Iannis Xenakis - EIDMC De Paris conducted by Konstantin Simonovich: Atrées, Morsima-Amorsima etc (2010 compi, rec. 1968-9)

Double-CD collection of all the Xenakis works recorded for EMI La Voix De Son Maître/Pathé Marconi's Perspectives Musicales imprint in the late 60s.  The legendary series only ran to around ten releases, but was packed with pioneering music; their logo and eyecatching cover designs (see original LP covers below) were homaged by Sonic Youth in the late 90s/early 2000s.  There's a couple of solo pieces included here amongst ensemble work by the Ensemble Instrumental De Musique Contemporaine De Paris conducted by Konstantin Simonovich.

Four of the pieces here belong to Xenakis' family of 'ST' (stochastic) works, where in 1962 he devised a composing algorithm to be fed into the IBM 7090 computer.  Atrées (ST/10-3) starts off Disc 1, with its five parts that can be played in any order (1, 3, 5, 2, 4 in this case), followed by Morsima-Amorsima, which only used a small amount of leftover ST output.  Both have plenty of the classic Xenakian glissandi, sounding as if the music is sliding off the page.  Disc 1 is rounded out by the two solo pieces, in which Xenakis turned geometric functions into music: Nomos Alpha for cello (alternate recording here), and Herma for piano (alternate recording here).

On Disc 2, ST/4 is a string quartet in which the cello has to downtune during performance to reach the lowest notes assigned to it, and the piece itself is a reduction of ST/10-1080262, also featured here.  Leaving the computer program behind, Xenakis returned to geometry for Akrata, completed 1965 and featuring his other sonic trademark of the time, that great staccato pulsing momentum.  Completing the collection are Achorripsis ("jets of sound"), his first stochastic work from 1957, and my favourite thing here: the 1962 piece for orchestra and children's choir, Polla Ta Dhina.  The choir chants the text from Sophocles' Hymn To Man on a single pitch whilst the orchestra unleashes hell behind them - it could make great horror movie music.  Perhaps befitting this being the six hundred and sixty-sixth post on this blog...

Atrées / Morsima-Amorsima / ST 4 / Nomos Alpha - Perspectives Musicales LP, 1968

ST 10-1,080262 / Polla Ta Dhina / Akrata / Achorripsis - Perspectives Musicales LP, 1969

Perspectives Musicales LP that included Herma, 1968

Disc 1 link
Disc 2 link
pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Evryali/Herma
Phlegra, Jalons etc
Oresteïa
Synaphaï
Persephassa
Ata, Jonchaies etc
Pléiades/Psappha
Bohor etc
Kraanerg
Terretektorh/Nomos Gamma
La Légende D'Eer
Persepolis

Info source credit: Xenakis: His Life In Music (James Harley, ISBN 0415971454)