[2] For its first record release he produced a double album of his music during 1968, entitled The Jazz Composer's Orchestra, with soloists Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Roswell Rudd, Pharoah Sanders, Larry Coryell, and Gato Barbieri.

He recorded Something There with the string section of the London Symphony Orchestra and several albums using the words of writers Samuel Beckett (No Answer), Harold Pinter (Silence), and Edward Gorey (The Hapless Child).

His 1987 album Many Have No Speech contained songs in English, German, and French that were based on the poetry of Samuel Beckett, Ernst Meister, and Philippe Soupault, with vocals by rock musicians Jack Bruce, Marianne Faithfull, and Robert Wyatt.

The album includes instrumental compositions and one song, music set to Samuel Beckett's last work written shortly before his death in 1989, the poem "What Is the Word" featuring the voice of Jack Bruce.

Cerco un Paese Innocente, a "Suite of Songs and Interludes for Voice, Untypical Big Band, and Chamber Ensemble", with words by the Italian poet Giuseppe Ungaretti, had its premiere in concert at Denmark Radio in January 1994.

Participants included singers Jack Bruce, Mona Larsen, Susi Hyldgaard, John Greaves, Don Preston, Karen Mantler, Per Jørgensen, and Robert Wyatt.

His Concerto for Marimba and Vibraphone (commissioned by Portuguese percussionist Pedro Carneiro in 2001) premiered at the Hessischer Rundfunk in March 2005 with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Frankfurt conducted by Pascal Rophé.

A studio recording of the concertos with soloists Bjarne Roupé (guitar), Bob Rockwell (tenor saxophone), Roswell Rudd (trombone), Pedro Carneiro (marimba and vibraphone), Majella Stockhausen (piano), Nick Mason (percussion), and Mantler on trumpet, was released by ECM during November 2008.

During September 2013, Porgy & Bess in Vienna presented his Jazz Composer's Orchestra Update project, featuring the Nouvelle Cuisine Big Band, conducted by Christoph Cech, with soloists Michael Mantler (trumpet), Harry Sokal and Wolfgang Puschnig (saxophones), Bjarne Roupé (guitar), David Helbock (piano) and the radio.string.quartet.vienna.

The result was a series of suites (HideSeek, Alien, Cerco, Folly, TwoThirteen) for a larger orchestra, conducted by Christoph Cech, presented and recorded at three concerts during September 2019, again at Vienna's Porgy & Bess.

Songs for bass clarinet (Gareth Davis) and trumpet soloists, vocal and brass ensembles and percussion, with texts by Samuel Beckett, Ernst Meister, Giuseppe Ungaretti and Michael Mantler, were premiered October 2022 at the Jazz Goes to Town festival at Hradec Králové in the Czech Republic, followed by a repeat performance at Porgy & Bess in Vienna.