Vortex Temporum; Taléa cover

Vortex Temporum; Taléa

Composer
Released

While Les Espaces Acoustiques will probably remain the most historically significant work by spectralist composer Gérard Grisey, there’s something dazzling about the achievement unlocked through Vortex Temporum. It’s an emboldened work, where extremities co-exist in uneasy tension – see, for example, the way thunderous clusters of piano wrestle alongside hovering, shivering strings. But perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Vortex Temporum is the recursive dilations that appear throughout, where strings spiral off into distance, a dizzying listening experience that dedicatee Gérard Zinsstag describes as “descending/ascending figures which unfurl and spin in different times.” Talea works similar contrasts into a more compact design, though I’d hesitate to call it economical.

Jon Dale

Suggestions
Long Gradus cover

Long Gradus

Quatuor Bozzini, Sarah Davachi
KYA cover

KYA

Ensemble Contrechamps, Jürg Wyttenbach
For John Cage cover

For John Cage

Marianne Schroeder, Paul Zukofsky
Morton Feldman: Turfan Fragments cover

Morton Feldman: Turfan Fragments

S.E.M. Ensemble, Petr Kotik
For Samuel Beckett cover

For Samuel Beckett

Klangforum Wien, Sylvain Cambreling