Long slow crescendo. Short decrescendo. Long slow crescendo. Long decrescendo. Lovely rich deep, dark drones. Lovely high, bright tones. Extremely distorted voices. Some pitched electronic sounds that make a tune of sorts. And many wave-like motifs (short cresc/decresc), some sounding like actual waves. No abrupt changes; each layer moves slowly and majestically […]

In 1912, Stravinsky wrote Le Sacre, in 1916, Charles Ives wrote his fourth symphony, in 1924, George Antheil wrote Ballet Mechanique, in 1948, Pierre Schaeffer wrote Étude aux chemins de fer, in 1958, Edgard Varèse wrote Poème électronique…
And in nineteen thirty, Walter Ruttmann wrote Weekend. Although the term musique concrète was coined […]

Any given electroacoustic piece can range from almost completely electronic to almost completely acoustic. Jim O’Rourke’s Rules of reduction is one of the latter. Very few (no?) electronic noises, and very little done to the sounds themselves, of crowds, of traffic, of cars honking, of guitars, of squeaky swings, of seagulls, of […]

This is more different from any other Luc Ferrari piece than any other one is different from the others. Which is only to say, that if you have everything but this, you really must get this one, too. Nothing more to say really except that this piece is exquisitely gorgeous.

Along with Noetinger (and in collaboration with Noetinger), Marchetti does both concert pieces and live improv. I’ve heard both and can say quite confidently that if you see a notice of these two doing a live show, go see it. Truly. You will be less a person if you don’t.
But Mue. This is […]

Opens with long, breathy flute tones and moves slowly into loud, clattering, ringing, droning sounds. Nothing is abrupt in this piece. A couple of flipped flute sounds (attack at the end) are abrupt enough, I guess, but muted enough to not seem so. Muted is probably wrong. But even the loud sounds in […]

Lots of harsh, loud electronic noises—it’s easy to conclude that that’s presentational: presenting the harshness and brutality of war. And it’s true, this piece does include guns firing and people talking about Desert Storm (including Bush père). But the overall impression I’m left with is that the sounds themselves, with their own […]

Do not expect wild Cuban dance rhythms here. While there are suggestions of dance in Credo Mambo, they’re pretty subtle and always integrated into the larger plan of rich electronic and concrète backdrop for the chanting voices. I must say, that although I’m one of those who prefers less talking, Chion has a […]

The first of Metamkine’s three inch Cinéma pour l’oreille cds was this jewel. Tabou starts with some lovely glops of sound that lead into a stuttery motif made from voices (including Bokanowski’s) at a party. A single soft note on the electric organ eventually provides the first pitch of a little figure that weaves […]

This piece is extraordinarily beautiful and compelling.
I almost want to just leave it at that, too, except that that might be misunderstood. So here are some details. It opens with just over a minute’s worth of all the material that will make up its twenty minute span: a heart-stopping little figure for […]