The new album "Asiago" by the creative soloist Julius Berger is a clever application and further development of a very pleasing, strong new trend in musical life: imaginative explorations of new repertoire fields by opening up new music to the vast areas of other cultures. In the case of the violoncello, this development seems almost provoked by it's technical and traditional repertoire boundaries. Julius Berger demonstrates how - even in a landscape such as the Alps, which seems to be closely interwoven with classical music as the homeland of well-known traditional folk music history - a closer look can reveal highly exciting and completely different ethno-potentials. He has developed a well-rounded CD program of newly written music from the precious find of the small ethnic group of the Cimbri, who came from the north and settled in what is now northern Italy, centuries ago, and still live there today with their own language. Most of this music was first performed at the annual Asiago Festival, which has been existing for 25 years now, and in various combinations - solo, in duet, with prepared piano and with cello ensemble and chamber orchestra - he has created a large, suggestive and meditative new repertoire for the low string instrument.

Enno Poppe has 'tailor-made' concise ensemble works for two of the most important ensembles of contemporary music: "Gold" - a purely vocal work for the SWR Vokalensemble - and "Korper" - for the Ensemble Modern. In the three-part a cappella work "Gold" (one of only two choral compositions to date), Poppe indulges for the first time in his love of the lustfully excessive texts by Arno Holz (1863-1929), one of the most important representatives of German Naturalism and literary Modernism. The poems are parodistically related to less humorous high literature. The SWR Vokalensemble's supple miracle sound appears confidently in various combinations, sometimes fanned out in 24 voices as in old vocal polyphony. "Korper" takes us to another end of the scale of possible sounds. Here, the 21 soloists of the Ensemble Modern form a formidable big band, augmented by appropriate woodwind and brass instruments (including saxophones, of course). Here, however, Poppe is more concerned with exploring and expanding what the big band provides as a 'sound body', i.e. The colors, dynamic and rhythmic possibilities, with the means of New Music, an art that the Ensemble Modern has truly perfected. As so often with Poppe, the piece "Korper" goes through multiple processes of intensification and collapse. In the climaxes, the physicality of the music is almost overwhelming. Nevertheless, the nuclei of the piece are the intimate, thinly scored moments when the electric strings ever so gradually rise up with the percussion, or when a saxophone, a keyboard, or a trombone steps out of the thicket of sound and is allowed a few moments of self-discovery.

New music with entertainment value can be found in the works of Benjamin Scheuer. On the surface, his music surprises with humorous, crazy sounds and playful elements. In the background, Scheuer shapes his compositions, which often consist of various miniatures, in a very precise and complex way. "His preference for whimsical sounds, dislocated vocals and weird gestures is, of course, evidence of a wild sense of humor, but at the same time it demonstrates an indestructible musicality and, yes, seriousness," says booklet author Gordon Kampe. In the song cycle "Impulsive Lieder", which gives the album it's title, Scheuer illuminates an idea, a particular sound or a process in each track, dissecting and exaggerating them. The use of the simplest electronic means lends the pieces a lo-fi-aesthetic and often leads the listener astray. In addition to three ensemble works, two solo pieces, interpreted by Vanessa Porter and Nikolai Rosenberg, complete the portrait both as audio and video. Here it becomes clear that Scheuer makes use of a broad palette of sounds: rubber pig, kazoo or unrolling party horn can be heard as well as traditional instruments. And last but not least, his compositional focus lies on people and their voices, as in "Lachtherapie" (Laughter Therapy), in which the pianist amazes with crazy nuances of laughter.

Maciej Sledziecki and Marion Worle show just how exciting the world of the pipe organ is today as the ensemble gamut inc. The retro-futuristic duo uses self-programmed software to dock onto the MIDI consoles of church organs, control their stops in a manually impossible way and perform sound synthesis with surprising results. Their annual AGGREGATE festival in Berlin is a meeting place for the international "New Organ Movement" scene: electronic musicians, composers and organists from different backgrounds present various positions on the so-called hyper organ. With "AGGREGATE - New Works for Automated Pipe Organs", WERGO presents a selection from the 2021 and 2022 festival editions. The new works, fragments, improvisations, adaptations of existing pieces (such as the adaptations of Conlon Nancarrow's "Studies for Player Piano" for organ), interactions between organ and electronics as well as algorithmic playing instructions for performers thus show an intermediate state and at the same time provide a breathtaking outlook on new possibilities for the organ. The leading roles are played by the organs of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, the Auenkirche and the Chapel of Reconciliation.

