Iannis Xenakis, David Del Tredici, Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage, George Crumb (2014 compi rec. 1965-78)

Great compilation put together by Sony Classical as part of their "Prophets Of The New" reissue series in 2013/14.  Much of the series was also released as a "Masterworks Of The 20th Century" budget box set, a chunk of which has already been posted here - Boulez, Extended Voices, Columbia-Princeton, Crumb, Partch, and Takemitsu.  More to come in due course - I may as well finish the box.

In contrast to the ones above that reissued those landmark LPs in their entireity, this collection picks highlights from three different records.  Firstly we get half of a 1969 album by the Festival Chamber Ensemble under Richard Dufallo, starting with Xenakis' Akrata - I think I prefer this one to the EIDMC Du Paris/Simonovich version, it's got a bit more oomph to it.  Then there's 24 engrossing minutes of David Del Tredici's Syzygy, with soprano and ensemble all over the shop in a setting of James Joyce's Ecce Puer.

Next up is side two of "Electronics & Percussion - Five Realizations By Max Neuhaus" released in 1968.  Stockhausen's Zyklus is scored for a solo percussionist playing multiple instruments, and notated in a spiral so that the player can start anywhere.  The ear-shredding John Cage noisefest Fontana Mix-Feed ("realized 1965") has previously featured here alongside an album's worth of other realizations of it by Neuhaus.  Closing the compilation is a typically bewitching and gorgeous George Crumb piece taken from a 1978 LP.  Lux Aeterna For Five Masked Musicians is scored for soprano, sitar, bass flute/recorder and two percussionists, and as always, makes me want to dig deeper into Crumb.  (More of him at SGTG here and here, plus link in first para above.)

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pw: sgtg

P.S. whilst reading about Max Neuhaus, I discovered his amazing Radio Net project from 1977 - well worth a listen.  Read about it and d/l the two hours of audio (192 kbps, but hey ho, fine for an old radio tape) here.

Max Neuhaus ‎– Fontana Mix-Feed (Six Realizations Of John Cage) (2003 compi of '65-'68 recordings)

Regular visitors here will know by now that I like sharp contrasts - and every warm ambient masterpiece deserves a teeth-grating, bracing, cold shower like this as a follow-up.  Fontana Mix-Feed, originally released as a four-track LP in 1966, gave avant-garde percussionist Max Neuhaus the prime credit as 'Fontana Mix' wasn't a set score composed by Cage, but merely an abstract set of patterns that could be subject to any desired alignment and then followed as a unique set of directions for any instrument(s) the performer wished.

In this case, Neuhaus used contact microphones set atop various percussion instruments, placed in front of loudspeakers to create something much more than simple screeching feedback - shimmering, oscillating waves of tightly controlled noise.  As captured on the CD cover photograph above, Neuhaus sat on stage orchestrating this racket on a mixing desk, like Stockhausen jumping forward a decade in a time machine, listening to Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music and then trying to recreate it on his return.

 original LP cover, 1966

So yep, this album is very noisy indeed, and wonderfully overpowering at high volume; but the joy is in noticing the subtle differences between each of the four live recordings (and on CD, a studio recording and a WDR radio recording) as the performance was affected each time by the physical space of the venue, the exact instruments used, their proximity to each other and to the mikes/speakers, and so on ad infinitum.  I'd love to have been present at one of these performances in the mid-60s, to be overwhelmed by the sheer sonic assault and see the audience's reactions.  A New York Times review from the performance at which track 4 was taped gives a tantalising indication - "This piece was not the kind of electronic music that emanates distantly from the speakers. It felt as though one's own head were part of the feedback circuit."

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