The legendary DG Avantgarde vinyl series (1968-1971) is turning 55! In order to celebrate this occasion, the series is now released on 21 CDs for the first time. The Avantgarde series serves as a historical document for a time of radical change in musical thinking and the breaking of artistic boundaries. The question "What is music?" confronted many of the composers and musicians involved in the series, and the anti-authoritarian spirit of the 1960s and 1970s was a palpable influence. Deutsche Grammophon's Avantgarde Series reflects all the currents that thus arose, without aesthetic demarcations and across genres and instrumentations: large orchestral works stand alongside chamber music and solo forms, electronic music and improvisations.
The edition is presented in its original colourful designs by renowned graphic designer Holger Matthies, accompanied by a 186-page booklet with original commentaries (available in English & German) by composers and experts as well as photos of the artists from the DG archive.
Highlights include canon works by György Ligeti such as his choral work "Lux aeterna," Luciano Berio's "Sequenza V" with Vinko Globokar on trombone, a simultaneous recording of three works by John Cage, and some groundbreaking and monumental electronic works such as Luigi Nono's "Contrappunto dialettico alla mente" and Leo Küpper's "Automatismes sonores."

Tracklist:

CD 1
WITOLD LUTOSŁAWSKI: String Quartet
KRZYSZTOF PENDERECKI: Quartetto per archi
TOSHIRO MAYUZUMI: Prelude for String Quartet

CD 2  
MAURICIO KAGEL: Phantasie für Orgel mit Obbligati  
JUAN ALLENDE-BLIN: Sonorités 
GYÖRGY LIGETI: Volumina
Etüde Nr. 1 (»Harmonies«)

CD 3 
DAVID BEDFORD: 2 Poems for Chorus on Words by Kenneth Patchen
GYÖRGY LIGETI: Lux aeterna 
ARNE MELLNÄS: Succsim
MAREK KOPELENT: Matka 

CD 4 
VINKO GLOBOKAR: 1-5 Discours II  
LUCIANO BERIO: Sequenza V 
KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN: Solo für Melodie-Instrument mit Rückkopplung
CARLOS ROQUÉ ALSINA: Consecuenza op. 17

CD 5 
MAURICIO KAGEL: Match für 3 Spieler
Musik für Renaissance-Instrumente

CD 6 
IMPROVISATIONEN: »... e poi?«
Quasiraga
Light Music
Ancora un trio
Credo

CD 7 
BERND ALOIS ZIMMERMANN: Présence
Intercomunicazione

CD 8 
JOHN CAGE: Atlas Eclipticalis & Winter Music  
electronically amplified after Cartridge Music 
DIETER SCHNEBEL: Glossolalie

CD 9
MAURICIO KAGEL: Hallelujah
DIETER SCHNEBEL: für stimmen (... missa est)

CD 10 
GOTTFRIED MICHAEL KOENIG: Terminus II
Funktion Grün 
ZOLTÁN PONGRÁCZ: Phonothese
RAINER RIEHN: Chants de Maldoror

CD 11
MAURICIO KAGEL: Der Schall

CD 12
GYÖRGY LIGETI: String Quartet No. 2
EARLE BROWN: String Quartet
WOLF ROSENBERG: String Quartet No. 3

CD 13
LUC FERRARI: Presque rien No 1
Société II

CD 14 
LUKAS FOSS: Paradigm (“for my friends”)
LEJAREN HILLER: Algorithms I, Version I
Algorithms I, Version IV
ELLIOTT SCHWARTZ: Signals  

CD 15
ROLAND KAYN: Cybernetics III
LUIGI NONO: Contrappunto dialettico alla mente

CD 16
FRANCO EVANGELISTI: Die Schachtel
HEINZ HOLLIGER: Der magische Tänzer

CD 17 
CORNELIUS CARDEW: The Great Learning

CD 18 
ROMAN HAUBENSTOCK-RAMATI: Symphonie “K” 
VINKO GLOBOKAR: Étude pour Folklora II

CD 19 
HEINZ HOLLIGER: Siebengesang 
KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN: Spiral

CD 20
SYLVANO BUSSOTTI: Cinque frammenti all’Italia
NICOLAUS A. HUBER: Versuch über Sprache

CD 21
LEO KÜPPER: L’enclume des forces
Électro-poème
Automatismes sonores