Iannis Xenakis - Kraanerg, Music for Harpsichord and Musique Electro-Acoustique

Thanks a lot to the original uploaders!

Kraanerg

Xenakis composed this powerful ballet work for manipulated tapes and 23 musicians in 1969, inspired by the French student protests as well as the Prague Spring.

Alpha Centauri Ensemble
Roger Woodward, conductor
Recorded in 1988

Music for Harpsichord

All four pieces on this disc are great, but A l’Ile de Gorée is a total killer. By turns chaotically violent and almost lyrical, it's simply one of the most intense affective expierences you can get from music. Like other works by Xenakis, it was inspired by historical and political events. In his own words: "The Isle of Gorée, off the coast of Dakar, was once a world slave market. This piece is a tribute to the black Africans who, torn by force from their homes on the way to appalling slavery, yet managed to win, in certain civilized countries to which they were transported, positions of first rank. It is also a tribute to the heroes and black victims of apartheid in South Africa, last bastion of hysterical racism."

1. Naama
Elisabeth Chojnacka, clavecin (harpsichord)

2. A l’Ile de Gorée
Elisabeth Chojnacka, clavecin
Ensemble Iannis Xenakis de Middelburg
Huub Kerstens, conductor

3. Khoaï
Elisabeth Chojnacka, clavecin

4. Komboï
Elisabeth Chojnacka, clavecin
Sylvio Gualda, percussion

Musique Electro-Acoustique

Two pieces from 1981 and 1989 respectively, realized with the help of the UPIC computer. UPIC (Unité Polyagogique Informatique du CEMAMu) is a machine that allows music to be composed by the act of drawing. Pour la Paix, a savage denouncement of war and nationalism, remained unreleased for almost twenty years. It probably works better if you have a fairly decent grasp of the French language (unfortunately mine is quite poor). But even if you don't understand a single word of what's being sung and recited, there's still Xenakis' unique and fascinating sound world.

Voyage absolu des Unari vers Andromède was created for the opening of an exhibition in the temple Kamejama Hontokuji in Himeji, Japan. It's a totally mindblowing aural trip and one of my favourite works by Xenakis.

As far as I can tell, this cd on Fractal Records is not exactly out of print, but somewhat difficult to get hold of.

Danielle Delorme, Francoise Xenakis, Philippe Bardy, Maxens Maylfort (recitation), Choeur de Radio France, Michel Tranchant (conductor) and two-reel magnetic tape realized at the CEMAMu, Paris

Radiophonic Music In A Round House

(Click on the picture to download.)

This is basically a personal best-of cobbled together from the various Radiophonic Workshop albums posted on the XYZ Cosmonaut blog. (Thanks a lot, by the way!) While I think that all the praise heaped upon the Workshops 60's and early 70's output is largely justified, both BBC released Radiophonic compilations are marred by slightly annoying station id's and tracks that haven't really aged that gracefully. And the cds from the Dr. Who At The BBC Radiophonic Workshop series contain mostly sound effects and very short cues of incidental music that may be highly imaginative. But seriously, how often are going to listen to a few seconds of swooshing, whooping and bleeping?

So I did my own compilation, basically condensing the two BBC compilations down to those tracks that are of more than just historical interest and adding some tracks from the Dr. Who cds and the pretty great soundtrack of The Tomorrow People. Strictly speaking, the latter is actually not a Radiophonic record. The music for this ITV produced series was mostly cobbled together from a library record by the Workshop's Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson (working under the pseudonyms of Li De La Russe and Nikki St. George) and David Vorhaus, the three of them also forming the initial line-up of White Noise. Also, the show's theme was created by Dudley Simpson, a freelance composer who worked on a lot of Dr. Who episodes at the Radiophonic studios.

Bookended by the original Dr. Who Theme and it's 1980 re-working by Peter Howell, the bulk of this collection is made up of Delia Derbyshire's wonderfully otherwordly and sensous creations, John Baker's quirky and inventive rhythmic workouts and three fantastic tracks by Glynis Jones (wrongly spelled Johns in the ID3-tags, by the way). Also included are Dudley Simpson's theme for The Tomorrow People and two tracks by David Cain, the short but charming Crossbeat and the impressive musique concrète-piece War Of The Worlds.

If you want to get the full albums, head over to the XYZ Cosmonaut. And here's a pretty fantastic and insanely well researched essay that's well worth reading, even if you only have a passing interest in the Workshop.

The knob-twiddling lady on the photo is Delia Derbyshire and that's Ron Grainer looking over her shoulder. The painting by Bridget Riley doesn't really have anything to do with the Workshop, I just thought it suits the music's proto-psychedelic pop modernism quite nicely.