Philippe Manoury - En Echo / Neptune (1999)

Philippe Manoury is one of the world's leading composers and computer music researchers. He studied composition with Gerard Condé and Max Deutsch (one of Schoenberg's first students in Vienna), and at the Conservatoire National de Musique de Paris, with Michel Philippot and Ivo Malec. He studied computer-assisted composition with Pierre Barbaud beginning in 1976.

In 1978, Philippe began teaching in Brazil at universities in Sao Paulo, Brasilia, and other locations. A major appointment followed at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Lyon (1986-96). Most significant is his long association with the world's leading center for computer music research, IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique), a branch of the Centre George Pompidou in Paris. Philippe has worked as a musical researcher (in collaboration with Miller Puckette) since 1981, and as a Professor of Composition since 1993. At IRCAM Manoury composed Zeitlauf (1981), a work for mixed choir, instrumental ensemble, synthesizers, and tape.

For the European Year of Music, the Council of Europe commissioned Manoury to compose Aleph, which premiered in 1985. He also wrote a series of chamber works, including Musique I and II, and Instantanés. In 1992 and 1993 he composed La Nuit du Sortilège, which won an award from the UNESCO International Composers' Tribune. In 1999, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland commissioned Sound and Fury, premiered by Pierre Boulez.

Philippe has composed three operas, 60e Parallèle, K..., and La Frontière. K... was commissioned and premiered by the Paris Opera in 2001. One of his most important works is Sonus ex Machina, a series of compositions (Jupiter, Pluton, Neptune and La Partition du Ciel et de l'Enfer) for solo instruments, ensemble and real-time computer processing. Mr. Manoury was also composer in residence at the Orchestre de Paris where he composed Noon, a large piece for soprano, choir, orchestra and electronics. It was premiered by Esa-Pekka Salonen.

In 2005, Philippe composed Identités remarquables and Strange Ritual for the Ensemble Intercontemporain and the Modern Ensemble. Recently, Mr. Manoury premiered On-Iron, a 75-minute oratorio for choir, percussion, electronics and video which toured five cities in France.

Mr. Manoury will have an immediate impact on our composition, computer music, and ICAM (computer music) programs. He will be available as a senior mentor to Ph.D. candidates in composition, teach the Music 203 composition seminar, 103 undergraduate composition seminar, 270 computer music seminars, and 210 musical analysis.

"Philippe Manoury's Jupiter (1987) is a pioneering work, the first to use score-following to synchronize live electronics with the performer."-James Harley, composer

"Manoury's score (Last, 1997) puts the unlikeliest of musical partners, a bass clarinetist and a marimbist, through an exhilarating relay race."-John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune

"En echo is a succulent extravaganza of computer-generated sounds interacting with the purity of a solo soprano."-Keith Potter, The Independent (London)

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En echo

En echo (1993-1994) pour soprano et dispositif électronique en temps réel

d’après des poèmes de Emmanuel Hocquart

1. La rivière
2. Un jardin
3. Broadway
4. Mea lux
5. Betty
6. Mon visage
7. La table

commande de Françoise et Jean-Philippe Billarant ;
oeuvre réalisée à l’IRCAM (Miller Puckette : concepteur scientifique ; Cort Lippe et Leslie Stuck : assistants musicaux)
durée : 32 min.
première audition : 26.02.1994, Paris, IRCAM / Donatienne Michel-Dansac (S), Philippe Manoury (projection sonore) Technique IRCAM

[------------------

Neptune

Neptune (1991)

pour trois percussionnistes et dispositif électronique en temps réel

commande de l’association Les Amis du Centre Georges Pompidou ; oeuvre de réalisée à l’IRCAM (Miller Puckette : concepteur scientifique ; Cort Lippe : assistant musical)
durée : 40 min.
première audition : 26.06.1991, Paris, Centre d’art et de culture Georges Pompidou,

Vincent Bauer (perc), Michel Cerutti (perc), Daniel Ciampolini (perc), Philippe Manoury (projection sonore)

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Escaping From Color - Rapoon Recomposed & Remixed (2007)

"Again Quasi Pop Label hits the target, with one of the most interesting compilation CDs coming lately to my hands. So, this is at my eyes a kind of tribute to British ethnic ambient industrial solo project known as RAPOON, which has been developing all its talent through the years. Through “escaping from color: Rapoon recomposed & remixed” album. We swim in an experimental sea of creativity, originality and dynamism. This time Quasi Pop Label in the shape of Edward.S has gathered a selection of one of the most representative projects inside experimental/ambient scene to escape from reality and to enter in a no colors world, when Rapoon is the only tangible reality. A reality based in 15 compositions, all of them bringing the necessary essence to represent in a concrete way the nature of an act such as Rapoon.

FRANCISCO LOPEZ, with more a high quantity of releases, and having traveled the world developing electro acoustic performances, is opening this album with a minimalistic ambient composition, floating slowly from start to finish. TV POW, surprises this time with an excellent track, full of dense percussive sounds and effects surrounding the whole track. Really one of the best tracks here. The german duo of Baraka (H) and Glit(S)ch known as TROUM,one of the most representative acts nowadays comes with a tribal ethnic composition with impressive percussive elements which moulds perfectly with the structure of the track in general.

The sound & Media explorer from Portugal, PAULO RAPOSO, makes its presence in this album with an interesting track, in the hands of drone sounds mutating into dense ambient atmospheres, creating architectural spaces through such musical vortex, as only Mr. Raposo could create. AIDAN BAKER, devour us with a magnificent convergence of drone elements, mixed with dense eerie percussive sounds floating between each atmosphere, to create an hypnotic voyage to the most hidden realms of Rapoon. FAMILY UNDERGROUND is a Danish trio, adapting its track into psychedelic drone/noise invasion full of madness. Another artist to mention is Swedish RONNIE SUDIN, creating hypnologic states, covering a wide range of styles as experimental and electronics. This time he develops a provocative ambient piece with vibrating elements, abrasive atmospheres and subliminal vociferations at the core of this track.

CISFINITUM, the Russian ambient act, develops a perfect emotive live track which was recorded 29.10.2006 at “Lkra” Club in Moscow, together with RAPOON, in which the percussive elements and atmospheres are the predominant patterns marked here. Limited to 500 copies, and coming in a kind of digipack with abstract drawings and general art, which reflects in part the material included on this excellent release."

1. Francisco Lopez “Untitled #193”
2. TV Pow “Ladder Friends Remix”
3. Machinefabriek “Drijfzand”
4. Troum “Farawer”
5. Steve Roden “Colorscape Forming”
6. Jorge Castro “Depths”
7. Paulo Raposo “Tidal Winds”
8. Aidan Baker “Percussive Drone”
9. Anla Courtis “Rapooned Rapunga”
10. Gert-Jan Prins “Raponsje”
11. Heimir Bjorgulfsson “Obmam Ognom”
12. Mike Shiflet “Version Belize”
13. Family Underground “Tube”
14. Ronnie Sundin “Distant Demons”
15. Cisfinitum & Rapoon “Live in Ikra, Moscow 2006”

+limited edition of 500 copies*

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Barry Weisblat _ Alfredo Costa Monteiro _ Ernesto Rodrigues - Diafon (2005)

Fellow violinist Ernesto Rodrigues runs the Creative Sources label, which has been one of the primary documenters of experimental improv in Lisbon. His new release features accordionist Alfredo Costa Monteiro, here playing amplified turntable, with New York electronicist Barry Weisblat. The disc is deeply quiet, with pauses long enough to lead the listener either to introspection or agita. In the spirit of good improvisation, though, they work well together, carrying out each other’s suggestions and finding a single, unique group voice. Kurt Gottschalk (All About Jazz)

Labelboss Ernesto Rodrigues (violin, pick-ups and objects) is less active as a musician compared to the early days of the label, but on 'Diafon' he turns up again with Alfredo Costa Monteiro (pick-ups on turntable) and Barry Weisblat (electronics) - the latter being a new name for me. Their almost thirty-six minute work was recorded in a studio and is a fine work of electro-acoustic music/improvisation. Very tight and intense playing here, not really soft or something that, but the music remains audible throughout. Another highlight. Frans de Waard (Vital)

Diafon (2005 -cs041)

Barry Weisblat: electronics
Alfredo Costa Monteiro: pick-ups on turntable
Ernesto Rodrigues: violin, pick-ups, objects

Recorded 12 July 2004 at Tcha Tcha Tcha Studios, Lisbon, Portugal
Total Time 40:00 © 2005 CSR

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Natasha Barrett - Isostasie (2002)

"Not so long ago, electronic music was the province of those lucky enough to be able to gain access into the squeaky clean labs of IRCAM or similar institutions, where large, impossibly expensive boxes festooned with dials and flashing lights awaited the bidding of the composer. Now that a similar level of wizardry is achievable with just the aid of a laptop, and contemporary electronica made in bedrooms all over the world enjoys cutting edge status, it's tempting to wonder what the point of 'classical' electronic music actually is. Records like this one may be the answer...

A graduate of Jonty Harrison's B.E.A.S.T. project, Natasha Barrett's approach is highly rigorous, borne of compositional rather than improvisational process. Though on paper her methods can seem a little dry, her music is possessed of an overtly sensual and often awesome power that rivals anything else you're likely to hear. Her 'acousmatic' techniques transform field recordings, percussion and voices into restless soundscapes that conjure up strange geographies buffetted by even stranger meteorological phenomena, cosmic forces on a massive scale or hallucinatory rainforests straight out of J.G Ballard.

Barrett's structural precision gives her pieces a strong sense of narrative as well as place. Tiny sonic fictions unravel throughout; footsteps recede over glassy, gong like tones. A door is opened, a cat enters, draws near, purrs and eats from a bowl seemingly placed in your left ear. You're dragged through dense undergrowth packed with insects, or sat in a dripping cave listening to distant machines devouring the landscape. But most of all it's her control of timbre that catches the ear again and again.

At times during the opening "Three Fictions" the immersion factor almost sent me into some deep alpha state, or the abstract sweep of millions of tiny oscillations produced such strange sensations in the small of my back I had to take my headphones off to catch my breath. One of Barrett's interests is in manipulating the listener's perception of time, and it's something she does with consummate ease.

Lush, disturbing and beautiful all at once, Isostasie at once connects with the rich and strange concoctions of classic musique concrete, coupled with a timeless quality lacking in the ephemeral world of contemporary electronica. Stunning."

by Peter Marsh, in BBC experimental review, January 2003

"A former student of Jonty Harrison and Denis Smalley — two important figures of the British electroacoustics school — Natasha Barrett integrates the approach of these two composers into a proposition which recalls both sound ecology and properly abstract composition. Isostasie is full of these poetic, disconcerting environments, impressionistic pictures of various formats, evocative of her country of adoption, Norway. In this CD, one will encounter various meteorological happenings, the midnight sun, Red Snow (a phenomenon due to the growth of algae or diatoms), as well as an ode to the forest, Viva la Selva!. Plenty of illustrations and impressions of the Norwegian landscape, postfaced with an «exploration of spatial musical structure» (The Utility of Space), all fabricated with utmost delicacy by a young composer with an attuned ear, of whom this is the third album already (following two self-produced CDs, Rocks & Wraiths and Chillies & Shells.)"

in electrocd website

Isostasie (empreintes DIGITALes | IMED 0262 | 2002)

Three Fictions (Northern Mix) (2000) 10'34''
1. In the Rain 3'51''
2. Midnight Sun: Midday Moon 3'35''
3. Outside Snow Falls 3'02''

Displaced:Replaced (2001)
4. Fog, light wind 2'46''

5. Red Snow (2001) 15'39''

Displaced : Replaced (2001)

6. Wet and gusty 1'42''

7. Viva la selva (1999) 17'28''

Displaced : Replaced (2001)

8. Gathering wind 2'50''

9. The Utility of Space (2000) 13'25''

10. Industrial Revelations (2001) 11'32''

total duration: 76'41'

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(note: track 8 is in the first folder for uploading space optimization)

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.

