Ana-Maria Avram / Iancu Dumitrescu - Remote Pulsar (2005)

Longtime readers here will know what to expect from these two Romanian spectralist composers.  If you're unfamiliar though, just sample the first three releases in their catalogue below, then enjoy the rest as they take orchestral, chamber and electronic music and stretch them into ever more extreme distended shapes of sonic mayhem.  Or indeed just start here with today's post, the most recent release I've got up to so far in the music of Iancu Dumitrescu (b. 1944) and Ana-Maria Avram (1961-2017), and one of the most understated by their standards.

Dumitrescu's three tracks are up first on this collection, two of which are reconfigurations of his computer music pieces from album No. 18 in the catalogue (in list below).  Remote Pulsar and Numerologie Secrete both benefit from being fleshed out by the creak and clatter of Dumitrescu/Avram's Hyperion Ensemble.  In between these tracks is a fine workout for percussionist Thierry Miroglio.

The three Avram pieces that complete the album start with another percussion piece, the highly atmospheric Galaxy-Reflection performed by Gustavo Aguilar with some subtle electronic sounds.  Quatre Etudes D'Ombre is another solo piece, this time performed by Isabelle Hureau on bass flute.  Lastly, the Hyperion Ensemble performs the droning Lux Animae, perfectly concluding one of the most eerie and subtly unsettling Avram/Dumitrescu discs that relies on atmosphere rather than sheer power.

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pw: sgtg

Previously posted on SGTG:
ED.MN.1001 - Medium/Cogito
ED.MN.1002 - Au Dela De Movemur
ED.MN.1003 - Pierres Sacreés
ED.MN.1004 - Musique de Paroles
ED.MN.1005 - Galaxy
ED.MM.1006 - A Priori
ED.MN.1008 - Five Pieces
ED.MN.1009 - Ouranos II 
ED.MN.1010 - Meteors & Pulsars 
ED.MN.1011 - Musique Action '98
ED.MN.1012 - Etoiles Brisees
ED.MN.1014 - Orbit of Eternal Grace
ED.MN.1018 - Remote Pulsar
ED.MN.1019 - In Tokyo

Iancu Dumitrescu/Ana-Maria Avram - Etoiles Brisees (1998)

An hour-long trip into the hellscape of Romanian spectralism's two greatest dark mages, featuring only four tracks - and only three pieces, as Iancu Dumitrescu on this release only contributed the title track, done two ways.  But there's still enough unhinged genius packed in here to get immersed in for the foreseeable future.  Basically the average Edition Modern CD then.

Etoiles Brisees is first presented as an entirely computer-music based sound world, by turns eerily subdued and subaquatic, then blasting full-on digital noise into your synapses.  Straight afterwards, the piece repeats in an orchestrated version, but still with some noticeable electronic elements.  Ana-Maria Avram's two contributions here are both full-bodied string orchestra torture of the most exquisite kind, with the ghostly drones, moans and creaks of Seconde Axe particularly recommended.

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pw: sgtg

Previously posted on SGTG:
ED.MN.1001 - Medium/Cogito
ED.MN.1002 - Au Dela De Movemur
ED.MN.1003 - Pierres Sacreés
ED.MN.1004 - Musique de Paroles
ED.MN.1005 - Galaxy
ED.MM.1006 - A Priori
ED.MN.1008 - Five Pieces
ED.MN.1009 - Ouranos II 
ED.MN.1010 - Meteors & Pulsars 
ED.MN.1011 - Musique Action '98
ED.MN.1014 - Orbit of Eternal Grace
ED.MN.1018 - Remote Pulsar
ED.MN.1019 - In Tokyo

Iancu Dumitrescu - Galaxy (1993 compi of recordings 1971-1993)

The pattern of the early Edition Modern releases - whereby the odd numbers were new & archival works by Iancu Dumitrescu, and the even numbers were shared with Ana-Maria Avram - ended with this release; all subsequent discs would be shared, up until 2016.  Since Avram sadly died in 2017, it remains to be seen if Dumitrescu will continue writing and recording.  Galaxy, ED.MN.1005, is pure Dumitrescu at his clanking, clattering best, even if the recording vintages towards the end of this disc are a little lower-fi than would come to be expected.

