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Erling Wold + Douglas Kearney – Mordake
This disc of the compact variety showed up at random in my post office box containing, of all the unexpected things, a chamber opera! I’ve never been a huge fan of opera in…
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Isabelle O’Connell – Reservoir
Reservoir is a container of nine fluid piano pieces (penned by nine different Irish composers) that the highly talented Dublin-born New York City-based ivory tickler Isabelle O’Connell has enjoyed playing over the past…
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Ted Hearne – Katrina Ballads
In August 2005, the costliest natural disaster in United States history battered New Orleans, Louisiana. Hurricane Katrina: 175 mph winds, failed levees, a submerged city, at least 1,836 dead and scores more left…
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Stefan Poetzsch – Light On
Light on! Light off! Light on, light off! I’m sorry. For a minute there, I got the title of this CD confused with The Clapper. All applause aside, Light On is actually a…
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Amstel Quartet – Amstel Peijl
Hailing from the low-lying Netherlands, the possibly soon-to-be-waterlogged (if you believe in global warming) Amstel Quartet is comprised of four saxophonists who, on this CD, puff out three perfectly pleasant tunes that trace…
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Various Artists – Works by Robert Erickson, Harvey Sollberger, Peter Westergaard, Phillip Rhodes, Edwin Dugger
This 1999 CD collects five thorny avant-garde pieces from the 1960s for small instrumental chamber ensembles. All of these tracks were previously issued on three old Acoustic Research LPs. Phillip Rhodes’ “Duo For…
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Various Artists – Portraits of Three Ladies
Here we have three chunks of serialism-inspired American music from the 1960s. Right out of the gate, an orchestra spackles some seriously quirky instrumental music all over your entire head during Charles Whittenberg’s…
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Salvatore Martirano – O, O, O, O, That Shakespeherian Rag
Salvatore Martirano (1927-1995) was a composer of instrumental and computer music. Not only that, he was an actual Professor of Music at the University of Illinois for over three decades! (In fact, if…
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Joan La Barbara – Shamansong
Joan La Barbara Is an avant-garde composer and vocalist who has been, um, composing and vocalising since the 1970s. Shamansong is a collection of three long atmospheric pieces that each exceed the 20-minute…
