Free albums from Innova Recordings
Innova has a handful of albums available for free download on Soundcloud in 160 kbps. There's no way of telling if it's only for a limited time:
First a wonderful album posted by yours truely July 9th 2011 in the News department:
"Passage Through a Dream offers five premiere recordings of new music by composer Phillip Schroederremarkably beautiful and vibrant tracks that feature lyric melodies and lush, intricate textures.
Passage Through a Dream expands and develops musical ideas found in Schroeders critically acclaimed 2006 CD Move in the Changing Light (Innova 655), about which Ron Shepper wrote in textura, Schroeder generates dense masses of sparkling trills and cascades .The sound that results verges on the paradisaical Schroeders glistening pieces are full of elegant nuances, and Frank J. Oteri wrote in the American Music Centers NewMusicBox, Youll keep hitting repeat on your CD player.
Passages performers include Schroeder on piano and electric bass, soprano Erin Bridgeman, the multi-talented Rick Dimond on accordion and vibraphone, clarinetist/composer Michael Henson, harpist Jane Grothe, flutist Jennifer Amox, and new music clarinetist Marty Walker.
Born in 1956 in Rancho Cordova, California, Phillip Schroeders musical life began early and paralleled the diversity of his surroundingsliving in twelve statesplaying trumpet in concert bands and electric bass in rock and jazz bands, singing in choirs, conducting orchestral and chamber groups, improvising with a variety of ensembles, and concertizing as a pianist. His music for soloists, chamber ensembles, live electronics, orchestra, and choir, has been described by critics as wonderfully evocative, ethereal, and rich in subtle detail.
- Innova
http://www.phillipschroeder.com/
First a wonderful album posted by yours truely July 9th 2011 in the News department:
"Passage Through a Dream offers five premiere recordings of new music by composer Phillip Schroederremarkably beautiful and vibrant tracks that feature lyric melodies and lush, intricate textures.
Passage Through a Dream expands and develops musical ideas found in Schroeders critically acclaimed 2006 CD Move in the Changing Light (Innova 655), about which Ron Shepper wrote in textura, Schroeder generates dense masses of sparkling trills and cascades .The sound that results verges on the paradisaical Schroeders glistening pieces are full of elegant nuances, and Frank J. Oteri wrote in the American Music Centers NewMusicBox, Youll keep hitting repeat on your CD player.
Passages performers include Schroeder on piano and electric bass, soprano Erin Bridgeman, the multi-talented Rick Dimond on accordion and vibraphone, clarinetist/composer Michael Henson, harpist Jane Grothe, flutist Jennifer Amox, and new music clarinetist Marty Walker.
Born in 1956 in Rancho Cordova, California, Phillip Schroeders musical life began early and paralleled the diversity of his surroundingsliving in twelve statesplaying trumpet in concert bands and electric bass in rock and jazz bands, singing in choirs, conducting orchestral and chamber groups, improvising with a variety of ensembles, and concertizing as a pianist. His music for soloists, chamber ensembles, live electronics, orchestra, and choir, has been described by critics as wonderfully evocative, ethereal, and rich in subtle detail.
- Innova
http://www.phillipschroeder.com/
Comments
- Devotion, the opening track of Grant Cutlers 2012, approaches you from what seems like a great distance, moving slowly across snowy Midwestern plains. Its a fitting introduction to an album of cold, geologic beauty, a record not only inspired by the setting of its creation, but quite literally fashioned from artifacts unearthed from attics and closets and basements. Often, artists seek a universality in their work, but Cutler has crafted the timelessness at the heart of 2012 by documenting a moment, the first snowbound week of 2008 in Minneapolis.
Hed been reading about Zen meditation practice. He was learning about binaural beats. Hed just gotten a Roland JX-3P, a synthesizer from 1983. And so he spread his synths about the floor of the back room of his house and set about making drone tapes on his grandfathers tape deck. The deck itself was rescued from his sisters basement, and the no-name recorder didnt even work properly half the time. It would eat the cassettes whole, and so every successful recording was a victory. Even then, playing the tape back to transfer it onto his computer would sometimes destroy the tape. Each of the performances here, then, is unique and unduplicatable.
