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Iannis Xenakis was an architect, civil engineer, later educator, and for our present purposes, a groundbreaking composer who became involved in music comparatively late in the game relative to others in his profession. He is famed for introducing mathematical principles into his compositions of "massed sounds," and his theory of "meta-art" (i.e., that an artistic expression can be realized mathematically for any artistic medium). I first became aware of Xenakis as a student living in New York City, when I attended a summer concert series held in the patio of the Museum of Modern Art where the works of modern symphonic composers were performed. The first concert I attended opened up with a performance of "Rebonds," a work for solo percussion, sprung from the same kinetic lineage of Edgard Varèse's "Ionisation." For me, "Rebonds" completely stole the show. Even now I remember it pretty vividly, mild raindrops falling and the percussionist 'in the zone,' aware of neither rain, nor audience, nor street noise... only the percussion kit and the split-second precision required of him to deliver. It was probably within a week or two that I picked up this CD. The ST-X Ensemble is a contemporary symphonic group formed by conductor Charles Zachary Bornstein in 1994 that is dedicated exclusively to playing Xenakis' work. Bornstein was an assistant conductor to Leopold Stokowski before he turned 20 and the last private student of Austrian conductor Hans Swarowsky. Of the five pieces on the disc, I'll talk primarily of three. The remaining two, "Plektó" ("Braids") and "Akanthos" ("Thorns") strike me as the most approachable, though even still, neither are easily accessible on their own terms. For these, I would simply say that both are interesting and should be heard. The general instrumentation for both (much like Varèse, Xenakis would fluidly alter the instrumental make-up across each of his works) is comprised of woodwinds, piano, high and low strings. "Akanthos" features the addition of a solo soprano vocalist and represents a rare example of the presence of tonal areas in Xenakis' work. But now to the three that really stand out to me. "Eonta" ("Beings") is a work arranged in eight segments that Xenakis composed over a few years in the early 1960s, and apparently incorporates principles of Boolean algebra (how, I don't know). The piece is a dialogue pitting solo piano against a brass line comprised of two trumpets and three trombones. The piece includes stage directions for the mobile brass section, and in its course they begin at the back of the stage away from the piano, move forward coalescing near the piano to blast out massed chords, and at one point are instructed to freely walk around the stage while playing. The piece really gives the brass quite a workout. You won't find too many other pieces where the trumpets and trombones seem to warp, bend, and dip quite as far as the ones on this piece manage to achieve. Interestingly, "Rebonds" is rearranged here to begin with its second half ("b") as opposed to its first ("a"). Still, I feel that "a" naturally should open the piece, starting off with a tentative crack!-boom/crack!-boom and gradually, systematically building into a muscular display of syncopated, often surprising rhythmic cadences. This is an excellent recording of the piece. You can feel the snap and rumble of every drum and woodblock, and the accidental cross-hits of Robert McEwan's drumsticks only add to the sense of spontaneity and genuine flavor of the performance. Finally, there's "N'Shima" (Hebrew for "spirit" or "breath"). My goodness. Bornstein's liner notes deem this "Xenakis' most unique work [which] will ultimately take its place as the 2nd-half of the 20th century's equivalent of Le Sacre [Igor Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring"]." The piece requires "two amplified peasant voices, two amplified French horns, two tenor trombones, and amplified cello" and indeed ranks among the most startling things I've heard in recent memory. Opening with hornet stings of brass and the two vocalists' monodic announcement: "AHHH," throughout the sixteen minutes of the piece the listener is virtually assaulted by sonic expression pushing the limits: syllables of the Hebrew text drawn out for minutes; hair-curling tremolos from the cello; a middle section of hissed breathing from the vocalists; trombones swooping, cutting, glissing; and a final proclamation from the voices, at full emotional intensity, of "AV! DA!," as the piece builds to climax before closing with the cello slinking off by itself into the distance. This is music that clearly requires a formidable degree of virtuosity and training to tackle, but it's all good in the hands of Bornstein, his Ensemble, and the soloists: all do an exemplary job. To say that this is very demanding music is a drastic understatement—you can expect that most casual listeners who hear this CD probably won't even think this should be called music. Regardless of what any might say, however, these compositions in truth represent some incredible work, and it's good that somebody out there is promoting and preserving this. A disc that certainly merits being heard at least once, for all those seeking to stretch their minds in determining for themselves what music can be about. review by Joe McGlinchey — 11-5-06 —