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The second AGP installment comprises the four parts of Mauricio Kagel's Acustica, for experimental sound-producers and loudspeakers. This piece features some of the most astonishing timbres I have ever heard. As far as I can glean from reading the record notes, the first two parts are live performances by five musicians (recorded at Studio Rhenus, Godorf bei Köln, on January 28-31, 1971) and the second two parts are electroacoustic compositions produced in 1969. The live performances use a crazy collection of homemade instruments (see the included notes for details), some purely acoustic and others incorporating loud-speakers, tone generators, or cassette recorders. The two electroacoustic sides are well worth listening to, but I particularly recommend the tremendously complex sounds on the first two sides. They have a texture somewhat like electronic music, but with more timbral detail owing to the acoustic sound sources. Personally, I find these sides awe-inspiring. If you are instead horrified by what strikes you as unspeakable cacophony, we will have to agree to disagree. A short biography of Kagel from the Universal Edition website: "Mauricio (Raúl) Kagel was born in Buenos Aires on 24 December 1931 into a polyglot Argentine-Jewish family with strongly leftist political views. He studied theory, singing, conducting, piano, cello and organ with private teachers, but as a composer was self-taught. At the University of Buenos Aires, where Jorge Luis Borges was among his lecturers, Kagel studied philosophy and literature. In 1949 he became artistic advisor to the Agrupación Nueva Música of Buenos Aires; he began composing in 1950, seeking musical ideas that opposed the neoclassical style dictated by the Perón government. After an unsuccessful attempt to establish an electronic studio, in 1955 he became chorus director and rehearsal accompanist at the Teatro Colón and editor on cinema and photography for the journal nueva visión. In 1957 Kagel traveled to Germany on a DAAD student grant, settled in Cologne, and became immediately and permanently involved in the contemporary music network as a member of the so-called "second generation" of Darmstadt composers. "In Germany he
participated in the Darmstadt summer courses (from 1958), where he
later lectured (1960–66, 1972–76), and conducted the Rheinland Chamber
Orchestra in contemporary music concerts (1957–61). Between 1961 and
1965, he also made several concert and lecture tours in the USA. In
1969 he was named director of the Institute of New Music at the
Rheinische Musikschule in Cologne and, as Stockhausen’s successor, of
the Cologne courses in new music (until 1975); in 1974 he became
professor of new music theater at the Musikhochschule in Cologne. Kagel
was one of the founders of the Ensemble for New Music in Cologne and
has worked at the electronic studios in Cologne, Berlin, and Utrecht.
He continues to conduct many of his works and directs and produces all
of his own films and radio plays." NOTE: A new
recording of Acustica by Printemps des Arts de Monte Carlo has been
released on the Zig Zag Territories label, and is available here. To download AGP2 files, right-click on each of the following links and select SAVE LINK AS.
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