download and LISTEN
to mp3 audio samples:
• Blue Diamonds (3.5 MB)
• Cage Machine Excerpt (3.2 MB)
• Chorale Times Two Excerpt (3.6 MB)
• Columbus -from Pioneer (4.3 MB)
• Cornucopia Excerpt (3.9 MB)
• Din of Iniquity Excerpt (3.9 MB)
• Double Ikat Excerpt (2.6 MB)
• Racer --from the 3rd movement of Elapsed Time (4.4 MB)
• Sleeping with the Light On --from Slow Fire (4 MB)
• So Sleep --from Power Failure (4.4 MB)
• Sound Stage Lyric Quartet (3.3 MB)
• Sound Stage Violin - Tubes (1.5 MB)
• Twenty Years--from Power Failure (4 MB)
• Unequal Distemperment - 1st Movement Excerpt (3.4 MB)
About the
MP3 files:
These files will download to your hard drive and then must be played with an
MP3 player. If you have a connection speed higher than 128kbs you can open
them from the site, but you still must use an MP3 player.
DISCOGRAPHY - Studio Recordings Available On CD
Cage Machine New Albion 2004
Paul
Dresher's new CD includes ten years of innovative, industrial
strength "chamber music with a clang." Released
on the prestigious New Albion label, the CD celebrates
Dresher's unique musical language and vision.
Format: CD
Price: $15.00
Slow Fire
Minmax 1992
• MP3
Sample: Sleeping with the Light On(4
MB)
Format:
CD
Price: $15.00
Score
for the music theater collaboration with writer/performer
Rinde Eckert. A high quality studio recording of the first
part of the Ensemble's "American Trilogy." Composed by
Dresher, written and performed by vocalist/actor extraordinaire
Rinde Eckert and directed by Richard E.T. White, this
work is considered a masterpiece of multi-disciplinary
collaboration and has been performed over 200 times throughout
the US and Europe.
Dark
Blue Circumstance
New Albion 1993
• MP3
Sample: Double Ikat
Excerpt (2.6 MB)
Format: CD
Price: $15.00
A retrospective of
chamber music composed by Paul Dresher between 1979
and 1990 and containing Double Ikat (trio for
violin, piano and percussion), Dark Blue Circumstance
(for electric guitar and tape processing), Channels
Passing (chamber septet) and Night Songs
(for 3 singers and six musicians), performed by Abel-Steinberg-Winant
Trio, Paul Dresher, New Performance Group with Thomasa
Eckert, Rinde Eckert & John Duykers.
Format: CD
Price: $15.00
A techno-primitive collaboration between guitarist Dresher and multi-woodwind artist Ned Rothenberg on New World Records. Other musicians are: electric bass guitarist Anthony Jackson, bassist Mark Dresser, and drummers Bobby Previte, Gene Reffkin and Samm Bennett. This work evolved from the virtuoso extended instrumental techniques employed by Rothenberg and Dresher. The result is manipulated using Dresher’s tape loop system involving the extensive use of sampling and sequencing.
Casa Vecchia
Starkland 1995
"A Gorgeous Gem" –Wired magazine
Format:
CD
Price: $15.00
A collection of four
electro-acoustic and chamber works: Contains the title
work Casa Vecchia and 3 electro-acoustic compositions:
Underground, Other Fire, and Mirrors
for electric bassist Robert Black. The title cut is a
string quartet which was commissioned by the Kronos Quartet
and recorded here as a double quartet by Ensemble 9 from
Vienna.
This Same Temple
Lovely Music 1996
Format:
CD
Price: $15.00
This Lovely CD is the
reissue of Dresher's first LP from 1983 with the addition
of two later works. It contains the title cut, for electric
guitar and tape processing, This Same Temple, for
two pianos performed by Double Edge, Liquid and Stellar
Music, for electric guitar and live tape processingDestiny,
for electric guitar, drums and tape processing, and
the electro-acoustic work, Water Dreams.
Chamber and
Orchestral Music by Paul Dresher
Live Performance Recordings (not commercially reproduced)
Excerpts from Sound Stage
2001
•
MP3 Samples: Sound Stage Lyric Quartet
(3.3 MB)
• Sound
Stage Violin - Tubes
(1.5 MB)
Format:
Price: $15.00
Audio excerpts from the
Dresher's 2001 music-theater work with a set made entirely
of invented musical instruments. Performed by the renowned
Minneapolis-based new music ensemble Zeitgeist and Paul
Dresher. 50 minutes.