The fragility of the process is in perfect harmony with the fragility of the music, which plumbs the beauty of the synthesizers sounds, pulling out tones that link 2012 to Tangerine Dream, to Aphex Twins Selected Ambient Works Vol 2, to Boards of Canada, and to Autechre. Its a love letter to the soft, otherworldly fuzziness and cool, austere alienness of the analog synth. Its airiness and space let you follow tones and looping sequences through subtle shifts and changes, the sound coloring whatever space the listener is in, just as Cutlers wonky tape deck colors the sound of the whole record. Its the kind of album you want to curl up and take a nap inside of.
A warm blanket, a love letter, a document, a sonic painting of winter in Minnesota: 2012 is all of these things and also something more. Its a mirror, a work that reveals the listener to him or herself, reflecting back on us ourselves in moments of peace, of focus, of solitude, of contemplation."
- Innova Recordings.
Craig
Innova is based in the Twin Cities, so it's not out of the realm of possibility.
Craig
- "Critically acclaimed percussionist Ryan Scott is one of Canadas most illustrious and esteemed musicians of his generation. On this CD are his first performances and the North American premieres of three Ishii Percussion Concerti, played from memory and recorded live in performance by CBC Radio 2 with the Esprit Orchestra, Canadas only full-sized orchestra devoted exclusively to performing and promoting new orchestral music. Maki Ishiis (1936-2003) creative endeavour was rooted in the attempt to stride two musical worlds by combining European compositional methods with elements from the sound palette of Japanese traditional music. The seldom heard music on this CD comes from a four year period in the composers life when he turned his attention to the art of the percussion concerto. Concertante for Marimba (1988) is an outrageously and famously virtuosic 5-octave concert grand marimba solo with 6-percussion accompaniment. South-Fire-Summer (1992) is an enormous multi-percussion and marimba solo with sparse orchestral accompaniment, which mounts to a powerful, climactic finale. Saidoki (Demon) (1989-1992) is an entirely improvised solo incorporating 3 Cidelo Ihos. These are metal sculptures co-created by Kazuo Harada and Yasunori Yamaguchi specifically to be played in Saidoki. Additionally, there is a vast selection of accompanying wood and skin instruments constructed by Ryan Scott. The orchestra parts are written meticulously and the personnel is absolutely massive: full strings, triple winds, 5 percussion, 2 harp, piano, celeste, full brass and 6 horns all spread throughout the hall and recorded on a multi-track system. The recording quality of these performances is exceptional, created by the award-winning CBC team of producer David Jaeger and recording engineers David "Stretch" Quinney, Doug Doctor, and Steve Sweeney, all of whom are widely regarded as the best in the Canadian recording industry."
- http://innova.mu/albums/ryan-scott/maki-ishii-live
- To be continued . . .
- But yeah, Excellent stuff:
- "Following the critical success of their contribution to Robert Moran's second innova CD, Mantra, Dan Moore and Iowa Percussion took on this ambitious new recording, Cabinet of Curiosities. About Mantra, Sequenza 21 declared: "The three percussion ensemble pieces exude happy and peaceful energies. Of particular note is the work 'Stirling: It's Raining Cats and Dogs.' This piece, for a gargantuan setup of percussion, does for the rain what Messiaen did for bird calls." "Iowa Percussion does an absolutely phenomenal job with their three pieces. I hope we hear more from this ensemble in the future."
They got their wish with Cabinet of Curiosities: The Graphic Percussion Scores of Robert Moran. This historically important compendium of Moran's graphic percussion scores from 1962 to 2010, plumbs the depths of this highly creative form of composition from purely atmospheric sound explorations to studies of rhythm, melody, harmony, and musical interaction. The scores are visual artworks in themselves but come to life in performance where the players use their creative imaginations to interpret the non-standard shapes, signs and instructions. Created with the audiophile listener in mind, the recording is intimate and transparent, taking the listener on a very personal "elegant journey" through the beautiful and intoxicating world of graphic composition.
