Tracklisting:
Canto Ecuménico, Litania, Homo Sapiens
1-01. Canto Ecuménico (24:40) 1979
1-02. Litania (14:40) 1972
1-03. Homo Sapiens (13:40) 1972
Elegia A Amílcar Cabral
1-04. Elegia A Amílcar Cabral, 1ª Versão (21:12) 1973
2-01. Elegia A Amílcar Cabral, 2ª Versão (19:20) 1973
Sand Automata, Legends Of Neptune, Oceans
2-02. Autómatos Da Areia / Sand Automata (11:30) 1978/84
2-03. Lendas De Neptuno / Legends Of Neptune (11:12) 1987
2-04. Oceanos / Oceans (26:25) 1978/79
[CP 152 CD] Filipe Pires, Jorge Peixinho, Candido Lima; Canto Ecuménico, Litania, Homo Sapiens, Elegia a Amílcar Cabral, Sand Automata, Legends Of Neptune, Oceans
2021 reédition of this mid-late period C.P. classic, now including all three of the Electro-Acoustic titles issued by Diapasão as part of their "Discoteca Básica Nacional" series, adding Jorge Peixinho's "Elegia a Amílcar Cabral" (#6; two entirely different takes of a powerful piece composed the day of the P.A.I.G.C. founder's murder in Conakry, realized on the EMS Synthi 100 at IPEM utilizing only 12x Sine-Wave Generators & onboard reverb/filtering) & Candido Lima's "Sand Automata, Legends Of Neptune, Oceans" (#33; three incredible, noisy takes on static-leaning synthesis) to Filipe Pires' "Canto Ecuménico, Litania, Homo Sapiens" (#13) honoring the (loose) chronology of the composition dates (if not exactly the order of issue); enjoy!
Composed at the GRM - the two B-side pieces, both in 1972 - & at his own “Private” studio in Porto - the A-side, 1979 - this trilogy of Musique Concrète pieces by the Portugese composer Filipe Pires was initially issued in 1980 as part of Imavox’s “Discoteca Básica Nacional” series (#13), alongside Jorge Peixinho’s epic “Elegia a Amílcar Cabral” (#6) & Candido Lima's "Sand Automata, Legends Of Neptune, Oceans" (#33).
“Canto Ecuméncio” is a beautifully chaotic & extended ride, wherein we’re taken through a brutalist, man-on-the-street voyage through various folk-forms in an overdriven & ultra-present manner, positing itself as the spiritual heir to Logothetis’ “Fantasmata 1960” - with which it shares a strikingly similar energy and/or timbral / thematic bent - worth it for the price of admission alone; in many ways its the agitprop anti-"Presque Rien" / "Music Promenade".
The two GRM pieces are slightly more nuanced, showing Pires as a fine studio technician as well as exhibiting an excellent conceptual sense - "Litania’s” sheet-metal grapplings are the stuff of legend, rivaling only Xenakis’ “Bohor” in its presaging of Industrial forms - but I’m personally the most enamored with the pause-pregnant eruption-eerings of “Homo Sapiens” - as fine an example of the possibilities of the tape-studio at the turn of the 70s as any, sharing Dockstader’s affinity for the between-the-stations telemetries of radio transmissions amidst clattering piano & percussion juxtapositions.