Cornucopia (1990)
re:act:ion (1984)
• MP3
Sample: Cornucopia Excerpt
(3.9 MB)
Format:
Price: $15.00
Recording of Dresher's two works for orchestra.
Cornucopia (1990) was commissioned and performed by the
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, 16 minutes. re:act:ion (1984)
was commissioned and performed by the San Francisco Symphony,
27 minutes. Both works are conducted by John Adams.
Live Performance Recordings of Music Theater, Opera, and Dance
The Gates (Far Away
Near)
1993
Format:
Price: $15.00
Highly acclaimed score
for the Ensemble's collaboration with the Margaret
Jenkins Dance Company, and writers Michael Palmer & Rinde
Eckert. A celebration of humanity and its relationship
to cities. This recording features Dresher on keyboards & MIDI
guitar, Craig Fry on violin, Miguel Frasconi on keyboards
and Gene Reffkin on drums. Duplicated from DAT master
compiled from live performances. Very high quality,
80 min.
Kalasam
Format:
Price: $15.00
Recording of the Dresher's score for his
collaboration with Nancy Karp + Dancers. This recording
features Paul Dresher on his invented instrument, the
Quadrachord, and Joel Davel on Marimba Lumina.
In The Name
Format:
Price: $15.00
Recording of the Ensemble's collaboration
with Allyson Green Dance. This recording features Paul
Dresher on his invented instrument, the Quadrachord, and
Joel Davel on Marimba Lumina.
Shelf Life
1987
Format:
Price: $15.00
Excellent studio recording of the award
winning 1987 collaboration between Dresher, writer/performer
Rinde Eckert and the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company.
45 minutes.
Power Failure
1989-90
• MP3
Sample: Twenty Years (4
MB)
Format:
Two CDs
Price: $20.00
A live performance 8-track
recording of the second installment of the Ensemble’s "American
Trilogy." A mystery in the form of "opera noire" about
corporate greed. Text by Rinde Eckert and performed
by singers John Duykers, Rinde Eckert, Stephanie Friedman
and Thomasa Eckert, and musicians Ned Rothenberg, Miguel
Frasconi, Gene Reffkin and Paul Dresher.
Pioneer
• MP3
Sample: Columbus(4.3
MB)
Format:
Price: $15.00
A live recording of
the final installment of the "American Trilogy." A
wild and profane look at America’s cherished myths
of conquest. Text by Rinde Eckert, Terry Allen and
Jo Harvey Allen with two songs by Terry Allen. Performed
by John Duykers, Rinde Eckert and Jo Harvey Allen and
musicians Phil Aaberg, Craig Fry, Gene Reffkin and
Dresher.
Awed Behavior
1993
Format:
Price: $15.00
Dresher and Eckert’s collaboration
with singers Amanda Moody and Spence Stephens. Featuring
a musical quartet that includes Phil Aaberg on keyboards,
Paul Hanson on bassoon, clarinet and saxophone, Gene
Reffkin on drums and Dresher on MIDI guitar and samplers.
This recording is copied from the live digital master.
80 minutes.
SeeHear 1984
Format:
Price: $15.00
Music from the experimental
music theater work created in collaboration with George
Coates Performance Works. For soprano, two tenors and
13 instrumentalists. 80 minutes.
Releases of Music by Paul Dresher Performed by Other Artists
From the Left Edge: Vicki Ray, piano
CRI - 1999
• MP3
Sample: Blue
Diamonds
(3.5 MB)
Format:
Price: $15.00
Acclaimed pianist Vicki
Ray shines in this new disc featuring compositions
by Paul Dresher ("Blue Diamonds", 1995,18 minutes),
Ensemble percussionist Amy Knoles ("Belgo") and four
other West Coast composers. A celebration of the creative
vitality of the West Coast, Ray (acknowledged as the "goddess
of the piano" by one composer) commissioned six California-based
composers to write the works that make up the album.
The result is spectacular. Composers Recordings Inc.
COMPILATIONS
with others - On CD and DVD
Immersion
Starkland 2000
"Starkland's Immersion was the first
DVD-A project released featuring works composed specifically
for the new surround medium. The disc features 13 new
music pieces from some of the world's most ambitious
electroacoustic composers"
–Pro Sound News
Format: DVD
Audio/Video
Price: $20.00
Paul Dresher wrote
his postminimalist work, Steel, for a unique instrument,
the Quadrachord, which he co-invented and constructed.
It has four 14-foot
long steel strings, with electric bass pick-ups at
both ends. He writes
that "both ends of the strings are acoustically
'active,' making the
Quadrachord's sound inherently spatial. Because of
their length, the
strings often vibrate sympathetically, imparting
a remarkable reverberant
quality. This aspect in particular inspired its use
in this surround sound
composition for Starkland."
Other composers
on this disc include Pamela Z, Bruce Odland,
Maggi Payne,
Carl Stone, Phil Kline, Ellen Fullman, Lukas
Ligeti, Pauline Oliveros, Paul
Dolden, Merzbow, Ingram Marshall and Meredith
Monk.
Each
piece on the Immersion DVD is accompanied by
5-10 slides shown during
playback.
In addition to bios and notes
from all the composers, the comprehensive
32-page booklet presents three Introductions
from leading new-music critic
Kyle Gann, Tomlinson Holman (likely the world's
foremost surround sound
authority), and the CD's producer, Thomas Steenland,
President of Starkland.
The DVD-Audio/Video recording was mastered
at Gateway Mastering by Bob
Ludwig, a leader in surround sound. Records
mastered by Ludwig, one of the
world's finest mastering engineers, have been
nominated for hundreds of
Grammies. In addition to 5.1 surround mixes
in both DVD-Audio and DVD-Video
formats, the release also provides composer-supervised
stereo mixes.
Kiss
on Wood - Maria Bachmann violinist - BMG/Catalyst
09026-62668-2, recording of Double Ikat -
trio for violin, piano and percussion. (1995)
Portraits - New Albion 009 - a compilation of from the New Albion catalogue including Channels Passing (1985)
Another Coast - Music and Arts CD-276, a compilation of tape or electronic works by West Coast composers including Dresher's Other Fire & Water Dreams (1987)
From A to Z, Starkland ST -203, compilation of six composers' works including Dresher's tape loop composition, Underground. (1994)
The State of the Bass - Robert Black - bassist, OO Discs 14, six works for bassist Robert Black including Dresher's Mirrors.
Poemas Tabulares -
Norio Sato and Juan Carlos Laguna Guitar Duo, ALM
Records ALCD 43 (Japan), includes Dresher's guitar
duo Where We Are Now - Elastic Music #2 (1977),
released in 1993
S A L E
I T E M S
Cassette Sale
We are selling off older cassette releases for
$5 each.
The score for the Dresher’s first music theater collaboration.
Format:
Cassette Tape
Sale Price: $5.00
The Way of How
(1981)
Dresher’s first release.
Format:
Cassette Tape
Sale Price: $5.00
Compositions
Cassette Only
consisting of Liquid and Stellar Music and This
Same Temple, the cassette of Dresher and woodwind
virtuoso Ned Rothenberg’s collaboration.
Format:
Cassette Tape
Sale Price: $5.00
Opposites Attract
The cassette version of Dresher’s 1983 New Albion
LP, which contained Night Songs and Channels Passing.
Format:
Cassette Tape
Sale Price: $5.00
Dark Blue Circumstance
Cassette release
Contains different works from the New Albion CD release,
including Dresher and Eckert’s first collaborative
work, Was Are Will Be, which is only available on this
cassette.
Format:
Cassette Tape
Sale Price: $5.00
Night Songs & Channels Passing
Format:
Cassette Tape
Sale Price: $5.00
Slow Fire (live performance)
Format:
Cassette Tape
Sale Price: $5.00
Slow Fire (studio
recording)
Format:
Cassette Tape
Sale Price: $5.00
All cassette tapes are Dolby B or C (please specify) chrome
cassettes, individually copied from the original masters,
except Opposites Attract and Slow Fire and the sale items,
which are commercially reproduced.
For information on obtaining
any of these releases that are not listed
elsewhere in the Recordings and Scores section,
please contact us by e-mail.
Write: minmax@dresherensemble.org