The longest work on the disc is Salagrama, for percussion and organ, created for Graz cathedral employing pitches tuned to Kepler's Harmony of the Spheres. Percussionist Dan Moore's expertise ranges from new music to fringe jazz, folk music of the world, and many points in between. Musician, composer, and educator, he travels the world performing his own distinctive brand of music that explores the expressive capabilities of percussion. In 2006, it was pure serendipity when through an unexpected collaboration with choreographer Armando Duarte, the love affair amongst Robert Moran, Dan Moore, and Iowa Percussion began. But Moore had become a Moran aficionado long before their first meeting: "I performed some of his pieces while still a student. I have great admiration for the creativity, beauty, rhythm, and humor of his music." Moran, arriving for the first time in Iowa City for that collaboration, found a "dazzling" array of percussion instruments at his disposal, and performers willing to throw themselves headlong into his music. He quickly became an admirer of Iowa Percussion: "I went to Iowa City for this percussion premiere and heard one of the finest performances of any of my scores in my entire career. It was my great fortune to write for this splendid ensemble."
Philly-based Robert Moran studied with Apostel, Berio, and Milhaud long ago but never aligned himself with any musical "-isms." His works range from Fluxus type community events to post-Minimal textures, and "shamefully Romantic" languages."
- http://innova.mu/albums/robert-moran/cabinet-curiosities
- http://www.classical-composers.org/comp/moran
- "Imagine multiple collisions of musical worlds where sparks fly and mediations flow through secret pulses dictated by a magic square. This is the world of Secret Pulse where composer Zack Browning presents a dramatic music of rhythmically-charged pop-inspired riffs battling transcendental melodies. Each composition can be compared to a spiders web; musically spinning out events whose design is based on a secret pulse derived from the birth dates of the performers using the Lo Shu Square and feng shui.
The special connection between the virtuosic performers on this CD and the music is captured in their powerful performances. Ensemble Unity of Taiwan rocks on the Hakka folksong Cutting Flowers in Hakka Fusion. The Cadillac Moon Ensemble becomes speed devils in Secret Pulse and then makes it funky in Moon Thrust and its use of Van Morrisons Moondance. The JACK Quartet both mesmerizes and marvels in their interpretation of the String Quartet, moving effortlessly from soft chorales to loud funk. In Flying Tones, the UCF Percussion Ensemble grooves and grinds then provides a personal and moving rendition of the UCF Alma Mater. The four ensembles consist of musical all stars whose performances on this CD are extraordinary.
The music of Zack Browning is described as way-cool in attitude and speed-demon music (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) and propulsive, giddy, rocking , a rush of cyclic riffs and fractured meters (The New York Times). The Irish Times has proclaimed he is bringing together the procedures of high musical art with the taste of popular culture. Brownings composition awards have included two Illinois Arts Council Composer Fellowships, a Chamber Music America Commission, and two Arnold O. Beckman Awards and two FAA Fellowships from the University of Illinois. Performances include the Bonk Festival of New Music (Tampa), the International Society for Contemporary Music Festival (Miami), International Computer Music Conference (New Orleans), Spark Festival (Minneapolis), Gaudeamus Music Week (Amsterdam), Composers Choice Festival (Dublin), Sonorities Festival (Belfast) , Skinneskatteberg Festival (Sweden), Asian Contemporary Music Festival (Seoul), and National Chiang Kai Shek Cultural Center (Taipei)."
- http://innova.mu/albums/zack-browning/secret-pulse
- With Pattern Time, Lukas Ligeti and his group introduce a style of music that is hard to categorize for the best of reasons: it is something the likes of which have not been heard before. Is it a new direction in jazz, perhaps more specifically in African jazz? Is it a new idiom in the otherwise unidiomatic realm of creative improvised music? Ultimately, such questions may be impossible to answer. This, however, is for sure: it is a fresh approach to both sound and rhythm, a musical conversation that uses a new syntax that comes across as immediately striking; an abstract language the listener can instantly understand with enough motion to keep a restless octopus happy.
