[3 composizioni per presentare i differenti modelli creativi di Kenneth Kirschner: uno studio su silenzio e armonia, una contrapposizione di percussioni acustiche e suoni digitali, ed un lunghissimo affresco lowercase per piano microtonale, percussioni e rumore.]

Three Compositions" presents a cross-section of composer Kenneth Kirschner's highly diverse output. The collection includes "July 17, 2006", a spare study in simple harmony and silence; "April 27, 2004", an ever-shifting, rhythmic juxtaposition of acoustic percussion and digital sound; and the nearly 40-minute "May 3, 1997" for microtonal piano, percussion, and noise, one of Kirschner's signature pieces. For those new to his music, "Three Compositions" offers an ideal introduction to Kirschner's large body of work, while those already familiar with it will appreciate the opportunity to hear these recordings in the highest sound quality yet available.

Twenty one artists were invited to contribute a sound piece inspired by Karlheinz Stockhausen's seminal composition premiered in 1956: Gesang Der Jünglinge.
If a music piece is taught in music lessons in highschool, and held high as a landmark of a specific style or method or epoch,we would add it to the common cultural goods, just as we might do with our knowledge of, say, statesmen or famous artists. Therefore we would speak of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Gesang der Jünglinge as part of our common cultural goods, and as the example of electronic music that is widely known outside its field. The piece has even been embraced by popular culture:The Beatles as the composer himself advertises on his website have not only used a black and white photograph of Stockhausen on the cover of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", but Paul McCartney has also claimed "Gesang der Jünglinge" as his favorite piece by Stockhausen. The band "Sonic Youth" has declared that their name directly stems from the piece's title.
Apart from these general facts, the piece marks a turning point in electronic music for its use of spatialisation on multichannel speakers as well as the unique melting of human voice and electronically generated sound.
The works on this CD are not plain homage, nor are they sampled from the original. They are rather a survey of the current state of electronic/electroacoustic music that exists half outside the academic music life. The composers, musicians and artists on this CD are interested in locating themselves within their own history by further exploring the topics of sound spatialization and/or use of human voice with electronics, or they undertake a transformation of the original concept towards a personal approach to the sound, or to the original's biblical words.

Disc I
1. Janek Schaefer
2. Andrew Deutsch
3. André Gonçalves
4. jgrzinich
5. Stephen Vitiello
6. Heitor Alvelos
7. Maksim Shentelev
8. Marc Behrens
9. Rui Costa
10. Anthony Pateras & Robin Fox
11. yoko.lennon

Disc II
1. Anna Homler & Michael Intriere
2. Achim Wollscheid
3. Steve Roden
4. Asmus Tietchens
5. @c
6. Dale Lloyd
7. Derek Holzer
8. Paulo Raposo
9. James Eck Rippie
10. CM von Hausswolff

Pieces of Winter by John Hudak and Stephan Mathieu" is based on one composition by each of the two sound artists originally made for a small personal edition as season greetings for friends in the winter of 2002/2003. John Hudaks recordings for Winter Garden were based on a contact microphone buried overnight in snow that turned to ice, then he recorded snow falling on this enveloping ice. The basic recordings for Stephan Mathieus Nuit Blanche were made on christmas eve 2002 with Eva-Lucy Mathieu on ocarina and Stephan Mathiue on pump organ. Finally these original pieces were exchanged and transformed into a calm, minimal suite of digital variations.

This cd contains 3 pieces inspired by Arnold Shoenberg's 'The Book of the Hanging Gardens' and in particular the poems by Stefan George that Shoenberg used as lyrics. Track one uses Steve Roden's voice reading/singing part of the text as the only sound material. Track two uses the vowel structure from the text as a score for striking five tones on a small chime. Track three uses samples from the Shoenberg work as well as Roden's voice singing the same text as track one.

"speak no more about the leaves
thieved by the wind
nor about ripebursting quinces
nor the tread of winter's vandals down the year
nor the trembling of the dragonflies when rain falls
nor the candles flickering in the fickle air."

"Nel suo ultimo lavoro Steve Roden infonde vita al panorama elettroacustico impiegando l'elemento meno ortodosso in quest'ambito, la voce, quello stesso elemento che ci aveva incantato in dischi come "Humming Endlessly..." e "The Radio". [...] Soave e leggero, il disco lambisce territori d'ascolto in permanente fluire, dimostrando la maestria di Roden nel dare forma agli stati d'animo più mutevoli. Qui la voce non è semplice pretesto o punto di partenza da modificare e rendere irriconoscibile, ma appare senza filtri in tutta la sua fragilità di elemento umano: non uno strumento "educato" al canto ma strumento invece d'un canto interiore che manifesta cedimenti ma anche passaggi di unica e umana bellezza...." [Daniela Cascella - Blow-up]