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Variable Geometry Orchestra - Stills (2007)

"The music produced by the Variable Geometry Orchestra (VGO) results from the juxtaposition of acoustic and electronic sound matter that constantly searches for detail and meaning. Its sounds contain subliminal as well as psycho-acoustic characteristics and include the possibility of complete silence. (...) The conduction is operated by balancing the sound masses that travel in the acoustic space, dictating the construction of the real-time composition, and thus revealing the organized juxtaposition of specific instruments as mobile sound groups.

This leaves space for the musicians to regain their natural rhythm and breathing, as well as their sense of random pulsation. It also allows them to listen to all the sound events that are happening at any given moment and thus to act accordingly. On the contrary, they can simply listen to what another musician has just begun. The musical space is thus filled only with the intrinsically essential elements.

Another of the outstanding aspects of the orchestra is how open it is to new participants. That is one reason why it is called 'variable'. The influx of new creative power is tempered only with a truly democratic spirit where hierarchy is reduced to a bare minimum, also permitting a very large number of combinations and permutations of smaller ensembles to be arranged on-the-spur-of-the-moment.Last but not least, the orchestra encompasses three generations of musicians who have set age aside to pursue a common contemporary language." Ernesto Rodrigues, CD Liner notes

E. Rodrigues - Conduct., Violin, Viola (all) João Castro Pinto - Computer (1,2,3,5) Adriana Sá - Digital Synth (1,2,3,4) Eduardo Chagas - Trombone (1,2,3,4) Olympia Boule - Voice (1,5) Etsuko Kimura - Organ (3) J. Silva - Cracklebox, Field Recs. (3) P. Bastiaan - ASax, Melodica, Ds (1,2,3) Fala Mariam - Alto Trombone (1, 5) A. Moimême - TenSax, El. Guitar (1,3,4,5) Ivan Fontes - Didgeridoo (2,3) Eduardo Lalá - Trombone (2) Silvia Freitas - Violin (3) Katia Santandreu - Viola (3) G. Rodrigues - Cello (1,2,3,4,5) J. Lampreia - Flute, Soprano Sax (1,3,4) Lizuarte Borges - Alto Sax (3) Nuno Moita - Sampler, Turntables (1,3,5) Plan - Turntables (1) Hernâni Faustino - Double Bass (1,2,3,4,5) A. C. Neto - Alto & Tenor Sax (2,4,5) João Oliveira - Drums (1,4,5) R. Ausar-Sahu - Double Bass (1)

Sei Miguel - Pocket Trumpet (1,4,5) Nuno Torres - Alto Sax (1,2,3,4) Rafael Toral - Modified Amp. (1,4) Nuno Rebelo - Amplified Objects A. Gonçalves - Analog Modular Synth (3) J. Krieger - Trumpet, Frech Horn (2,3,5) G. Gonçalves - Tuba, Euphonium (1,2) Marcelo Maggi - Trumpet (1, 3) M. Bernardo - Clarinet (1, 2, 3, 4) B. Parrinha-Cls., ASax, Harmonica (1,2,3) J-M Charmier-Trumpet, Euphonium(2) M. Pereira - Contrabass (3) J. Viegas - Bass Clarinet (1,3) Pedro Portugal -Trumpet (1,2) R. Pinheiro - Piano (3) Travassos-CircuitBending,Tapes (all) A. Pereira - Accordion (1,2,3,4,5) P. Castello-Lopes - Percussion (1,3,5) Jorge Oliveira - African Percussion (3) A. Chaparreiro - Electric Guitar (1,2,3,5) C. Burago - Cowbell (1, 4, 5) M. Trinité - Cymbals, Objects (2,3,4) Carlos Santos - Computer (1,2,3,4,5)

disc 1
1. The Morning Walk After The "O" Of The Clock
disc 2
2. Just As You Were Able To Talk About Nothing
3. Suddenly The Dream Became A Promise Of White
disc 3
4. Loosing The Place Where Someone Watched Over Me
5. We Almost Turned Around And Headed Home
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Terre Thaemlitz - Means From an End (1998)

