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Ensemble d'Ondes de Montréal: Works by Toussaint, Murail, Lesage, Provost, Messiaen, & Vivier (1992)

peachfuzz — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 04:13:43 GMT

Ensemble d'Ondes de Montréal (1992)
Works by Toussaint, Murail, Lesage, Provost, Messiaen, & Vivier
Classical | EAC (APE - CUE - LOG) | Front Cover | 209 MB

Peachfuzz's Selection of the Month

“

Don't let the ugly cover fool you. There's a reason why this album is long out of print. No doubt, the ugly cover has something to do with its demise. But this sinfully delectable album would have surely pleased only the most hardcore matrons of ondes martenot, who usually have coarse palate anyway―and rightly so in my opinion. All of the works featured on this mind-blowing disc deserves to be heard at least twice but the piece by Serge Provost is especially notable.

”

Frederic Rzewski: North American Ballads & Squares (1991)

peachfuzz — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 00:51:34 GMT

Frederic Rzewski - North American Ballads & Squares (1991)
Classical | EAC (APE - CUE - LOG) | Full Scan | 213 MB

“

Wikipedia
Rzewski (pronounced zheff-skee) attended Harvard and Princeton, where his teachers included Randall Thompson, Roger Sessions, Walter Piston and Milton Babbitt. In 1960, he went to Italy, a trip which was formative in his future musical development. In addition to studying with Luigi Dallapiccola, he began a career as a performer of new piano music, often with an improvisatory element. A few years later he was a co-founder of Musica Elettronica Viva with Alvin Curran and Richard Teitelbaum. Musica Elettronica Viva conceived music as a collective, collaborative process, with improvisation and live electronic instruments prominently featured. Bringing together both classical and jazz avant-gardists like Steve Lacy and Anthony Braxton, MEV developed an aesthetic of music as a spontaneous collective process, one that was shared with other experimental groups of the same period such as Living Theatre and the Scratch Orchestra.
The experience of MEV can be felt in Rzewski's compositions of the late sixties and early seventies, which combine elements derived equally from the worlds of written and improvised music.

”

David Lang: The Little Match Girl Passion (Theatre of Voices & Ars Nova Copenhagen with Paul Hillier) (2009)

peachfuzz — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 00:04:50 GMT

David Lang: The Little Match Girl Passion (2009)
Theatre of Voices & Ars Nova Copenhagen with Paul Hillier
Classical | EAC (APE - CUE - LOG) | Cover | 229 MB

“

David Lang's "the little match girl passion," for vocal quartet doubling on percussion instruments, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2008. It's a strong, striking piece with a surprisingly potent emotional punch. Part of its effectiveness derives from the story itself, which is so achingly poignant that it can hardly fail to raise a lump in the throat. The text is primarily compiled from the story by Hans Christian Andersen and from familiar sections from Bach's "St. Matthew Passion," which sound fresh and new in English translation.

”

''Blue'' Gene Tyranny: Country Boy, Country Dog (1994)

peachfuzz — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 06:18:49 GMT

''Blue'' Gene Tyranny - Country Boy, Country Dog
(How to Discover Music in the Sounds of Your Daily Life)
Classical | EAC (APE - CUE - LOG) | Covers | 195 MB

“

The pieces in this album were realized from “How To Discover Music In The Sounds Of Your Daily Life”, a procedural score for research and composition with environmental sounds. The environmental sounds heard in “Country Boy Country Dog” generated all the melodies, harmonies and rhythms through electronic “transforms”. These intermediate transforms were then used to create orchestra pieces played back in the environment, completing a circle. (From the Liner Notes.)

