Although just recently released, the music on this disc dates from 1974. Fortunately, it sounds as fresh as if it had been written yesterday. I’ve heard many pieces from the sixties and seventies with instrument and electronics that I don’t like—pieces in which the instrument (often piano) plays the spiky, quasi-serial sounding stuff that’s [...]

I’ve read some reviews of Trois Chambres d’Inquietude which emphasize its dark, unsettling qualities. If you want to read about that aspect of things, you can go to http://www.electrocd.com/cat.e/eeaoa_07.prs.html to read a couple of these, which also emphasize the looping techniques so dear to the hearts of so many concrète composers. (Bokanowski is easily [...]

Michèle Bokanowski has written music for many of her husband’s films, indeed, her current project is the soundtrack for his next film. The only film music she’s allowed to appear alone on disc, however, is the music for L’Ange. Written only a couple of years after Pour un pianiste, L’Ange shows how naturally Bokanowski’s [...]

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 [...]

Cirque consists of five named movements, Allegro in three parts, Andante, Scherzo, Galop, and Finale (Parade). The Allegro is the longest of the five and sets forth the musical materials for the whole piece: galloping hooves, laughter (kids and adults), crowd and circus sounds (other than laughing and hooves, things like cheering and cymbal [...]

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 [...]