Wolfgang Rihm's compositions for string quartet are as extensive as they are varied. So far, there are thirteen quartets, as well as ten other compositions for or with a string quartet. A selection of these works can be found on this recording featuring the Minguet Quartet and pianist Markus Bellheim. Rihm's String Quartet No.11 is a piece of work of extreme contrasts - restrained and explosive, simple and virtuosic, fragile and forced to the point of screaming, tightly homophonic and polyphonically splintered to the edge of total dissolution. Interscriptum is an elaboration of Rihm's twelfth string quartet. To the quartet ensemble, treated as one instrument, a piano part is added, which initiates a dialogue and creates entirely new relationships within the piece. Grave is dedicated to the Alban Berg Quartet, and was written in response to the group's request for a requiem.

John Cage's importance for a comprehensive aesthetic reorientation of New Music after the Second World War can hardly be overestimated. His self-discovery and compositional articulation took place particularly in the field of piano music: in the art-merging experimental laboratory of New York around the dancer Merce Cunningham, the painter Robert Rauschenberg and the congenial performer and pianist David Tudor. It is good fortune that Sabine Liebner, who has already released several internationally acclaimed, award-winning albums with WERGO, has thrown herself into the complex pianistic and artistic demands of interpreting another of Cage's great works. The result is the first recording of the complete "Winter Music" for one pianist: all notated events (aggregates) from each of the 20 unnumbered pages are played consecutively. The additional, fascinating expansion of the sound space through "harmonics" - overtone vibrations - creates a very differentiated sounding, kaleidoscope-like music of surprisingly idiosyncratic beauty. Dedicated to the artists Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, "Winter Music" calls for a new way of listening: listening to sound with crystalline clarity and permanent change both inside and outside the sound. This integral recording, which is set against the tide of a strongly event-driven cultural life, represents a milestone and point of reference for the further impact of "Winter Music"!

The music of Iranian composer Elnaz Seyedi challenges the listener to discover multi-layered and subtle sounds, often at the limit of perception. According to Dirk Wieschollek in the booklet text, Seyedi's compositions are characterized by the simultaneous presence of opposites: "the widely separated registers of the instruments, and the tension between fragment and continuum, development and stasis, tonal abstraction and enigmatic relationships to extra-musical content." Borrowings from poetry, which often form the intellectual breeding ground of her works, are particularly striking, such as in "Nach neuen Meeren" for clarinet and accordion, written for and interpreted by the Zollner-Roche duo. It was based on the homonymous poem by Friedrich Nietzsche. The painting "The Sun" by Edvard Munch in turn inspired Seyedi to create the ensemble work "a sun of one's own". The finest colour gradations and an imperceptible brightening are reproduced here by the Kommas Ensemble. In addition to traditional instruments, the composer also experiments with unusual sound producers such as spatulas of different sizes and pitches in the musical-scenic work "PS-nach Spuren" in collaboration with the composer Ehsan Khatibi, which is integrated into this portrait as an online video. Special instruments by the pioneer of microtonality Harry Partch can be heard in Ensemble Musikfabrik's interpretation of "fragments inside".

Vladimir Guicheff Bogacz's music thrives on surprises. Behind every note, there are unexpected twists and turns, which in turn lead to an exuberant sea of sound. Genre boundaries are deliberately crossed or not recognised at all. New music meets jazz meets South American folklore. Booklet author Rainer Nonnenmann summarises Guicheff Bogacz's musical approach as follows:"Hardly anything in his music is what one would expect from a particular instrumentation, genre, section or style. Existing traditions and narratives are questioned anew, turned around or dissolved."

In “encuentros casuals”, for example, the Uruguayan-born composer draws on the music of jazz saxophonist Eric Dolphy or makes the cello in “igualito, igualito, igualito” sound like the guitar of Chilean singer Violeta Parra. “Vos, seguime” – recorded by Ensemble Musikfabrik – reflects on the classical piano trio, with its expansion simultaneously leading to its deconstruction. Finally, the members of Kollektiv3:6Koeln are allowed to complete an almost 35-minute tour de force in the ensemble composition “Heimlich”: In it, Vladimir Guicheff Bogacz explores the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic, in order to develop a grab bag of artistic possibilities.

Awankana is the somewhat "mythical" pseudonym of the founder and head of a genuine, spiritually and holistically orientated Educational Center and meeting place of the Ashkay Foundation, in the countryside near Buenos Aires. Awankana - tireless traveller, founder and inspirator of the place - realizes his concept of a healthy and integrated way of living. A touch of poetry lies over the "place" Awankana and the ever-lasting desire of men for Paradise.

Live report or music-theatre production? In the piece "Im Bau" Michel Roth plays with studio sounds and live recordings and cannot be tied down to a certain genre. Swiss composer Michel Roth adapted the text for the stage and composed the ca. one-hour monodrama "Im Bau" (In the Burrow: Fifteen Sound Spaces after Franz Kafka) as a commission from the ensemble æquatuor, the Lucerne Festival, and the Theater Basel. The work was produced in 2017 as a music-theatrical obstacle course. The fifteen composed sound spaces interacted with a total of fifty-three real space situations, on the one hand in public partial performances, on the other under studio conditions. Likewise explored were the boundaries to reportage with participants moving through the rooms. For the present radio-opera version of his eponymous music-theatre composition "Im Bau", Michel Roth arranged existing recordings from the music theatre with new recordings: a new radiophonic production of the work that consciously also thematized its own genesis.

