XENAKIS Pléïades (DeciBells)
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Iannis Xenakis
Genre:
Chamber
Label: Genuin
Magazine Review Date: 04/2019
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 48
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: GEN19633
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Pleïades |
Iannis Xenakis, Composer
DeciBells Iannis Xenakis, Composer |
Author: Richard Whitehouse
This new recording by the Basel-based group DeciBells is notable for its having used newly prepared ‘sixxen’, the 19 metal bars of varying frequency, which gives their vital contribution audibly greater richness and subtlety. Add to this the use of skin rather than plastic heads on the drums and the music’s expressive range is opened out accordingly – not least in the final and cumulative section, ‘Mélanges’, where the six-strong ensemble is brought together for an apotheosis that conveys its melding of isolated events into swarms with heady immediacy.
Pléïades has been recorded several times, with that by Red Fish Blue Fish part of a three-disc set that takes in all Xenakis’s acknowledged percussion work. This remains the benchmark account, yet the distinctive approach as favoured by DeciBells makes rewarding listening.
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