Invited by the Vienna Musik-Galerie festival in Austria to put together a group consisting of some of his favorite musicians, New York-based Ligeti assembled a quintet of kindred spirits united by their interest in new rhythmic possibilities in improvised music. Their communication was immediate, their interaction both playful and profound. Like in African music, patterns form the foundation of this music; like in jazz, the patterns are often implied rather than obvious. But here, both the musicians usual roles and the ways in which the patterns interrelate are blurred, resulting in a form of interplay that indicates directions heretofore unexplored. Time is treated topologically; it is expanded, contracted, twisted and turned to provide fresh and new ways of experiencing the beat. And often, there is no clear beat, though a sense of groove is never lost. This music takes the African approach to polymeters, which renders the rhythm both firmly grounded and ambiguous, to the world of experimental improvisation; it swings while eschewing all clichés.
Lukas Ligetis compositional input - mainly in the form of ideas, shapes, and patterns - provides the conceptual foundation upon which the ensemble builds its conversation, combining their individual, highly evolved musical vocabularies. The African influence is a cornerstone throughout. Ligeti has developed a choreographic, polyrhythmic drumming style based on the music of East Africas Kingdom of Buganda; his connection to the continent was deepened through numerous trips and collaborations with African musicians. In Côte dIvoire, he met Aly Keïta, one of todays leading virtuosos of the balafon, the West African marimba, who has boldly introduced his instrument and traditions into a jazz environment. Parisian pianist Benoît Delbecq, in turn, has developed a completely original approach to jazz piano, preparing his instrument with wood and basing his rhythmic vocabulary on the chants of Baaka pygmies. His playing leaves an indelible mark on any music to which he contributes. Hailing from Sicily, saxophonist Gianni Gebbia has similarly crossed the bridge between traditional and experimental music, conjuring up the launedda, the ancient Sardinian bagpipe, and propelling it into the new millennium. And Michael Manring, one of the worlds most recognized electric bass players, built a new world of expression upon the foundations passed on to him by his teacher, Jaco Pastorius. It is a rare and welcome treat to hear him in a context where he is so unbound and free to experiment.
Together, these singular musicians create an architecture that is greater than the sum of its parts, and points to new paths, spaces, and structures to be explored. Like his father György before him, in his own way Lukas is revealing a new musical universe strikingly his own."
- http://innova.mu/albums/lukas-ligeti/pattern-time
- Lukas Ligeti has a tough compositional gig. Yes, the name does mean exactly what you might think: György Ligeti is his dad, arguably the greatest composer of the postwar era. Talk about having to live up to a legend. But Lukas has managed a pretty astonishing personal and musical feat in his creative life: he's able to acknowledge his father's influence and at the same time, sidestep it and even transcend it. He's been on tour with his solo music, much of it improvised with his electronic "marimba lumina" (a much, much more interesting contraption than that sounds) playing the London Jazz Festival . . .
- Much more @ The Guardian and @ http://www.lukasligeti.com/.
(13 tracks posted 25 days ago)
- But it's well worth the effort. - this is quiet, intense and dramatic at the same time - Brilliant vocalist . . . and much recommended !
Open House: Song Cycles by William Bolcom and Robert Beaser
Paul Sperry - The New York Virtuosi - Kenneth Klein and The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra - Dennis Russell Davies
- "The pair of monumental song cycles for tenor and chamber ensemble that comprise the new CD Open House in many ways represent a culmination of 20th century American art song. Written for lyrical tenor and longtime champion of new work Paul Sperry, the songs by William Bolcom and Robert Beaser combine poetry and music to create a heady mixture that brims with refinement and craft.
Sperry is at home in a repertoire that extends from Monteverdi opera and Bach Passions to Brittens Nocturne and hundreds of songs in more than a dozen languages, but it is to American music that he has brought a conviction and enthusiasm that has breathed life into it for countless listeners."
- Much more @ Innova.
