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What?? is a focused and grounding work produced by Swedish composer Folke Rabe in 1967. From his interest in sound phenomena and harmonics Rabe was able to make one of the most deep, moving pieces of sustained sound generated in this formative era of minimalist electronic composition. Initially reissued on Dexter's Cigar in 1997 and now available on Important with expanded packaging including archival materials furnished by the composer. Amplified infinity. "My interest in the makeup of various sound phenomena began many years ago. The basic physical preconditions were familiar to me, but I wanted to experience the components of the sound with my hearing. I attempted to 'hear into' the different sounds in order to grasp the components that made them up. I experienced how the overtones in a tone sounding on the piano change slowly as they die away. I also attempted to grasp the brittle arpeggio of formants that arises when a vowel is slowly changed at a particular pitch. I also tried, as far as possible, to train my hearing to tease out the complex processes that occur at the origin of sound. "At the same time as this listening, I was concerned with monotony. My first feeble attempts yielded little: later, more systematic repetitions led to findings. I found methods by which the transitoriness of sound could to some extent be compensated. Small details and micro-variations between the repeated elements that would not have been noticed in a context richer in contrast then come to the fore. Extended sounds that change and move into one another very slowly have a similar effect. "Hobby experiments of the sort described, as I conducted them, are of course primitive from a theoretical point of view. But this basic experience was exactly what was important to me. "The musical field indicated here is perhaps somewhat foreign to the Western musical tradition. In other living cultures it is entirely relevant. This state of affairs is, I believe, connected with the development of musical notation. As this method of fixing sound developed, all the subtler qualities of pitch, sound, and time relationships had to be leveled off. On the other hand, systems of notation first made possible meaningful musical constructions. This fact compensated for the loss just described, making possible the great tradition of European music. "In Western composition, intervals, rhythms, and tone color – to the extent that they eluded notation – were subordinated to a philosophical idea, or at least a motivic/formal one. The sounding fact as such retreated into the background, and the West, in ethnocentric self-idolization, erected its own cultural tradition (be it Beethoven or Coca-Cola) as an example to the world. "But there are in the world many fields of music in which the qualitative element grows from the immediate sound. In such music, one looks in vain for formal elements in the Western sense; this music may thus seem primitive, senseless, or even provocative. In reality, however, these are two different possibilities of musical organization. "Indian musicians said to me that Western music is certainly good music, but they found its technique of phrasing incomprehensible: 'The music always breaks off before it has begun!' "What What?? means: As you will hear, What?? is constructed from harmonic sounds. These sounds move into one another by means of enharmonic melding of the partials. I chose harmonic sounds because a pleasing richness results from them, but more particularly because the partials reinforce one another through their inner hierarchy, and can thereby produce certain illusions. "I chose the extended, seemingly endless form in order to enable peaceful journeys of discovery in the sound, but also in order to work with this particular material. Electronic devices have no muscles. 'Breathing' expressiveness is contrary to their nature; their characteristic quality is an enormous, tireless endurance. "About 85% of the material is made up of electronically generated tones, which however are never present in their static, original form. Each partial has been specially treated in itself, which can at times yield a very rich result.

Folke Rabe – What?

Luc Ferrari -- along with Pierre Schaeffer, Pierre Henry, François Bayle, and others -- is one of the pioneers of the particular style of tape music known as 'musique concrète'. More significantly, he must be counted as one of the most complexly, most idiosyncratically compelling of post-War composers. Ferrari has time and again ranged far afield of musique concrète, and Interrupteur/Tautologos 3 is one such foray into instrumental music. But what a setting-forth! Mon dieu! These particular realizations came about through Ferrari's directed improvisations of Konstantin Simonovitch's ensemble, and the recordings were originally released in 1970 by EMI in their 'Perspectives Musicales' series. 'Interrupteur' is largely static music, a music of long tones periodically interrupted by aleatoric events. If it references musical minimalism (particularly Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Robert Ashley), this surely counts as an intuitive, very personal result. 'Tautologos 3' pursues the idea of the superposition of cycles of different lengths that, once set into motion, will continually result in new events. Conventionally understood, a tautology is a redundancy in which the same meaning is expressed in different works; the same things are 'said' repeatedly in 'Taulologos 3', but as the context shifts through the displacement of the various cycles, how could there be no gain, no furtherance of both logic and sensation? In a world: exhilarating.""Interrupteur" is from 1967 and features the following instrumentation: English horn, clarinet, bass clarinet, French horn, trumpet, violin, viola, cello, two percussions, two electric organs. It is one of the most outright powerful and devastating recordings within the avant garde realm. "Tautologos 3" is form 1970 and features: flute, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, viola, cello, double bass, electric guitar, electric organ & vibraphone.

