Edition RZ

[jon abbey]

I thought I'd start a thread for the superb German classical label Edition RZ, spurred on by the brief discussion of the recent Patrick Kosk in the Now Playing thread...

anyway, any thoughts on any of the releases are welcome, I'm particularly curious for feedback on the Michael von Biel and John McGuire sets. my pick of the label is probably the David Tudor set, but I'm a fan of most of what I've heard thus far.

[J.F.]

The biggest enrichments for my collection, and my ears, coming from the RZ-label are Ullmann's "Catalogue of Sounds", the double-CD of Xenakis' orchestral and electronic works, the Gottfried Michael Koenig-set, and, in the LP-department, Lachenmann's chamber works and the Spahlinger-LP.

I have a few more, I forget about others surely... so I guess I'm not that fond of those - incl. the von Biel-CD which I don't play that often. I consider von Biel to be a remarkable figure for the time he was active in (I heard stuff from '61-'71), I kinda enjoyed most pieces, but after all they don't really click for me.
My favorite von Biel track actually is the string quartet 2 as captured on the collegno-box Darmstadt 1946-96: 50 Jahre Neue Musik.

[javier4w]

20 Jahre Inventionen V: Luigi Nono (2006)

Includes a beautiful 1993 recording of "Quando Stanno Morendo (Diario Polacco No. 2)" by Frances-Marie Uitti (violoncello), Roberto Fabbriciani (flute), Ingrid Ade, Monica Bair-Ivenz and Halina Nieckarz (soprano), Bernadette Manca di Nissa (mezzosoprano) and Experimentalstudio der Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung des SWF (live electronics). Nono composed this piece in 1982 and was premiered that year in Venezia by the same group of musicians and vocalists.

[Jacques Oger]

I recommend this one :
Harley Gaber / The Winds Rise in the North

[Herb Levy]

Ditto on the Gaber. I'd add the Morton Feldman recording - not necessarily the best performances of most of the works, but the range of performers is great.

I'm also interested in knowing more about the John McGuire. Other pieces I've heard by him are interestingly related to repetitive pattern minimalism, which may be enough information for Jon to make his own decision.

[niwi]

i highly recommend the michael von biel one.

[Dan Warburton]

Anybody know if he intends to reissue some of the old LPs as CDs? Interested in the Radulescu and the Spahlinger..

[yonhosago]

The Spahlinger is awesome.

[Kyrre Laastad]

The version of Piano (Three Hands) played by Feldman himself and John Tilbury on the disc with archival Feldman recordings are wonderful. Also very nice to hear Feldman play Extensions 3, a really nice early piano piece, where he really slams those very few FFs. Almost brutal.

[bedouin]

Some random thoughts on various RZ recordings I have here, while listening to Jakob Ullmann's very promissing "Voice, Books and FIRE 3".

Franco Evangelisti
Founder of Nuova Consonanza, so for those who dig GINC (below), this is a must. Evangelisti (I have been reading on the net) has had a remarkable life in contemporary music and this set demonstrates this, as it captures his work outside the group. I would say that the music is thematically, more varied than the GINC work, and it appears more structured and deliberate.
At times it leans towards the music of Scelsi (spectralism?) albeit (according to the notes) Evangelisti was a critic of the genre. Highlight of the disc, the enigmatic "Die Schachtel (The Box): pantomime, for mimes, projections, and chamber orchestra, on a text by Franco Nonnis (1962–63)" which reminds me a lot of Lachenmann.
Tudor and Aloys Kontarsky* handle the solo piano tracks, with Eberhard Blum, and I guess other stars of the genre.
(*Kontarsky also played on the great Intercomunicazione duo disc with Siegfried Psalm, which is worth tracking down)

Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza (1967-1975 )
The material on this disc is genre defining (as anything I have heard from this group). The Edition RZ release seems to be a collection of 2-3 older lps. It would have been the perfect document for this group had they included the piece "Omaggio a Scelsi" that appears on "Musica su Schemi" (1976) and is one of the best drone pieces I've heard.

I really like the Patrick Kosk Mondweiß disc, as I mentioned on the other thread. Music concrete with distinct emphasis on depth, with the use of diametrically opposing sounds. It is interesting that Kosk seems to repeat some of the distinct sounds in different tracks in different contexts, which kind of lets the listener "get back" and follow the proceedings with greater focus.

Klaus Lang has recorded several discs on this label, of which Einfalt.Stille. is my favorite. Chamber music dominated by the haunting voice of Natalia Pschenitschnikova. From the liner notes Lang poses questions about deep, almost transcendent listening, demanding a visceral rather than intellectual response from the listener through concentrated listening. Trauermusiken and Sei-jaku Für Streichquartett are also lovely, but for me Klaus Lang's masterpiece remains his first(?) recording on Durian Die Überwinterung Der Mollusken.