- With works by:
Andy Akihox - Eleanor Hovda - Jeremy Haladyna - Douglas Geers - fred ho - Maggi Payne - Tim Kaiser - Robert Moran - Paul De Jong - Alexander Berne - Anna Thorvaldsdottir and Innova label boss Philip Blackburn.
Anna Thorvaldsdottir @ Emusers - Alexander Berne @ Emusers.
to anyone else who might be confused about why Justin Dehart is credited for those albums.
At any rate, I can finally to it in the rotation and listen to the album being only mildly confused.
composers:
1: hidden: hidden: I. Inwards - Anna Thorvaldsdottir
2: Death of Memes: Meme I - Alexander Berne
3: Inward Bound - Paul De Jong
4: Ghostly Psalms: No. 2. Draw On, Sweet Night - Philip Blackburn
5: Trinity Requiem: Kyrie - Robert Moran
6: Sleeper Cell - Tim Kaiser
7: Arctic Winds - Maggi Payne
8: The Un ! And Ir ! Suite - fred ho
9: Atomic Tango - Douglas Geers
10: The Princess of the 9 Cave: II. Jeremy Haladyna
11: Borealis Music - Eleanor Hovda
12: the rAy's end - Andy Akiho
-always
Thanks for the info, I asumed that JD was another example of Emusic crediting one of the participating musicians as "the main person"
RE: Fred Ho, new on Innova's soundcloud page and certainly a goodie for the Jazz folks here:
The Ensemble is:
BOBBY ZANKEL (alto saxophone)
Salim Washington (tenor saxophone)
ROYAL HARTIGAN (multiple percussion)
ART HIRAHARA (keyboards)
WES BROWN (bass)
http://www.bigredmediainc.com/AAME.html
- "BIG RED! honors the Old Fred Hos iconic influences: Malcolm X (nick-named during his early years as big red for his height and reddish hair) and Mao Zedong (who indeed was a big red, a giant of the 20th century who led a socialist revolution for one-quarter of humanity, confronted with unimaginable obstacles). This important recording also honors the late Sam Furnace, friend and member of the AAME for two decades, who passed away in early 2004, with the Chamber Music America-commissioned work, Suite Sam Furnace. Also featured are amazing new Afro Asian ground-breaking works: Kayas Song featuring vocalist-kayagum performer Rami Seo (singing in Korean); a work in support of the movement to free Americas most renown death row political prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal (Free Mumia! Suite); Gadzo, based on traditional warriors music from the Ewe people of now-Ghana; an instrumental rebuttal to Branford Marsalis denunciating comments about the 1960s avant-garde promoted in Ken Burns propagandistic film, Jazz (The Ur ! and Ir ! Suite); and the eponymous work, featuring Fred Hos poetic recitation in homage to Archie Shepp (Big Red!). FRED HO THE COMPOSER uniquely and incredibly traverses across genres with both ease and innovation, his compositions having been commissioned by and featured at some of the most prestigious artistic institutions of the U.S., including the American Composers Orchestra (When the Real Dragons Fly! at Carnegie Hall), the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (for Josephine Bakers Angels from the Rainbow for the Imani Winds), the Guggenheim Museum and the Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave Festival (for Journey Beyond the West: The New Adventures of Monkey and Voice of the Dragon: Once Upon a Time in Chinese America ), and most recently, Fanfare to Stop the Creeping Meatball! by the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the 2011 Tanglewood Music Festival. His works personify the cross-cultural hybridity of American New Music and Jazz. His six-octave range and fluency with extended and esoteric techniques on the baritone saxophone equals his prodigious abilities as a composer and creator of operas and other large-scale, epic works (including genres he has originated such as Manga Music/Theater and Martial Arts Ballets and Living Comic Book Performance). Hos distinguished awards include two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships (in Jazz Composition and Opera/Musical-Theater), three New York Foundation for the Arts Music Composition fellowships, six Rockefeller Foundation awards, the Duke Ellington Distinguished Artist Lifetime Achievement Award, the Harvard Arts Medal, and the American Music Centers Letter of Distinction. The Old Fred Ho (also known until 1988 as Fred Houn) died on August 4, 2006 of advanced colo-rectal cancer. His progeny, the New Fred Ho, born August 5, 2006, has taken up the mantle of his predecessor, including leading the core band of nearly 3 decades, The Afro Asian Music Ensemble."
