|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3CD BOX
|
|
ROBOT 042CD
|
2013 release. This three-CD retrospective includes six compositions by French composer Jacques Lejeune (born 1940), totaling near three-and-a-half hours of music. Presented chronologically, these works for tape represent a stunning array of themes, images, and destinations covering the years 1971-1985. Throughout Lejeune's compositional development, dreams, reflections on the written fable, and mythological thinking all reappear. Originally released on LP by INA-GRM, both Parages and Symphonie au bord d'un paysage have been remastered and have never before been available on CD. Parages (1973) is a work exploring distances (or vicinities), cycles, and the transparency of the sky. A deep undercurrent of perpetual movement and altitude -- flight and fall -- is ever-present in the piece, encompassing a procession of auditory colors, places, and events. These elements multiply, uniting beyond their individual musical processes, further immersing the listener within an increasing auditory field. Symphonie au bord d'un paysage (1981) is a composition concerned with motion, panoramas, and geographical relationships -- all as if being at the edge of a vast chasm. Also included is Lejeune's masterwork, Blanche-Neige (1975). This has been regarded as one of the most peculiar and elusive recordings in the whole GRM-related canon. This early LP, also known as Fantasmes, was originally recorded for a theater/ballet production of the same name. Loosely based on the text by the Brothers Grimm, with its narrative symbolism and tale of the deep forest, Blanche-Neige is one of the finest compositions of cinéma pour l'oreille (cinema for the ear) for tape and electronics from the period. Cri (1971) is the earliest piece featured in the set, with an emphasis on the very nature of vocal expression. Integrating mixed landscapes and a spacious use of cyclical elements, this work offers a fantastic prelude to Lejeune's evolution as a composer. Additionally featured are Entre terre et ciel (1979) and Les palpitations de la forêt (1985). These two works are concerned with the natural world, labyrinths, clusters, and intermingled morphologies of the Earth. This box set includes a 28-page bilingual booklet (in English and French) with detailed program notes, as well as a 32-page booklet of interpretive stanzas surrounding these bizarre and evocative works. Meticulously translated and collected for the first time in print, these writings offer a rare insight into Lejeune's creative process. Parages and Other Electroacoustic Works 1971-1985 is an essential overview of one of the seminal figures in musique concrète.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
ROBOT 043LP
|
Limited restock. This LP of early compositions by Jacques Lejeune features three seminal works: D'une Multitude En Fête and Petite Suite, originally released in the Perspective Musicales series in 1970, and a previously unpublished composition, Géodes, from the same period. These three pieces (not included in Robot's 2013 Parages and Other Electroacoustic Works 1971-1985 three-CD set (ROBOT 042CD)) are some of Lejeune's earliest music for tape and may be considered a "prequel" to his later, more thematic works. Still, his concise musical narrative is ever-present in these first recordings. The side-long D'une Multitude En Fête (1969) refers to multitude, number, celebration, and any crowd situation as a form of ceremony -- all evoking a circular gaze, as topics of the different aural events and their anecdotal development emerge, leading to the dream, as a story we tell to ourselves. Géodes (1970) features percussion improvisations by Lauréat Dionne with Lejeune's tape work inflecting prisms deep into its thundering, rhythmic core. This concert version appears on vinyl for the first time. Concluding the album is Petite Suite (1970), with each section referencing a traditional musical form using both anecdotal as well as instrumental flourishes. The original drum and guitar elements are performed here by Michel Foudrinoy and Jean-Pierre Vassout. These pieces have been compared to Pierre Henry's bold rock themes in Messe Pour Le Temps Présent and also recall the peculiar atmospheres of some of the great early Nurse with Wound records that would follow. In contrast, Lejeune's early approach was heavily steeped in sonic narratives, combining unusual and ambiguous events to create a sound world uniquely his own. Early Works 1969-1970 explores the first precision splices by one of the true visionaries of musique concrète.
|