Iannis Xenakis
Iannis Xenakis (1922 to 2001) came to music from mathematics and architecture. Wounded in the Greek resistance and sentenced to death, he fled to Paris in 1947 and worked for twelve years with Le Corbusier, designing the Philips Pavilion for the 1958 Brussels fair, where his tape piece Concret PH played inside Varèse's Poème électronique. Metastaseis (1954), with its glissandi drawn as straight lines on graph paper, announced a music of masses and probabilities; he called it stochastic and used game theory, group theory and, from 1961, the computer to compose.
Complete String Quartets
Xenakis Edition volume 10 and the first complete recording of Iannis Xenakis's string quartets, played by the JACK Quartet: Tetras, Tetora, ST/4-1,080262 and Ergma, the last quartet, released on CD and surround-sound DVD.
Electronic Works 2 - Hibiki Hana Ma; Polytope De Cluny
Two multi-channel electronic works by Iannis Xenakis from the 1970s, Hibiki Hana Ma and Polytope de Cluny, restored from the original tapes and mixed for 5.1 surround and stereo by Gerard Pape.
An Anthology of Greek Experimental Electronic Music
**Double-CD version includes 20-page booklet. Sold out at source** An Anthology of Greek Experimental Electronic Music 1966-2016 aspires to map the heterogenous landscape of Greek experimental electronic music in all its contextual, sociopolitical, geographical and aesthetic disparity. With a single exception: it zeroes in on post-80s music. It comprises works of very different kinds by composers of all sorts of backgrounds that, still, can be thought of, as both "Greeks" and "experimentalists".…
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GRM Works 1957-1962
2020 repress, originally released in 2013. Recollection GRM assembles Greek experimental composer Iannis Xenakis' works for Groupe de Recherches Musicales circa 1957-1962. "Concret PH" (1958) was assembled for the Brussels World Fair. The industrialist Philips commissioned Le Corbusier's famous "Philips Pavilion": "I'll create an electronic poem for you, he said. Everything will happen inside: sound, light, color, and rhythm." Iannis Xenakis designed the architectural blueprint and composed "Con…
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Electronic music
Jeanne Dielman presents a reissue of a collection of Iannis Xenakis's work titled Electronic Music, originally released in 1997. Some of the earliest works from a truly groundbreaking composer in the realms of electronic music, musique concrete, electro-acoustic, 20th century classical, and more. The Romanian-born, Greek-French composer Iannis Xenakis was instrumental in the introduction of mathematical models into composition and helped revolutionize electronic music in the middle 20th century.…
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Interpreta Obras De Xenakis, Taïra Y Lewin-Richter
**warehouse find, still sealed original copies**More early 80's action from the Hemisferio label, this time centered on contemporany percussion pieces. Secuencia I for percussion and magnetic tape, was comissioned by Josef Anton Riedl for the Munich Olympic Games (1972) and was originally previewed on that event by Michael Ranta. Cover is a painting by E.Fontecilla.
Xenakis Edition 15, Orchestral Works
Three orchestral works by Iannis Xenakis: Metastaseis A in its original version for 65 musicians (first recording), with the Orchestra Sinfonica RAI, and Terretektorh and Nomos Gamma, with the Residentie Orkest The Hague under Arturo Tamayo.
Musique Concrète
Temporary Super Offer! Reissue of 1960 BAM label release. Musique Concrète represents an important milestone in the development and progression of the genre of the same name. It marks a crossroad for the genre and its originator, Pierre Schaeffer and another of the genre's most important protagonists, Pierre Henry. In 1942, Schaeffer and Jacques Copeau founded the Studio d'Essai (renamed Club d'Essai in 1946) as part of Radiodiffusion Française studios in order to experiment with radiophonic tec…
Le depassement de soi
DVD centred on Iannis Xenakis's Linaia-Agon for trombone, French horn and tuba, in two performances with Benny Sluchin, plus Zythos for trombone and six marimbas, a 78-minute film by Sluchin and an interactive interface.
Ensemble Works 3
Xenakis Edition volume 13: works for soloist and ensemble by Iannis Xenakis, played by members of the International Contemporary Ensemble under Steven Schick, with the first recording of Zythos for trombone and six marimbas.
