Herbert Howells - Stabat Mater - Te Deum - Sine Nomine

Completely cinematic and agonizing Anglican church music by English organist Herbert Howells. 2014 cd on Naxos.

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György Ligeti – Aventures

Yes, I admit it: my first contact with Ligeti was the sampling of "Requiem" in Amebix's "The Moor" from Arise! Only when I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey did I realize that it wasn't Amebix who had written that stuff. Here's some great stuff with organ, a three-piece piano recording with one piece called "Selbstportrait Mit Reich Und Riley (Und Chopin Ist Auch Dabei)" and some more stuff. 2002 cd on Deutsche Grammophon.

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Dmitri Shostakovich - Complete Concertos (Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Sladkovsky)

No comments. I must just say that especially the cello concertos are mouth-dropping. 2018 3 X CD on the one and only Мелодия.

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Phill Niblock – Music By Phill Niblock

 

Hello to everyone. Thank you for all the messages you have sent asking whether I am ok. To be honest, I am not. Since the last time last November many things have happened, including getting the covid, but that was the least serious. The strain on my mental health is very big and I now take anti-depressants and anti-psychotics to get me through. I can't promise I'll write frequently, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone.

So here's an awesome majestic droning minimal classic masterpiece by Phill Niblock. One track is a string quartet, the other one is two flutes but on an epic scale. 1993 cd on XI.

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Konstantia Gourzi – Anájikon

Greek modern classical composer, moods alternating between mournful homages to Mozart, ominous percussive ballet improvisations and epic string quartets. One of the best ECM releases in a long time. 2021 cd on ECM.

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Current 93 ‎– If A Star Turns Into Ashes (bonus: Soft Black Stars)

New C93 12" continuing in the recent dark ambient direction of Invocations of Almost and The Stars on their Horsies, something which I really really like. 2020 12" on The Spheres.

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As a bonus, here's a remastered version of Soft Black Stars (among my five top C93 albums), containing all three versions of the track "Chewing on Shadows." Originally released in 1998 on Durtro, this is the 2018 double LP re-release on The Spheres.

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PS: I've read there's going to be a collection of all C93 releases which feature collaborations with Thomas Ligotti (whose short story "Soft Black Stars" inspired this album anyway); really looking forward to it, as I Have A Special Plan For This World is my favorite Current 93 release ever.

Dmitri Shostakovich, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy ‎– The Last Three Symphonies

Probably the second-ever recording of Shostakovich's three last symphonies, which are darkness incarnate. 1975 3 X Lp on RCA.

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Mary Jane Leach ‎– Ariadne's Lament

1998 cd on New World Records.

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Mary Jane Leach ‎– (F)lute Songs

Another amazing work of avant-garde classical drone from Mary Jane Leach, the bibliographer of Julius Eastman. All tracks are great but the most remarkable one is "Bruckstück," which was originally featured on her Celestial Fires, but whereas there it is performed by eight sopranos, here it is by flutes. 2018 lp on Modern Love.

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Mary Jane Leach - Pipe Dreams

2017 LP on Blume.

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Mary Jane Leach - Celestial Fires

The most awesome choir ever. Absolutely perfect modern classical. 1993 cd on XI.

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Stephen O'Malley ‎– Gruidés LP

2015 LP on DDS.

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Heinz Holliger, György Kurtág ‎– Zwiegespräche

Heinz Holliger's Beiseit / Alb-Chehr was the first ECM-released recording I had ever heard and I still spin it quite often. In this recording, Holliger tracks are interwoven with tracks by Romanian composer György Kurtág, many of which are sung by a soprano singer. The tone of Holliger's oboe is unmistakable and the atmosphere here is so fragile and wintry, that it makes you just need to lie down and listen to this without doing anything. Superb. 2019 cd on ECM.

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Danish String Quartet - Prism II: Beethoven / Schnittke / Bach

On this second installation they start with Bach's "Fugue In B Minor BWV 869," continue with Alfred Schnittke's unsettling "String Quartet No. 3" and finish with Beethoven's lengthy "
String Quartet No. 13 In B-flat Major." Excellent again. 2019 cd on ECM.

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Danish String Quartet - Prism I: Beethoven / Shostakovich / Bach

Some music for the Xmas dinner. I find the concept of Danish String Quartet's Prism albums very interesting, as they start and finish them with tracks by Beethoven and Bach which envelope another, more modern composer. In this first installation, they set off with Bach's "Fugue in E-Flat Major" from The Well-Tempered Clavier and continue with Shostakovich's "String Quarter No.15 in E-Flat Minor," which is super-dark and droney (written juts a year before his death), with the violins occassionally sounding as if they had been played with an e-bow. They round the recording off on a much more optimistic tone with Beethoven's "String Quartet No. 12 In E-flat Major." DSQ is a talented group with great dialogue between the instruments and I think they are one of the most forward-looking classical music groups at the moment. 2018 cd on ECM.

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Joanna Brouk ‎– Hearing Music 2Xcd

Enchanting and meditating new age/drone/minimal classical by this overlooked Bay Area composer who had studied under Terry Riley and whose output included five tapes released in the 1980s after which she went silent. Fortunately, for those of us who are not willing to spend high amounts for those tapes on Discogs, Numero made this 2 X CD collecting some of her material (unfortunately not including all of her recording output) in 2016; however she sadly passed away one year later.

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Current 93 - The Stars On Their Horsies cd

As David Tibet says, this is something like a companion album to his/their new album The Light Is Leaving Us All. Gotta admit, I still haven't heard that one, so I'll probably need to listen to both and compare/relate them. The Stars On Their Horsies is a great return to form for C93, at least for me, since I found The Moons At Your Door unbearable (first Current 93 album in ages not to appeal to me) and this year's collaboration with Zu Mirror Emperor a complete snorefest. TSOTH is a dream/nightmare soundscape going into different moods, from the ghostly to the ethereal and from the agonizing to the nostalgic. It's a single 39-minute track that sounds quite different from most of C93/Tibet's work; there are few traces of neofolk sounds, nor much balladry. Noise has a prominent role here, as well as more orchestral/classical pieces creating a masterpiece of horror and uncertainty. One of the most accomplished C93 releases ever. 2018 cd on The Spheres

PS. I read that the lp version is different. Let's hope that sb will be kind enough to share that too.

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Michael Mantler - Cerco Un Paese Innocente

Amalgam of contemporary European jazz and classical on this musical interpretation of poems by Giuseppe Ungaretti (a very well-known Italian poet that was however affiliated with the fascist regime of Mussolini). 1995 cd on ECM.

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John Cage - Boris Berman ‎– Sonatas And Interludes For Prepared Piano

A great recording with superbly sounding reverb of Cage's 1946-1948 compositions for prepared piano. It's that good that I put my two-month old baby child to sleep to it- does it need any higher recommendation? Recorded by Berman in 1998, released by Naxos on cd in 1999.

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In Process ‎– Parsek cd

 

In Process is the musical vehicle of German pianist and composer Ulli Götte, through which he creates minimal modern classical music a-la Steve Reich. Mainly driven around piano, vibraphone and xylophone, but also sustained by a small ensemble composed of flute, synthesizer, violin, piano and contrabass, the style is close to Reich's "Piano Phase" and "Proverb" albeit more varied and climactic. 1994 cd on Edition al segno.

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