The title track kicks off proceedings, and was composed & recorded in 1993, scored for three harryphones (a single-stringed instrument of Dumitrescu's design), three percussionists and computer sounds.  It starts out almost as violent as the notorious Pierres Sacreés (see links below), before calming down a bit to let the eerie strings and percussion stretch out.  Next is 18 minutes of Movemur Et Sumus III, composed 1978 and recorded 1993, for three double basses and percussion.  The legendary Fernando Grillo isn't among the bassists this time, but the three on this recording get a great slippery grinding (if that makes sense!) sound out of the layers of bass writing.

From here on in, it's vintage works and recordings all the way: Reliefs II for two orchestras and piano was composed and recorded in 1975, performed here by the Romanian Chamber Orchestra conducted by Iosif Conta.  Despite the drop in audio fidelity, it's still clear how darkly atmospheric Dumitrescu's writing was back in the 70s.  The following string quartet Memorial/Alternances (composed 1968) actually sounds clearer, despite being recorded in 1971 (at least according to the liner notes).  The disc concludes with another orchestral work, Basoreliefs Simphoniques, composed 1977 and featured here in a live performance from 1980, showing perhaps a bit of a Pendercki influence.


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pw: sgtg

Previously posted on SGTG:
ED.MN.1001 - Medium/Cogito
ED.MN.1002 - Au Dela De Movemur
ED.MN.1003 - Pierres Sacreés
ED.MN.1004 - Musique de Paroles
ED.MM.1006 - A Priori
ED.MN.1008 - Five Pieces
ED.MN.1009 - Ouranos II 
ED.MN.1010 - Meteors & Pulsars 
ED.MN.1011 - Musique Action '98
ED.MN.1014 - Orbit of Eternal Grace
ED.MN.1018 - Remote Pulsar
ED.MN.1019 - In Tokyo

Ana-Maria Avram/Iancu Dumitrescu - Meteors & Pulsars, etc (1998)

More music of the spheres from the late Ana-Maria Avram, and her husband Iancu Dumitrescu: where the vast emptiness of space and time becomes illuminated by various re-imaginings of it as endless varieties of spectral sound.  The title piece of this collection is a computer music suite by Dumitrescu, divided into seven brief movements that sputter into life like newborn stars.

One of his great, ominous orchestral works is next, Profondis for clarinet, bass clarinet and the Hyperion Symphony Orchestra (1973, revised 1991), where the music slides forwards as if being sucked into a black hole.  The third work from Iancu is Origo (1998), a solo cello epic that sounds pretty much how Xenakis' Nomos Alpha would sound in the hands of the composer who wrote Medium for double bass.

Ana-Maria Avram then fills out the collection in the same pattern of orchestral work, cello work.  Chaosmos for two orchestras (1998) is a fine blast of the organised chaos experience that she excelled at, and the constantly-shifting 16-minute piece is riveting to sit through.  The Hyperion Orchestra's cellist Andrei Kivu (who also performed Origo) is back for the album closer Axe (1998), the frenetic sound given extra punch by backup from percussionist Thierry Miroglio.

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pw: sgtg

Previously posted on SGTG:
ED.MN.1001 - Medium/Cogito
ED.MN.1002 - Au Dela De Movemur
ED.MN.1003 - Pierres Sacreés
ED.MN.1004 - Musique de Paroles
ED.MM.1006 - A Priori
ED.MN.1008 - Five Pieces
ED.MN.1009 - Ouranos II 
ED.MN.1011 - Musique Action '98
ED.MN.1014 - Orbit of Eternal Grace
ED.MN.1018 - Remote Pulsar
ED.MN.1019 - In Tokyo

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.

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Ana-Maria Avram / Iancu Dumitrescu - A Priori, De Sacrae Lamentationem etc (1994)

Returning to two of my favourite composers today, for the first time this year.  Still gutted by Ana-Maria Avram's death at just 55 last August, and just had a quick search there for any more recent information about her passing - couldn't find anything other than the obits that I'd already read.  Her extraordinary music still needs a higher profile, as does the music of her partner Iancu - so here's another share from me, with two great examples of Ana-Maria's early work, and three characteristically imposing Dumitrescu pieces.

This 1994 release of pieces from 93-94 starts with Iancu's A Priori, 16 minutes of groaning and snapping strings, deep reverberating metal percussion, and occasional synth buzz - the latter most likely from Ana-Maria.  Five Implosions is up next, for full orchestra, and definitely announces itself with a big bang before the banks of strings spread out into space.  The eerie, Ligeti-like middle section features wordless voices floating over the top of the strange atmosphere before the full orchestra expands its universe even more.  The final piece from Iancu is the 18-minute Mythos, returning to a smaller ensemble for a lengthy exploration of the unsettling drones and clanging percussion that were his signature at the time - see also the tracks on the Pierres Sacreés disc in the list below.

Ana-Maria Avram's first piece on this collection is De Sacrae Lamentationem, with the full weight of the Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra behind it.  Great waves of slippery strings propel it forward into the spectral, microtonal unknown.  Not sure if there's more voices or something else making those sounds, but this phenomenal track just keeps getting weirder and more unsettling - although oddly enough it's probably the most accessible and satisfying highlight of this album.  The other Avram piece showcases her alone with the synthesiser workout Icarus.  The subtle drones gradually gather momentum until it oozes electronic hypnosis directly into your brain, like an Eliane Radigue track with a lot more going on.

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Previously posted on SGTG:
ED.MN.1001 - Medium/Cogito
ED.MN.1002 - Au Dela De Movemur
ED.MN.1003 - Pierres Sacreés
ED.MN.1004 - Musique de Paroles
ED.MN.1008 - Five Pieces
ED.MN.1011 - Musique Action '98
ED.MN.1014 - Orbit of Eternal Grace
ED.MN.1018 - Remote Pulsar
ED.MN.1019 - In Tokyo

Ana-Maria Avram / Iancu Dumitrescu - Remote Pulsar, Movemur, Incantatio etc (2003)

One more post for now highlighting the music of Ana-Maria Avram, who passed away on 1 August aged 55.  Incantatio (2003) is 20 minutes of thrilling orchestral chaos, led by viola and percussion.  Influences of Xenakis and Ligeti are detectable, but Ana-Maria's compositional signature was very much her own - having grown up under the Ceaușescu regime, her approach to her art was always that as many rules should be broken as possible.

The other Avram work on this release, Quinconce (2003) continues the viola theme (as does a re-recording of a 1977 Dumitrescu piece for solo viola earlier in the disc), making this album very much a spotlight on Hyperion Ensemble member Cornelia Petroiu.  In Quinconce, Petroiu's performance is set against Avram's computer manipulations of the sounds, with results that took the Avram/Dumitrescu explorations into the boundaries of spectralist music to yet another new level.

Iancu Dumitrescu is represented on this release mainly by the latest progress in his own computer-music, refining this otherworldy avenue of his soundworld with Remote Pulsar and one of my favourite of his works in this vein, Numerologie Secrète.  Sandwiched in between these is the aforementioned solo viola piece Movemur III.

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Ana-Maria Avram / Iancu Dumitrescu - Orbit Of Eternal Grace (1999)

In tribute to the late Ana-Maria Avram, here's a couple of her great orchestral works.  Will probably post another Edition Modern disc on Friday that also highlights her unique style, then resume normal service next week - posting these two composers' unique music as-and-when.  The ones I've already posted are all listed in yesterday's post.

Orbit Of Eternal Grace (1998) is a stunning evocation of the cosmos, with dizzying swirls from the string orchestra and rumbling percussion from Chris Cutler providing the backdrop for Tim Hodgkinson's unearthly solo part on bass clarinet.  Ascent (1999) for chamber orchestra occupies similar terrain on a smaller scale.

