Various

The voice as instrument, the temple bell as orchestra, the piano as detonator. Vol. 3 of Earle Brown's Contemporary Sound Series traces three radical propositions about sound and its sources - each originating from a different continent, each redefining what was possible within its medium.

The first disc belongs to Cathy Berberian. Originally issued on Time Records in 1962, it captures the American mezzo-soprano - then based in Milan and married to Luciano Berio - at the height of her extraordinary powers. Berio's Circles, setting three poems by e.e. cummings for voice, harp, and two percussionists, is a work in which language becomes timbre and timbre becomes gesture - Berberian's voice sliding between song, speech, and pure phonetic material with a precision that still astonishes. Sylvano Bussotti's Frammento, a brief and intensely concentrated piece for voice and piano with Berio himself at the keyboard, sits alongside John Cage's Aria with Fontana Mix - two independent works performed simultaneously, Berberian's vocal part threading through Cage's tape collage of electronic and concrete sound. These recordings, made just years after their world premieres, are foundational documents of the post-war vocal avant-garde - and testimony to the singular artist who made them possible.

The second disc crosses the Pacific. Toshiro Mayuzumi's Nirvana Symphony of 1958 - subtitled Buddhist Cantata - is one of the most striking orchestral works to emerge from post-war Japan. Built on the sonority of Buddhist temple bells and structured in alternating movements for orchestra and 12-part male chorus chanting Japanese-accented Sanskrit sutras, it was a decisive turning point for its composer: the moment Mayuzumi abandoned European serialism to search for a distinctly Japanese sonic identity. The performance here, by the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Choraliers, and Nippon University Chorus under Wilhelm Schüchter, is the recording that first brought the work to Western ears.

The third disc turns to the piano as a site of physical and intellectual extremity. Iannis Xenakis's Herma, composed for and performed by the young Japanese pianist Yuji Takahashi, applies Boolean algebra to pitch organization - a work of staggering density and ferocious virtuosity. Roger Reynolds's Fantasy for Pianist and Takahashi's own Metathesis extend the instrument's expressive range through extended techniques and theatrical gesture, while Brown's own Corroboree brings the disc full circle - open form meeting pianistic force in a composition that remains among his finest.

Packaged in a box with three CDs in jewel cases and four booklets containing liner notes in English, German, and French. Digitally remastered by Udo Wüstendörfer under the auspices of the Earle Brown Music Foundation.