[CP 039-076 CD] Zbynek Vostrák, Miloslav Istvan, Václav Kucera, Rudolf Komorous; Electronic Music, Experimental Studios In Prague, From Czech Electronic Music Studios, CAPAC Musical Portraits
2021 reédition compiling both CP 039 & CP 076, along with the addition of Czech-Canadian Composer Rudolf Komorous's CAPAC single (his only solo release)!
[CP 039] Welcome back everyone! Hope you enjoyed those few weeks off from the natural Creel Pone "Cycle." We continue, as promised by Mr. P.C. C.P., "Unabated throughout the end of the summer."
First up, "Electronic Music - Experimental Studios in Prague, Bratislava, Munich, University of Illinois, Warsaw, Paris" - this is just a great compilation, assembled by one Vladimir Lébl and released on the Czech Supraphon label in 1968 - on glorious, crackly Eastern-European wafer-thin vinyl no less - featuring a bunch of scattered early pieces by scattered international composers that were executed at scattered studios all over God's green earth. The tying bond? Anyone"s guess, other than that most of these are the sole "Released" pieces by a few otherwise unknown / unreleased Eastern-European composers of which you should most certainly take note - the exception being Pierre Henry"s "Voile d'Orphée," but then again the version here is completely different than the others I've heard; it appears to be an early rough early edit.
The disc starts out with a great 7 minute rundown of various Tone-combinations by Mr. Lébl, then gives way to the epic Komorous & Zeljenka pieces. Then, two pieces by our beloved Mr. Riedl - neither of which are on the Wergo LP / Creel Pone - then perhaps Lejaren Hiller"s most awe-inspring piece - also strangely unavailable on disc otherwise - a piece by Jozef Malovec, one of Penderecki's only tape pieces - the others can be found on the recently reissued score to "The Saragossa Manuscript" - and finally the Pierre Henry edit/out-take.
[CP 076] Mr. P.C. C.P. here sticking to its (his? their?) new “Every Other Friday” schedule - frankly its 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 & Miloslav Ištvan, two by Václav Kučera - all very much in the Musique Concrète tradition - as the liners 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 the era & geographically appropriate animated film & 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.