Afterwards, there's three pieces by Iancu - two versions of Eon - Dans Un Desordre Absolu, one computer composed, and the other filled out by ensemble and live electronics - and Temps Condenses, again with the mutant, granular electronic sounds being punctuated by percussive thunder and the ensemble soloists.

So grateful to both of these composers right now for all their unique music that I've heard so far, and for the dozen or so albums that I've still to pick up.  So sad that we won't hear any more from Ana-Maria, now that she's gone while still just in her fifties, and gutted for Iancu.  Just wanted to state that I'm sharing these albums so that as many people as possible can discover them, and then hopefully go out and get hold of few of them - this is music that I believe deserves a much bigger audience than it has.  For anyone looking to purchase Edition Modern CDs, I'd recommend buying from ReR Megacorp.

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Ana-Maria Avram, 1961-2017 - R.I.P.

Only just found out that Romanian composer Ana-Maria Avram passed away at the beginning of this month, aged 55. :(  Information about the cause of her death doesn't seem to have been published as yet.

Piece from The Wire on Ana-Maria's passing here.  Another here.

conducting in 2011

I've only been listening to her music for a couple of years, along with that of her husband Iancu Dumitrescu (both pictured below), but it's been life-changing - new extremes in modern classical music that have really broadened my listening horizons.  RIP Ana-Maria, and condolences to Iancu - I believe they'd been together since the late 80s/early 90s.

More to come soon from Ana-Maria and Iancu on this blog - for now, already posted are:

ED.MN.1001 - Medium/Cogito (just Iancu's music)
ED.MN.1002 - Au Dela De Movemur
ED.MN.1003 - Pierres Sacreés (just Iancu's music)
ED.MN.1004 - Musique de Paroles
ED.MN.1008 - Five Pieces
ED.MN.1011 - Musique Action '98
ED.MN.1019 - In Tokyo

Iancu Dumitrescu / Ana-Maria Avram - Five Pieces (1997)

String quartets a-plenty from Ana-Maria and Iancu (well, two of his, one of hers), with instruments being tortured within an inch of their lives and occasional tape maniplulation adding to the magnificent organised chaos.

But in addition, it's the two non-string quartet works on this disc that make it a standout in the Edition Modern catalogue.  Avram's 20-minute electronic/instrumental On The Abolition Of The Soul treats the philosophical wiritings of Émile Cioran with the nightmarish gravity that they deserve, and Dumitrescu's Fluxus, for tapes and orchestra, approaches (if not equals) the viciousness of early Pendercki.

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Previously posted at SGTG:
ED.MN.1001 - Medium/Cogito
ED.MN.1002 - Au Dela De Movemur
ED.MN.1003 - Pierres Sacreés
ED.MN.1004 - Musique de Paroles
ED.MN.1011 - Musique Action '98
ED.MN.1019 - In Tokyo

Iancu Dumitrescu / Ana-Maria Avram / George Astalos - Musique de Paroles (1993)

Mark your SGTG bingo cards, folks - we're following up Iannis with Iancu & Ana-Maria.  Took me ages to track this one down, and it was worth it.  Astree Lontaine is first up, a fine orchestral Dumitrescu work that stands up with the best of his large-scale works of the 80s and early 90s, e.g. Grande Ourse - the ominous droning and screeching suggesting a haunted orchestra pit.  Later on, there's a solo work apiece from the two composers - Avram's Archae for voice, and Dumitrescu's Holzwege for viola.

In between is the album's centrepiece Symetries, a half-hour long suite of five pieces based on writings by George Astalos (1933-2014), a Romanian poet and playwright who settled in Paris (I'm guessing that's why all the words are in French).  Dumitrescu and Avram take turns at filling out the sonic backdrop, as French literary-spoken word performer Pierre Lamy intones the texts on a ghostly bed of reverb and other effects.  Haunting stuff and very effective, even if you're not fluent in French - I'm certainly too rusty to get much out of Astalos' texts, but I still enjoyed these settings a lot.  The one that's stuck with me most is Magma, with Avram's bubbling and sputtering electronics.

