I just got:
Works for percussion
In a Landscape
Organ Works
and soon to come:
Sonatas and interludes

Haven't listened to em yet, I'll come back to this later.

get "the seasons" too

Hope you enjoy 'em!

I did enjoy them, ALOT. I was talking to my music teacher today and he says that he knew John Cage personally. I didn't get to talk to him much, but I have a music theory lesson tomorow at lunch and we'll talk then.

The label that has curated the best collection of Cage is Mute. Their site is very useful and provides great descriptions and reviews of each release. They have a lot of other great modern composers there too, such as Morton Feldman, Iannis Xenakis, and Christian Wolff.

http://www.mode.com

Happy listening!

Thanks!

"in a landscape" is a great mix of songs.

Among my favorite John Cage Mode offerings:

The Piano Works 4 (cat no. 106)
--features Works of Calder, which includes rare tape collage by cage, and narration by Burgess Meredith. Also features Music for Marcel Duchamp

The Numbered Pieces I (cat no. 44)
--features Four-3 for Merce Cunningham's dance "Beach Birds." Intersting use of many rainsticks.

The Piano Works I (cat no. 47)
--features Music Walk for for piano and other noises, performed by Cage piano master, Stephen Drury.

The Lost Works (cat no. 55)
No longer lost, the best of these three works is a radio play (1942) called The City Wears a Slouch Hat, music by Cage, script by Bohemian poet Kenneth Patchen.

Orchestral Works I (cat no. 41)
--featuring the patriotic Apartment House 1776, and 101 for large orchestra.

Variations I-III (cat no. 129)
Performed by the Motion Ensemble, from New Brunswick of all places, this is a great demonstration of Cage's indeterminacy. Variations III is electronic, Variations II is performed concurrently with Cage's piece for speaker, Lecture on Nothing.

A Cage of Saxophones, Vol. I (cat no. 104)
Saxophonist Ulrich Krieger does an amazing job with the concept and direction of these 5 pieces for saxes and other instruments. Features a saxophone, taped sax, and percussion rendition of Ryoanji, which you also find on "Orchestral Works I" for four soloists and Orchestra.

The Choral Works I (cat no. 71)
Performed by the prestigious vocal group Ars Nova, these choral selections defy the myth that Cage didn't write "beautiful" music.

Music for Merce Cunningham (cat no. 24)
Excellent weird electronic noisy stuff for Cunningham's modern dance work. Two pieces, Five Stone Wind and Cartridge Music featuring David Tudor, Takehisa Kosugi, and Michael Pugliese

A few other Cage CDs I can think of not on Mode, but which I highly recommend:
David Tudor/John Cage: Rainforest/Mureau (New World Records)
--A concurrent performance of Tudor's Rainforest pieces for live electornics, and Cage's Mureau pieces for spoken voice (performed by Tudor & Cage respectively. Mode does have a CD of Tudor's Rainforest I & IV, which is also cool.

The Seasons (ECM)

Bird Cage (Electronic Music Foundation)

Indeterminacy (Smithsonian Folkways)
--Two CDs of live short stories told by Cage approximately 90 seconds each recorded in the late '50s, featuring David Tudor on live indeterminate electronics.

25-year Retrespective Concert of the Music of John Cage at Town Hall, NYC (5/15/58) (Wergo)
---3 CD set

Oops, I just corrected a mistake, I gave the wrong address for Mode, but I corrected it. Anyway,
It's http://www.mode.com.

mute.com is for Mute Records, another one of my favorite labels, but quite different indeed.