”

Schoenberg & Berio - Pierrot lunaire; Folksongs (2007)

peachfuzz — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 21:59:37 GMT

Schoenberg & Berio - Pierrot lunaire; Folksongs (2007)
Classical | EAC (APE - CUE - LOG) | Full Scan | 252 MB

“

Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire and Berio's Folk Songs, classics of the twentieth century repertoire, inhabit entirely different aesthetic spheres, but their pairing is apt; the earthiness of Folk Songs is an ideal foil to Pierrot's strange otherworldliness. Hearing them together is revelatory because the juxtaposition accentuates the strength and individuality of each, and somehow they just seem to fit musically. This recording is also unique in separating the three sections of Pierrot with jazz interludes played by pianist Maria Baptist. They are not conventionally "jazzy" and have an intelligence and complexity reminiscent of Ligeti's Etudes. Konstantia Gourzi, who conceived of this pairing and the jazz interpolations, conducts the ensemble opus21musikplus. The variety and subtlety of tonal and expressive colors (and dialects, too) mezzo-soprano Stella Doufexis brings to the Berio are exactly what the work demands, but it has rarely been heard with such vividness. Doufexis' interpretations are nuanced and psychologically insightful; her performances are among the finest recorded versions of both works. Neos' sound is immaculate, immediate, and intimate. Highly recommended. ―Stephen Eddins, Rovi

”

George Crumb: Ancient Voices of Children · Music for a Summer Evening (1987)

peachfuzz — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 05:14:11 GMT

George Crumb - Ancient Voices of Children (1987)
Classical | EAC (APE - CUE - LOG) | Full Scan | 209 MB

“

George Crumb has long been America’s celebrated ancient voice of children of all ages. Once the voice of flower children, he set texts by Lorca in 1970 for soprano, boy soprano and the ethereal bent notes of an exotic percussion ensemble, abetted by harp, oboe and musical saw. It proved a quicker, surer, safer magical mystery tour than drugs (although they were then a common helpmate at Crumb concerts anyway).

”

Lou Harrison: In Retrospect (2007)

peachfuzz — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 05:14:21 GMT

Lou Harrison - In Retrospect (2007)
Classical | EAC (APE - CUE - LOG) | Cover | 274 MB

“

Although the compositional style of Lou Harrison (1917-2003) evolved and matured during his long and productive life, he held fast to a number of basic aesthetic principles: a devotion to beautiful melody; the foregrounding of rhythm, melody, and counterpoint over harmony; a preference for just-intonation tuning systems; and the integration of influences from diverse world musics. On the present disc, which includes works from 1939 to 1987, all of these characteristics are in evidence.

”

Roberto Fabbriciani: Glaciers in Extinction (2006)

peachfuzz — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 08:06:16 GMT

Roberto Fabbriciani - Glaciers in Extinction (2006)
Classical | EAC (APE - CUE - LOG) | Full Scan | 253 MB

“

МusicWeb
From the opening deep rumblings of this disc, it is immediately clear that this is something unusual. Comprising six works for hyperbass flute and tape, the environmental concern is obvious from the title. Each work concerns a glacier that still exists, using sound to describe the life-force of nature which is inherent in these landscapes. The instruments used are quite extraordinary. The hyperbass flute, an invention of the performer and composer Robert Fabbriciani, is the largest and lowest member of the flute family. Combined with a tape part of natural sounds and pre-recorded hyperbass flute, these compositions are soundscapes which are full of imagery and suggestion - the first track even made me start shivering! The sounds really are incredible, and I felt an urge to take the disc to a recording studio to hear the low sounds through speakers of a higher quality than my home stereo in order to get the full effect.

”

Charles Ives: 9 Songs · George Crumb: Apparition (1987)

peachfuzz — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 07:57:37 GMT

Charles Ives: 9 Songs &
George Crumb: Apparition (1987)
Classical | EAC (APE - CUE - LOG) | Full Scan | 123 MB

“

Amazon
This CD starts with a selection of nine songs by Ives. While they're performed with the customary skill and musicianship one expects of DeGaetani and Kalish, the real reason for purchasing this disc is the piece by George Crumb, "Apparition", written expressly for DeGaetani and Kalish.

