Kurtágonals is an electronic album built on themes by György Kurtág jr., son of the Hungarian composer, which his friend and fellow composer László Hortobágyi reworked into his own arrangements. The musicians call it "a Hortobágyi album about Kurtág" and describe it as the diary of a long friendship. Some of the source themes are more than thirty years old. The aim was to take material first conceived in a classical avant-garde setting and give it a new, collaged form. It was Kurtág jr.'s first appearance on ECM.
Kurtág jr., who studied composition at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, has long developed his own electronic and electroacoustic music, and here plays synthesizers. Hortobágyi, better known for his work with traditional and non-Western music, plays synthesizers and computers and was also the engineer. Miklós Lengyelfi adds bass and effects, and Ferenc Haász, the assistant engineer, shares the composer credit on every track. As a group they also call themselves Hortogonals. They recorded in August 2008 at the Guo Manor in Budapest and produced the album with Manfred Eicher.
The eight pieces run to more than seventy minutes and flow into each other. ECM describes drifting ambient washes, near-subliminal bass, collages of subtle colours and sudden eruptions. The opening Intraga sets bells and gamelan-like chimes against concrete sounds such as children calling. Interrogation brings in a reed instrument, clarinet or tárogató, before opening onto a wide synthesizer field with small chorale-like figures. Kurtaganja moves on ticking, heartbeat rhythms close to a slow dance pulse.
The record divided critics. On Klassik.com, Michael Pitz-Grewenig praised the trio's restraint and their almost classical strictness with form, and heard the result as a metaphysical journey in sound. Dominy Clements of MusicWeb International was cooler in 2009. He found it close to familiar electronic models such as Vangelis and Yello, but admired "the high production values and obvious creativity which has gone into its making". For him the most effective moments were the surreal juxtapositions of Intraga, and the album worked best heard as a single continuous piece.
This is the CD edition of ECM New Series 2097, released in June 2009.
