Bang On A Can
Technically, the name Bang on a Can refers not to a specific set of musicians but to yearly festivals of new music curated by avant-garde composer/performers Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon. Albums by the group are most often credited to the Bang on a Can All-Stars, a relatively stable group of six to eight performers and arrangers who comprise the core of the creative group. Under both names, as a whole, they have released a few dozen recordings featuring music of the original three founders, frequent collaborator Terry Riley, and other composers. In 2022, Bang on a Can's label, Cantaloupe, released a fresh recording of Riley's Autodreamographical Tales.
Wolfe, Lang, and Gordon formed Bang on a Can in 1987; over the next ten years, the concept grew from a one-day festival to an impressive array of live and recorded works. The first three Bang on a Can releases were CD anthologies of live recordings taken from the group's 1992, 1993, and 1994 festivals released on the CRI label as Bang on a Can Live, Vol. 1, 2, and 3. Their studio debut came with 1995's Industry, featuring a track each by Wolfe, Lang, and Gordon and two lengthy chamber music pieces by their spiritual mentor Louis Andriessen. Both Industry and its more eclectic follow-up, 1996's Cheating, Lying, Stealing, were released by Sony Classical. Bang on a Can jumped to Universal's new music imprint Point for their next release, a brilliantly conceived and flawlessly executed re-imagining of Brian Eno's Ambient 1: Music for Airports that often turned Eno's sketches for tape recorders into beautiful works for live musicians.
Next, Lang, Wolfe, and Gordon collaborated on the opera Lost Objects, an extended narrative work with libretto by Deborah Artman featuring vocal soloists, a mixed chorus, a full orchestra, and, intriguingly, guest appearances by turntable guru DJ Spooky. Following that masterwork, the group recorded several early pieces by the great minimalist composer Steve Reich and paid tribute to another landmark of modern classical music by reinterpreting Terry Riley's In C for a bevy of electric, electronic, and acoustic instruments. That recording was the first release on Cantaloupe Records, a label owned by Bang on a Can to release albums by affiliated composers and performers. The second Bang on a Can release on the label was 2001's eclectic Renegade Heaven, featuring pieces by Glenn Branca and Phil Kline, as well as Gordon's I Buried Paul, a tongue-in-cheek salute to the playing of backwards tapes and other unintentional avant-gardisms in relation to the "Paul Is Dead" hoax of 1969. The All-Stars gained wide attention for its 2015 recording of Wolfe's composition Anthracite Fields and for one of Meredith Monk's Memory Game in 2020. In 2022, the group joined Riley for a fresh recording of the latter's Autodreamographical Tales.
© Stewart Mason /TiVo
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Discography
19 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Eno/Wyatt/Davies: Music for Airports
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Mar 1978
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Terry Riley: In C
Classical - Released by Cantaloupe Music on 1 Jan 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Julia Wolfe: Anthracite Fields
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Ashley Bathgate, Mark Stewart, Bang On A Can, Julian Wachner
Classical - Released by Cantaloupe Music on 25 Sep 2015
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
5ths (Philip Glass)
Classical - Released by Cantaloupe Music on 1 Jan 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Passion
Classical - Released by Cantaloupe Music on 10 May 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Autodreamographical Tales
Classical - Released by Cantaloupe Music on 25 Mar 2022
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Music for Airports : Live (Michael Gordon - Robert Wyatt - Brian Eno)
Classical - Released by Cantaloupe Music on 24 Feb 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bang on Can Classics (David Lang - Julia Wolfe - Annie Gosfield)
Chamber Music - Released by Cantaloupe Music on 15 Oct 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Julia Wolfe: Steel Hammer
Chamber Music - Released by Cantaloupe Music on 29 Apr 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Field Recordings
Classical - Released by Cantaloupe Music on 12 May 2015
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Renegade Heaven (Julia Wolfe - Arnold Dreybatt - Michael Gordon)
Classical - Released by Cantaloupe Music on 13 Mar 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Gordon, Lang & Wolfe: Lost Objects
Bang On A Can, Rias Kammerchor, Concerto Köln, DJ Spooky
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 1 Jan 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gigantic Dancing Human Machine (Louis Andriessen)
Classical - Released by Cantaloupe Music on 11 Mar 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cloud River Mountain
Classical - Released by Cantaloupe Music on 21 Jul 2017
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Big Beautiful Dark and Scary (Bang on a Can All-Stars)
Classical - Released by Cantaloupe Music on 3 Jan 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bang On A Can Meets Kyaw Kyaw Naing
Classical - Released by Cantaloupe Music on 14 Sep 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ballad for Many (Don Byron)
Classical - Released by Cantaloupe Music on 1 Jun 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Autodreamographical Tales (Arr. G. Riley for Chamber Ensemble): V. Zucchini
Classical - Released by Cantaloupe Music on 25 Feb 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo