Octavian Nemescu / Costin Cazaban (1996 compilation)

Nicely strange compilation from the Dumitrescu/Avram label Edition Modern, split between Romanian spectralists Octavian Nemescu, who I haven't posted before but, as mentioned previously, I was introduced to via SpookCityUSA, and Costin Cazaban, whose only other CD release was featured here back in December.

Nemescu's 32 minutes of the album are bookended by the nearly-identical piano pieces Spectacle pour un Instant/Instance (1974) - each only features a few seconds of piano that echoes into nothingness and electronic static over the remainder of the two minutes duration.  Quatre Dimensions en Temps IV (Illuminations) (1967) fades in subtly for eight minutes of psychedelic orchestral soup that suddenly leaves only chiming bells; very haunting and arresting stuff.  The remaining Nemescu piece is 20 minutes of IN PAR (1988) for trombone and tape, which starts with a loud electronic gurgle before proceeding to mutate the trombone sound with increasing amounts of metallic buzzing and other electronic sound.

The remaining 47 minutes of this disc are Cazaban's, and focus on two lengthy, knotty orchestral works, filling out the picture of his ouevre a bit more when taken alongside the mostly chamber works on his other CD release mentioned above.  On Deus ex Machina (1988), a seasick-sounding flute tries to get its bearings in the choppy orchestral waters.  Trellis (1985) is a little more static-sounding, until its last few minutes spiral and churn around.  Sandwiched in between these two is a string quartet, Au-delà de Vienne (1989).  All of it is fascinating stuff on in-depth listens; wish there were more Cazaban recordings available.  There are a few more Nemescu CDs out there, which I'm intending to pick up in due course.

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Costin Cazaban - Flûtes À Vide, Zig-Zag etc (1998 compi of works 1975-86)

Today's trip into the spectralsphere comes courtesy of Costin Cazaban (1946-2009), a native of Bucharest who ended up settling in Paris to teach, write (as a musicologist and critic) and compose.  No large-scale orchestral fireworks on this, the only release solely dedicated to his works; instead, there's an aural feast of mostly solo instruments being transformed by electronic/tape treatments.

Fernando Grillo's bass playing, for instance, is more sonically reined in here than with Dumitrescu (but to be honest, so are almost all composers on earth), as the basslines and bass-clicks/clunks of Zig-Zag (1974) slip around in the echoing ether.  Parisian flautist Pierre-Yves Artaud is layered in multiple fragments across the liquid landscape of Flûtes À Vide (1986), becoming more percussive around the halfway mark; look out too for some of that same stuttering staccato writing that contemporary Doina Rotaru employed for Daniel Kientzy.

On the remainder of this disc, there's a couple of interesting chamber works, and sandwiched in between them is a Naturalia (1975), a fantastically odd piece for piano, treated piano sounds and strange vocal noises.  This fascinating collection really does reward repeated listens; Cazaban seems to have a had a remarkable talent for shaping a whole sound-world from all the different treated sounds he could record from just one instrument.  Recommended.

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