Browse by Label: NEW TONE (ITALY)

Artist:	REICH, STEVE
Title:	Four Organs/Phase Patterns
Label:	NEW TONE (ITALY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	NT 5018CD

1990 CD reissue of this classic album, originally issued by the Shandar label, 1971. A core set of Minimalism icons, these 2 works are as significant as significant gets. These are the original and best recordings (there are a few others, none terrible, but you wouldn't want to start out with Bang On a Can's versions, please!). Listed as #4 on Alan Lichts' "Minimal Top Ten". "This is an important and peculiar recording. Important because it is the first available recording of a live performance of Steve Reich's music played by real musicians and moreover by an ensemble. Up to then his main work 'It's Gonna Rain' and 'Come Out' for magnetic tape and the various 'phase' (violin phase, piano phase, reed phase) for solo/duo instruments. Performed by Reich, Philip Glass (today very well-known American composer) on keyboard, Jon Gibson, composer and saxophone player with the P. Glass Ensemble, on keyboard and maracas, Art Murphy, keyboard, also with P. Glass Ensemble during the '70s, and Steve Chambers, composer and keyboardist, first with the P. Glass Ensemble, then in solo. Peculiar recording both for the instrumentation: electric organs and for the music. Reich has used very rarely electric instruments in his music. The choice of four electric organs, here, gives a 'strange' sound to the music, very different from other pieces of the same composer. At a superficial level it resembles very much of certain recordings of Philip Glass in the seventies. In 'Four Organs' (and maracas) it is presented, for the first time, the 'slow motion music': the basic chord becomes longer and longer, resembling the movement of the pendulum that slowly reaches the quietness, the same for the composition that at the end acquires the ecstatic quality of Indian mantras. 'Phase Patterns', as from the title, is based on the phasing process, here more complicated by the presence of four performers and anticipating the results of the following Reich masterpiece, 'Drumming'."

Artist:	RILEY, TERRY
Title:	Persian Surgery Dervishes
Label:	NEW TONE (ITALY)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$26.00
Catalog #:	NT 6715CD

1993 CD reissue, original recordings from 1971/2. Terry Riley: electric organ + feed back. "This is the reprint, in CD format (2 CD), of one of the masterpieces of American minimal music: Persian Surgery Dervishes by Terry Riley. Originally issued by Shandar in France as double LP album, the recording went out-of-stock in the early eighties and since then became a collector's item. Recorded in two different concerts in 1971 and 1972 in Los Angeles and Paris, Persian Surgery Dervishes presents two different versions of the title track. Terry Riley, all alone with his keyboards and feed-back, improvises on a basic structure strongly influenced by the emotion and the relationship with the audience. The results are two very different versions: one, the American, very dynamic with moments that reach trance-like peaks resembling the dance of whirling dervishes. The other one, recorded in Paris, is more meditative and thoughtful, dominated by a deep sense of quietness. The music is organized in the typical minimalism vein but it is rich in emotion, an element not always present in such intensity in the music of any style. The emotion is strictly related to the high degree of improvisation we can find in Riley's music that mixes the traditions of the Western and Indian Classic Music. Persian Surgery Dervishes is also one of the milestones of the psychedelic era of the '70s."

Artist:	PALESTINE, CHARLEMAGNE
Title:	Strumming Music
Label:	NEW TONE (ITALY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	NT 6742CD

1995 CD reissue of one of the alltime classic artifacts of Minimalism. Originally issued on LP in the contemporary composer series on the legendary Shandar label. "Charlemagne Palestine is probably the least known, and the most legendary, among the great masters of the American Minimal Music, but he is not, for this reason, less important. Differently from La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass, Charlemagne Palestine, after a first phase of intense research to definite the musical language that in the late seventies will be called Minimalism, preferred to dedicate his creativity in the visual arts field presenting very personal installation with exhibition in many important galleries getting a very successful response. This choice cut him out of the musical world, his carrier as pianist and composer was interrupted and he never succeeded in getting the public recognition his musical activity deserved. The music consists of a single track of approximately 45 minutes per solo piano played by Palestine. A composition very strong and intense, the acoustic sound of the piano, thanks to a great technique and a very strong physical force, becomes the sound of an entire Orchestra full of harmonics. From the historical point of view gives the opportunity to discover the music of one the pioneer of the minimal music."

Artist:	GIBSON, JON
Title:	Visitations I + II + Thirties
Label:	NEW TONE (ITALY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	NT 6747CD

New editions of these all-time classic minimalist works, originally issued on the Chatham Square label in the LP era, reissued on CD by New Tone in the mid-90s -- and available again. "American composer and saxophone player Jon Gibson is one of the most important exponents of the American Minimal Music school. He is the only musician to have performed with the three major figures of this school: Philip Glass, Steven Reich and Terry Riley. As a performer Gibson took part in several very important world premieres, such as 'Drumming' by Steve Reich, 'In C' by Terry Riley and 'Einstein on the Beach' by Philip Glass. He is a founding member of the Philip Glass Ensemble. This is a reissue on CD of Gibson's first LP, which was originally issued by Philip Glass' extremely collectable Chatham Square label in the seventies. This CD version presents the original material that appeared on the LP, as well as previously unissued material. The original tracks were two long compositions: Visitations I - II, that Gibson describes as 16 Multi Track-Textured Environmental Soundscape. The music presentes several layers of sounds, mostly natural, that create a very unique Environmental Soundscape." The previously unreleased "Thirties" is from the ICES Festival, 1972, and features Gavin Bryars, David Rosenboom, and others.

Artist:	GIBSON, JON
Title:	Two Solo Pieces
Label:	NEW TONE (ITALY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	NT 6756CD

Second, equally essential Jon Gibson reissue, available again. "This is a reissue on CD of Gibson's second LP, which was originally issued by Philip Glass' extremely collectible Chatham Square label in 1977. This CD version presents presents five pieces, three of which are unissued. 'Cycles', for solo organ, uses a seven note melodic progression in four-part harmony exploring various technique on the pipe organ. 'Untitled', for solo alto flute, is a long melody where the note sequence is indicated while the other elements of the performance (duration, phrasing, tempo, ...) are left to the player choices. Both these compositions combine elements of the written structure with elements of improvisation. Then there are three unissued compositions. 'Melody IV Part 1' is part of a series of Ťmelodyť pieces that use the same melodic material in different contest. Another piece of the Ťmelodyť series is 'Melody III', for Yamaha Organ, built around the number 36 and his possible divisions. To close the CD, 'Song 1' for quartet that echoes, in the sound and instrumentation, a string quartet with soprano sax, violin and two cellos. The inspiration source is almost traditional and the result is very charming and nice. On cello on this track there is the great American composer and performer Arthur Russell. This release offers another possibility to discover the music of composer Jon Gibson and, more in general, of another side of the American Minimal Music."

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