Forthcoming releases
November 2, 2019



M. Ostermeier - Percolate (November 22). This digital reissue of M. Ostermeier's 2010 debut album adds "Sagewood" from a contemporary compilation and boasts remastered audio and new artwork.

M. Ostermeier + T. Maus - Tuesday, She Stayed Away (December 6). This Lynchian digital single pairs the calm, late-night vocals of Tanya Maus with the melancholic piano, sparse electronics, and foreboding processed guitar of M. Ostermeier
M. Ostermeier 'Still' Released
March 28, 2015



M. Ostermeier's album Still was released this week to favorable reviews:

"A brilliantly composed album. A magnificent contemplation that both expands and remains consistent with his prior work." - Tome to the Weather Machine

"Streamlined, modern, and organic. Think Frank Lloyd Wright or Frank Gehry set to music. It is subtly bold, but equally unobtrusive with a real sense of stillness (apt given the title). The balance that is struck should appeal equally to fans of both electroacoustic ambient and modern classical music." - Stationary Travels

"As gorgeous as you'd expect, ye fans of John Cage and Max Richter." - Norman Records

"Never perhaps has a recording been more aptly titled as this one." - Textura

"How still do you like your stillness to be?" - A Closer Listen

Next release: M. Ostermeier 'Still'
January 1, 2015


Still is M. Ostermeier's first album in four years. The album will be released in March. Pre-order is available.

'Stasis' is the first song on the album.





First ever Tench sale
November 30, 2014



All CDs are on sale for just $5 each in the month of December, including our latest release by Porya Hatami. Stock on some titles is limited.



Porya Hatami "Shallow" has been released
March 1, 2014

Porya Hatami's new album Shallow was released last week. Early response has been very favorable:

"Consistent internal development sets Hatami apart from the pack." - Richard Allen, A Closer Listen

"On Shallow, he has undeniably reached a new plateau." - Tobias Fischer, Tokafi

"Shallow is an intense 43 minutes of some of the most beautiful music put to tape." - Tome to the Weather Machine

"Yes, everything is perfect." - Fluid Radio


Be sure to read two very interesting interviews with Porya:

Tokafi
A Strangely Isolated Place

Price reduction on all Tench releases
January 19, 2014

Permanent price reduction from $11 to $9 on on all Tench releases, including the pre-order for Porya Hatami's Shallow (release date is Feb 18th). Trying to help out with the huge jump in postage costs implemented a year ago. Everyone who pre-ordered Shallow should receive their $2 refund from PayPal today.

Next release for Tench will be by Porya Hatami
December 22, 2013



Shallow by Porya Hatami will be released in February. On this album, Porya has masterfully sculpted three pieces that are rich in tone and effortlessly relaxed and spacious. Simply gorgeous.

Pre-order is available now. CDs will ship in February in advance of the release date.

Album preview (excerpts from all three songs):



Incidental Music by The Green Kingdom released
September 4, 2012



Incidental Music by The Green Kingdom was released today to a chorus of high praise:

"The finished recordings are only to be described as magnificent. The understated nature of this record, as noted previously, paradoxically results in an album that cannot be ignored." — Futuresequence

"One of the most relaxing albums we've heard in a while." — A Closer Listen

"The moments frozen on Incidental Music are the sleep-induced extra five minutes of sleep at the weekend, the melodic birdsong in the trees." — Fluid Radio



Marcus Fischer interviewed at Fluid Radio
January 18, 2012



Marcus Fischer is interviewed by Nathan Thomas at Fluid Radio and talks about his use of chance in composition and live performance. He also discusses Collected Dust and other upcoming releases for 2012.




Marcus Fischer's Collected Dust available for pre-order
December 30, 2011



Collected Dust will be released January 31, 2012. The album presents a reworking of pieces from Marcus Fischer's Dust Breeding blog, in which he completed one creative project a day for 365 days.

Pre-orders will ship in advance of the January 31st release date.



The Rules of Another Small World released today
May 10, 2011



The Rules of Another Small World was released today on CD and digital to strong reviews.

