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.

link
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.

link
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

Octavian Nemescu - Les États Du Temps Et De L'Espace 2 (2002)

Some more Octavian Nemescu, to follow on from the post of his earliest (digitally) available album a couple of weeks back.  As this one is obviously Volume 2 of something, it's worth quickly pointing out that Les États Du Temps Et De L'Espace 1 was a deleted late-90s CDR that's eluded my grasp ever since I first heard Nemescu, but will keep trying.  This collection was where Nemescu started releasing his 'Music Of The Hours' grand project in earnest - see this handy discogs list.  The string quartet compilation that features the initial Midnight piece is again - you guessed it - almost impossible to come by, so might as well start here.

On the previous post, I noted Nemescu's obsession with particular listening conditions that he prescribed for each piece.  Music Of The Hours was/is an attempt to take this even further, and reintroduce what he thought was missing from Western music (Indian classical music comes to mind as an obvious example where this remains): assigning specific times of day at which pieces ought to be played/heard.  That discogs list above gives an interesting summary of its ritualistic inspiration, and this extends to the how the music sounds, with the majority of the pieces topping the half-hour mark.  As the polar opposite of a night owl, I might seldom be awake to follow Nemescu's timings for the first seven pieces, but I've been enjoying the two on this disc anyway during the day.

First up here, then, is Quindecimortuorum for 1AM; it was composed in 1994, but there's no recording dates in the notes, and the wind ensemble is uncredited - odd oversights when the two pieces are explained in such intricate detail.  The woozy brass fanfares start off subtly, gathering complexity and some thunderous percussion as it progresses.  And here's the extremely odd thing about the progression of the piece, which I noticed straight away when taking the CD out its case: it's punctuated by lengthy silences, some several minutes long.  Nemescu explains that these are "offered as 'spaces' for invocation and meditation".  It can seem strange or unnecessary at first, but in the right headspace for concentration it works a treat.  Or you can just let your mind wander during the silences and then be pulled back into the piece whenever the music restarts.

The second track, Negantidiadua for 2AM (1995), for piano, sax, trombone, percussion and voice is even sparser at its outset, eventually establishing a low drone (later phased out for more pure silences) over which all kinds of sudden elements will burst onto the soundstage.  A sharp piano figure here, a blast of percussion there, a disembodied voice suddenly singing in Latin in a very odd affected manner; I've just now realised what this reminds me of in terms of the listening experience: very early Nurse With Wound, e.g. Ostranenie, The Schmurz or especially Dadaˣ.  In this case, Nemescu isn't including the surprise elements just for the sake of creating a surrealist soundscape, but invoking... something like... the tension between waking and sleeping, existence and non-existence, temporal distortions... I gave up trying to understand his weighty liner notes at this point, and just enjoyed the album for what it was: a couple of extraordinary adventures in sound & silence.

link
pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Metabizantinirikon, Trisson & Sonatu(h)r
Split CD with Costin Cazaban

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.


link
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

Octavian Nemescu - Metabizantinirikon, Trisson, Sonatu(h)r (1992 compi, rec. 1986-1990)

By request, an hour of shimmering, mindwarping tape-based spectral music, which, when I discovered it three years ago at the sadly-no-more Spook City USA, caused a Big Bang in my listening habits that led to at least a half-dozen other Romanian composers (see links below).  One of those other composers I went so crazy for that they're about to get their 14th post here on Wednesday.  For today though, very happy to bring back into circulation this 1992 CD of Octavian Nemescu's music, which was originally released as a 1991 LP with just the first two tracks.

Nemescu, born 1940 in the Moldavian city of Pașcani, has been active from the 60s to today, and revisiting his discogs page was a handy reminder that there's still a good few releases I must get hold of.  This compilation starts with Metabizantinirikon for saxophone (the great Daniel Kientzy) and magnetic tape, produced at IRCAM in 1986.  Intended to evoke the Byzantine era via its landscapes and bird & insect life, Kientzy's lead lines float over the buzzing and fluttering of the tape-manipulated electronics for a beautifully meditative 20 minutes.

The other two pieces are purely electronics/tape.  Trisson (1987) was commissioned by and recorded at GMVL (Groupe de Musique Vivante Lyon), and Nemescu recommends that it be listened to outdoors, on a spring or summer night.  The vast rumbling soundscape that underpins Trisson brings Eliane Radigue to mind for me, but the whole track is nowhere near as minimalist; the gently pinging melodies are perhaps closer to David Behrman.  After an ear-ringing finale, it fades out and it's time for the CD-only track Sonatu(h)r, composed in 1986 and mixed 1990 at the GMEB (Experimental Group from Bourges). 