Innova - 2011
(About Fred Ho)
- "Beyond dialog, beyond collaboration, Sour Mash is the result of a heady fermentation process involving CPUs, vinyl ridges, instruments, and a whole lot of imagination springing from George Lewis's and Marina Rosenfeld's respective heads. The gritty aural stew is turned and looped and served up through loudspeakers but it is never quite done; it improves with age and the interpenetration of its herbs.
Birthed during a Harvestworks residency, the pair developed a shared creative language that, months later, reveals a fused artistic voice - one that others can now complement. The original sound compositions are available in convenient vinyl format so that enterprising turntablists can cue up several synched versions at a time to output something new. Or you can sit back with the CD version and listen to the combinations that the artists themselves landed on once.
Either way, this is a powerful spiritual experience. Not for those with weak livers."
George Lewis:
- "Serves as the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music at Columbia University. The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship in 2002, an Alpert Award in the Arts in 1999, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Lewis studied composition with Muhal Richard Abrams at the AACM School of Music, and trombone with Dean Hey. His widely acclaimed book, A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music, was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2008."
Marina Rosenfeld:
- "Is a composer and artist based in New York. In recent years, her work has been widely commissioned in Europe and North America. She has performed frequently with Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and created works for Douglas Dunn Dance Company, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Electronic Music Center and the Kitchen House Blend Ensemble. Her work has been included in two Whitney Biennials, 2002 and 2008. Rosenfeld is co-chair of the Masters program in Music/Sound at Bard College, and has served on the faculty of its Milton Avery School of the Arts since 2003."
- Innova 2010
- More Marina Rosenfeld @ the Ubuweb Goodies
Hwang burns the bridges between the traditional roles of the ensembles instrumentationwhether jazz, classical, or traditional Chineseto forge a single musical voice that resonates with distinct cultural overtones. The poetic complexities inherent in this sound means that the music creates a totality, a mingling of all the attributes of a human being. Burning Bridge transcends representation to become experience. The macro conditions set by this jazz composition will cultivate many micro discoveries of sound and phrase. Both differences and commonalities between jazz and traditional Chinese musicians will be embraced. Initially, the novelty of Chinese sounds will appear dominant to the listener: in the plucked unison between the pipa and string bass, the pipa will stand out. But as the listener becomes enveloped in the music, spectacle sensations diminish to a sotto voce, and a democracy of sounds emerge and flourish within a vibrant dialogue. Burning Bridge utilizes the emotional territories produced by the process of notation and improvisation. Each modality possesses an energy that can be either blurred into a single flow or made distinct. The interplay of modalities offers a compositional dynamic between the jazz musicians personal voice and the over-arching narrative. With bridges afire, the infinite permutations between improvisation and notation, between the individual and collective, are architecturally sequenced to conjure a narrative landscape through which the listener will journey imaginatively. Though the sonic physiology is complex, the actual living music is experienced simply.
In 2009, Mr. Hwangs mother passed away and his reflections upon her life flowed into the music. The opening motif was based upon her speech patterns for a Chinese proverb she had repeated to him many times during his childhood. Another motif is based upon his memory of a Presbyterian hymn they sang, Doxology. He even reached back to his very first band to incorporate a work (Ocean) from the early 80s into the fifth and concluding movement of Burning Bridge. Burning Bridge, composed upon a Burning Bridge, consumes temporal illusions while enveloping the concurrence of life and death. Here the tinder of history and culture feed flames that vibrate within the core of both instinct and identity. The fire, often ignored, has always existed, with bridges burning each moment of our ever-changing lives."
Innova Recordings - http://www.jasonkaohwang.com
There's 1 track missing (can be grabbed elsewhere)
It's in 16 bit Wave (450 mb) and a truely amazing album.
Booklet and stuff @ Innova
- and takes a bit of tagging . . .