Kory Reeder and John Cage albums on Another Timbre set pulses running

The two albums below have plenty in common with one another. Both feature compositions by Americans played by Apartment House, a UK-based ensemble who are featured on Another Timbre often enough to be considered the label's house band. The eight Cage compositions heard here were all composed between 1943 and 1951, earlier than Cage's 1952 silent composition 4' 33" which made him notorious across the world. For admirers of Cage's later works such as his number pieces, the selections here may not be instantly recognisable as Cage. On August 12th 1992, Cage passed away a month short of his 80th birthday. In 1993, Kory Reeder was born...

Kory Reeder
Homestead
Another Timbre
2025

Despite his relatively young age, Kory Reeder has already produced well over a hundred scores, the earliest dating from 2017 and the Covid years being particularly fertile for him. He has composed in a range of genres which include large ensemble, soloist with orchestra, choral, chamber (5+ players), quartets, trios, duos, solo, open ensemble pieces, art songs, stage music, electronic music, field recordings. In addition, Homestead is his second album release on Another Timbre, his first on that label having been entitled Codex Vivere recorded in December 2021 by Apartment House. Prior to those releases, Reeder's first album Love Songs, Duets had been released on the prestigious Editions Wandelweiser Records. Two other Reeder albums have been released on the Sawyer Editions label which Reeder himself set up in 2022. Although Reeder's composition "Homestead" for string quartet is dated 2024, he says that the idea for it came in 2023 during his time as Artist in Residence at Homestead National Historical Park in Beatrice, Nebraska. Despite that connection, the music was recorded by Another Timbre's Simon Reynell at St Andrews United Reform Church, Sheffield in July 2024. The piece comprises four movements with the first and second halves separated by an interlude. Two violins, a viola and a cello all play throughout with no other breaks, creating an atmosphere which is very listenable and engaging from first note to last—an equal credit to Reeder and to Apartment House.

John Cage
Chamber Works...1943-1951
Another Timbre
2025

The eighteen tracks on Chamber Works...1943-1951 date from the period indicated by the album title, but are not necessarily heard in chronological order. Of the eighteen tracks, six are to be heard on violin and piano, in "Six Melodies" (1950), four others in "String Quartet in Four Parts" (1950) and four more in "Amores" (1943). Cage began composing pieces for solo prepared piano in 1938 to 1940; a prepared piano is a piano that has had its sounds altered temporily by placing bolts, screws. mutes, rubber erasers and/or other objects on or between the strings. Its invention is usually traced to Cage's dance music for "Bacchanale" (1938) created for a performance in a Seattle venue. With four further Cage compositions for prepared piano appearing in 1942 ("Totem Ancestor," "And the Earth Shall Bear Again," "Primitive," "In the Name of the Holocaust") and three more in 1943 alongside "Amores."
Leaving aside that opportunity to investigate Cage's early prepared piano compositions, the album strikes a good balance between piano alone, piano plus another instrument, string quartet, even prepared piano plus percussion -not a common combination in the period 1943-1951. Like so many recordings of Cage's work, the album is satisfying enough to be listened to for hours, but not as satisfying as it could be... good news, surely, as there is still scope to explore and record more of the great man's compositions

Tracks and Personnel

Homestead

Tracks: Homestead for string quartet (2024) I Hymns: from a dog-eared book found in an unmarked box II Sonata: from preserved quilts and fabrics Interlude: Pax Americana III Rondo: from several fragile plate negatives iv Waltz theme and variations from a hand-written fragment

Personnel: Apartment House: Chihiro Ono & Amalia Young, violins; Bridget Carey: viola; Anton Lukoszevieze: cello

Chamber Works...1943-1951

Tracks: In a Landscape for piano (1948); Six Melodies for violin & piano (1950); Amores for prepared piano & percussion; Haikus for piano (1951); String Quartet in Four Parts (1950); Music for Marcel Duchamp for prepared piano (1942); Dream for piano& cello (1948)

Personnel: Kerry Young: piano (1-7, 12,18)Prepared piano (8, 11,17);Mira Benjamin: violin (2-7, 13-16); Gordon MacKay: violin (13-16); Bridget Carey: viola (13-16); Anton Lukoszevieze; cello (13-16, 18); Simon Limbrick; tom toms, & pod rattle (9), home-made woodblocks (10).