Releasing Music - Our Passion

You can now stream the music release by 'Weiss & Leuschner', which inaugurates a new series of dance and ambient chillout tracks that interweave the soulful sound of acoustic instruments with pulsating beats and atmospheric EDM sounds. The appeal of the spherical sound of the Handpans is undiminished, offering a relaxing journey through the autumnal landscape at just the right time. So, put on your headphones, tune in and chill out as you float through the cosmos. It's a groovy kind of contemplation.

Ars Metaphonia is an independent record label and music publisher based in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. To be precise, we are a two-person company, founded in 2012 by percussionist Benjamin Leuschner and harpist, zheng player and singer Chaya Zhao (www.harfenecho.de). When we were looking for a way to professionally publish the debut album of our ‘Duo SeidenStrasse’ (www.duoseidenstrasse.com), we decided to put everything on its own feet, to have full control, to be self-sufficient. Over what felt like a hundred pages, we came up with the current logo as a lively calligraphy, which was meant to reflect our East Asian-Western musical symbiosis. Pretty cool, right? More scribble sheets filled up with names, and eventually we settled on ‘Ars Metaphonia’, which is a conglomerate of our search for the sound & art between the lines, between the cultures, and it's always changing. We create and produce what we like and what we can identify with, which makes our label and music publisher a very individual footprint – off the commercial track.

We're all about percussion (classical percussion, drums...) and mallet instruments (marimba, vibraphone...), from solo pieces to larger ensemble works of varying degrees of difficulty, from educational works to concert pieces, from original compositions to arrangements. This repertoire will be published in the 'Percussion Series'.

We're also currently working on a Harp Line – let us know if you'd like us to keep you in the loop or subscribe to our newsletter.

Most of our sheet music is available in both download (printable PDF) and print versions. Our catalogue gives you a quick overview of all our publications, including our sheet music range and music productions. 

Despite the term "record label", we've only released two physical sound discs -> by Duo SeidenStrasse with the enthusiasm of beginners. With the significant increase in music streaming and to avoid further high costs, we've been releasing music productions exclusively in digital form since 2020. We mainly release in the genres Alternative, Indie Pop, World & Asian Crossover, Electronic, Dance, Ambient and Meditation, depending on our own ambitions and preferences. Join us on a sound journey of an unusual kind and check out our music titles. Sign up to our newsletter to make sure you don't miss any new releases and to "feed" your playlists.

NEW published Percussion Duet 

composed by Karl Matthias Goebel 

The composer about the creation of the piece: "While looking for a third competition piece (Jugend musiziert), I realised that there are hardly any duos that celebrate the sound world of classical orchestral percussion instruments." 

Yes, this celebration is echoed in the variety of orchestral percussion instruments used in »A Classy Job« - just a great introduction to chamber music in the style of Bartók.

The composer visualises the dramaturgy: "A powerful overture, its echo in the triangle and the timpani leads melodiously to the dance of the castanets, which are soon accompanied by a fresh tambourine. The xylophone invites us to a melody and, as so often, it spontaneously slides into the second and third voice, only to push forward into the next part in rhythm and voice leading. The tubular bell rings calmly, the timpani knocks deep in the foundation and bright cymbal sounds open up the vault. The claves explore the surroundings, and the woodblock remembers what it has heard so far and fades away. Then the end. And this is: classical."

 Cello-Suites 1-3 by Johann Sebastian Bach

arranged for Marimba by Christian Roderburg

The six cello-suites are the most frequently performed compositions for a solo string instrument today and are available in numerous arrangements for other instruments. Christian Roderburg's recordings of the Bach cello suites in 1995 and 1997 were first released on CD on the Cybele label and will soon be available on all streaming stores released by our label Ars Metaphonia.