Mode Records

NEW ON MODE RECORDS!
LUIGI NONO: Works with Flute

1. A Pierre. Dell’azzurro silenzio, inquietum (1985) 8:23
for contrabass flute in G, contrabass clarinet in B flat and live electronics

2. Das atmende Klarsein, fragmente (1980/87) 17:10
for bass flute, magnetic tape and live electronics

3. Musiche per Manzù (1969) 17:35
for magnetic tape (acousmatic version)

4. Roberto Fabbriciani: A “Omaggio a Luigi Nono” (2006) 12:00
for piccolo, tape and live electronics

Roberto Fabbriciani, flutes, piccolo (1,2,4)
Ulrich Krieger, double-bass clarinet (1)
Alvise Vidolin, live electronics, sound direction
Alessandro Fiordelmondo, live electronics assistant

mode 349
CD $14.99 + shipping
5.1 Surround (download only from Mode's website) $24.99
96khz/24-bit hi res (download only from Mode's website) $19.99
https://moderecords.com/catalog/349nono/

Bandcamp: https://moderecords.bandcamp.com/album/luigi-nono-volume-2-works-with-flute-mode-349

Luigi Nono (1924 –1990) was a great innovator in the use of spatialization of sound and experimentation with performance space, non-linear time and the collapsing between sound and silence.

His compositional process was increasingly involved with specific performers, whom he chose for their tone and expressive characteristics. This trust reflects on Nono’s interest in collaboration, developing the idea that traditional musical notation is limited and cannot reproduce the complexity of performance he reached with every performer.

One of Nono’s most fruitful collaborations was developed with flutist Roberto Fabbriciani during the 1980s. The works
presented here –– selected by Fabbriciani and Alvise Vidolin –– explores Nono’s music as it is defined by space (and/or the acoustic space) rather than time — a labyrinthine acoustic environment in which the works seem to float on the threshold of sound and silence, fluctuating from one place to another.

In A Pierre. Dell’azzurro silenzio, inquietum, the interplay between flute, clarinet and live electronics and their timbral fusion are at the core of the compositional process. Once the live electronic manipulation of sound moves above the threshold of silence, the listener should no longer be able to detect whether a given sound heard was produced by one of the two performers or reproduced by electronic/digital equipment.

Das Atmende Klarsein, fragmente is a reduced version of Nono’s work for small choir, bass flute soloist and live electronics. It is the first outcome of the intense collaboration between Fabbriciani and Nono. In the original piece, Nono composed two distinct worlds, one of choir, the other of bass flute. As they never perform together, the bass flute part later became a solo piece after undergoing transformations with the various performances by Fabbriciani (this is typical of Nono’s work in progress).

The tape piece, Musiche per Manzù, was created for a short documentary that shows the work that Italian sculptor Giacomo Manzù did to realize the bronze doors of St. Francis church in Rotterdam.

Fabbriciani’s A “Omaggio a Luigi Nono” is also an homage to the last years of their friendship. It reflects both his own research on extended techniques, and Nono’s reduction to the essential nature of sound and music. The acoustic part interacts with the tape part made with prerecorded piccolo sounds. The assembling, mixing and spatialization of the recorded sounds is conceived by Alvise Vidolin.

Liner notes by Laura Zattra.

NEW ON MODE RECORDS!
GERALD ECKERT: night, falling

CD1:
1. späte Gegend (2018) for orchestra 22:09
2. Schemen – Feld 30 (2017) for contrabassclarinet & electronics 14:50
3. Nacht, die fallende (2020) for violoncello, orchestra &
live-electronics 20:09

CD2:
1. ferne Tiefe (2020/21) for contrabass flute, orchestra,
live-electronics & tape 26:18
2. Kisalpah (2019) for ensemble & electronics 19:19
3. im Endlichen, dehnbar (2006/23) for accordion 11:19
4. instead of (empty rooms II) (2019) for ensemble & tape 18:43

Ensemble Reflexion K, norddeutsche sinfonietta
Gerald Eckert, violoncello, electronics, direction
Burkart Zeller, violoncello
Eva Zöllner, accordion
Beatrix Wagner, contrabass flute
Joachim Striepens, contrabassclarinet
Ivan Ferrer-Orozco, Andre Bartetzki, live-electronics

mode 340/41 (2-CDs)
$29.98 from https://moderecords.com/catalog/347eckert/
$24 digital download from Bandcamp:
https://moderecords.bandcamp.com/album/night-falling-mode-347
or from your usual sources

Gerald Eckert’s third release on Mode, night, falling, is a 2-CD set of mostly works for orchestra, often with electronics.

