Ionisation

Edgar Varèse is regarded as one of the pioneers of New Music, and with good reason. His piece “Ionisation” was the first-ever composition written exclusively for percussion ensemble to be performed in a traditional concert hall setting; and he explored and searched intensely for sonic experiences. Varèse integrated first the world of sounds, then electronic instruments into traditional orchestras, thereby opening a door to a new awareness of listening. His work substantially influenced those generations of composers that came after him: a link between the beautiful, the exciting and the musically unfamiliar. The 2009 Salzburg Festival dedicated its “Kontinente” series to this brilliant New Music pioneer – and we are delighted to present these excellent recordings to you! (Col Legno)

It starts, appropriately enough, with Charles Ives's The Unanswered Question, which seems to hold its breath, and occasionally exhale in brief bursts of panic, as the new century unfolds. It ends with Dmitri Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony Op. 110a (based on his String Quartet No. 8), whose alternating sequences of anguish, alarm, and derision come as close as possible for absolute music to indicting its bloody history - eight CDs and over 30 works later.

"American Percussion Works" is a rare collection of seldom heard works each with specific rules or themes as basis for the compositions. In John Cage’s First Construction the principle is based on the figure 16. Alberto Ginastera’s work Cantata para América Mágica, used pre-Columbian texts based on the conditions of human life, with war, natural phenomena, daybreak, night and love.

"American Percussion Works is a rare collection of seldom heard works each with specific rules or themes as a basis for the compositions. In John Cage’s First Construction the principle is based on the figure 16. Alberto Ginastera’s work Cantata para América Mágica, uses pre-Columbian texts based on the conditions of human life, with war, natural phenomena, daybreak, night and love. Lou Harrison mixes non-European forms which ‘follow the pattern of having a single melodic part accompanied (or enhanced) by rhythmic percussion’ in his Koncherto. Varèse’s Ionisation also enters a new land being his first solely percussive work where ‘he finds a new grammar for the language of music’."

Here is a collection on the indie Wounded Bird Records that was once one of the linchpins of the Columbia Masterworks LP catalog, yet it has never been issued by anyone on CD: The Varèse Album. Issued in 1972, CBS's The Varèse Album was in itself a reissue, consisting of the albums Music of Edgar Varèse (1960) and Music of Edgar Varèse, Vol. 2 (1963), both featuring pickup groups led by Robert Craft and the first volume including Varèse's own realization on tape of Poème Electronique (1958). In 1972, The Varèse Album was thought to contain near to all of the works of Varèse, and since then that short catalog hasn't expanded by much.

Frank Zappa - Zappa Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2020) {Zappa Records / UMe}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44.1kHz - Official Digital Download -> 1.05 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 476 Mb | Artwork | 5% repair rar
© 2020 Zappa Records / UMe
Rock / Experimental Rock / Avant-Garde / Art Rock / Jazz Rock

Zappa original motion picture soundtrack available digitally today via zappa records/UMe as acclaimed “zappa” documentary is now available everywhere in the u.s. 68-track album features 12 unreleased tracks from the vault including performances from The Whisky A Go-Go in ’68, the Fillmore West in ’70 and “Saturday Night Live” in ’78. Includes more than two dozen tracks from across zappa’s prolific four-decade career, rarities, interview clips plus 26 original score cues 
by composer John Frizzell.

Forget Black Friday, Franksgiving is the real event as today ushers in the long-awaited release of Alex Winter’s highly acclaimed documentary, ZAPPA, about the prolific genius composer, free speech activist, cultural ambassador to Czechoslovakia and legendary musician, Frank Zappa, as well as the surprise digital release of the corresponding ZAPPA Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. A perfect complement to the film, the 68-track soundtrack is available to stream and download now via Zappa Records/UMe. ZAPPA is now available in the U.S. on demand from Magnolia Pictures.