A selection of nine acoustic works, skewing a bit toward later in the composer's career, recorded by the Ensemble Intercontemporain between 1984 and 1991.
What first strikes the listener more familiar with his rigorous electronic and chamber works of the 50s and 60s is how relatively expressive and even romantic many of the pieces are. Despite his admonition that a work like "Phlegra" (1975) is intended to evoke a "battleground between the Titans and the new gods of Mount Olympus" and despite elements reminiscent of compositions like "Akrata", there's a narrative drive lurking beneath the surface and an almost whimsical lyricism in some passages that you'd have been hard pressed to hear in the Xenakis of even a decade prior.
Which is not to say this set doesn't have plenty of joys — it does. One simply has to adjust one's mental acuity meter a few notches away from stochastics and toward more intuitive, gestural music. "Jalons" (1986) features a rich mesh of reeds and strings, harsh enough in its own way but not so dense as to inhibit a kind of playfulness. "Keren" (1986), for solo trombone, here played by Benny Sluchin, is a marvelous piece that, in less than seven minutes, manages to encompass an enormous percentage of the horn's dynamic range and, especially, its lower registers. "Nomos Alpha" (1965) is the earliest piece included in this set, originally written for Siegfried Palm, here performed by Pierre Strauch. And yes, there is an extra edge in play, a razor-wire feel that's softer in the later works, the bow slicing through the music, the pizzicato pummeling it. The first disc closes with "Thallein" (1984), for a fourteen-member ensemble and, again, it's a relatively smooth work, with piano and percussion foregrounded. One is tempted to draw a broad analogy with the transition that Penderecki's music underwent between the early 60s and the late 70s and 80s, albeit without the religiosity.
The second disc features the harpsichord (Elisabeth Chojnacka): solo ("Naama", "Khoai"), in duo with percussion ("Komboi") and with chamber ensemble ("A l'Île de Gorée"), all written in the decade between 1976 and 1986. Depending on one's affinity to the basic instrumental sound, the pieces can take a bit of getting used to, but there's much beauty to hear, notably in the more delicate passages of "Naama"; some of the more ethereal portions of Conlon Nancarrow's player piano music come to mind. "Komboi" is almost ingratiatingly lush and inviting, the harpsichord blending with and reflecting off all manner of rich and varied percussion, the rhythms always athwart each other, intersecting deliciously.
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