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Iancu Dumitrescu / Ana-Maria Avram - In Tokyo (2003)

Let's have another Avram/Dumitrescu, shall we?  This one, as the title suggests, is centred around two live recordings from an October 2002 concert in Hamarikyu Asahi Hall in Tokyo, the first of which is Iancu's Abysses Latents.  Dark percussive clouds, mostly ominous gongs a la early NWW combine with rock-boring sax and a wordless, free vocal from Japanese avant-garde singer Keiko Hatanaka.  Yoko Ono is a lazy comparison to make, but hey, I'm on a holiday week and engaging my brain as little as possible.

On either side of this piece, Dumitrescu offers some of his trademark "computer-assisted" studio work, in the opener Implosive Eternity and the multi-part Bolids & Contemplations.  Sounding a bit like 90s Whitehouse played underwater in the latter piece and a bit like a less-clinical Autechre on the former, this stuff is the most engaging on the disc for me.

Avram contributes the most substantive work, certainly in numbers of players, with La Légende D'icaire for the full Hyperion Ensemble.  Tim Hodgkinson takes the lead with a nice honking, skronking bass clarinet solo, up against various string and percussion clatter - some of it electronically treated, increasingly so as the track goes on.  And how better to close out this fascinating release than with 11 minutes of solo saxophone?  Dedicated to its player, Turkey-based musicologist Robert Reigle, Penumbra is another great rumble 'n' screech through registers of its instrument that only composers with this strength of vision can go to.

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Dumitrescu / Avram / Cutler / Hodgkinson - Musique Action 98 (1999)

Still making my way gradually through the Avram/Dumitrescu Edition Modern catalogue - up to No. 19 now, with some gaps of unavailability.  Here's an interesting one in that two of their key musical collaborators are also featured as composers.  The fact that almost everyone involved plays on each others works gives a nice album-length homogeneity and listenability to this release.

Rock In Opposition stalwart Chris Cutler contributes Life On Earth for ensemble with the focus on strings, alongside his own percussion featuring sparingly, and English avant-garde reedsman Tim Hodgkinson (who had been in RiO agitators Henry Cow with Cutler) gives us Black Death And Errors In Construction.  The shortest piece of the four, it packs in plenty of thunder and some great piano work from Avram before a midway solo for Hodgkinson's bass clarinet.

Avram's piece Nouvelle Axe is characteristically scratchy-spectral, fusing her string-torturing talents into a striking ensemble work, and Dumitrescu's New Meteors And Pulsars is arguably the highlight, a stunning account of (according to his endearingly pretentious sleevenote) of witnessing a meteor.  Assisted by Cutler on percussion, the underwater-sounding sonic manipulation characteristic to much late-90s Dumitrescu is very much in evidence.

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Previously posted at SGTG:
ED.MN.1001
ED.MN.1002
ED.MN.1003

Iancu Dumitrescu / Ana-Maria Avram - Au Dela De Movemur, etc (1991)

Definitely time for another Iancu Dumitrescu release, so why not the one that introduced Ana-Maria Avram (b.1961, Bucharest), his wife and fellow composer, and co-founder of the Edition Modern label.  Only four of the EM albums to date (of which I've already posted two) are in fact solely of Dumitrescu's music.  The rest (aside from a handful of non-Dumitrescu/Avram ones like last week's Cazaban CD) are shared roughly equally on each release, and frequently feature live recordings, a preference that dates back to this three-fifths live release.

Dumitrescu's two works that open the album are both for strings; Au Dela De Movemur for droning, Scelsi-esque (although Dumitrescu disliked the comparison) string orchestra, and two movements of Monades, for six monochords, which make maximum sonic use out of the single-string instruments.

Avram's three are the perfect introduction to her range and specialisms.  The orchestral fireworks of Ekagrata show an early Xenakis influence, and Signum Gemini is an ensemble and tape work highlighting the great Romanian (Ukranian-born) clarinettist Aurelian Octav Popa.  The final piece, and the longest on the disc, is Zodiaque III for prepared piano and electronics, performed by Avram herself.  The sharp piano notes cut intermittently across a droning landscape, before being subsumed entirely in the Radigue-like ambient smog.

