György Ligeti - Ensemble Intercontemporain, Pierre Boulez -"Chamber Concerto"/"Ramifications"/"Aventures"/"Nouvelles Aventures" LP, Vinyl, 1983 (Deutsche Grammophon )

Side one is beautiful orchestration that slowly and seductively leads to tension that is released little by little.  Pierre Boulez's conducting the orchestra and György Ligeti's intense score is an amazing listening experience.   His music seems to hold energy into a small space, and once it dispels into the ears or listening room, it's a release that is almost sexual.  The harpsichord comes in and out of the orchestration or mixes in a very efficient manner.   Great music.

Side two is "Nouvelles Aventures," and it's mostly vocal work with a touch of instrumentation here and there.  Again it's a tightly held piece of intensity which keeps the listener on their toes.  DADA or Letterist like in performance, I have a feeling that there is a visual side to "Nouvelles Aventures."  

Mel Powell/Vladimir Ussachevsky/Otto Luening - "Music For Electronic & Older Instruments" Vinyl, LP, 1968 (Composer Recordings Inc)

I have an addiction to music that was recorded in the 1950's/1960s that deal with electronic tape manipulations.  My favorite composers, and who often worked together is Vladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Luening.  Both were with the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York.  Which is a cell in NYC that was devoted to making new sounds.  This album, "Music for Electronic & Older Instruments" was released in 1968, but most of the music was composed in the early 1960s.  

Side one is devoted to my heroes, and the first piece is a collaboration between Ussachevsky and Luening.  "Concerted Piece" is a dual of sorts with a full orchestra and tape manipulated sounds.   They have done this before, and it never fails.  The tension between live and real music being performed with the addition of a 'future' technology is pretty incredible.  

"Wireless Fantasy" is the masterpiece on the album, and it's by Ussachevsky.  It goes back to the origin of radio sounds, and it's kind of a nostalgic piece of work because it is both a tribute but also a source of that noise that was made in the early 20rh century.   When I heard it for the first time, I immediately thought of Kraftwerk's "Radioactivity" album.   Which is also a throwback to a sound or at the very least a tribute to early technology.  

The second side is devoted to Mel Powell who I don't know.  The works on this album are electronic or tape orientated but with some pieces that are the total real instrument - although very 20th century modern.  "Two Prayer Settings" is voice by Charles Bressier, with text by Paul Goodman, and music performed by the New York Soloists.  It's a beautiful piece of music, and Bressier does his work with great voice and skill.   The electronic piece he does is called "Events, a nice" and it is text by Hart Crane, read by actors.  He prerecorded the actors and does a cut up with them, and it's a  beautiful piece but not essential for my taste.  His other tape piece is "Second Electronic Setting, " and it's hardcore tape music.   I like it.

What is great about this album is that it's a collection of works that were at the time modern and new, and I like to think of myself drinking a martini in a mid-century home with my hi-fi listening to this album.  Bland yes, but it feels great. 

Iannis Xenakis - "GRM Works 1957-1962" (Recollection GRM) Vinyl

I have the impression that Iannis Xenakis is a solemn thinker and composer.  There is a tension in his music that seems to be contained in a particular space.  To be corny his music can be used for a horror film, but the compositions can give one image in one's head without the visuals being projected on a screen.   It shouldn't be a surprise, but one of the pieces on this album "Orient-Occident" (1960) is a soundtrack to a film.  It's a documentary about a visit to a museum and comparing artifacts from different cultures.  The film may be wonderful, but the music I think is even better.  

Xenakis' work is a sonic/aural landscape.  Sophistication as an artform. There is nothing wasted, it seems all sounds have a proper place.  The first piece on side one is "Concret PH" (1958) commissioned by the huge company, Philips, it took place at the Brussels World Fair.   There were 400 speakers in the Le Corbusier's pavilion.  I have only two speakers, but have the volume up loud.  Xenakis thought very much of space and how to fill that area with music.  In a sense, one can imagine that he did sound poetry for that location.  

"Bohor" (1962) is the longest work on this album.  Almost 22-mintues of tension being built.  It's similar to "Concret PH" in that there are ambient touches, but in no is this a relaxing listening experience.   It's very urban with what sounds like crowd noises but more ghost-like than anything else.  The music on this album serves as a magnet where I can't help but be drawn into its world.  

Varèse/"Amériques," Milhaud/L'homme et son désir," & Honegger/"Pacific 231" The Utah Orchestra Maurice Abravanel, Conductor (Vanguard)

What happens when three 20th century French composers come to America?  This is an interesting evening of recorded music, with a strong theme.  These trios of the titanic classical world come up with the impressions of America.   Edgard Varèse is almost an expressionist chaotic impression of his American city of choice: New York.  It's a complex piece, that really focusses on the wonder of what NYC must have been like for an European in 1922.  Noisy, tender, and obsessed.  It's a terrific piece of orchestrated music.

Darius Milhaud's "L'homme et son désir" composed in 1918, is what the composer called his 'plastic poem. ' Stockhausen-like to a certain degree, it is one of the best orchestrations mixing a chorus with a full orchestra.  The voices blend into the mix of the music as an instrument.  They're not reciting words, and I like the voice is being used as a sound.  To me, it borders on Exotica.  Yma Sumac is lurking somewhere in the orchestration, if not literally, then at least in my sense of hearing. 

The train like rhythm in Arthur Honegger's "Pacific 231" creates the impression of a culture changing, and more likely it was when he wrote this music in 1923.  It's a beautiful world.  I like the optimistic impression of a world turning around, and the intensity of this piece is almost "Bolero" like, due that it gets faster and faster.  In my opinion, a dangerous piece of music to drive with - but it is a remarkable snapshot of a world going fast as one looks out of a train window.   So if it's not literally about America, it does detail the essence of speed, motion, and a sense of wonderment.