Iannis Xenakis - Electronic Music (1997)

"This is a collection of compositions from electronic music pioneer and 20th century legend Iannis Xenakis, deceased in the early half of 2001 after a lifetime creating one of the most significant bodies of European art. The great Greek-born Frenchman's extraordinary work covered early electronic music and post-serialist composition, architecture, and mathematics, and his mastery of diverse mediums informed his work in music composition, securing his place as one of the most important composers of avant-garde classical music. Those familiar with Xenakis the architect will know him for his pavilion at the Brussels World's Fair (1970), while instrumental classical musicians will know of his complex and abstract percussion and string works. In electronic music he is known not as the inventor but as the composer who shaped the medium into one of the most progressive and complex mediums of the late 20th century. Hence, New York's Electronic Music Foundation released this compilation of his works dating from the late '50s, when at a Paris studio he produced these artifacts that take the primitive electronics of the time into stunningly sophisticated realms. On hearing this CD in the new millennium, it is hard to believe that these abstractions were not made in the late '90s, judging from their futuristic use of electronic effects. Xenakis' work was always considerably more abrasive than that of his contemporaries, and is comparable only to the work of Karlheinz Stockhausen, who was similarly interested in noise and sonic phenomena during the '60s. The works on this CD such as "Polytopes" and "Concrete PH" are concerned with "clouds of sound" where the density is extreme, giving these tape works complex textures that can be examined for hours and at different volumes, presenting effects from curious ambience to engaging and rigorous sound worlds. This archival collection comes highly recommended. It is more than a footnote in the history of electronic music, as many reissues can be; rather, this is a vital document in the shaping of late-20th century music." by Sylvie Harrison, in All Music Guide

Iannis Xenakis is without a doubt one of the major figures in the development of music in the 20th century. In 1957, he joined Pierre Schaeffer and others at the GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales) in Paris, and it was there that Xenakis composed his early works for electronic tape.
Xenakis' distinct sound is already apparent in 'Diamorphoses' (1957) which incorporates sounds of distant earthquakes, car crashes, jet engines, and other 'noise-like' sounds. His distinct sound is also apparent in 'Concret PH' (1958), based on the sounds of burning charcoal. 'Concret PH' was played along with Varese' 'Poème Electronique' in 1958 in the Philips Pavilion at the Brussels World's Fair , which Xenakis (also architect, mathematician and engineer) designed. 'Orient-Occident' (1960), commissioned by UNESCO as music for a film by Enrico Fulchignoni, uses the sounds of bowed boxes, bells and metal rods, sounds from the ionosphere, and a speed-altered excerpt from Xenakis' orchestral work 'Pitoprakta' are combined to create a work suggestive of the themes of the film, which tracks the development of civilization. 'Bohor' (1962), was composed mostly with the sounds of Middle Eastern bracelets.

'Hibiki-Hana-Ma' (1970, 'Reverberation - Flower - Interval'), composed for the Osaka World's Fair, was composed with the UPIC system, a graphical input device that Xenakis invented, using recordings of an orchestra, a biwa, and a snare drum. And 'S.709' (1992) is the first of two compositions created with the GENDY-N program at CEMAMu (Centre d'Etudes de Mathematiques et Automatiques Musicales / Center for Studies in Mathematics and Automated Music), Xenakis' research center near Paris.

This music is extraordinary! And the CD is an essential part of history.

-----------------------------------------
Iannis Xenakis / Electronic Music

01 Diamorphoses (1957) 6:53
02 Concret PH (1958) 2:42
03 Orient-Occident (1960) 10:56
04 Bohor (1962) 21:36
05 Hibiki-Hana-Ma (1970) 17:39
06 S.709 (1992) 7:03

total time 67'02''

link1 | link2@320

Ryoji Ikeda - 0ºC (1998)

"Ryoji Ikeda's 2nd CD for Touch, his 3rd solo CD, follows the classic +/- and a year's world tour with performance artists Dumb Type. OºC is an exploration at the edge of one's perception - an extension of +/- and the next step. C adds a velocity axis and a density axis to factors, Oº amalgamated numbers, structures, frequencies and sounds". Touch Press Release

