Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Purchasable with gift card
£20GBP or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Second edition - comes in a printed box
Includes unlimited streaming of There is nothing we really need to do that isn't dangerous - Rewilding John Cage
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Electronic music for piano/Music for Piano 21-36;37-52
Electronic Music for Piano is one of Cage’s most allusive scores – a list of ideas and suggestions scribbled on writing paper in the Hotel Malmen in Stockholm – almost an aide memoire. Music for Piano was written using the imperfections on the surface of manuscript paper to determine the placement of notes. In both cases, Cage needed to produce a score more quickly than the use of the I Ching alone would allow. On this realization, all electronic sounds were produced live by processing the sounds produced by the piano, using a range of contact and condenser microphones. The piano can be struck and rubbed, as well as being sounded more conventionally.
Branches
Branches is one of a group of pieces in which Cage allowed improvisation by the performer, but stipulated sound producing means which undermined the ability to produce predictable or reproducible effect. In this case, plant materials were stipulated, and so it seemed appropriate to record the piece in concert at Knoll Gardens, Stapehill, Dorset. Each of the four performers employed one or more cacti, and seed pods of Delonix regia. Other plant materials (seeds, foliage, wood, etc.) were sourced from Knoll Gardens. The recording was designed so that the piece is heard within the broader soundscape of the garden.
Cartridge Music
Cage’s contribution to electronic music was to allow electronic devices to have their own voice. The score of Cartridge Music encourages the incorporation of feedback and amplifier noise in the performance, so the various hisses and hums of our amplifiers continue to sound and sing even when we are not playing. Each performer employed a single vintage gramophone cartridge, into which a variety of different materials could be inserted as well as the conventional needle, and one or more contact microphones, which were excited with a range of different materials and found objects (including distressed gramophone records).
But what about the noise of crumpling paper which he used to do in order to paint the series of “Papiers froissés” or tearing up paper to make “Papiers déchirés?” Arp was stimulated by water (sea, lake, and flowing waters like rivers), forests
The sound of an artist at work, inspired by nature, becomes the sound of a work of art, celebrating the accidental, ambiguous and half-heard. Each player uses at least two only slightly resonant instruments of different materials played in unison. In addition, each may conjure forth sounds of water, paper crumpling or others which suggest events in nature. A mixture of musical, natural, industrial and domestic materials were selected by each player at their discretion.
Four6
This is one of the first Cage works which we performed as a group. It is dedicated to Pauline Oliveros and is imbued with the spirit of her generosity and openness. Each performer is instructed to produce twelve sounds, each with fixed characteristics (amplitude, overtone structure, etc.). On this occasion, we chose to follow the permission in the score to fill the time brackets and produce a dense and continuous sonic field, and so chose instruments that can produce sustained tones.
Ryoanji
The rock garden at Ryoan-ji Temple in Kyoto provided Cage with the inspiration for a series of musical and visual works. For the Ryoanji compositions, Cage drew around stones, placed on staves which matched the proportions of the garden, and these contours became a graphic score illustrating microtonal glissandi within constrained pitch ranges. This studio rendition arranges the pieces for voice, oboe, and bass, with the oboe and bass pieces rendered by saxophone and synthesizer respectively. The percussion part functions like the gravel which surrounds the rocks in the garden.
Anarchy
This world premiere recording of Anarchy is inspired by Lecture On the Weather – Cage’s most politically engaged work. Divinations from the I Ching were used to assign readers to the chapters of the poem, and to assign time brackets to the chapters. Field recordings from common land in Dorset and Hampshire were also given time brackets. The commons are a utility shared by humans, animals and plants, governed by custom. The text of Anarchy consists of quotations from anarchist thinkers and activists, arranged into mesostics.
Four4
The enhanced audio quality of CD recording and playback gave listeners access to a perfect digital silence. Cage composed Four4 with this medium in mind. We used resonant percussion to punctuate this. These sounds will emerge into your ambient listening environment, and disappear again. We invite you to enjoy both equally.
credits
released December 5, 2018
Compositions by John Cage, performed by Gerauschhersteller
Tom Cleverley - percussion, electronics, voice, trumpet
Steve Gibson - percussion, electronics, voice, harmonium, piano
Adrian Newton - percussion, electronics, voice, field recordings, synthesisers
Stuart Riddle - percussion, electronics, voice, accordion, saxophone
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Adrian Newton. Field recordings by Adrian Newton at Leigh Common, Shapwick Common and the New Forest.
Recorded at Horton and Chalbury Village Hall, Dorset on Saturday 8th September, 2018. Branches recorded at Knoll Gardens on Saturday 28th April, 2018. Ryoanji and Anarchy recorded at Uplands and Basement Studios, Wimborne, August - October 2018.
All works published by Peters Edition (London) except Anarchy, which is published by Wesleyan University Press. All arrangements by Gerauschhersteller. All quotations from 'Diary: how to improve the world (you will only make it worse)' by John Cage.
Typography and layout by Scott Russell - creative-lab.co.uk
Cactus graphics by Adrian Newton. Band photograph by Lynn Davy. Photographs of Ryoan-ji and Tofuku-ji by Stuart Riddle.
supported by 11 fans who also own “There is nothing we really need to do that isn't dangerous - Rewilding John Cage”
As label-mate Philip Thomas did for piano, Apartment House is setting the standard for Morton Feltman’s works for strings. The care and sensitivity shown to the music has made them, for me, the standard editions. That is certainly true with Violin and String Quartet.
I hope they will eventually take on the Sting Quartets (although I understand the challenges the second poses), and other chamber works. Michael Flaherty
A collection of improvised baritone sax and flute compositions that strike a compelling balance between softness and spontaneity. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 10, 2024
St Celfer returns with tracks culled from a series of live shows, each one a showcase for his inventive experimentalism. Bandcamp New & Notable Jun 26, 2023