This 2-CD collection documents more than 20 years of works composed on the unique computer music system called “UPIC”, and the evolution of the computer music center founded specifically to promote it, Les Ateliers UPIC, now called CCMIX.

The UPIC system was conceived by Iannis Xenakis in the early 1950s; the first version of UPIC was built by Xenakis’ research center, the CEMAMu, in the late 1970s, and the system continues to be developed to this day. Instead of a keyboard to perform the music, the UPIC’s performance device is a mouse and/or a digital drawing board. These are used to trace the composer’s graphic score into the UPIC computer program, which then interprets the drawings as real time instructions for sound synthesis. The composition/performance of a graphic musical score and real-time sound synthesis are unified by the UPIC’s approach.

Xenakis’ Mycenae Alpha, the first work entirely realized on the UPIC, opens the set, which also includes the first issuance of his legendary Polytope de Cluny. In 1980, Julio Estrada composed his one and only UPIC work, eua’on, an experience that resulted in a veritable revolution in the composer’s approach. Also included is his large orchestral work eua’on’ome, an orchestral realization of the original UPIC score. In the 1990s, the UPIC system fascinated a whole new generation of composers including Brigitte Robindoré, Takehito Shimazu, Nicola Cisternino and Gérard Pape (CCMIX’s director). Jean-Claude Risset and Daniel Teruggi, coming, respectively, from the direct computer music synthesis, and the “acousmatic” approaches, also found ways to make the UPIC system their own in the 1990s.

Rounding out this collection are recent works by Curtis Roads and Xenakis’ classic tape composition Polytope de Cluny. These works have been included to demonstrate that Xenakis’ legacy, both in his own electroacoustic music as well as in his theoretical influence on other important electroacoustical composers, such as Roads, goes far beyond the UPIC system.

In 2000, Les Ateliers UPIC changed its name to CCMIX (Center for the Composition of Music Iannis Xenakis) in homage to this great creator.

Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001), Mycenae Alpha (1978) for UPIC (10:00); Polytope de Cluny (1972) for 8-channel tape (24:45)
Brigitte Robindoré (b.1962), L’Autel de la Perte et de la Transformation (1993) for UPIC (8:33); Comme Etrangers et Voyageurs sur la Terre (1994) for 2 percussionists and UPIC (11:27)
Jean-Claude Risset (b.1938), Saxatile (1992) for soprano saxophone and UPIC (7:45)
Nicola Cisternino (b.1957), Xöömij (1997) for bass voice and UPIC (11:57)
Julio Estrada (b.1943), eua-on (1980) for UPIC (7:44); eua-on-ome (1995) for orchestra (10:42)
Daniel Terrugi (b.1952), Gestes de l’écrit (1994) for UPIC (11:00)
Takehito Shimazu (b.1949), Illusions in Desolate Fields (1994) for voice, san-gen and UPIC (13:27)
Curtis Roads (b.1951), Purity (1994) for tape (7:13); Sonal Atoms (1998) (3:41)
Gérard Pape (b.1955), Le Fleuve du Désir III (1994) for string quartet and UPIC (12:41)
All first recordings except Mycenae Alpha and eua-on-ome.

Roland Auzet, Claire Talibart, percussion
Daniel Kientzy, saxophone
Nicholas Isherwood, bass
SWF Orchestra of Baden-Baden, Olaf Henzold, conductor
Kazuko Takada, san-gen and voice
The Arditti Quartet