As in the first track above, in Sonatu(h)r Nemescu is interested in the dynamic between human cultures and natural animal timbres, and again recommends outdoor, rural listening at dusk in springtime.  The shrill high tones escaping from my earphones in the office one lunchtime made someone ask what the hell I was listening to - Sonatu(h)r is definitely a deep-clean for the brain, and the most strikingly alien piece among an hour's worth of phenomenal, otherworldly sounds.  Massively recommended.

link
pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG: Split CD Nemescu/Cazaban
Other posts featuring Daniel Kientzy: 
Berio, Stroe, Stockhausen etc
Gerard Pape
Niculescu, Marbe, Vieru
Rotaru, Taranu etc

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.

link
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

Daniel Kientzy - Musiques Contemporaines Pour Saxophones (1988)

The great avant-garde/modern classical sax master Daniel Kientzy, previously highlighted starring in ensemble works here and here, returns to these pages in an early compilation of pieces for solo saxophone.  Or indeed more than one sax at once, or sax plus electronics - it's all here at its most mind-bending, in one piece each from the seven composers listed on the cover.

If you love solo saxophone doing insane, improbable things, this is the album for you for sure; if you think it might be a bit much to sit through 71 minutes of this stuff, I recommend taking it in stages.  Personal highlights would be the blasting opener, the overture to Aurel Stroe's Eumenides opera (can never resist a Romanian composer) and the closer, Horacio Vaggione's Thema, that sounds like it's being played inside a gigantic cement mixer.  Then enjoy the frenzy of tape effects layered on to Aulodie by François-Bernard Mâche, then the slowly integrating layers of the Stockhausen piece, then the rest will be a breeze.  I promise.

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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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Gerard Pape - Electroacoustic Chamber Works (1998)

Five ear-bending and mind-bending journeys into transformed sound today, courtesy of Gerard Pape, born 1955 in Brooklyn.  These works all date from the mid-90s both in composition and in recording, giving this disc the homogeneous feel of an album rather than a compilation from disparate sources.  Furthermore, they all display Pape's talent for using tape and/or computer to forensically investigate and transform sound at every possible micro-level; harmonics, timbre and so on.

Two Electro-Acoustic Songs, for soprano, flute and tape/sound projection, is featured first.  The tonalities of the voice and flute start out with their pure sound before Pape subjects them to various levels of alien warping, using the UPIC system developed by Xenakis.  This is followed by Le Fleuve du Désir for string quartet and tape.  Pape makes his inspiration erm, explicit, evoking not just water and rivers, but also applying Freud's writings on the libido to "my 'river of desire'... inspired by fluid flow, real and fantasised".  Bit too much information there, Gerard, but thanks all the same.

The longest piece is next, in the 32 minutes of Monologue for bass voice and tape/sound projection.  The libretto is taken from Samuel Beckett's A Piece Of Monologue, and Nicholas Isherwood's voice has great versatility for the dramatics of the performance.  Pape's soundworld swirls and hisses around it unobtrusively, providing a suitably unsettling atmosphere.  A choral piece, Battle, follows, performed by Vox Nova with Pape on tape - the inspiration here was a dramatic scene from Clive Barker's Weaverworld.  Lastly, our old friend Daniel Kientzy is the featured soloist on the ensemble piece Makbénach, the title apparently meaning 'flesh leaving bones'.  Ensemble 2e2m provide an ever-shifting backdrop for Kientzy's unique sax sound, as Pape warps the whole thing into outer space.

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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

Daniel Kientzy / various orchestras - The Romanian Saxophone (1990 compi, rec '84/'86)

French avant-garde saxophone player Daniel Kientzy has been featured on these pages once before - and here's another phenomenal disc highlighting his close ties to some of Romania's most out-there composers of the 20th century.

Ștefan Niculescu, who was featured last on the Kluj disc, comes first this time, with his enjoyably mind-bending Cantos symphony, which also has variants for clarinet and orchestra, and for oboe, horn and clarinets.  Naturally, this is the sax one, giving Kientzy plenty of room to drone and skronk over the hallucinatory backdrop.  In the opening moments, which brought Vangelis to mind, I genuinely wondered if there were synthesisers involved, but nope, it's all orchestral.  A highly memorable and wonderfully weird trip through Byzantine-inspired melodies and musical forms.

We've also heard from Myriam Marbe before on SGTG, and her half-hour Concerto For Daniel Kientzy And Saxophones here is a good counterpoint to the brilliantly oddball works on that collection.  Kientzy starts solo, giving a great display of the range of his genius, before the ominous, fractured orchestral writing starts to fill out.  Plenty of long sax drones here too, intended to imitate bagpipes at one point and featuring Kientzy on two saxes simultaneously (eat your heart out, Beefheart/VDGG!).
 