Eckert says: “I am fascinated by orchestral works containing the structures of chamber music. For me, the definition of orchestra is not characterized by its large scale, but genuinely through its individual voices.”

His music explores the marginal edges of sound, fractures in tonal constructs, crystalline solidification and instabilities which (for him) always symbolize existential dimensions.

Liner notes by Egbert Hiller. In English, German and French.

This article in VARIETY delves into the truth about ever dwindling streaming royalties. Here taken from songwriters' perspective, and I'm amazed to learn that they get even less of the $.004 per stream than the artists, publishers and record labels do!

In any case, it's a terribly unfair situation. And, while the article talks of Spotify's poor payment to the creators of their content, it is important to know that Youtube pays even less than Spotify!

Songwriters Are Getting Screwed by Streaming Even Worse Than They’d Thought, New Study Shows It is no secret that songwriters are at the bottom of the streaming economy. But a new report shows they receive 9.5% of the average $.004 per stream.

NEW on Mode Records!
"Actions | Remarks: John Cage's Variations" book + CD!

Book edited by Cat Hope and Lindsay Vickery,
including CD recording of the 8 John Cage ‘Variations’ (1958–76), recorded by the Australian ensemble Decibel.

Authors featured are Leta E. Miller, David P. Miller, Vincent Bonin, Paul van Emmerik, Thomas DeLio, James Pritchett, Cat Hope, Lindsay Vickery, Stuart James and an introduction by Warren Burt.

Book + CD. First edition. 251 pages. ISBN 978-7645930343
Printed in Germany
The Complete John Cage Edition, Volume 55
mode 342
$34.99 + shipping direct from Mode Records
https://moderecords.com/catalog/342cage/
Audio available digitally on Bandcamp
https://cageedition.bandcamp.com/album/complete-john-cage-edition-volume-55-actions-remarks-john-cages-variations-mode-342

The eight ‘Variations’ compositions by John Cage reflect the most productive years of his compositional life — from Variation I in 1958 to Variation VIII in 1976. They show the evolution of some of the earliest aleatoric, multimedia and spatial approaches to contemporary live music performance.

This book brings together new and existing perspectives, experiences and backgrounds to these remarkable works, explored by leading International Cage scholars and practitioners. The writings are complemented with a CD recording of Decibel’s Complete John Cage Variations Project, an hour long performance program featuring the Variations I – VIII. The works are performed using annotated digital scores created within the ensemble, automating many of the manual processes that resulting in new, accurate versions that align with Cage’s artistic aims. Traditional acoustic instruments and period electronics are featured alongside photocells, Arduino boards, online messaging services and calls, noise bass guitar, shortwave radio and custom DIY circuitry.

Rare composer notes and missing parts were sourced from the John Cage Trust, New York Public Library and Langlois Foundation. Published in conjunction with Cage’s publisher Peters Edition, the scores developed for the project are available via the Apple store.

Decibel is a new music ensemble and artistic research team that focuses on the integration of acoustic and electronic instruments in chamber music performance, founded in Western Australia in 2009. They are world-leading interpreters of graphic notations and pioneer digital score formats for composition and performance. This includes the ongoing development of their successful Decibel ScorePlayer App for iPad, enabling coordinated performance of graphic notations for musicians and composers internationally. They have released 7 albums and tour internationally regularly.

Cat Hope is an artist scholar whose research interests include animated notation, gender and music, Australian music, digital archiving, as well as music composition and performance as artistic research. She has been awarded Civitella Ranieri, Churchill and Hamburg Institute for Advanced Study Fellowships, and is co-author of ‘Digital Arts – An Introduction to New Media (Bloomsbury, 2014) and co-editor of ‘Contemporary Musical Virtuosities’ (Routledge, 2024). She is a Professor at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

Lindsay Vickery is a composer/performer whose music includes works for acoustic and electronic instruments in interactive-electronic, improvised or fully notated settings, ranging from solo pieces to opera and has been commissioned by numerous groups for concert, dance and theatre. He writes and presents on a range of topics, most recently on the emergence of the “screenscore”, nonlinear music and the realisation of Cage’s music. He is head of composition and music technology at the WA Academy of Performing Arts at Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia.