CDs

From The Kitchen Archives No. 5 - Pianos in The Kitchen
Orange Mountain Music, 2011
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Stop by The Kitchen's Box Office:
The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, NYC
Open Tue-Sat, 2-6pm, and one hour before showtime
or e-mail.
Philip Glass: Third Series Part IV (Mad Rush)
Charlemagne Palestine: Excerpt From Evolution
Of A Sonority In Strumming And Arpeggio Style For Bosendorfer Piano
Harold Budd: Excerpt From Preludes For Solo Piano
Pianos in The Kitchen brings together select concert recordings of solo piano works performed at The Kitchen from 1976 through 1983, including works from the 1976 Bösendorfer Festival and the 1983 series of benefit concerts that supported the purchase of a new Steinway Baby Grand piano for the institution. Featured are names familiar to The Kitchen’s history such as Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Charlemagne Palestine, and Anthony Davis as well as performers/composers Harold Budd and Dennis Russell Davies, who have enjoyed important careers, but are not necessarily associated with The Kitchen’s programming. This CD covers a range of genres, from jazz to classical to new music. All of the recordings document performances in which the piano–the instrument most central to the development of Western music–is played, explored, and extended. There is a notable immediacy and intimacy about each performance in this compilation, stemming perhaps from the nature of live recordings and the strength of the piano as a large organic, vibrant instrument. When listening to these recordings, you may feel an almost physical sense of closeness, aware of the performers’ breath and their hands, the reach towards new gestures beyond the academy.
This project was funded in part with generous grants from The Mary Flagler Cary
Charitable Trust and The GRAMMY Foundation.

From The Kitchen Archives No. 3 - Amplified: New Music Meets Rock 1981-1986
Orange Mountain Music, 2006
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Stop by The Kitchen's Box Office:
The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, NYC
Open Tue-Sat, 2-6pm, and one hour before showtime
or e-mail.
Arthur Russell: Hiding Your Present From You (1986)
Swans: Weakling (1982)
Sonic Youth: World Looks Red (1982)
"What happens when instruments find their way into the wrong hands?"-Elliott Sharp
Amplified: New Music Meets Rock, 1981-1986 is the third release in a series of CDs compiled from The Kitchen's archive that documents historic concert recordings at The Kitchen from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s. While the first two releases, New Music, New York 1979 and Steve Reich and Musicians, Live 1977 focused on major figures of new and experimental music from The Kitchen's first decade, Amplified moves into the early 1980s, representing a vocabulary that emerged from the avant-garde, minimalist, and No New York scenes in the 1960s and 1970s in New York City. Highlights from the CD include the layered guitars of Rhys Chatham's works; classical cello played through electronic effects pedals by Arthur Russell; a Christian Marclay piece created with multiple turntables "prepared" with his "To and Fro-nograph"; one of the earliest Sonic Youth concert recordings; two tracks by Swans; and a rarely performed large orchestral piece by Elliott Sharp. Even now, more than twenty years after these shows took place, these recordings capture an explosive energy and vitality that still feels vibrant.

From The Kitchen Archives No. 2: Steve Reich and Musicians, Live 1977
Orange Mountain Music, 2005
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Stop by The Kitchen's Box Office:
The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, NYC
Open Tue-Sat, 2-6pm, and one hour before showtime
or e-mail.
Six Pianos (1973)
Drumming - Part Four (1971)
Steve Reich, an important
"first generation" minimalist composer, remains one of the foremost
composers of our time. While throughout the years, Reich has performed and
recorded worldwide, some of his most dynamic performances have taken place at
The Kitchen, including a performance by Mr. Reich and Musicians that was
recorded in 1977. Now this recording, which had since been held in The
Kitchen's extensive archives of historic audio and videotapes, is released by
Orange Mountain Music, in collaboration The Kitchen.
Of From The Kitchen Archive No. 2, Steve Reich and Musicians, Live 1977, Reich said
in 2005, "Not studio recordings. Unedited. Background traffic noise on
Violin Phase & Music for Pieces of Wood. And yet-Real musical energy. Live
performances. Intense young performers. Something special from 1977."

From The Kitchen Archives No. 4 - Composers Inside Electronics
Orange Mountain Music, 2007
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Stop by The Kitchen's Box Office:
The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, NYC
Open Tue-Sat, 2-6pm, and one hour before showtime
or e-mail.
Martin Kalve: Earthing
David Tudor: Pulsers
Bill Viola: Gong
The Kitchen and Orange Mountain Music are pleased to announce the release of
From The Kitchen Archives No. 4: Composers Inside Electronics. This CD features
live concert recordings by Composers Inside Electronics, a pioneering
collective of musicians and sound artists centered around David Tudor, who is
best-known for his collaborative relationships with composer John Cage and
choreographer Merce Cunningham. The compositions featured on the disc by David
Tudor, John Driscoll, Phil Edelstein, Martin Kalve, and Bill Viola were
recorded during two series of performances that took place at The Kitchen in
1977 and 1978. Known for creating sound works with the home-built circuitry
devices they favored over commercial synthesizers, Composers Inside Electronics
would bring together many of these custom-made instruments for each sound
installation or performance, often linking them together differently for unique
sonic results each time. While electronics were the primary focus, the
compositions on this disc also include acoustic sound sources such as a gong, a
saw, and an amplified conch shell. The work of Composers Inside Electronics was
groundbreaking in its day, yet feels contemporary 30 years later, as so many
younger musicians and sound artists look to take on this legacy, exploring both
analog and digital music.
This project was funded in part with generous grants from The Mary Flagler Cary
Charitable Trust and The GRAMMY Foundation.

From The Kitchen Archives: New Music, New York 1979
Orange Mountain Music, 2004
To Order:
Visit Amazon or ITunes
Stop by The Kitchen's Box Office:
The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, NYC
Open Tue-Sat, 2-6pm, and one hour before showtime
or e-mail.
Philip Glass: Dance No.4 (1979)
Pauline Oliveros: The Tuning Meditation (1971)
Barbara Benary: Exchanges (1971)
Over the last thirty years, The Kitchen has made extraordinary efforts to document every on-site performance with video and/or audiotape. In 2001, close to 300 audio recordings of Kitchen concerts from the 1970s and early ‘80s were discovered. While the tape boxes promised rare and exciting recordings by such artists as John Cage, Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, and David Tudor, we were not able to listen to any of these reels without the funds and facilities to provide proper cleaning and re-formatting. A collaborative partnership with The Looking Glass Studios and the online label, Orange Mountain Music, has allowed for the restoration of a number of reels from the archive. This work has been done towards the ultimate goal of a series of CDs, of which the 2-disc set New Music, New York 1979 was the first in the series. NMNY 1979 documents outstanding performances by artists including Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Pauline Oliveros, Meredith Monk, Tony Conrad, Jon Gibson and many more.
Partial funding for this recording was provided by the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust and a grant from the Recording Academy.