Avant Garde 2023

One of music’s most innovative artists, Queen of Electronic Music and the Avant-Garde, Róisín Murphy is back with a much anticipated new album - her sixth - in collaboration with the legendary producer DJ Koze.

This year marks the 90th birthday of Krzysztof Penderecki (1933–2020), one of the most prominent 21st Century Polish composers. Sacred themes and texts surround the creative work of Penderecki, including many of his large-scale works. This album by the award-winning Latvian Radio Choir under Sigvards Klava consists the majority of his impressive sacred a cappella choral works from five different decades and which are mainly written in Latin. These deeply religious choral works are modern classics in choral repertoire. Recent album by the choir, featuring choral works by John Cage, received nomination for the Gramophone Awards 2023.

Greek born with Egyptian roots, electric jazz harpist and composer Maria-Christina Harper is reinventing the sound of the harp in the jazz world.

Desertshore is Nico's third solo album, recorded and released in 1970. It was co-produced by John Cale and Joe Boyd. Like its predecessor The Marble Index (HE 68005LP, 2023), it is an avant-garde album with chamber music elements. The back and front covers feature stills from the film La cicatrice interieure by Philippe Garrel, which starred Nico, Garrel and her son Ari Boulogne. A few of the songs from the album were included on the soundtrack of the film.

Blacklips Bar: Androgyns and Deviants — Industrial Romance for Bruised and Battered Angels, 1992–1995 is a compilation combining original recordings and select DJ tracks from the vaults of Blacklips Performance Cult, a collective of underground performers, artists and drag queens who took to NYC’s Pyramid Club stage every Monday night at 1 am to perform original plays. The broad spectrum of emotional expression, ferocity, humor and transgression evident in these collected recordings are a further indication of the group’s oeuvre.

Grammy-nominated Malian singer, songwriter, guitarist and actress Fatoumata Diawara’s highly anticipated new album London Ko, which sees Diawara combining forces with collaborator Damon Albarn (Gorillaz, Blur) who co-produces a number of tracks on the album and is featured performing on the first track “Nsera”.

Life Is Much Stranger" is the mind-blowing 4th studio album from NYC heavy rock trio The Golden Grass and it stands tall and wild, towering above their entire previous discography! It is a massive and epic sonic adventure, a post-modern collage of rock n roll ideology, swelling and bursting with hard, heavy and progressive musical energies…the past is inside the present…and The Golden Grass are moving the sound FORWARD!

This repertoire emerges from a reflection on the value of limitations in art as a tool of renouncement and transgression. On the concrete use of limitations in composing as a device of emancipation — tracing the frame from which to extract ourselves —. Here, written music is apprehended like a block of raw matter which each member is called upon to peel, bend or weld onto another.

This new release from DUX presents a collection of recordings commemorating Jewish composers active mainly before World War II. Their music represents various stylistic trends of their era and was inspired by numerous ideas.

Three Pieces for Blues Band and Symphony Orchestra is an avant-garde musical composition written by William Russo in 1968. It combines classical music played by an orchestra with blues played by a four-piece band.