The Manhattan Percussion Ensemble / conductors: John Cage and Paul Price / Christoph Caskel: percussion / David Tudor: piano / Aloys Kontarsky: piano, wood blocks / Bernhard Kontarsky: celeste, antique cymbals / MEV (from Rome: Ala Bryant / Alvin Curran / Frederic Rzewski / Richard Teitelbaum / Ivan Vandor): electronics / AMM (from London: Cornelius Cardew / Lou Gare / Christopher Hobbs / Eddie Prévost / Keith Rowe): electronics

Earle Brown’s legendary Contemporary Sound Series will be released on WERGO CDs. Recorded between 1960 and 1973, the original eighteen LPs have been highly sought after in the secondary market since 1978 when they were discontinued. These rare and historically important recordings of international avant-garde music have been carefully digitized and remastered by the Earle Brown Music Foundation.
The series - re-released on WERGO since 2009 - presents the extraordinary world of contemporary and avant-garde music that flourished in Europe, the United States, Latin America and Japan in the 1960s and early 1970s.

The first CD set (for original LP covers please see below) contains works by, among others, John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Mauricio Kagel, performed by Christoph Caskel, David Tudor, Aloys and Bernhard Kontarsky, The Manhattan Percussion Ensemble, Paul Price and the ensembles for electronic music, AMM from London (with: Cornelius Cardew, Lou Gare, Christopher Hobbs, Eddie Prévost, and Keith Rowe) and MEV Musica Elettronica Viva from Rome (with: Alan Bryant, Alvin Curran, Frederic Rzewski, Richard Teitelbaum, and Ivan Vandor).



Content:
Earle Brown – A Life in Music – Vol. I:

CD 1: Concert Percussion for Orchestra
Amadeo Roldán: Ritmicas Nos. 5 & 6
Lou Harrison: Canticle No. 1
William Russell: Three Dance Movements
Henry Cowell: Ostinato Pianissimo
William Russell: Three Cuban Pieces
John Cage and Lou Harrison: Double Music
John Cage: Amores

CD 2: Stockhausen – Kagel
Karlheinz Stockhausen: Zyklus / Refrain
Mauricio Kagel: Transición II

CD 3: Live Electronic Music Improvised
MEV: Spacecraft
AMM