Inventionen VII: 30 jahre inventionen 1982 - 2012
* Five hours of electroacoustical compositions, recorded during the first thirty years of the Berlin festival “Inventionen”. Box set with two audio CDs and a multichannel (surroundsound) DVD * Mindblowing two re-releases of Edition RZ LPs that are now available in this double CD box with additional tracks, as well as a mainly acousmatic DVD that features electronic tracks by a variety of electroacoustic composers. The present DVD contains mainly acousmatic music. This is when a pure "tape piece"…
Earle Brown Contemporary Sound Series Vol. 4
"Wergo's reissues of the legendary Earle Brown Contemporary Sound Series have been a big hit with fans of contemporary music around the world. Each set is a treasure-trove of works by a wide range of composers, performed by some of the finest musicians of the time. The three CDs of volume four feature string quartets by Boulez, Scelsi and Earle Brown, works for chamber orchestra by Xenakis, Aldo Clementi, Bo Nilsson, Wlodzimierz Kotonski and Yuji Takahashi and works by Milko Kelemen, Niccolo Cas…
Works With Piano - Eonta
Second volume of Iannis Xenakis's works for piano with instruments, played by Aki Takahashi with Rohan de Saram, the JACK Quartet and the Callithumpian Consort, including a new recording of Eonta for piano, trumpets and trombones.
Atrees / Nomos Alpha
The works on these two discs were all written in the 1950s & 60s, at a time when Xenakis was at his most productive. It has to be said that, to the casual listener, this is not easy listening. However, to the more adventurous collector and to those prepared to explore new musical avenues, this set of the music of Xenakis will prove a rare and valuable opportunity. Featured works: Atrées, Morsima-Amorsima, Nomos Alpha, ST/4, Akrata.
Charisma X
Charisma X, a 2008 documentary film by Efi Xirou on the life and work of Iannis Xenakis, from childhood to his last work Omega, with archive footage, interviews and performances of his music by Sylvio Gualda, Benny Sluchin and others.
Music For Keyboard Instruments
This is the first recording of Xenakis‘ music for keyboard instruments realised by computer – unplayable by human hands! Realized by computer. 'Herma' for piano (1961); 'Mists' for piano (1981); 'Khoaï' for harpsichord (1976); 'Evryali' for piano (1973); 'Naama' for harpsichord (1984). Daniel Grossmann, MIDI programming. "This is the first recording of Xenakis' music for keyboard instruments realized by computer -- unplayable by human hands! The desire to hear a composition exactly as Xenak…
Pléiades
Featured works: "Pléiades" and Psappha." Performed by Kroumata Percussion Ensemble; Gert Mortensen, percussion. "Xenakis has been very interested in percussion music -- ever since his orchestral piece 'Terretektorh (1966) in which the instrumental forces are spread throughout the hall, by way of 'Psappha' (1975) for a lone percussion virtuoso all the way to 'Pléiades' (1979) for six percussionists -- perhaps the largest composition in the entire percussion repertoire, and the most daring …
Kraanerg
Apart from a large orchestra, Kraanerg, composed in 1968/69, requires audio feeds of recorded parts played by the orchestra and of the results of the manipulation of electro-acoustical phenomena. “I do not work with basic building blocks. I start afresh every time,“ Xenakis once said. This statement may help explain the extremely independent sonic universe created afresh in his compositions again and again. In the same vein, he rejects any attempt to foist semantic patterns onto the music of Kra…
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Orchestral works and chamber music
ESSENTIAL RELEASE: The impulsive and electrifying Ata (1987) was referred to as "a kind of shifting of the senses" by the composer. The task of sketching N’Shima (1975) was actually assigned to a computer, whereas Metastaseis (1953-54) is devoted to architecture; the composition was derived from the bases of calculation used for the pavilion for the Brussels World's Fair of 1958 and is famous in particular for its glissandos and thickening clusters. Ioolkos, written for Donaueschingen in 1996, a…
Musica Viva 06
"Musica Viva 06" is another excellent release from the German Col Legno label, which specializes in the avant-garde. This disc includes three live performances -- the original 1981 recording of "Ais," featuring the incredible baritone voice of Spyros Sakkas, a new recording of "Troorkh," a trombone concerto, from 2000, and (drumroll please...) the world premiere of "Anastenaria," also from 2000, with the inimitable Xenakis champion Charles Bornstein conducting. As it turns out, "Metastas…
Psappha; Rebonds A & B; Okho pour trois djembés
This amazing CD contains some of the great works for solo percussion by the authorities in the field of contemporary music. The performances and recording quality are both superb! Clearly all care and effort went into the recording and text however, the dual layered dvd /cd is in PAL format, and will require said player or a media transfer to see the studio footage and interview with Xenikas. Considering we spend much time searching for the "right music" to add to our collection, this disc…
Orchestral Works
Beautiful boxet with 5 CDs "It would be an understatement to say that Iannis Xenakis, who passed away nearly ten years ago, marked the whole second half of the 20th century. Whether or not assisted by computer, he built vast musical architectures, which diverge resolutely from what was being done at the time and is still being done: another world of sounds, combined according to a different, but never gratuitous, approach resulting in something magical. The listener is surrounded by sound, immer…
Berio / Xenakis / Dashow
Recital disc by violinist Tsjuji Mifune, featuring a trio of Iannis Xenakis pieces, plus an early 80s electro-acoustic piece by James Dashow, plus Luciano Berio’s “corale”.
