SOLO CDs

The Art of the Fluke, with Cenk Ergün. TEAR Records, TEAR004, 2007. "Conceptual rigour facilitating a rapid stream of audio consciousness" - Philip Clark (The Wire) "Passages of a poetry that speaks to the chaotic beauty of the world nowadays" - Robert Carl (Fanfare Magazine) "Excellent, highly stimulating" - Massimo Ricci "Cohesive and well thought out" - Michael Grillo (Chain DLK) [listen to excerpt]

Inner Cities, complete series 1-11 (1991-2003). Daan Vandewalle, piano. 2005, Long Distance Records, distrib. Harmonia Mundi (4-CD set; ). "Monumental...staggering performance" "Vast and all-consuming" - Alex Ross "Kick-ass music...sprawling masterpiece...stellar release" "music in a constant state of pure self-realization" - Randy Nordschow (New Music Box) "Deeply intriguing and wonderfully engrossing...Like a great 1000 page novel" - one of year's 4 best recordings - "One of the great piano cycles of the late 20th C." - Richard Friedman (Other Minds) "by turns charming, maddening, annoying, gorgeous, funny, thoughtful, reckless, tedious, dull, stunning" - Stephen V. Funk (Blogcritics.org) "A true masterpiece " - Sylvain Chauveau "Worth a lot more than a Rauschenberg" - David Wolman "genuinely beautiful" - Fanfare Magazine "vast desert spaces...a rich and powerful trip" - Robert Carl "pure and miraculous immanence" - Denis Philippe (Radio Primitive) "intermittently astonishing" - Kyle Gann "heavenly lengths...the musical equivalent of watching a glacier lyrically melt" - Allen Gimbel (American Record Guide)  [liner notes]  [listen to excerpt from Inner Cities 4] [Inner Cities 8] [Inner Cities 10] [Inner Cities 11]

Lost Marbles, Selected fragments of orchestral, choral, solo keyboard, electronic and installation works created over 15 years. 2004, Tzadik TZ 7097. "One of the most fun packed outings on Tzadik in recent years." - Dan Warburton  "A joyous record of spilled food, burst pipes, torn clothes, unruly crowds, careful conversation and old treasured photographs" – The WIRE.  Featured as hott by Alex Ross, top 50 by the WIRE, a CD of the year by “Philippe Robert (L'Oreille en coin”jazzmagazine.com), and among the Best 15 of 2004 by Sound Projector (Resonance 104.4 FM) "A standout record of 2004...the kind of range and depth we rarely hear in modern music...beguiling and oddly complete in its eccentricities" Keith Kawaii (Tiny Mix Tapes) “"just the right way into his creative world”" - Joshua Kosman (SF Chronicle) "sumptuous and ambiguous...a stunner...absolutely beautiful" – Ed Pinsent (Sound Projector)

Maritime Rites, ten environmental concerts produced for National Public Radio. 1984, reissue 2004, New World Records NW 80625 (2-CD set). "A drop-dead masterpiece you cannot afford to be without." - Dan Warburton  "Hazily, desolately beautiful." - Peter Marsh (BBC)  "A series of extraordinary pieces" – The WIRE.  "Rich, evocative, highly sensory...This is music in its own category." - François Couture (All Music Guide) Top 10 of 2004 for Forced Exposure's Tim Leanse and for Daniel Varela of Perfect Sound Forever. Winning releases, Modern Composition A-Z, 2005 (The WIRE). Record of the year 2005 for Julian Cowley [liner notes, liner note essay by David Toop] [listen to excerpt with AC soloist] [excerpt with Steve Lacy soloist]

Canti Illuminati, 1980, reissue 2004, Fringes Recordings "Exquisitely beautiful." - Michael Klausman (Other Music)   " A work of rare beauty and importance ." - Sands Zine  "hypnotic, disorienting and alluring …21st-century musical theater…using the full range of vocal techniques and electronic transformative possibilities" –- John Rockwell (NY Times) [liner notes] [listen to excerpt]

Our Ur (Someone to Watch Over What and Rue de la Gare 76), with Domenico Sciajno, 2004. Rossbin Production RS015. "Strange, eerie zones of concentrated stillness" – The WIRE "Someone to Watch Over What... is a dense, startling composition, with ingenuity of structure and shrewdness of intent. Meaning is packed into every second; there's clear, intellectual progression of the ideas, like a well-written essay with well-presented argument. And it's exciting and impassioned, with a (warped) sense of humour undercutting everything" – Ed Pinsent (Sound Projector) "Enticing interplay, balancing nimbly between arbitrariness and subtle intent" --Ars Electronica jury (awarding an Honorable Mention) [liner notes] [listen to excerpt]

ABO: Un Ritratto Sonoro, musique concrete, 2004. Companion to the book, Lezione di boxe: Dieci round sull'arte contemporanea, by Achille Bonita Oliva, Luca Sossella publishers, Rome [listen to excerpt] (book, with CD, now available from the composer)

Maritime Rites, with Cenk Ergün. 2002, Artship Recordings, Oakland.[listen to excerpt]

May I Now (18 Questions in the Space of an Answer), for the Margaret Jenkins Dance Ensemble. 2001, BA-NEWMUS:4380.  [listen to excerpt 1] [excerpt 2] [excerpt 3]

Theme Park (and Charlie's Park), percussion quartet with electronics, William Winant percussion. 1998, Tzadik 7039. "superhuman layers of intricate architecture" – Downtown Music Gallery Noozletter [liner notes] [listen to excerpt 1] [excerpt 2] [excerpt 3] [excerpt 4]

Animal Behavior (liner notes) (and Why is this Night Different from All Other Nights [liner notes]), musique concrete, with William Winant percussion. 1995, Tzadik 7001 [listen to excerpt]

Yvar Mikhashoff plays Alvin Curran: Piano Works (For Cornelius, The Last Acts of Julian Beck, Schtetl Variations ). Yvar Mikhashoff piano. 1995, Mode Records 49. "evocative and lovely" - Brian Olewnick (All Music Guide) "An essential piano disc!...magnificent" - Radio Primitive  [Schtetl variations liner notes] ]For Cornelius liner notes] [listen to Last Acts excerpt 1] [excerpt 2] [For Cornelius excerpt 1] [excerpt 2] [excerpt 3] [Schtetl Variations, excerpt 1] [excerpt 2]

Schtyx (and VSTO), Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio and String Quartet. 1994, CRI 668, reissued 2007, New World Records NWCR668. "Lyrical, explosive, moving" - EMF  "wonderfully meandering…a wildly associative interior monologue in music" –- Joshua Kosman (SF Chronicle) VSTO: "hypnotic and moving" - Raymond Ericson (American Music Guide) [liner notes] [listen to Schtyx excerpt 1] [excerpt 2] [excerpt 3] [VSTO excerpt 1] [excerpt 2] See brief video of Schtyx on listen page.

Crystal Psalms, for six European radio stations choruses and ensembles 1994, New Albion, NA 067. "A legend in radio history." - Jeanne Acceturo (Epitonic) "A great sonic document." "An extraordinary, moving and disturbing meditation" – The WIRE “"Big-impact music"”- Kyle Gann (Village Voice)   [liner notes] [listen to excerpt 1] [excerpt 2]

Songs and Views from the Magnetic Garden, musique concrete. 1974, reissue 1993, CatalystBMG, 09026-61823-2. "...rockpool mysteriousness" – the WIRE "Evocative and curiously lyrical" "Unlikely elements flow into one another efforlessly... captivating listening" –- Robert Palmer (NY Times) “"wierdly beautiful”"- Roxane Orgill (The Wall Street Journal)   "sumptuous, detailed and unabashedly beautiful" –- Joshua Kosman (SF Chronicle) "an unusual beauty: focussed and expansive, casual and precise, experimental and warmly human" –- David Garland  "So far ahead of its time that you’d need Stephen Hawking to work out the physics." – The WIRE  [Listen to excerpt 1] [excerpt 2] [excerpt 3]

Electric Rags II, Rova Sax Quartet.1989, New Albion, NA 027. "A mighty earful" – The WIRE   "a real encyclopedia of saxophone writing" - Steve Adams "A haunting and powerful piece, superbly performed" - Nick Didkovsky [listen to excerpt 1] [excerpt 2]

CDs WITH MUSICA ELETTRONICA VIVA

apogee - MEV / AMM. With Frederic Rzewski, Richard Teitelbaum, Eddie Prévost, Keith Rowe, John Tilbury. Matchless Recordings, MRCD61, 2005. "These are the finest players of this improvisatory mode, and Apogee contains some of the best music any of them has ever put on record" – The WIRE.   "fascinatingly detailed...fascinating partnership" - Colin Buttimer (Jazzwise) Winning releases, Jazz & Improv A-Z, 2005, The WIRE.

Spacecraft/Unified Patchwork Theory, Alga Marghen, Plana-M 15NMN.038, 2001. "Ecstatic bliss." - Jeff Gibson (Other Music) "Too short!" - Doug Walker (Aural Innovations) [listen to excerpt]

The Sound Pool, Spalax 2, SpalaxCD14969. Recorded 1969, reissued 1998  "A historic avant-noise document!" [listen to excerpt]

The Original MEV CD. IRML
MEV Rome Cansrt. IRML

MEV Pieces. IRML

COMPILATIONS AND COLLABORATIONS ON CD

Mike Cooper and friends - performing on piano and shofar on Beach Crossings / Pacific Footprints, tracce (RAI Trade) RPTJ 0010, 2007

"A Room in Rome" (from Music For Every Occasion), Luca Miti, piano, on Just Before Dawn, ants, 2007

"Hope Street Tunnel Blues III" and "Inner Cities II," Bruce Brubaker, piano, on Hope Street Tunnel Blues, Arabesque Recordings Z6798, 2007 "rhetorical grandeur...grandly repetitive" - Joshua Kosman (SF Chronicle)

"Deine Stimme in meinem Kopf" on One Night Band: Embodiment - performing on keyboards voice and electronics with Mia Zabelka and Pauline Oliveros. Extraplatte EX 707-2, 2007

"For Cornelius," Kees Wieringa, piano, on A New Sound , Do Records dr009, 2006

"Tango No. 1," Aki Takahashi, piano, on Hesitation-Tango:  TangoCollection 1890-2005, Camerata CMCD-28105, 2005 [listen to excerpt]

"Bang Zoom" (excerpt), William Winant, tuned cowbells, on Just Drums II Project, Fever Pitch Music & Magazine, 2004

"Inner Cities I," Bruce Brubaker, piano, on Inner Cities, Arabesque Recordings Z6776, 2003 "genuinely beautiful" - Peter Burwasser

"Endangered Species," Bruce Brubaker, piano, on Inner Cities, Arabesque Recordings Z6776, 2003 “"moody, audaciously lovely reflections"” - Joshua Kosman (SF Chronicle)

John Cage - James Joyce, Marcel Duchamp, Erik Satie: An Alphabet, performing as speaking voice. Wergo Ars Acustica WER 6310-2, 2003

"For Julian" (excerpt), on Musik für Radio – Das Studio akustische Kunst des WDR Deutsche Musikrat and RCA Red Seal/BMG Classics, "Musik in Deutschland 1950-2000," CD 522 and on "riverrun: voicings/soundscapes" by Klaus Schöning. WERGO records, Ars Acustica WDR LC 00846, 1999 [listen to excerpt]

"Songs on one, two, three, four or more notes," solo performance on piano, voice, and synthesizer, on Apollo and Marsyas, Het Apollohuis 1980-1997: An anthology of new music concerts. ACD 090218. Recorded 1987, reissued Holland 2002. Also available with the book Het Apollohuis 1995-2001, Het Apollohuis, 2004 [listen to excerpt]

"Genetically Altered Radio" (excerpt), P-art Project-12 Portraits, 001/1, Belgium 2002 [listen to excerpt]

Zonacalda, performing on piano and shofar with Pierluigi Castellano. Ant06 CDR, 2002

"Spare Ribs and Short Circuits," for live keyboard, sampler, and powerbook, on Oasis: Music from Mills 2001. CD004. Oakland, 2001 [listen to excerpt]

"Erat Verbum John" (excerpt), for live keyboard electronics, on State of the Union 2.001. Electronic Music Foundation Emf Media EM128-3, 2001 [listen to excerpt]

"Canti Illuminati" (excerpt), for voice and synthesizer, on OHM: the early gurus of electronic music: 1948-1980, ellipsis arts CD3670, 2000

Real Time One, performing on synthesizer, piano, trumpet with Andrea Centazzo and Evan Parker. Newtone Records rdc 5029, 2000

Real Time Two, performing on synthesizer, piano, trumpet with Andrea Centazzo and Evan Parker. Recorded 1978. Newtone Records rdc 5040, 2000

"Erat Verbum (alpha)," live keyboard electronics (excerpt) on "riverrun: voicings/soundscapes" by Klaus Schöning. WERGO records, Ars Acustica WDR LC 00846, 1999 [listen to excerpt]

"For Cornelius," Jeanne Golan, piano, on Time Tracks, Albany Records 3406102112, 1999 "similar to the Beethoven in its dramaturgical profile-its route from lyricism to eruption...to hymn-like resolution" - Arved Ashby (American Record Guide)

"For Cornelius," Eve Egoyan, piano, on The Things In Between, Artifact, ART 019, 1999 [listen to excerpt 1] [excerpt 2]

"A Phault is a fault is a falt," on Because Tomorrow Comes (CD Zine) , Koeln 1998 [listen to excerpt]

"Endangered Species Topolo" (excerpt), for sampling keyboard, on Stazione di Topolo, CD 01, 1998

Crayon, Festschrift for Jackson MacLow's 75th Birthday, Crayon, 1997

"Endangered Species" (excerpt). Collective Jukebox, France, 1997

"Animal Behavior," on Cdcm Computer Music Series Vol 17 - Music From Mills College, Centaur Records 2195, 1995

"Electric Rags 3," Curran solo with electronics, on The Hub: Wreckin' Ball, Artifact, ART 1008, 1994

Giacinto Scelsi Canti di Capricorno 1-9, singer Michiko Hirayama, Curran participating on Thai gong. Wergo, 1993 WER 60127-50

First Octave, David Keberle clarinet/Curran electronics, on Il Clarinetto, BMG Ariola CCD 3008, 1992 [listen to excerpt]

No World (Trio), with Joe Celli and Jin Hi Kim, O.O. Records, 004, 1991

"When I'm Sixty Four," Hyper Beatles, arrangement for Aki Takahashi piano, Toshiba-EMI/Angel, 7-54155-2, 1990. "Real dazzler" - Mark Swed, Wall Street Journal [listen to excerpt]

"From Eleanor Rigby" from GET BACK arrangement for Aki Takahashi piano, Eastwood, TOCE-8023), 1990 [listen to excerpt]

Violin Music for Restaurants, at table 13, by and with Jon Rose, Recommended Records ReR BJRCD, 1987

Digital Crossings and Live in Rome, performing with William O.Smith and Paolo Ravaglia, Eclettico.

SOLO LPs

Canti e Vedute del Giardino Magnetico, 1974, Ananda, AND 1 (reissued on CD as Songs and Views from the Magnetic Garden, above).

Light Flowers Dark Flowers (Fiori Chiari Fiori Oscuri) 1976, Ananda, AND 4. "a compelling subliminal musical consciousness... Mr. Curran's eclecticism is not willful; his sounds are there because they fit, and they convey a subtle and ingratiating sense of mysticism." –- Tim Page (NY Times) [listen to excerpt]

For Cornelius and Era Ora, 1986, (Ursula Oppens, Frederic Rzewski pianos) New Albion, NA 011. "An engrossing album " "[For Cornelius]...very beautiful, song-like introduction and ending with a peaceful chorale. These sections bracket a roiling maelstrom of gradually shifting harmonics" –- Brian Olewnick (All Music Guide) "For Cornelius, a sweet neo-Ravelian elegy... is particularly affecting" –- Tim Page (NY Times)

The Works, 1978, Fore, FORE80/TWO,(Raretone Music Library, Milan). (liner notes)

Canti Illuminati, 1980, Fore, FORE80/7, (Raretone Music Library, Milan) (reissued as CD, above).

The Magic Carpet, 1971, Source Record number 6, supplement in Source, music of the avant garde, Sacramento, California, No.9 [listen to excerpt]

LPs WITH MUSICA ELETTRONICA VIVA

Spacecraft, on AMM/MEV, "Live Electronic Music Improvised," 1968, Mainstream (reissued on CD, above)  "one of the top electronic albums of the 1960s" - Koldo Barroso

Friday, 1969, Polydor

Soundpool, 1970, BYG Actuel series #26 GET 326-1 (reissued on CD, above)

United Patchwork, 1980, Horo (reissued on CD, above)

NON-SOLO LPs

"Amazing Cage," performing on piano and electronics. Jon Rose, Vivisection Aufruhr Records, Aufruhr 67013, 1987
Realtime, with Evan Parker and Andrea Centazzo, 1977, Ictus.
"Il Bestiario," sung by Maria Monti, RCA Italiana
Threads, with Steve Lacy, 1978, Horo.
Rot, by Domenico Guaccero, performing with Michiko Hirayama and Walter Branchi. Die Schachtel, DIES 005LP. Recorded 1971-73, issued 2005

CASSETTES

Natural History, 1982, Cassette, Editions Gianozzo, Berlin.
Field It and Lenz, 1984/85, Cassette, Radio Art Foundation, Amsterdam.

Vindobona Blues, 2005, Cassette, Kunstradio ORF

FILMS THAT USE CURRAN'S MUSIC

Summer by Rudy Burckhardt, 1970 (original music); Max Ernst by Lorenzo Pellizzi, 1970 (original music); Zabriskie Point by Michelangelo Antonioni, 1970 (original music, with Music Elettronica Viva); Pilgrimage by Beni Montresor, 95 min, 1972 (original music); Grand Hotel Des Palmes by Meme Perlini, 1974 (original music); Canti Illuminati I and II by Annabella Miscuglio, 13 and 13 min, 1975; This Object by Jacob Burckhardt, 42 min, 1982; Lenz, for Small Circles Great Plains, Molly Davies/Sage Cowles, 1985 (original music); A futura memoria: Pier Paolo Pasolini by Ivo Barnabò Micheli, 117 min, 1986 (original music); Effetto Puglia by Annabella Miscuglio, 26 min, 1987; Ostensibly by Rudy Burckhardt, 16 min, 1989 (excerpts of For Cornelius and Era Ora); Oventic:  Construyendo Dignidad by Carlos Martinez Suarez, 35 min, 1996; War Einst Ein Wilder Wassermann (Shadows of Memory) by Claudia van Alemann, 43 min, 2000; Medicina e Misteri by Franco Brocani, 2002; Uno Stalker A Roma documentary on Victor Cavallo by Luca Fantasia, 2002; Rudy Burckhardt:  Man in the Woods by Vivien Bittencourt, 24 min, 2003; Caravaggio -- L'Ultimo Tempo 1606-1610 by Mario Martone, 20 min, 2004; H2O #2 by Ira Schneider, 10:45 min, 2007; Coletivo Planalto by Gustavo Serrate, 4 min, 2007.