"Thaemlitz's deepening descent into the obscure sonorities of hard disk recording is here pushed to new extremes. Compositionally, Means From an End focuses on the metaphoric reconstitution of meaning through the social field, and is equal both in scope and sonic detail to the output of freeform academicians such as Francois Bayle and Jim Horton. But as challenging as the music is -- fuzz, clicks, and thin sheets of off-putting digital synthesis constitutes much of the hour on offer here -- the music is among some of the most engaging and even, at times, touching of Thaemlitz's career (particularly the title suite, which closes out the disc)".
by Sean Cooper, in All Music Guide

(1998 mille plateaux mp 44 / efa 00694-2) cd

01 00:02:00 02:01:11 g1.a-j
02 02:03:11 02:05:60 g6.a-s
03 04:08:71 02:49:50 g3.a-l
04 06:58:46 01:34:23 g2.a-o
05 08:32:69 02:18:07 g7.a-t
06 10:51:01 02:33:13 g5.a-s
07 13:24:14 02:09:49 g4.a-s
08 15:33:63 01:11:22 commentary
09 16:45:10 00:49:10 resistance
10 17:34:20 03:19:70 resignation
11 20:54:15 03:09:07 transformative nostalgia
12 24:03:22 08:27:52 still life w/ numerical analysis
13 32:30:74 10:28:30 means from an end
14 42:59:29 03:11:08 reduction of contents
15 46:10:37 01:08:56 reinroduction of contents i
16 47:19:18 07:40:38 means to a means
17 54:59:56 00:34:52 reinroduction of contents ii
18 55:34:33 08:24:36 end to a means
cd 63:56:69_total

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Still about "Means From an End"

"For Terre Thaemlitz, sonic synthesis is analogous to a bewildering, yet liberating multiplicity of historically determined social agendas. It is also his tool for commenting on that multiplicity. Though his theories undoubtedly come first, that's not to say his music disintegrates if you remove its theoretical scaffold. Besides, the weighty language masks a radical playfulness - the project is far more engaging than first appears. The disc comes in four sections. The first, called "Inelegant Implementations," loops brief jazz snippets and passes them through a waveform analysis of radical/pop cultural soundbites, for reasons Thaemlitz's sleevenotes best fathom. The second part is a sonic essay on "overcoming resistance to radical social change," which translates as a witty deconstruction of Billy Joel. "Still Life w/Numerical Analysis" is an eight minute sound collage around a high register operatic drone - which softens you up for the last part, the title track itself. "Means from an End" bombards the listener with high frequency noises. In his attempt to deploy music as an agent of deconditioning, Thaemlitz's methods come close to the audiences-baiting techniques of Non and Throbbing Gristle. But in its final transition from Metal Machine Music aggression to the Enoid serenity of Evening Star, Thaemlitz raises the suspicion that he's not quite the stern neo-Marxist theoretician he makes himself out to be."

by: Chris Sharp; in Wire, March 1998, issue 169.

Tetsu Inoue - Psycho-Acoustic (1998)

"Perhaps the most interesting electronic music since the classic period of Stockhausen and Xenakis. Tetsu Inoue is a composer and sound artist who has worked in a variety of musics - ambient, sound installation, dance music, techno and is a frequent collaborator of Bill Laswell and Haruomi Hosono. This CD features some of the most intricate and fascinating computer generated compositions you've ever heard. Literally thousands of hours went into the creation of these miniature masterpieces charting a world of sound as yet explored. Also included is a powerful duet with brilliant electronic percussionist Ikue Mori."
...in tzadik's website.

1.	Q Tip
2.	Tonic Bit
3.	Dot Hack
4.	Psycho Plastic
5.	Modu Lotion
6.	Rebeat Reduction
7.	All Natural
8.	Plug
9.	Tom & Tone

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