Dmaathen - Eonta - Epei - Herma - Palimpsest - Evryali
A collection of early period works, recorded in the presence of the composer Iannis Xenakis; in Rotterdam, 1977 & Amsterdam 1986. Works featured are: DMAATHEN (1976, for oboe, percussion); EONTA (1963, for piano, trumpet, trombone, with Peter Eötvös, conductor); EPEÏ (1976, for oboe, bass clarinet, trumpet, trombone, double bass); HERMA (1960-61, for piano); PALIMPSEST (1979, for oboe, bass clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, violoncello, double bass, piano, percussion, w/ Huub Kerstens - co…
Electronic Works 2
Iannis Xenakis Edition volume 2 of electronic works: Polytope de Cluny and Hibiki hana ma, remixed to stereo by Gerard Pape, and the ensemble score for the 1957 film Fer Chaud, remastered from its soundtrack.
Pléïades
Cheap mid-line pricing on these classic avant garde titles out of the Harmonia Mundi catalog. Pleiades is a percussion piece performed by Les Percussions de Strasbourg (vibraphones, marimbas, xylophones, etc.); richly defined, timeless music that will sound good for the rest of your life. "The whole source of this polyrhythmic composition is the idea of periodicity, repetition, duplication, faithful, pseudo-faithful, unfaithful copy... still greater variations of an even greater complexity, due …
Phlegra, Jalons, Keren, Nomos Alpha, Thallein, Naama, A l\'lle d
This Apex reissue includes two discs at a low price -- the Ensemble Intercontemporain (EI) performing three 1980s Xenakis works along with two solo works, and on the second disc, four pieces that X wrote for harpschordist Elisabeth Chojnacka. In general Xenakis excelled with large forces, an orchestra or large ensemble. It was his organization of sounds, chaos careening nearly out of control, yet somehow also moving purposefully, that was his genius.
Persephassa
Persephassa is a piece for six percussionists composed by Iannis Xenakis in 1969. The piece was commissioned for the first-ever Shiraz Festival (organized by the Empress of Iran), held at the historic desert site of Persepolis. The title refers to the goddess Persephone, "the personification of telluric forces and of transmutations of life." Persephassa gains much of its effect from having the six percussionists distributed around the audience. The treatment of space as a musical parameter is on…
Iannis Xenakis
Trifold glossy slipcase includes two CDs, label catalogue and 16-page booklet of liner notes and images. For new initiates and avant-garde fiends alike, this Iannis Xenakis collection renders a breathtaking survey of works by the radical composer, theorist, architect and engineer, spanning the period 1956-1974 and featuring some of the greatest works of the 20th century, including the awe-inspiring sonic architecture of ‘Persepolis’.Inarguably one of the most important composers to blend electro…
Ensemble Music Vol.2
Five Xenakis works for ensemble recorded in New York in 1996 with the composer's participation: Akrata, Echange, Xas, Okho and the first recording of A la Mémoire de Witold Lutoslawski, by the ST-X Ensemble.
Ensemble Music Vol.1
Xenakis's works for ensemble and voice recorded in concert by New York's ST-X Ensemble under Charles Zachary Bornstein: Plektó (first recording), Eonta, Akanthos, Rebonds and N'Shima.
Percussion Works
First complete set of Iannis Xenakis's percussion works on three CDs: sextets, duos and solos, including Persephassa, Pléïades, Psappha, Kassandra and Rebonds, played by Steven Schick and the ensemble red fish blue fish.
Music for Strings
All of Xenakis's chamber music for strings except the quartets, from Syrmos (1959) to the first recording of Ittidra (1996), played by Ensemble Resonanz under Johannes Kalitzke, with John Eckhardt on solo contrabass in Theraps.
La légende d’Eer
Iannis Xenakis's La légende d'Eer (1977-78) for 7-channel tape, written for the Diatope at the Centre Pompidou, in a new stereo mix by Gerard Pape from the analogue master tape. The DVD adds surround sound, a film and an interview.
Phantasy of Spring - Feldman / Zimmermann / Schönberg / Xenakis
Carolin Widmann (violin) and Simon Lepper (piano) play duos by Feldman (Spring of Chosroes), Zimmermann (Sonata, 1950), Schoenberg (Phantasy op. 47) and Xenakis (Dikhthas). Recorded October and December 2006 at the WDR Funkhaus, Cologne.