{"title":"GB Records","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"dido-and-orfeo-after-purcell-and-gluck","title":"Dido and Orfeo (after Purcell and Gluck)","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis music, for saxophone, viola, cello, and piano, was written by \u003cstrong\u003eGavin Bryars\u003c\/strong\u003e for ballet and involves a reworking of music from Purcell's \u003cem\u003eDido and Aeneas\u003c\/em\u003e and Gluck's \u003cem\u003eOrfeo ed Euridice\u003c\/em\u003e, just as a previous collaboration, \u003cem\u003eAmjad\u003c\/em\u003e (BCGBCD10), had taken Tchaikovsky's \u003cem\u003eSwan Lake\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eSleeping Beauty\u003c\/em\u003e as its source.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe music originates in extracts from the two operas chosen by the choreographer - sometimes only forty seconds or less - but recomposed into longer pieces. A few of these, like Purcell's \"Dido's Lament,\" are well-known, others less so. But each piece, however much it is transformed, extended or modified, is recognizable from the original.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe music was recorded live during the ballet's world tour.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GB Records","offers":[{"title":"CD.","offer_id":50394255360331,"sku":"2053726","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/5052442023654_192b07e0_thumbnail_4096.webp?v=1726435141"},{"product_id":"through-the-night-conventa-del-carmen","title":"Through the Night (Conventa del Carmen)","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis recording involves Roger Heaton and Gavin Bryars, on bass clarinet and double bass respectively, playing long, slow music through the night - extended versions of laude - from midnight to 4:30am, in specific locations within the Conventa del Carmen, a disused religious building in Valencia. The recording was by Chris Ekers, using a 'dummy head' microphone system and is best listened to on headphones to give the experience of 360-degree sound. In most of these pieces they were placed on opposite sides of a long rectangular space - facing each other or playing into alcoves in the walls, thereby generating reflected sounds. Others were made in a large space, a former refectory.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GB Records","offers":[{"title":"CD.","offer_id":50394286260555,"sku":"2053727","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/5052442023661_73b04cea_thumbnail_4096.webp?v=1726435558"},{"product_id":"adelaide-town-hall","title":"Adelaide Town Hall","description":"\u003cp\u003eAdelaide Town Hall\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GB Records","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50417207411019,"sku":"1005880","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"the-leeds-bells","title":"The Leeds Bells","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis album consists of seven original pieces composed for the bells of Leeds Minster and recorded from the live performance as part of Leeds Fuse in April 2009 \"Like many people in England, I grew up with the sound of church bells, whether on Sundays or on practice days. The village where I now live has an active bellringing team, though at 8 bells they are fewer in number and smaller in scale than those at Leeds Minster (13 bells). I was aware that if I were to compose new pieces within the tradition of complex mathematical sets, they would be indistinguishable from existing ones, except to specialists. The various systems of change ringing were attractive to several experimental musicians in the early 1970's providing, as they do, a pre- existing source of systemic change and repetition, one of the ingredients of music of that time. But here I used techniques that change ringing seeks to avoid such as sounding more than one bell at once; using clusters including all the bells at once; writing harmonically, or with melodies and accompaniment.\" - Gavin Bryars\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GB Records","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50422142927179,"sku":"2196955","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Screenshot_2024-04-25_at_07.36.57_f03e77de_thumbnail_4096.png?v=1726762787"},{"product_id":"11th-floor-after-film-noir","title":"11th Floor (after film noir)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Like most ballet music I composed for Edouard Lock, the music involves reworking existing scores but this time from a musical genre; 1940's and 50's Film Noir, rather than from specifc composers The film studio's big band is reduced to just four players: tenor saxophone, doubling clarinets, accordion, piano and double bass. Here the musicians have to be versatile with the references to various forms of jazz and to some of the conventions of Film Noir music. As with all this music, recognition and memory of the source is critical. For the production by Cullberg Ballet, who commissioned the work, I had four of the finest Swedish musicians who move freely between the various musical demands: being precise, but fexible in a nonclassical way; understanding the requirements of this musical approach, with a powerful double bass driving the ensemble, which even swings at times, anchored at the centre by the richness and fluidity of the accordion, and moving subtly between written music and improvisation.