Iancu Dumitrescu/Ana-Maria Avram - Ouranos II, Gnosis etc. (1997)

This is the twelfth post I've done of Iancu's & Ana-Maria's music, and I'm still finding that my favourite releases of theirs are the first run of CDs from the 90s (featuring both works from that decade, and before).  Still got to pick up some of the most recent ones though, so may find stuff that I love even more there.  Tragically, of course, there'll be no more new music from Ana-Maria Avram, who died a year ago at 55.

Here's one from 1997, kicking off with a fresh work for twelve cellos, tape and percussion, Ouranos II.  The piece begins and ends with sinister, faraway rattlings, with everything in between ripping holes in the universe in customary style.  Iancu's other works on this collection are Gnosis (1988) for double bass, like a version of Medium III without all the distortion, and two versions of Orion (1978) for percussion ensemble.

Two works from Ana-Maria: first is a string orchestra piece, New Swarms (1992).  Alternatively swarming like millions of robot bees and settling down into more conventional string writing, it wrings out just about every possible sound from its instruments in the space of ten minutes.  Closing the album is Labyrinthe I (1997) for strings and tape, which is probably my personal highlight of the collection.  The swirling, alien sound of the tape manipulation takes the string scrapings and rattlings to a place not a million miles from the 80s Nurse With Wound universe.

link