Big Data – the title reveals the defining themes of this recording! The Decoder Ensemble considers the possibilities and consequences of the limitless availability of media in the digital age. All of the pieces here focus in different ways on common contemporary practices like remixing, copying & pasting, sampling, and recycling. An involvement with these techniques is natural for the members of Decoder, three of whom are themselves composers. The group, founded in 2011, calls itself a “band for contemporary music” and is actively involved in the newest musical developments and trends including electronics, computer techniques, multimedia, and elements of pop and rock music. The idea for this release grew out of the group’s “Big Data Weekend”. According to clarinetist Carola Schaal, this was a small festival “organized in 2017 by the Decoder Ensemble for which the group commissioned eight works dealing with the theme of remix. We chose several of those works for this album, as well as a piece by Brigitta Muntendorf that seems to us to fit perfectly with the others.”

Don't expect anything simpler from me! - Emmanuel Nunes (1941-2012) was an artist of almost intimidating ability and self-confident stubbornness - much like his teachers Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez. Apart from early works and large musical drama projects, his output consists primarily of two large-scale cycles. The first contains nine works, including Minnesang (1975-76) for twelve vocal soloists: a mystical and spiritual work that translates the medieval art of Minnesang into modern terms and whose musical effects are founded on the intelligibility of the texts. Nunes also composed a number of pieces not included in these cycles, among them the orchestral work Musivus, which was written for Expo '98 and premiered in a revised and expanded version in Cologne in 2001. Musivus is "a monument of spatialization" that can make the listener dizzy with it's tiny fields of musical activity that bloom into a gigantic visual and acoustical mosaic that is extremely changing to a traditional, process-oriented way of listening.

John Cage approached the music from Japan from its roots in Zen Buddhism and its intent to imitate nature. One important element in this context is the interpretational freedom of the performers, who can adjust the musical text to their own inner state or rhythm. “ASLSP” stands for “As Slow aS Possible.” Other than this, the interpreter is free to choose the tempo, as well as the registration and dynamics. Toshio Hosokawa employs Japanese aesthetic principles using both Western and traditional Japanese instruments and ensembles, in the process bringing the sounds of the two traditions into closer proximity. Dominik Susteck creates bridges to the otherwise very different music of Cage and Hosokawa on behalf of three improvisations in the church “Kunst-Station Sankt Peter” in Cologne/Germany, pieces that are conceived spatially, first of all through the literal movement of the sounds throughout the performing space, but primarily because the progression of sound impulses suggests various sound spaces, sonic landscapes, and a distinct sense of foreground and background.

There is no doubt that the present album has ane specially personal meaning for Juliane Banse, because it celebrates her many years of association with all three composers, Wolfgang Rihm, Aribert Reimann and Hans Werner Henze. Juliane Banse met these composers at the beginning of ther career and still enjoys a close friendship with them. A close collaboration has led over the years to the premiere of many of their works. It is not surprising that Reimann's "Drei Gedicht der Sappho" and Rihm's "Aria/Ariadne" are dedicated to her and the Munich Chamber Orchestra; Although Juliane Banse did not have regular contact with the composers during the period when these works were written, she says she had complete confidence that the pieces would be composed with her in minda nd appropriate for her voice. The finished works justified this confidence. The third piece on this album was written before Juliane Banse was born, but she does have a connection to Hans-Werner Henze: in the opera "L'Upupa und der Triuph der Sohnesliebe", from 2003, Henze wrote a role especially for her voice, and she was intensely involved in the compositional process.

Rolf Riehm is... an unconventional artist. Before him, nobody has ever sensualized in music such a complex cosmos of philosophical reflections, historical facts, myths, fairytales, memories, scientific arguments, the sublime and the trivial, current sociopolitical findings, very personal ingredients and contributions.' - Bernd Leukert. In a letter to Guy Braunstein, soloist at the world premiere, Riehm describes “Shifting” for violin and orchestra as 'a huge, sweeping melody. For me, it is like a river that continually gains new strength from the downhill slope of its landscape – the landscape here is the expressivity which gives impetus to the "melody" and drives it forward, "…moltissimo appassionato…". The third section is nothing other than a single suspension extended to almost five minutes. And then shortly before the end: no more restrictions, no excessive pressures, only free movement. This is the true beginning of the piece!' Riehm sees his composition “Archipel Remix” for orchestra with electronic playbacks as an 'archipelago, a complex of islands, consisting of differently sized islands. The piece starts at the beginning and ends at the end, unsurprisingly, but I want to avoid [the natural passage of time]. Hence the metaphor of the archipelago and the type of designation.' - Marion Saxer & Rolf Riehm)