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePerformers on this recording: Lisa Langbacka, accordion\/ musical director; Nils Berg, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, clarinet; Adam Forkelid, piano; Dan Berglund, double bass.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GB Records","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50433004765515,"sku":"2202964","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJwcmVzdG8tY292ZXItaW1hZ2VzIiwia2V5IjoiOTY_28b5cd54_thumbnail_4.jpg?v=1726876010"},{"product_id":"the-war-in-heaven-performed-by-netherlands-radio-choir","title":"The War in Heaven performed by Netherlands Radio Choir","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe War in Heaven features not only that eponymous large-scale work by Gavin Bryars for voices and orchestra, but also the very first release of music from any of Bryars' four operas, Epilogue from G. The recordings were made in the composer's presence and under his supervision. A large-scale cantata for two solo voices (soprano and male alto), half chorus, full chorus and orchestra, The War in Heaven was commissioned by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, who gave the first and, until now, only performance at the Royal Festival Hall in 1993. There are two parallel texts: one in English for the soloists that sets the monologue 'The War in Heaven' by Sam Shepard, the other in old Anglo-Saxon for the chorus. The solo vocal parts make extreme demands of the singers with virtuosic passages and very high notes - here two young singers with voices of extraordinary beauty and power, Anja-Nina Bahrmann and Maarten Engeltjes, who are not in the least intimidated by such things! The performance was recorded live in the Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GB Records","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50438626476363,"sku":"375232","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/fa334248-5a56-4c6a-9fca-aaeb5f9affb9_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726945916"},{"product_id":"jesus-blood-never-failed-me-yet","title":"Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis album is a remastered reissue of the cult classic recording by Gavin Bryars, \u003ci\u003eJesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet\u003c\/i\u003e. It was produced in 1975 by Brian Eno for his own Obscure Records label. With its memorable and mesmerising singing of an old tramp, it's the favourite album of Tom Waits and a work that has achieved iconic status. Now made available as the first release in the 'Archive Series' on Gavin Bryars' own label, GB Records, \u003ci\u003eJesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet\u003c\/i\u003e is coupled with the original recording of 'The Sinking of the Titanic', another iconic work from the early period of experimental music. The piece achieved huge coverage with the 1993 extended version on Point, which introduced additional vocals by Tom Waits. But for many people this original version is the authentic work and it continues to resonate throughout the music world. Composed between 1969 and 1972, \u003ci\u003eThe Sinking of the Titanic\u003c\/i\u003e is also considered one of the classics of British experimental music. The initial starting point for the piece was the reported fact of the Titanic's band having played a hymn tune as the ship went down, the lack of any report of their having stopped playing, combined with a number of other features of the disaster that are both reproducible and that \"take the mind to other regions\".\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GB Records","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50438630310219,"sku":"396174","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/c5c82f25-dd94-4081-91de-8e9e6aa3ed0c_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726945958"},{"product_id":"ensemble-pieces","title":"Ensemble Pieces","description":"\u003cp\u003e'Ensemble Pieces' is a remastered album combining the music by Gavin Bryars and Christopher Hobbs from the second Obscure Records album, produced in 1975 by Brian Eno, with an extended work from Obscure 8, 'The Squirrel And The Ricketty Racketty Bridge', which features multiple guitars played by Brian Eno, Derek Bailey, Fred Frith and Gavin Bryars. The other works on the album comprise two classic works by Christopher Hobbs from his experimental days with John White and the PTO (Promenade Theatre Orchestra) in the early 1970s, 'Aran' and 'McCrimmon Will Never Return'. The final piece is Gavin Bryars' eccentric '1,2,1-2-3-4' for instrumentalists\/vocalists, each wearing headphones and playing along with a soundtrack heard only by him. This is the second of two albums on GB Records (the other being 'Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet') that release remastered versions of recordings from the iconic Obscure Records series, produced by Brian Eno 40 years ago, and which achieved cult status.