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Iancu Dumitrescu - Medium III, Cogito etc (1991 compi of works '73-'85)

Couldn't resist more Dumitrescu for today's post - definitely my favourite music at the moment.  In the early 90s, Dumitrescu and fellow composer/wife Ana-Maria Avram started the Edition Modern label to release their music, with much of the early releases concentrating on giving digital re-release to Dumitrescu material that had appeared on LP during the 80s (or even pre-dated those records).

All of this first CD was devoted to such a mopping-up exercise - but one of such mind-bending sonics that it hangs together well as a double-album experience.  Not least because the first three tracks centre on the talents of avant-garde double-bassist Fernando Grillo, heard for the first 23 minutes of this disc with no other accompaniment.  Think that much solo bass could be a bit of a bore?  Let Medium III convince you otherwise, in a scraping, screeching masterclass that sounds like Xenakis' solo cello piece Nomos Alpha being reinterpreted by sunn o))) (Stephen O'Malley has in fact worked with Dumitrescu in recent years).

In the following Cogito (Trompe l'Oeil), Grillo is paired up with another bassist, Ion Ghita, and Dumitrescu's Hyperion Ensemble playing prepard piano, Javanese gong, crystals and metal objects.  Cogito makes full use of the frequency range, sounding almost electronic at times with a needling, feedback-like whine.  The third vehicle for Grillo (who died in 2013 at 67, in an apparent suicide) is Aulodie Mioritică, which fills out the sonic landscape even more with a percussive thunderstorm and slow-motion sheet lightning in the strings.  The CD is then rounded out by two older Dumitrescu works: Perspectives au Movemur, a nice scratchy, spectral string quartet from 1979, and an orchestral work, Apogeum.  This closing piece from 1973 (and the recording appears to be vintage too, sounding a little ropey in places) is worth waiting for, creating a wonderfully unsettling Scelsi/Ligeti-esque atmosphere.

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SGTG exclusive bonus track:

The 1987 German vinyl release of Medium/Cogito quoted Dumitrescu describing the solo piece as "the hidden, mysterious reverse of Cogito", and suggested that the two works could even be heard simultaneously, in those days presumably with two copies of the LP or with tape recordings.  Want to hear?  Of course you do.  (First two tracks on the CD, mixed together by yours truly. Thanks to a discogs commenter for the info.)

Iancu Dumitrescu - Pierres Sacrées, Harryphonies, Grand Ourse (1991, rec. '85-'91)

Speaking of 'can't believe I haven't posted this yet'...  If Stravinsky was my gateway drug to Pendercki, and Pendercki to Xenakis; then Xenakis was my gateway drug to Iancu Dumitrescu.  If there's a more unhinged composer still out there, I've still to hear them - hope I won't be waiting too long.  But for now, here's my first post of the grand vizier of Romanian spectralism.

If you think you've heard some of the most violent classical music ever written - Black Angels? Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima? Terretektorh? - then sit tight for Pierres Sacrées.  Inspired by a dream of exploding glass plates whilst dozing off on night-shift military service, this piece for prepared piano and 'metallic plates and objects' barely sounds like classical music in any sense.  The close-miked production and deliberate use of feedback and distortion pushes the 1991 work closer in sound to some of the electronic experiments you'd find on an early 80s United Dairies or Come Organisation compilation.

Elsewhere on this CD, there's two versions of Dumitrescu's Harryphonies (named after a percussion instrument of his invention); one more spare and menacing, featuring the late great avant-garde double bass player Fernando Grillo, and one more fleshed out with recognisable orchestral instruments, and ocean-submerged bells.  If you've got a handful of Xenakis or Scelsi works under your belt, this final track on the CD might be your logical starting point, especially in the writing for brass.  And don't miss Grande Ourse (also known by its Romanian title Ursa Mare), as sinister buzzings and rattlings give way to a mournful drone and clicking string bows; had Dumitrescu been heard on record prior to the early 80s, he might easily have made the Nurse With Wound list.

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