Luc Ferrari – Interrupteur / Tautologos 3

EVIEWS "A splendid studio session by Alexander von Schlippenbach’s large ensemble, recorded over three days of November 1975 The guest soloists are Enrico Rava and Anthony Braxton who both contribute one composition – and those two tracks are the album’s highlights. Rava’s “Marañao” is lively and noisy, with multi chaotic tuttis, while Braxton’s “U-487” uses the orchestra’s power to hammer in complex lines with uncanny joy. Also on the program are two Schlippenbach compositions and one by Peter Kowald. Excellent recording, smoking performances - why the heck hadn’t these been released earlier? Grab this one while it’s hot!" - Monsieur Délire "Baden-Baden '75 - Globe Unity Orchestra + Guests kicks things off in style with a quintessential example of what FMP has always been about, combining a core group of German free players with visitors like Enrico Rava, Kenny Wheeler, Anthony Braxton, and Paul Rutherford. While Globe Unity could always brew up a mighty roar, this recording shows the importance of compositional forms. Rava's "Marañao" is a free lilting swing that brings to mind Brotherhood of Breath, and Braxton's "U-487" a tour de force of ensemble colors with a proto-march theme that acts as a connective thread for features by Schlippenbach, Lovens, Wheeler, Braxton, Schoof, and Brötzmann. Kowald's "Jahrmarkt", the only previously issued piece on the CD, breaks the ensemble down in to various sub-groupings to romp through skirling, cacophonous roars shot through with deconstructed kernels of Monk, Charlie Parker and polka along with killer solos by Mangelsdorff and Braxton. And Schlippenbach's "Hanebüchen" and "The Forge" show the pianist's knack for improvisational orchestrations, whether massing the sections of the ensemble or hocketing lines around the group in swirling, spontaneous antiphony." - ParisTransatlantic "The opening track, composed by Enrico Rava, is a good way for listeners to ease into the FMP journey. The second track (by Braxton) is also nothing short of marvelous - with sounds both meandering and jarring before the ensemble makes it way to a wailing improvisation layered on top of an industrial, organized march. Over the course of the recording the music leans further and further out, although there are obvious but not belabored nods to Bebop, Monk, and Breuker, to name a few . The last two tracks by Schlippenbach deliver us to the threshold of the territory eventually defined by FMP." - Cadence Magazine Globe Unity Orchestra & Guests Enrico Rava: trumpet Manfred Schoof: trumpet Kenny Wheeler: trumpet Anthony Braxton: alto saxophone, clarinet Peter Brötzmann: saxophones & clarinets Rüdiger Carl: alto & tenor saxophone Gerd Dudek: soprano & tenor saxophone, flute Evan Parker: soprano & tenor saxophone Michel Pilz: bass clarinet Günter Christmann: trombone Albert Mangelsdorff: trombone Paul Rutherford: trombone Alexander von Schlippenbach: piano Peter Kowald: double bass, tuba Buschi Niebergall: double bass Paul Lovens: drums Recorded by Schuster/Wagner from November 25th to 27th, 1975,

GLOBE UNITY ORCHESTRA & GUESTS – Baden-Baden '75

Live album by saxophonist Evan Parker, bassist Barry Guy, and drummer Paul Lytton. It was recorded on June 26, 1996, at The Vortex in London, and was released by Emanem Records in 1998 Excerpts from sleeve notes: Two sets of circumstances, both too involved to be fully detailed here, resulted in the Parker/Lytton Duo of the 1970s transforming into the Parker/Guy/Lytton Trio of the last dozen or so years. The first was the 1981 duo record INCISION by Parker & Guy, which led to Guy being added to the group. (He had, of course, previously worked with one or both of the other two in various groups as far back as 1966.) The second, a few years later involved a time when Lytton's mighty percussion and electronics kit was in a different country to himself, so he had to borrow a fairly conventional drum kit. This worked out well musically, and was much more practical for club gigs, so from then on his own fairly conventional drum kit became the norm. The instrumentation thus became the same as that of certain classic Jazz and Free Jazz trios, and the music became influenced by these precursors, even though it has remained Free Improvisation. The trio has performed fairly frequently ever since, even though all three members often perform in other groups and situations as well, so there is no shortage of excellent CDs and LPs by them. This CD, however, is different in that it features longer performances moving at a more natural pace than hitherto available. The relaxed and freewheeling music reflects the situation of performing in a club before an audience of mostly hard core fans - home territory, as it were. The Vortex is an excellent, smallish club in Stoke Newington, an inner suburb of London, with an eclectic programme that features Jazz, Free Improvisation, Folk Music, Cabaret, and various combinations of these.  When it is full, as it was on the evening in question, there is literally no space between the musicians and the audience, but by contorting the mike stand, I managed to get the lone stereo microphone into a position over the front of the audience, and get a recording representing what one would hear if one stood just in front of the band. I subsequently digitally remixed it slightly to get a more acceptable balance for home listening. Since both Barry Guy and Paul Lytton live abroad, this trio is rarely to be seen in London, so that when it does play there, a large enthusiastic audience is guaranteed. Such an audience generally feeds-back to the musicians, spurring them on to even greater heights than usual, as happened on this occasion, resulting in music that is more outgoing than would probably occur in a studio situation. All of the music performed that evening is presented here unedited - a complete document of this trio working at full steam. MARTIN DAVIDSON (1998)

EVAN PARKER / BARRY GUY / PAUL LYTTON – AT THE VORTEX