Cage: Cartridge Music

Ulrich Krieger completes his A Cage of Saxophones survey of Cage’s works composed for, or which can be played on any instrument or instruments.

For this volume, Krieger combines works specifically composed for saxophone with works of no specified instrumentation that are suited for saxophones and winds.

Most of these are ‘indeterminate’ works, which require the performer to create the realisation based on materials supplied by Cage. In some situations, Krieger used Cage’s compositional tools to create his own parallel works.

The set includes the only available recording of ‘Party Pieces’, composed in collaboration with Henry Cowell, Lou Harrison and Virgil Thomson: one composer would write a bar of music plus two notes, folded the paper at the bar, passing it to the next composer, who would use the two notes as a base for continuing the composition. Composed for any melody or keyboard instruments, Krieger has made a version for saxophone quartet.

Acclaimed German saxophonist Ulrich Krieger studied classical/contemporary saxophone, composition, and electronic music at the Hochschule der Künste (Berlin) and the Manhattan School of Music. He currently tours with Lou Reed in the Metal Machine Trio and is a professor at CalArts Univerisity. He worked with leading artists such as LaMonte Young, Phil Niblock, David First, Lee Ranaldo, Elliott Sharp, Mario Bertoncini, Merzbow, and many others.

'Earle Brown: A Life in Music Vol. 6' is the eagerly-awaited final installment in a unique series: the 18 LPs of Earle Brown's legendary Contemporary Sound Series, recorded between 1960 and 1973, have become a rarity in great demand since the series was discontinued in 1978. These rare and historically important recordings have been carefully digitised and remastered by the Earle Brown Music Foundation. The complete series is now available in six 3-CD boxes by WERGO.

CD 1 contains works by John Cage and Christian Wolff from the early 1960s: In Cage's “Cartridge Music”, sounds are generated by inserting different objects in the pick-up head of the gramophone. Due to their composition structure, Wolff's works “Duo for Violinist and Pianist”, “Summer” and “Duet II” have in common that no interpretation is identical with the next one.

CD 2 presents the outstanding violinist Paul Zukofsky, brilliantly accompanied by the pianist Gilbert Kalish, performing works by George Crumb, Isang Yun, Charles Wuorinen and John Cage which make extremely high demands on the performer.

CD 3 contains works by the South American composers Gerardo Gandini, César Bolaños, Marlos Nobre, Oscar Bazán, Manuel Enríquez and Alcides Lanza, performed by the New Sound Composers-Performers Group under the direction of Alcides Lanza.