***So-called “absent” works, evidence of their creators’ critical approach and lack of consent to political pressure under which they had to function. These compositions to various degrees allude to then-current events but also point to the broader historical and humanistic context. Four by Eugeniusz Rudnik: Lesson II; Elegy to the Victims of War; Epitaph of Stones; Guillotine DG; plus The Pole Reports from Space (an excerpt from a radio play with music by Rudnik). Krzysztof Penderecki’s Death Brigade; fragment of the 1962 Radio Moscow program W mirie nowych zwukow. 20th Anniversary of the Polish Workers Party by Józef Patkowski, Rudnik, and Krzysztof Szlifirski. Two by Elzbieta Sikora: Rhapsody for the Death of the Republic; Janek Wisniewski-December-Poland. Bohdan Mazurek’s Epitaph on the Death of Jan Palach (2nd version). Maria Pokrzywinska’s Reglamentoso. Two by Krzysztof Knittel: Dorikos; Glückspavillon for Cathy. Thirty-two-page booklet. Sponsored by Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland and Capital City of Warsaw Municipal Office.
3XCD $20.75
06/11/2013
***Dutch maverick conceptualist RINUS VAN ALEBEEK interprets the music of the well-known French-Italian tape music composer. As van Alebeek says, he doesn’t make music, and is in fact a writer who abandoned traditional literature and its confines, in favor of “writing” with the cassette recorder. “It is an example of his unique sonic approach to documentary reportage,” supposes our friend at The Sound Projector, “A compelling suite ... which layers together several half-familiar domestic and everyday sounds, along with half-whispered narrating voices, suspending everything in a fluid and open-ended mix…. [C]learly … not ‘composed’ in any normal sense of the word … it unfolds [naturally] and you have no clear idea where it is going, or what to expect next.” The third release in Bôłt’s Populista series of radical reinterpretations of historical music, curated by MICHAL LIBERA.
CD $15.00
02/28/2012
***MAURICIO KAGEL’s 1970s film Ludwig Van, a rather critical piece of avant-garde cinema, asked pointed questions about the ways in which later audiences appropriate and interprete Beethoven’s music. Pianist FREDERIC BLONDY and turntablist DJ LENAR reclaim and reinterpret the soundtrack in this post-modern mashup that includes source material such as Herzog soundtracks, a lecture by Alfred Cortot, samples of string playing and percussion from contemporary improvisation records, and numerous other unknown sounds—all recorded at the Warsaw National Art Gallery, produced the same day as its premiere. “It’s an indescribable puzzle piece,” marvels our friend at The Sound Projector, “A crazy-quilt knitted together from mosaic-fragments of music, and virtually every second of sound appears to have a subversive intent or hidden meaning, one quote leading to another quote. It’s also glorious to listen to…. A fabulous thirty-two minutes of delirious complexity which bends 19th century classical music into 20th century atonal composition, by way of very contemporary techniques (editing, turntabling, mixing, layering).” The second release in Bôłt’s Populista series of radical reinterpretations of historical music, curated by MICHAL LIBERA.
CD $15.00
02/28/2012
***In contrast to the Darmstadt school, avant garde composers of the Romanian “golden series” (George Enescu, Stefan Niculescu, Aurel Stroe, Tiberiu Olah, Myriam Marbe and Anatol Vieru) set out to discover the common, a priori, Ur-foundation of music tradition, an endeavor from which developed Romanian spectral and archetypal musics. The last living composer of this group, OCTAVIAN NEMESCU explores areas of conceptual, ritual, and ambient music, as well as the meta-musical plane. Since 1990, symphonic works have taken up the most important position in his output, much of which focus on a series of gradually developed pieces devoted to certain moments and hours of day and night. Musique Pour Descendre is dedicated to 2PM and 3PM.
CD $15.00
02/28/2012
***Premiered at The Song Is You Festival in Warsaw in 2009, recorded in Berlin 2010, vocalist BERNHARD SCHULZ and pianist REINHOLD FRIEDL (of ZEITKRATZER) perform the song cycle by famed 19th century German romantic (with lyrics by sarcastic poet HEINRICH HEINE). Schütz’s vocalizing would probably turn a conservatoire vocal trainer pale and induce a coronary seizure. He bends notes around the melody in a snide, mocking way, occasionally punctuating with an angry growl. Attack, sustain and room presence are served generously with Friedl’s assured, decidedly non-quiet keyboard work. The debut release in Bôłt’s Populista series of radical reinterpretations of historical music, curated by MICHAL LIBERA.
CD $15.00
02/28/2012