| $10.76
new to stock as of
may 25th, 2007
threads:
1960s-electronic
electro-acoustic-composition
musique-concrète
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| | | creel pone (czech) #creelp czech cd zbynek vostrák / miloslav istvan / václav kucera “from czech electronic music studios” compact disc recordable - zbyněk vostřák “scales of light” (13:55) 1967
- miloslav ištvan “isle of toys” (9:25) 1968
- václav kučera “the labyrinth” (14:00) 1968
- václav kučera “the spiral” (7:35) 1968
| creel pone here sticking to its (his?) new “every other friday” schedule (frankly; much easier to keep on top of things now...) with this lovely reproduction of a 1973 supraphon lp containing four pieces from 1967 & 1968; one each by composers zbyněk vostřák and miloslav ištvan, and two by václav kučera.
very much in the musique concrète tradition (as the liners below outline - the entire bohemian electronic music “scene” was sparked by a 1964 lecture in plzeň by members of the “groupe de recherches musicales” - aka the grm) yet filtered through the same eastern-european sensibilities that make animated film & era design so... unique.
starting off with zbyněk vostřák’s spare, episodic “scales of light”(rife with dissonant synthesized tone clusters, backwards concrète sounds, and a few gratifyingly noisy outbursts) and continuing into miloslav ištvan’s “isle of toys” (a dense study using only children’s sound-toys as source material - bells, whistles, drums, jack-in-the-box, ukelele, etc... ) it’s clear the lessons of schaeffer et.al were taken to heart...
the two pieces by václav kučera that make up the remainder of the album have a more filmic bent; the first utilizing a continuous heart-beat rhythm overlaid with drops of pitch-altered instrumental and vocal jabs, the second a spacious collage of field-recorded events, manipulated ensemble performance and meticulously executed tape-edits & effects.
consider this the companion volume to “electronic music - experimental studios in prague, bratislava, munich, university of illinois, warsaw, paris” (whose vladimir lébl contributes sleeve-notes here) and “hungarian electronic music” - completing something of a triptych of obscure eastern-european electronic music activity... |
| | creel pone press release... |
| this creel pone edition includes:
1 x crystal-clear resealable polypropylene cd sleeve with a black / gold foil stamp affixed to the exterior
1 x single-sided six-color inkjet-printed hand-cut photo-stock booklet
1 x six-color inkjet-printed compact disc recordable in a high-density round-bottom cd sleeve
...
from czech electronic music studios
zbyněk vostřák
scales of light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13:55
recorded 1967 at czechoslovak radio prague, with technical assiatance by václav zamazal. first performed in prague on october 6th 1967, and later at a concert of the utrecht electronlc music studio on october 15, 1968.
miloslav ištvan
isle of toys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9:25
recorded 1968 at czechoslovak radio brno, with technical assistance by jiří hanousek and ota tajovský.
václav kučera
two parts from the kinetic ballet
2) the labyrinth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14:00
3) the spiral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7:35
recorded in november1968 in the experimental music studio ot czchoslovak radio plzeň, with techical assistance by václav ježek (2) and čestmír kadlec (3). the entire triptych was staged in prague’s theatre of music in december 1968 by the kinetic synthesis group. part 3 was also performed on the concert stage on march 5, 1970 at the composers' club in prague, as part of the 14th new works by prague composers week.
supraphon
stereo 1 11 1423
musica nova bohemica
...
systematlc practical interest in electronlc music in czechoslovakia dates from the early sixties. the important mllestone was the electronic music seminar in plzeň in 1964; other seminars and courses were held in prague, with lectures by members of the groupe de recherches of paris headed by pierre schaeffer, members of the utrecht electronic music studio headed by gottfried michael koenig, and others. a permanent studio was set up at plzeň, bohemia, but in prage and brno suitable opportunities for experimental creatlve work also shaped up in broadcasting conditions. this gramophone record is a docnment 0f that initial situatlon, when the first significant works started to emerge after several years of studying new approaches to composing and of experimental composition.
zbyněk vostřák's (1920) scales of light are identical in form with his previous orchestral work, the moon birth (panton 040 9993, supraphon 1 10 0471, cbs music of our time s 3461144, orchestral score published 1967 by shv-artia). in the work’s three section composition plan, the contrasting outer sections are processually linked by the middle section. in the introductory section, the composer retains the original chaotic shape of the concrete sound material, to progress to a narrow block of sinus tones which is later gradually expanded as the image of a ray of light: the light illuminates, with increasing sharpness, the sound milleu, to lend it increasingly better defined shapes and structures. in the final section, the sound material has been processed and totally subordinated to the composer’s overall idea. the work thus utilizes musical means to evoke the image of transition from chaos to order, from darkness to light, and - on a new plane - from ignorance to knowledge.
the title of the work by the brno composer miloslav ištvan (1928) was inspired by debussy's ballet la boîte à joujoux. its playful character makes the isle of toys rather exceptional in the world of contemporary electronic music and musique concrète, and evokes memories of the charming filigree products of tile paris musique concrète in the latter's legendary beginnings. from the sounds of children's toys and musical instruments, the composer weaves with a light hand five minute, fresh musical pictures.
the two composltlons by václav kučera (1929) recorded here are a substantial part 0f his kinetic ballet (pastorale - the labyrinth - the spiral). the labyrinth is impressively dramatic, clearly programmatic, and evidently under the favourable influence of pierre henry's stage opuses. over the continuous ostinato of the sound of the heart-beat, the drama unfolds of individuals caught in the maze of a labyrinth and seeking in vain the way out, as well as the explanatlon of their fate. from an unintelligble tumult of human voices, a single articulate word emerges three times: the anxiously questioning "proč" (why). the voices of surprise, grief and shock ultimately degenerate to sounds of beasts, and in the finale they are drowned in the noise of bursts which indicate impending disaster. the spiral, on the other hand, is governed by strictly musical principles. the long introductory gradation is of rondo character, and the gradual acceleration, reduction and raising of pitch of the recurring sound place can really stimulate an optical impression of spiral movement. with the culmination (in which adjusted, instrumentally aleatoric objects perform their function) and the calming down of the musical stream, the final jubilant soprano song emerges; the composer makes impressive use here of the playback technique possible in a studio.
vladimir lébl |
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