Spun #5

Gruppe Nuova Consonanza
"Improvisationen"
Deutsche Grammaphon 137 007, 1969

An early exploration into the world of electro-acoustic improvisation, with Ennio Morricone playing some trumpet. This is mostly quiet, edge-of-perception sort of music, what my friend Franke might call "scratch and sniff," but still with a few spikes of surprise here and there. The generous space (time-wise and depth-wise) around individual sounds allows the listener to concentrate and almost visualize each specific event. It's music that breathes and lets you approach it in your own way, instead of constantly beating you over the head and telling you what you're supposed to hear. Rather refreshing, if you ask me.

From the liner notes: "To unite composition and interpretation, which have hitherto always been separate functions in traditional European musical practice, in a simultaneous creative act-- that is the declared aim of the "Nuova Consonanza" improvisation group. The only ensemble of its kind in Europe, it was founded in Rome in 1964/65 by Franco Evangelisti (who had formulated his theories as ahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif result of aleatory already in 1959)-- following the example of the "New Music Ensemble" which has been working in California since 1963, with the same terms of reference and similar aims but without regard to electroacoustic music. The ensemble also receives important stimulus from jazz and from Indian music, both of which-- though each within an entirely different context of aesthetics and tradition-- have developed somewhat similar principles of collective, improvised composition. All the members of the "Nuova Consonanza" group are composers, who also have a virtuoso command of one or more instruments."

Retrieve it here.