Iannis Xenakis – Electro-Acoustic Music

Be careful not to blow up your stereo with the end of Side A. Glad I was close to the volume knob ;-)

bootleg poor quali sh..t. copie from cd. buyers beware. sorry

Iannis Xenakis (born May 29, 1922, Braila, Romania, died February 4, 2001, Paris, ) was a Roman-speaking Greek-French composer, music theorist, architect and engineer.
He is considered one of the most radical and important composers of the twentieth century. He formulated the theory of stochastic music in the early 1950s, and in late 1954 he was accepted as a member of the group "Recherche De Musique Concrète". Later he ed the Groupe De Recherches Musicales. He first used computers for musical composition in 1961.

Pretty sure that's "6-19-70," not "8-12-70," etched in the Side 1 runout groove. It looks like the "19" was first entered as "18," then corrected.

To go to the roots of a movement is always a fascinating undertaking, I thought I had done so plumbing the depths of bands like Cabaret Voltaire, SPK and Severed Heads. I can see now that I was wrong. Iannis Xenakis quite clearly laid the groundwork for the revolution of sound which was to explode from the underground in the mid to late 1970s. As a matter of fact, he was still alive when all of that took place. God only knows what he thought of it.

The experiments in tape loops and the basic,primal expressions which took the world by storm some decades after Xenakis did these pieces could never have happened without his work. While the planet was going mad falling over itself to praise shitty do-wop bands and white artists who stole their entire act from those who were black, this man was upending the very nature of three dimensional space. I know a lot of people who absolutely adore the Hafler Trio's manipulations of ambiance and I really hope they don't read this and then track down this release. Their heads just might explode.

How many other unsung maestros are out there who did this in those days? I have only begun to discover their legacy, but this one album makes me realize who inspired Coil to produce their debut How to Destroy Angels. I know this from playing them back to back, my eyes opening wider with each Xenakis makes. His masterful usage of space itself to define the boundaries of composition is unlike any which I have come across. Did it help matters that he was an avowed atheist? A man who also designed some of the most striking examples of modern architecture out there, I'm going to wager a refusal to be distracted by the dangling carrot of the afterlife allowed his creative visions to lunge forth without any inhibitions.

I really am just astounded that this kind of thing was going on all those years ago. Not just because of the time, but more out of awe at how contemporary these works sound. This man had his eye firmly on the future and was possessed of vision I'll never ever even approach. The ridicule and rejection must have been overwhelming for him to deal with. Outside of the small group who had an appreciation for this (and I'm sure some of them did works of their own I haven't heard) there was the rest of the "cultured few" who would only go as far out as the kitschy safe harbor of an Esquivel. One other thing to consider in all of this would have been his location: Greece.

Now that country was hardly in an artist-friendly phase of it's existence at that point. The authorities must have watched Iannis' movements very closely because these kinds of compositions are so otherworldly and abstract they very well could have undone whatever order was bent on maintaining control of the populace. Have no illusions, this is chaotic misanthropy brought out of the shadows right into the temple of light. Current 93's debut Nature Unveiled is another former cornerstone in my musical lexicon which now drifts in the primordial dissonance that Xenakis clearly wrote the rules to. This man isn't well known, but he had the courage and conviction to compose these beautifully grotesque sculptures. During years where those who ran this planet were hell-bent on destroying it.

Perhaps this is why what he did sounds so pertinent, the world has not changed at all.

More on the ever-evolving story of Bohor I.

The following anecdote was found online, at:

http://www.mombu.com/music/music/t-xenakis-bohor-the-last-time-5106581.html

Its author's name & credentials:

Bob Ludwig
Gateway Mastering & DVD
Portland, ME
http://www.gatewaymastering.com

"I am a mastering engineer, we used to cut the vinyl disks and now we make CDs and DVDs. It is the final creative step in the record making process.

I got to work personally with Maestro Xenakis in 1972 when I cut the (US) Nonesuch (H-71246) disk "Iannis Xenakis, Electro-Acoustic Music". They licensed the disk from Disques Erato in . They no longer have this license so there would be no further re-issues of this through Nonesuch Records. The disk has interesting liner notes from James Mansback Brody on the back. We used a 1/4" non-Dolby CCIR tape copy of the Erato master from which their original disk was cut.

I will never forget when Xenakis came to my mastering studio for the session, we had a great time. Under his exact supervision, he had me manually slowly raise the volume of the last few minutes in a giant crescendo! It was difficult to cut into vinyl! This artistic manipulation, under the direction of the composer, was NOT on the original Erato disk, nor do I believe on any subsequent issues! The ending DOES cut off on purpose!

Another difference between my cut on Nonesuch and the original vinyl discs (CDs do not have a problem with this) is on Concret P-H II. This is filled with extreme high frequencies which could trip the circuit breakers in the cutting system to prevent the cutterhead from burning up! The Disques Erato version uses a high-frequency limiter on their cut to prevent circuit breaker tripping. Maestro Xenakis preferred my solution which was to lower the level of this cut drastically (-10dB or so) to allow ALL the high harmonics to be cut into the disk. We found that the apparent level of the cut, even lowered -10dB, was not much of an issue compared to the full harmonic structure being engraved in the grooves.

For me, Bohor I remains one of the cornerstones of 20th Century music.

I go back to it over and over."

Every time I listen to Bohor, it completely blows my mind to think that this piece of music was composed in 1962. I can't help but think that this must have been one of the very first pieces of 'drone' music released on a record, and I'd imagine that it's been a huge influence on everyone that's been pioneering that kind of music right through until the present day.

It's a dark and atmospheric piece of music that never fails to leave me completely hypnotised for its entire 21 minute duration. Apparently Xenakis was influenced by the traditional music of Japan after travelling there the year before he composed Bohor, and the source sounds are "a Laotian mouth organ known as the khen and various bracelets from Eastern countries". Even although it was put together using electronic methods (tape manipulation), for me it sounds very organic and there's nothing about the song that's strikingly 'electronic' sounding, unlike the other pieces on the record.

Xenakis apparently never said much about the song, preferring that the listener react to it in their own way. I always get the weird feeling and image of standing alone inside an empty church or cathedral, listening to its bells chiming.

This song alone would probably be enough to convince most people that Xenakis was a genius and a pioneer. It certainly did for me.