For many years, Romanian contemporary music has lived in the shadows, far from any distribution in the West. But these years of artistic battle in a repressive political climate turned out to have been an extremely fruitful period for musical creation only discovered decades later outside the borders. Metaphon is very honoured to rerelease work by two of its favourite Romanian composers Corneliu Cezar and Octavian Nemescu, good friends and both key figures in the development of spiritual contemporary and spectral music in Romania and far beyond.
OCTAVIAN NEMESCU: ‘Passages… à travers le Temps’ – 3LP
Metaphon 024 triple LP set – 2025
-Box edition of 250 copies: 3LP + 8 page booklet in silkscreen printed hardboard linen box + dl code.
-Slipcase edition of 250 copies: 3LP + 8 page booklet in offset printed slipcase sleeve.
Release date: May 6, 2025
Available through the La Scie Dorée webshop
-Linen BOX set edition
-Slipcase edition
Listen on Bandcamp
One of Romania’s most important composers in the last half-century, Octavian Nemescu (1940-2020) is among the few that were not “part of the system”, managing to survive and compose in a world that felt more and more “empty”, fragile, confused and scarce in prophecies. The mystical approach to his art defines Octavian Nemescu as an essentialist who believed in the power of archetypes in which he found inspiration. His pieces always start from an idea that has spiritual, cosmogonic implications and often involves synthesizers, sounds from nature (buzz of bees) and the “ison” (drone). When defining “meta music” or “imaginary music”, Nemescu was an advocate of looking from above, from the top of the mountain. Silence is very important in his work in order to keep the sound flowing and to reflect on the sound from before, as a space, as a pause for thinking. Nemescu put forward another kind of music: a song that has not yet surfaced through human voice, any musical instrument, orchestra or other electro-acoustic means: an intimate, interior, introverted inner sound that focuses on the individual and the imagination. Imaginary music is a reaction, it comes in contrast to the spectacular, it is anti-show. For him, music had a ritualistic function, it served no cultural purpose.
This 3LP set collects eight pieces for variable ensemble, tape and electronics, composed between 1968 and 2015, selected together with Erica Nemescu, who also mastered the tracks. Most tracks have been previously released on different CD’s but never before on vinyl.
All compositions by Octavian Nemescu
A1- Secula-seculorum – 9:56 – (2000)
A2- Parallel Destinies – 14:42 – (2015)
B1- Concentric – 16:17 ( 1969)
C1- Sonatu(h)r – 20:52 – (1986)
D1- A T – 17:15 – (2008)
E1- Ulysse : 26:35 – (1972/1982)
F1- Le Roi va Mourir! – 20:58 – (1968/2005)
Production: Timo van Luijk
Mastering: Erica Nemescu
Text: Octavian Nemescu
Graphic design: Meeuw
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CORNELIU CEZAR: ‘Ziua Fără Sfârșit’ – LP
Metaphon 023 LP – 2025
Release date: May 6, 2025
Available through the La Scie Dorée webshop
Listen on Bandcamp
Composer Corneliu Cezar (1937-1997) was a distinctive personality within the Romanian post 1960 avantgarde: a visionary of music, a thinker and a prophet, a richly gifted artist also active with writing, poetry, painting and astrology. Cezar was an activist rediscovering the natural resonance of sound within a different historical context and he embraced the recovery of authenticity as a reaction against the artificialized culture of serial doctrines. When, after 1975 the spectral music trend became official in Paris, with much fuss and remarkable support from musicologists, nobody knew that this trend has already been practiced by a small group of Romanian composers lead by Corneliu Cezar for ten years. The four electro-acoustic pieces on this album (privately released on CD in Romania in 2000), recorded with little means between 1967 and 1975, display the incredibly strong ideas of a truly visionary artist. Everything Corneliu Cezar has done during his short earthly life bared the shade of authenticity.
All compositions by Corneliu Cezar
A1- Aum – 8:41 – (1967)
A2- Ziua Fără Sfârșit – 8:55 – (1974)
B1- Rota – 12:36 – (1975)
B2- Taaroa – 7:00 – (1968) (Clarinet by Aurelian-Octav Popa)
Production: Timo van Luijk
Design: Meeuw
Mastering: Erica Nemescu
Liner notes: Octavian Nemescu
Thank you: Sorina and Emanuel Cezar, Yvonne Toader, Aurelian-Octav and Sebastian-Vlad Popa, Erica Nemescu, Rafael Vieru, Christophe Brackx, Jon Dale
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MICHAEL RANTA-MIKE LEWIS-CONNY PLANK: ‘Mu’ – 2LP
Metaphon 003 – 2025 edition
Release date: May 6, 2025
Original LP’s from 2010 in silkscreened cardboard gatefold sleeve. Numbered edition of 15 copies, with the booklet, signed by Michael Ranta.
Available through the La Scie Dorée webshop
Listen on Bandcamp
Previously unreleased studio material from 1970 recorded a few months after the legendary ‘Wired’ session.
Michael Ranta : percussion, guitars and prepared thundersheet,
Mike Lewis : keyboards, wind instruments and percussion,
Conny Plank : live electronics, sound control, recording supervision, mix.