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GB Records","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50438634013003,"sku":"396173","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/8daadae2-7cef-4dc4-8210-164027d28779_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726946025"},{"product_id":"the-sinking-of-the-titanic-live-2012-centenary-tour","title":"The Sinking of the Titanic - Live 2012 Centenary Tour","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis live version of Gavin Bryars' seminal work The Sinking of the Titanic is regarded by the composer as \"the definitive performance\", made with his ideal choice of musicians. It was recorded on the Gavin Bryars Ensemble's tour in 2012, the centenary year of the disaster. It brings together in one performance elements that have appeared separately in the various versions that precede it: the inclusion of the improvising turntablist Philip Jeck; the presence of a second quartet of low strings that consists of his four children; the faint allusion to Aphex Twin's remix The Raising of the Titanic made shortly after the release of the 1994 recording; the water gong first used by percussionist Martin Allen towards the end of a performance on a raft at the shallow end of a renovated Art Nouveau swimming pool in Brussels... Although there have been four previous recordings of The Sinking of the Titanic according to the composer this performance and recording is as near to a definitive one as there is ever likely to be.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GB Records","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50438741885259,"sku":"375231","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/ccbf530c-d853-4daa-90e8-643b2814a935_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726947059"},{"product_id":"the-stopping-train","title":"The Stopping Train","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Stopping Train\u003c\/i\u003e was written by two of the Yorkshire's most renowned artists, composer Gavin Bryars and poet Blake Morrison for the 2016 Yorkshire Festival, designed initially to be experienced on the train journey from Goole (Bryars' birthplace) to Hull (or vice versa). Composed as a series of movements to be heard as the stopping train leaves each station between Goole and Hull and on its return journey, it is scored for viola, cello, bass, electric guitar and spoken voice. Morrison's poetry refers to the personal history of Bryars in the area as well as to topographical and historical material. Blake Morrison reads his own lyrics while Gavin Bryars plays double bass together with members of his Gavin Bryars Ensemble.\u003cbr\u003e\"This journey has strong links to the area of East Yorkshire where I grew up,\" notes Bryars, \"and the piece allowed me to engage creatively with this environment for the first time. I have long admired Glenn Gould's remarkable train journey-related 'The Idea of North' and this project with Blake gave me the chance to make my own train music at last.\" Morrison says: \"The Stopping Train was site-specific, composed for headphone-wearing passengers as they gaze out of a train window. But the music transcends those confines: it can be enjoyed by anyone, anywhere, anytime. I've not tried to publish the poems; they're meant to be heard, in my voice, not read on the page. But this CD will give them an afterlife, as the backdrop to Gavin's music, and I'm pleased about that.\"\u003cbr\u003ePersonnel: Blake Morrison (narrator), James Woodrow (electric guitar), Morgan Goff (viola), Nick Cooper (cello), Gavin Bryars (double bass)\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GB Records","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50484298973515,"sku":"1021942","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/db2b6809-d451-4cd6-92c1-ee141dae10f1_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727587263"},{"product_id":"the-collected-works-of-billy-the-kid-yd","title":"The Collected Works of Billy the Kid","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Collected Works of Billy the Kid is composer Gavin Bryars' fifth opera (and second chamber opera) and is a theatrical adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's novel of the same name. It continues Bryars'principle of intimacy and flexibility, with it being scored for just two singers and six instruments.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GB Records","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":57414821577035,"sku":"R3725-0338","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/5052442030775_24d5f626-afe7-47a5-ab74-458aa5647254.jpg?v=1779448859"},{"product_id":"marilyn-forever-zt","title":"Marilyn Forever","description":"\u003cp\u003eHaving previously composed three large-scale, full-evening, operas Gavin Bryars turned to the more flexible, intimate and manageable form of chamber opera with his fourth opera Marilyn Forever (2013). Its smaller cast, reduced instrumentation and simpler production gave the possibility of many further productions, repeated performances, which would have been, and has proved to be, well-nigh impossible with the traditional forms.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GB Records","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":57414822035787,"sku":"R3287-2794","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/5052442030843_555c09b1-f464-4b5c-9ebf-34757b4fed8f.jpg?v=1779448859"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/gb-records.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}