as Sarah Hennies puts it in the liner notes: "There is technical rigor here, the result of a lifetime honing a highly personal compositional approach, but there is also levity and freedom, and the ability to lose oneself entirely in the work. "Revolutions" with it's enveloping drones and surprising twists and turns of form gives the sense that one is more connected with where we come from but also hints at the wild surprises in the vast unknown. Liner notes by Sarah Hennies and David First.

This release celebrates the long collaboration between the great German pianist Herbert Henck and composer Walter Zimmermann. Both works were written for, and premiered by, Herbert Henck. Zimmermann says "Beginner's Mind is the result of my study of the contemporary European New Music scene. It is influenced on the one hand by Erik Satie, who wrote in the most simple way in the midst of a highly complex musical landscape, and on the other hand by John Cage, especially by the music of his "naive period" around 1950.... The piece represents the process from the "complex" to the "simple."... The techniques of this process are derived from Shunryu Suzuki's book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (1970) and are divided into three main chapters, analogous to the book: 1) Leave the old, 2) Clean the mind, 3) Alter the consciousness. The piece ends with the Beginner's Mind Song, which articulates the new consciousness," and is sung by the pianist. Both the vinyl LP and CD covers are facsimiles of the original LP cover. Apart from it's ornate lettering, shining silvery-gray at the top, Michael von Biel's cover design for the 1978 LP of Beginner's Mind - which does not add the name of the composer, Walter Zimmermann - is empty, or white. The mind of anyone who wants to start anew should be blank. The CD reissue also includes Abgeschiedenheit (Detachment). It's influence comes from Meister Eckert, who Zimmermann sees as as a bridge from Cage to Zen to Europe. Herbert Henck gave the first performance of Abgeschiedenheit in Cologne in 1985. Liner notes by Walter Zimmermann, Thomas Groetz, Christopher Fox and Monika Furst-Heidtmann.

Gerald Eckert's third release on Mode is a 2-CD set of mostly works for orchestra, often with electronics. Eckert says: "I am fascinated by orchestral works containing the structures of chamber music. For me, the definition of orchestra is not characterized by it's large scale, but genuinely through it's individual voices." His music explores the marginal edges of sound, fractures in tonal constructs, crystalline solidification and instabilities which (for him) always symbolize existential dimensions. Liner notes by Egbert Hiller, in English, German and French. Gerald Eckert, (b. 1960), studied composition with Nicolaus A. Huber and electronic composition with Dirk Reith. He has received numerous prestigious prizes including the C. Gulbenkian Prize, Portugal 1993; the Kranichstein Prize, Darmstadt 1996; 1st prize in Bourges 2003, and 1st prize at the Stuttgart Composition Competition 2005. Top ensembles have performed his music including the NDR-Philharmonie, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Aventure, Ensemble Recherche, Ensemble SurPlus, and Musikfabrik.

This release celebrates the long collaboration between the great German pianist Herbert Henck and composer Walter Zimmermann. Both works were written for, and premiered by, Herbert Henck. Zimmermann says "Beginner's Mind is the result of my study of the contemporary European New Music scene. It is influenced on the one hand by Erik Satie, who wrote in the most simple way in the midst of a highly complex musical landscape, and on the other hand by John Cage, especially by the music of his "naive period" around 1950.... The piece represents the process from the "complex" to the "simple."... The techniques of this process are derived from Shunryu Suzuki's book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (1970) and are divided into three main chapters, analogous to the book: 1) Leave the old, 2) Clean the mind, 3) Alter the consciousness. The piece ends with the Beginner's Mind Song, which articulates the new consciousness," and is sung by the pianist. Both the vinyl LP and CD covers are facsimiles of the original LP cover. Apart from it's ornate lettering, shining silvery-gray at the top, Michael von Biel's cover design for the 1978 LP of Beginner's Mind - which does not add the name of the composer, Walter Zimmermann - is empty, or white. The mind of anyone who wants to start anew should be blank. The CD reissue also includes Abgeschiedenheit (Detachment). It's influence comes from Meister Eckert, who Zimmermann sees as as a bridge from Cage to Zen to Europe. Herbert Henck gave the first performance of Abgeschiedenheit in Cologne in 1985. Liner notes by Walter Zimmermann, Thomas Groetz, Christopher Fox and Monika Furst-Heidtmann.