"The Japanese Composer Ryoji Ikeda uses the humblest scraps of electronic communication to cobble together his music: a tiny, narrow pop, like a single particle of radio static; a fax-connection screech; a bell-tone as soft as a feather against the eardrum; a drum-machine beat slammed up to super-speed, making a short, single block of noises, and a CD player skimming across a selection, catching glimpses of a song. It's not ambient music; there are no long, enveloping tones. And its not dance music, because some selections have as much as five seconds of silence between each sound. But there's always a building narrative to these pieces. They get longer as the disk goes on, and the listener grows increasingly comfortable with Mr. Ikeda's strategies: but by bit, the composer reveals his logic. And in his own oblique way, he's dramatic". NY Times

C (1997-8)
1. C1:: check
2. C2:: cacoepy
3. C3:: circuit
4. C4:: contexture
5. C5:: cuts
6. C6:: counterpoint
7. C7:: continuum
8. C8:: can(n)on
9. C9:: cadenza
10. C0:: coda (for T.F.)

0º (1998)
11. 0º :: zero degrees [1]
12. 0º :: zero degrees [2]
13. 0º :: zero degrees [3]

Produced by Ryoji Ikeda.
Recorded & Mixed at CCI Studio, Tokyo 1997-8.
Released by Touch in 1998.

link@320

V/A - Pioneers of Electronic Music

In 1950, the Columbia University Music Department requisitioned a tape recorder to use in teaching and for recording concerts. In 1951, the first tape recorder arrived, an Ampex 400, and Vladimir Ussachevsky, then a junior faculty member, was assigned a job that no one else wanted: the care of the tape recorder. This job was to have important consequences for Ussachevsky and the medium he developed. Electronic music was born.

Over the next ten years, Ussachevsky and his collaborators established the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, which Ussachevsky directed for twenty years. It was the first large electronic music center in the United States, thanks to the path-breaking support of the Rockefeller Foundation and encouragement from two of the country’s leading universities. The Center became one of the best-known and most prolific sources of electronic music in the world. All of the music on this historic reissue is the result of the pioneering work of the Center and its composers.

The guest composers and Columbia-associated composers who have produced pieces at the Center include Bülent Arel, Luciano Berio, Mario Davidovsky, Jacob Druckman, Arthur Kreiger, Daria Semegen, Pril Smiley, and Edgard Varèse. Ussachevsky’s own students at the Center included Jon Appleton, Wendy Carlos, Charles Dodge, Robert Moog, Alice Shields, Harvey Sollberger, and Charles Wuorinen. Of the seven composers most closely associated with the Center from its early years, six are present on this disc.

01. Vladimir Ussachevsky - Sonic Contours (1952)
02. Otto Luening - Low Speed (1952)
03. Otto Luening - Invention in Twelve Tones (1952)
04. Otto Luening - Fantasy in Space (1952)
05. Otto Luening/Vladimir Ussachevsky - Incantation (1953)
06. Otto Luening - Moonflight (1968)
07. Vladimir Ussachevsky - Piece for a Tape Recorder (1956)
08. Pril Smiley - Kolyosa (1970)
09. Bulent Arel - Stereo Electronic Music #2 (1970)
10. Vladimir Ussachevsky - Computer Piece #1 (1968)
11. Vladimir Ussachevsky - Two Sketches for a Computer Piece #1 (1971)
12. Vladimir Ussachevsky - Two Sketches for a Computer Piece #2 (1971)
13. Mario Davidovsky - Synchronisms #5 (1969)
14. Alice Shields - The Transformation of Ani (1970)

link@320

Karlheinz Stockhausen - in memoriam: 22.08.1928 - 05.12.2007

"Mikrophonie I/II" (1964/65)

Mikrophonie I: 26'35''
[for tamtam, 2 microphones, 2 filters and controllers]

Mikrophonie II: 14'28''
[for choir, Hammond organ, and four ring modulators]


about Mikrophonie:

"Mikrophonie is the title given by Karlheinz Stockhausen to two of his compositions, written in 1964 and 1965, in which “normally inaudible vibrations . . . are made audible by an active process of sound detection (comparable to the auscultation of a body by a physician); the microphone is used actively as a musical instrument, in contrast to its former passive function of reproducing sounds as faithfully as possible.”

link@320

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We at Bravo Juju profoundly dread the lost of one of the most brilliant electronic music composers of the 20th century.
As our personal homage to his great genius and work we post this wonderful work "Mikrophonie I/II" and the official press release of the Stockhausen Foundation for Music, about the passing of Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Stockhausen will continue to influence generations of musicians to come, and remains alive within his extraordinary musical cosmos!!