The disc is rounded off by Anatol Vieru's Narration II, another nicely bonkers piece of orchestral surrealism that subjects "Frère Jacques", of all things, to a series of chromatic mutations.  Meanwhile, what sounds like a sozzled surf guitarist starts to stagger through the orchestra.  The remainder of the work is nicely trippy and off-beam - Vieru sounds like he's mildly spiked the whole ensemble.  Unique stuff, even in 20th century classical music, and really enjoyable.

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Hugues Dufourt - Saturne / Surgir (1993 compi, rec. '80 and '85)

As the Cassini spacecraft makes its final descent into Saturn's atmosphere, what better music to celebrate its voyage with?  Well, maybe Holst's Saturn, a classic seven minutes of grand old melancholy in its own right; but I'm going to go for 43 minutes of epic, electronically-inflected orchestral atmospherics courtesy of Dufourt (b. 1943 in Lyon).

One of the co-founders (who included Murail and Grisey) of the French-spectralism-focused Ensemble l’Itinéraire, Dufourt wrote Saturne for them in 1978-9.  It was also the time of the launch of his own Instrumental Research and Sound Synthesis Group (CRISS), which gives a clue to the content of this masterpiece.  Eerie orchestral swells and bell-like percussion are swathed in gaseous synthesiser swishes from the beginning, evoking the descent through Saturn's outer atmosphere to the unknown world below.  The percussion gets periodically more thunderous, there's judicious use of a staccato electric guitar, and the developing synth tones blend in perfectly with the rising and falling orchestral swells.  This sustained atmosphere is wonderfully evocative on headphones in a dark room - highly recommended.

Saturne is supported on this CD by Surgir (1985), a half-hour orchestral work in a similar vein, but without the synthesisers and guitar.  It's worth a listen, but it's the main work that I keep going back to with all its great swirling electronics.

Original LP cover for Saturne, 1980

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Tristan Murail - Gondwana, Désintégrations, Time and Again (1989 compi, rec. '80/'86'/87)

Tristan Murail (b. 1947 in Le Havre) occupies the same upper echelons of French spectralism as Gérard Grisey, meaning that these three works from the 80s are all built on the microscopic properties of sound, subsequently blown back up into unexpected shapes to create otherwordly, spectacular pieces of music.

In the purely orchestral Gondwana (1980), the gradual drift of the ancient supercontinent is represented by small textural elements of the music being reconfigured and arranged into new, more striking layers.  If this wasn't spectacular enough, the other two works were even more fascinating for me.  Time And Again (1986) adds a Yamaha DX7 synth to the orchestra, and again the musical textures and themes are transformed and mutated all over the place.

Désingtégrations (1982-3) is the definite highlight of this disc IMO, with a smaller ensemble playing against tapes generated by computer at IRCAM.  Original tones and timbres from the instruments were fed into the computer and analysed to the smallest detail, with the resultant tapes meshing eerily with the ensemble and painting the tone colours with a wonderfully weird, alien luminosity.  I'm reminded occasionally of Vangelis circa Invisible Connections.  Download this one to enjoy the two orchestral works of course, but Désingtégrations is utterly unmissable.

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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

Fausto Romitelli (played by Ictus ensemble) - Professor Bad Trip (2004)

Italian composer Fausto Romitelli managed to stake out a truly unique and disorienting soundworld in his unfortunately short life (he lost a battle with cancer in 2004 at the age of 41).  This has been my entry point to his ouevre, and it's a good overview.

Set into three movements (or 'Lessons', as introduced by a suitably professor-like narrator), Professor Bad Trip was Romitelli's breatkthrough opus in creating a surreal, constantly-shifting blend of modern classical music and psychedelia.  Performed here by the Belgian ensemble Ictus, it's a stunning 40-minute aural hall of mirrors that takes a few listens to get a proper hold on.  Shorter pieces flesh out this release - another ensemble one, Green Yellow & Blue, and two solo works - Seascape for contrabass recorder, and Trash TV Trance for electric guitar and guitar-jack interference.  Recommended.

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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.

link

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

Georg Friedrich Haas - In Vain (2003)

Hour-long microtonal-spectral masterpiece by Austrian composer Haas (b. 1953, Graz).  The liner notes of this 2002 premiere recording use a staircase metaphor for music in common intonation, working towards a comparison of this piece with M.C. Escher's famous engraving.  A good starting point, particularly in the most dramatic final quarter with its more animated series of downward spirals and percussive thunder.

Other than that, the mood is ominous, minimal and dark - quite literally in the performance instructions, which call for complete darkness on two occasions (at 5-10 mins in, and 40-50 mins as seen in this performance).  Quite a feat of memory for the musicians working their way through the extra-small gradations in tone, and a treat for the ears, especially in the dark as intended.  Almost like the night-time flipside of all the spectral sun-rays of Gerard Grisey's Espaces Acoustiques.

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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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