"Offering something new to a path well trod...a stunning collection of pieces exploring the intricacies of found sounds and electronics and the beauty of the piano in its natural state." — Fluid Radio

"A distinctive electro-acoustic collection dotted with micro-tonal detail that largely sidesteps any one delimiting style for a more open-ended presentation."
— Textura

"Deserves a trophy for most appropriate title of the decade: 37 minutes of orchestral minimalism, it shifts and crackles like alien vegetation, but one whose home planet is so delicate that cell division is the loudest sound imaginable...The Rules of Another Small World could be your getaway record for the summer."
— Coke Machine Glow

"I think I'm going to use the word brilliant again."
— Norman Records



The Rules of Another Small World is available for pre-order
April 13, 2011



The Rules of Another Small World by M. Ostermeier is available for pre-order. Pre-orders will ship April 26th in advance of the May 10th release date.



New M. Ostermeier album coming in May
March 24, 2011



M. Ostermeier's next album, The Rules of Another Small World, will be released May 10, 2011. The album will be available for pre-order sometime in April.



Chance Reconstruction a Top 10 of 2010 at Exclaim
December 5, 2010



M. Ostermeier's debut album made Exclaim's list of Improv and Avant-Garde Albums of the Year for 2010 along side Laurie Anderson's Homeland (Nonesuch) and Alva Noto & Blixa Bargeld's Mimikry (Raster-Noton).

"On his first full-length release, following two equally sublime minis early in the year, M. Ostermeier manages to quietly assemble a masterfully minimalist house of cards. While his peers in modern bedroom classical are numerous and distinguished, the Baltimore native elaborates on their current fancy for ghostly electronics married to stately acoustics with fundamental elegance. Each piece serves as hints to an eidolon; it's wisps of piano, bowed strings, remnant electrics describe the trace energies from great or sorrowful happenings as they slowly dissipate. Everything for a moment in its right place."
— Eric Hill, Exclaim



Tomas Phillips + Marihiko Hara Prosa released today
November 2, 2010


Tomas Phillips + Marihiko Hara  |  Prosa

"A heady, gorgeous collaboration between Tomas Phillips and Japanese composer Marihikio Hara makes for one of the best modern classical records this year."
— Tome to the Weather Machine

"The overall combination of abstract electronics and melodic lines that flit between immersive warmth and almost mechanical atonalism will make this familiar ground for fans of the Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto collaborations and the like....a lovely work that explores the beauty that lies within simplicity, well worth repeated listens."
— Fluid Radio

"A wonderful album, one of great beauty."
— Vital Weekly



Tomas Phillips + Marihiko Hara Prosa available for pre-order
October 16, 2010


Prosa is available for pre-order.

Preordered CDs will ship in advance of the November 2nd release date.



Chance Reconstruction released
September 9, 2010


Chance Reconstruction was released last week to an enthusiastic response:

"One thing is certain: Ostermeier is a compositional master."
— The Silent Ballet

"The unfathomable depth of these seemingly simple pieces lends them an unexpectedly epic air. Yes, this is small, quiet and fragile music. But it is also the biggest small, loudest quiet and most incisively fragile music you'll hear for quite a while." — Tokafi

"One of the finest examples of neo classical experimentation I've heard in a while. Thoroughly excellent."
— Norman Records

"M.Ostermeier's Chance Reconstruction on Tench Records is a stunner!"
— Deer Diary



Next Tench release: Tomas Phillips + Marihiko Hara
August 29, 2010


Tench's second release features the first collaboration between Tomas Phillips and Marihiko Hara. Prosa is slated for a late October release.



Two early reviews for Chance Reconstruction
August 13, 2010


We're a little more than two weeks away from our debut release, M. Ostermeier's "Chance Reconstruction."  Preorders will ship on August 16th.

Vital Weekly and Tome to the Weather Machine are the first to offer their reviews. Vital Weekly refers to it as "a sort of digital Americana" and proclaims it "an excellent quiet, spacious, atmospheric disc of music."



Tench's first release
June 11, 2010


M. Ostermeier  |  Chance Reconstruction

Reflective piano melodies drift across electronic textures.



A new label
June 10, 2010


Tench focuses on ambient / electroacoustic / experimental music. Tench is a sister label of Words On Music. We welcome submissions – please see our info page.



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