”

Incitation to Desire: Tangos for Yvar Mikashoff (1995)

peachfuzz — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 07:27:03 GMT

Incitation to Desire - Tangos for Yvar Mikashoff (1995)
Classical | EAC (APE - CUE - LOG) | Full Scans | 206 MB

“

"Mikhashoff's tango collection tells us much abut this seductive dance, but just as much about the personalities confronting it." (The New York Times)
Some performers are not only great interpreters, but also inspire composers to go in a direction they may not have otherwise considered. Internationally known as an interpreter of 20th century piano music and a specialist in American music, Mikhashoff was one of those performers, who through his enthusiasm for new music and his innovative undertakings, such as the Tango Project and the Waltz Project, advanced musical thought.

”

Lou Harrison: Piano Concerto · Suite for Violin, Piano & Small Orchestra (1988)

peachfuzz — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 08:29:50 GMT

Lou Harrison - Piano Concerto · Suite for Violin, Piano & Small Orchestra (1988)
Classical | EAC (APE - CUE - LOG) | Front Cover | 200 MB

“

New World
Nearly 35 years separate this work from the large-scale Piano Concerto completed in 1985. Harrison's fascination with exotic musical sounds and designs led him to the actual building of Oriental instruments, including two complete gamelans. This activity, in turn, led him to a consideration of the manner in which instruments are tuned, and of systems of intonation in use throughout the world in the past and present.

”

Alan Hovhaness & Lou Harrison: Symphonies (1989, r2008)

peachfuzz — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 08:29:25 GMT

Alan Hovhaness: Symphony No.2 ("Mysterious Mountain")
& Lou Harrison: Symphony No.2 ("Elegiac")
Keith Jarrett · Dennis Russell Davies
Classical | EAC (APE - CUE - LOG) | Cover (Front & Back) | 245 MB

“

Nimbus
This disc unites works by two distinctly original American composers who, while maintaining their own identities, share many similarities. To begin with, both men live on the West Coast: Alan Hovhaness in Seattle, Lou Harrison just outside Santa Cruz, California. This is more than an accident of geography: the Eastern seaboard has been the traditional centre of American musical life and both Hovhaness and Harrison are, to a degree, outsiders. They follow no leaders, lead no followers. Yet such is the appeal of their work that they have brought the musical mainstream to them rather than bending their aesthetics to public or professional taste.

”

Lou Harrison: Concertos for Violin & Organ (1992)

peachfuzz — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 05:52:09 GMT

Lou Harrison - Concertos for Violin & Organ (1992)
Classical | EAC (APE - CUE - LOG) | Front Cover | 194 MB

“

Inspired by Berg's concerto using similar techniques (just not your otherwise mundane twelve-tone) is Lou Harrison's Concerto for Violin and Percussion where the violin (the only seminal instrument that stands out with a definite pitch―only without inversion) plays only three intervals: the minor 2nd, major 3rd and major 6th. Inversion, in the musical lexicon, is defined as a way to sustain the same interval(s) while playing different pitch(es), be they exact or modified, to fit into a scale or mode.

”

Charles Ives: Piano Pieces (1985)

peachfuzz — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 21:01:17 GMT

Charles Ives - Piano Pieces (1985)
Classical | EAC (APE - CUE - LOG) | Cover (Front & Back) | 141 MB

“

This composition―the first version written ca. 1908, revised after 1914, but published only in 1981―belongs to a group of studies which, as far as is known, was to contain at least 27 pieces of which many however remain uncompleted or are lost. These studies seem to have been less a formal cycle than a loose collection of single compositions in which Ives was able to pursue spontaneously certain conceptions and experiments without having to relate them to an encumbering, traditional form. The subtitle, 'Even durations - unevenly divided", indicates a rhythmic phenomenon that emerges when in a particular meter (measure) through a shift of accent (syncopation) the sense of meter changes to new strong beats and these are eventually perceived to be the main pulse. Another shift of accent can lead back to the original meter or to a new one, a process one can call metrical modulation. Because here Ives in one voice―one hand―allows the original meter to continue, two parallel but different meters are established and thereby two distinct tempi (for example a 4/8 pulse against 9/16 at Bar 10ff., or 4/8 against 3/8 in the passage beginning at Bar 83ff.).

”

Henryk Gorecki: Beatus Vir · Totus Tuus · Old Polish Music (1993)

peachfuzz — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 03:15:40 GMT

Henryk Gorecki - Beatus Vir · Totus Tuus · Old Polish Music (1993)
Classical | EAC (APE - CUE - LOG) | Front Cover | 281 MB

Henryk Gorecki, famous for his Symphony No.3 "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs," including one about a woman who was held prisoner by the Gestapo, died today following a serious illness. He was 76.

Phill Niblock: Touch Three (2006)

peachfuzz — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 07:03:04 GMT

Phill Niblock: Touch Three (2006)
Classical | EAC (APE - CUE - LOG) | Front Cover | 938 MB

“

Punktum: A Diary in Musical Adventures
Then came a long overdue purchase – the triple CD by super minimalist Phill Niblock. Four hours of single instrument drones, beautifully Touch style packed. This is going to be one of those record I will listen to very rarely, but when I do, it will be very rewarding. I never knew Phill Niblock until this record appeared on The Wire’s top 50 in 2006, but since then I keep noticing reference to him and his work. Hope that within long I will have time to sit down for four hours and just listen.

”

Maryanne Amacher: Sound Characters (1999)

peachfuzz — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 06:18:26 GMT

Maryanne Amacher - Sound Characters (Making the Third Ear)
Classical | EAC (APE - CUE - LOG) | Covers (Front & Back) | 385 MB

“

I liked the last long track especially. Same goes for the last track on vol. 1, which...I've rarely heard such an unearthly powerful drone.

―d'Avignon on Volume 2

”

Xenakis: Pléïades / Ishii: Concertante for Marimba (Les Percussions de Strasbourg & Keiko Abe)

peachfuzz — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 19:43:18 GMT

Xenakis: Pléïades / Ishii: Concertante for Marimba (1989)
Les Percussions de Strasbourg & Keiko Abe
Classical | EAC (APE - CUE - LOG) | Covers | 253 MB

“

Pléïades was composed during the 1978-79 period upon the appointment of the city of Strasbourg. The composition was played for the first time by Les Percussions de Strasbourg at a performance staged by Les Ballets du Rhin on May 3, 1979. In 1985, the Makoto Aruga Percussion Ensemble of Japan recorded the music for the first time. Les Percussions de Strasbourg, to which Xenakis dedicated this work, also recorded it in 1986 with the composer in attendance.

”

Maryanne Amacher: Sound Characters 2 (2008)

peachfuzz — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 18:27:54 GMT

Maryanne Amacher - Sound Characters 2 (2008)
Classical | EAC (APE - CUE - LOG) | Covers | 275 MB

“

One of contemporary music’s greatest and most elusive mavericks returns to Tzadik with yet another CD of ear bending electronic sounds. A student of Stockhausen and close collaborator of John Cage and David Behrman, Amacher has been creating acoustic art, electronic soundscapes and site-specific installation work since 1967. A new CD of Amacher compositions is a true cause for celebration and Teo! Is one of her greatest works. The winner of Prix Ars Electronica in the Digital Musics category, Teo! premiered in the Esplanade of the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City and is a collaboration with scientists at the Sun Pyramid of Teotihuacan. An absolutely stunning electronic masterpiece!

”

John Zorn: Madness, Love and Mysticism (2001)

peachfuzz — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 00:25:38 GMT

John Zorn - Madness, Love and Mysticism (2001)
Classical | EAC (APE - CUE - LOG) | Covers | 206 MB

“

Progarchives
John Zorn has done it all, from surf rock to klezmer to metal to free jazz to classical to noise. In every area, he has excelled, producing a litany of amazing CDs over his long career. While critics often accuse him of merely "dabbling" in classical music, Madness, Love, and Mysticism proves otherwise as the absolute pinnacle of his classical music. Three monstrous compositions form this entity, exploring the boundaries of dissonance with an intellectual bent and compositional rigor that makes Zorn so endearing. Of course, it doesn't lack anything from an emotional standpoint: each of the three compositions is stuffed with tension. At any moment, each feels as if it could explode, and each does numerous times.

”