_________________________________________________________

"Suzanne Stephens and Kathinka Pasveer, who have performed many of his works and, together with him, have taken care of the scores, compact discs, books, films, flowers, shrubs, and trees will continue to disseminate his work throughout the world, as prescribed in the statutes of the Stockhausen Foundation for Music, of which they are executive board members. Stockhausen always said that GOD gave birth to him and calls him home.
**** For Love is stronger than death. IN FRIENDSHIP and gratitude for everything that he has given to us personally and to humanity through his love and his music, we bid FAREWELL to Karlheinz Stockhausen, who lived to bring celestial music to humans, and human music to the celestial beings, so that Man may listen to GOD and GOD may hear His children.

On December 5th he ascended with JOY through HEAVEN'S DOOR, in order to continue to compose in PARADISE with COSMIC PULSES in eternal HARMONY, as he had always hoped to do: You, who summon me to Heaven, Eva, Mikael and Maria, let me eternally compose music for Heaven's Father-Mother, GOD creator of Cosmic Music. May Saint Michael, together with Heaven's musicians in ANGEL PROCESSIONS and INVISIBLE CHOIRS welcome him with a fitting musical GREETING. On behalf of him and following his example, we will endeavor to continue to protect the music."

by: Suzanne Stephens and Kathinka Pasveer; in the name of the world-wide family of musicians who love him, together with everyone who loves his music.

Ryoji Ikeda - 1000 Fragments (1995)

"1000 fragments is a compilation recording released by CCI recordings of several pieces revealing Ikeda's unique sound work produced between 1985-1995. Over a decade of Ryoji Ikeda's artistic work is portrayed on this marvelous CD. For who only knows Ikeda's work from his classical frequencies album +/- (or 0º), will be surprised and astonished with this album. In the first half [Channel X - 85 to 95] one hears 7 small sound pieces that resemble small electroacoustic radio pieces, where Ikeda's sense of humor [right on the second track one hears a voice saying: "It's the most beautiful ugly sound in the world" and talent for acousmatic composition and sound manipulation is quite evident. Although one can grasp Ikeda's compositional brand on this small pieces [the interspersed chirurgic combination of low and hi frequencies, many times arranged in hypnotic and dense frequencies drone scenarios] here his goal is achieved by creating many different soundscapes and tainted sound-situations that create a delightful hearing experience for the sonic listener.

The second part, named 5 zones [94-95], is an half hour deep sound journey through a musical path of a minimal and progressive electronic sound composition, Ikeda's keen ear for sharp rhythms and "sound-plot abstractions" reveals a very interesting mix of psychoacoustic scenarios and ambiences full of synthesized sounds and field recordings.

Luxus [93] is the last piece and finishes this compilation CD in a royal fashionable way! It's a 16 min. amazing kind of walk into Light itself; it starts of with a sample of an intriguing (whimsical) sparse highly reverberating voice (from a choir ?) and then a synth major accord appears in a glissando and drony kind of way, developing a crescendo over time in intensity (attack & envelope) and entering in a extraordinary mix with the vocals and what seems to be violin or cello strings (synthesized?), the composition reaches its zenith into pure interior bliss resulting in a delightful hearing pleasure, passing on to the listener a deep relaxed state of mind as the composition fades away into silence on the last minutes...
After hearing "1000 Fragments" one understands why Ryoji Ikeda is one of the most impressive experimental electronic music composers."

review by L. Vanessa.


Channel X (1985-1995)

01 testone 0:06
02 trans-missions 1:36
03 this is a recording 0:50
04 radiorange 0:28
05 what's wrong? 0:58
06 holy wood 0:35
07 into the tranquility 3:04
08 all has been changed 0:37
09 abstructures 2:54

5 zones (1994-95)

10 zone 1 7:47
11 zone 2 4:51
12 zone 3 2:56
13 zone 4 6:50
14 zone 5 8:45

Luxus (1993)

15 luxus 1-3 16:18

Total 58:21

[note: this cd is originally mixed in a continuous play mode, T.A.O. (track at once) recording mode is advised with 0 seconds between the tracks]

_______________________

linkpart1 | linkpart2 all@320