Robin Minard** Silent Music is made up of 2 ultra-minimal pieces. The first "Music For Quiet Spaces" conjures images of an empty room with spare lighting where one can attempt to meditate or focus on his/her breathing. This 15m track must be played at very low volume and can be put on repeat, until it easily becomes part of the space. The second track (a mixture of wind, water elements, electronics) is kind of a release, where natural sounds appear to resolve the charge induced by the 1st track.
(**Robin Minard played on the seminal Sonde recording En Ondes)

[jkudler]

thanks for all the info/recs!

[twIXta]

Jani Christou is great.

[frozen reeds]

Jani Christou is great.

Like, OMG. Your avatar is SO totally boss.

[Stephen]

I'm pretty fond of the Mario Bertoncini LP. One side is his own compositions (mostly inside piano, iirc) the other a realisation of Cartridge Music, makes a nice pairing.

The Radulescu LP is stunning.

Any more words about the Spahlinger (content?) for a novice to his name?

[simon reynell]

I think the Spahlinger LP is very strong too.
The pieces are quite varied:
Morendo - a 7 minute piece for orchestra, busy, restless, spiky & challenging
Apo Do - a 12 minute piece for string quartet; quieter in parts, scratchy, discordant, lots of extended techniques
Vier Stucke - a 4 minute miniature for soprano, clarinet, violin & piano. I really like this one; again quite spiky, disjointed explosions of sound interspersed with calmer moments. In its unpredictable variety like a condensation of the spirit of the whole disc.
Entloschend - a 15 minute piece for solo tam-tam, from 1974 and so both much earlier as well as busier than, for instance, Mark Wastell's or Michael Pisaro's recent solo tam-tam discs, but very strong & full of subtlety. More dramatic than ambient - a bit like Stockhausen's Mikrophonie I without the electronics.
Storung - a 3 minute piece for electronic tape from 1975; again quite disruptive & challenging, with fragmentary snatches of 'concrete' recorded voices. Strong in its brevity.
Sotto Voce - a 6 minute piece for chorus. The only one that doesn't work for me.

I like most (though not all) of the Spahlinger pieces I've heard. There was an excellent double cd on the Accord label with pieces performed by the ensemble recherche, and a very good cd in the contemporary German composers series on Wergo, which includes what is probably my favourite Spahlinger piece of all: 'intermezzo', a radically deconstructive piano concerto, as well as the excellent '128 erfullte augenblicke' (also on the ensemble recherche double cd) which is composed of 128 tiny movements.

His work is similar in some ways to Lachenmann's, though with a more playful feel.

[Wombatz]

I think the Spahlinger LP is very strong too.

His work is similar in some ways to Lachenmann's, though with a more playful feel.

Can't get with Spahlinger at all, but yes, I also think you have to see him in relation to Lachenmann, and yes, I share the perspective though the conclusions are different. Lachenmann goes against the grain methodically (hey, we're Germans, what do you expect). I do not enjoy much of his stuff, but there is no question to me that he, together with Sciarrino and a couple of folks, has enlarged the possibilities within each instrument he has written for. As a classical performer, you learn your instrument to insane perfection, then he throws you the bone of contention, his work goes against established power relations between composer, performer, audience, and instrument (that most of all), in short: against the system, and I love him for it.

Spahlinger takes all this and pretends it's just a new musical language. That you can even get poetic within. Or I guess maybe I just don't feel it ...

[J.F.]

Spahlinger takes all this and pretends it's just a new musical language. That you can even get poetic within. Or I guess maybe I just don't feel it ...

I always perceived Spahlinger as a politically and socially aware composer who directly reflects his world view in his works - in some way (I couldn't nail down right now).
As I understand, that conflicts with what you suggest?

Urgh. I have a book with Spahlinger-conversations by the german Pfau-Verlag and I have to admit I never read it so far.

A little side note: older jazz musicians from the local scene here know Spahlinger first of all as a jazz saxophonist (active up to the 70s I believe).

[Zeno Marx]

Jani Christou is great.

I've heard this a couple times now. I hope to find a copy for cheap someday. The Iancu Dumitrescu is good.

The good ol' days...when these LPs were sitting around, collecting dust for $8.

[Wombatz]

Spahlinger takes all this and pretends it's just a new musical language. That you can even get poetic within. Or I guess maybe I just don't feel it ...

I always perceived Spahlinger as a politically and socially aware composer who directly reflects his world view in his works - in some way (I couldn't nail down right now).
As I understand, that conflicts with what you suggest?

I'm sure his world politics are sound. I just personally always felt that his music (and I only have heard a dozen or so of his works, which means I should keep my trap shut) fit a little too snugly within the system that supports it (no, not imperialism). Funnily, now that I google him up, he has had a rather smooth academic career. That doesn't make him a bad composer, maybe it's easier to hear his true worth from without Germany, since there's still a decided house sound to new music in each country, different academical mainstreams of oh so challenging stuff. But it sounds like you're writing from Germany?

[bedouin]

Josef Anton Riedl: Klangregionen 1951 - 2007
An intriguing new release on Edition RZ.
The Avant Guard Project AGP1 contains several of the pieces included in this disc. Very interesting almost dada influenced music.