Bernard Parmegiani – Violostries, Pour un Finir Avec le Pouvoir d’Orphee, Dedans-Dehors, Rouge-Mort: Thanatos, Exercisme 3, Le Present Compose
July 28th, 2008Along with the François Bayle and Ivo Malec 2-CD sets, The Violostries… 2-CD is one of the major continents on the INA-GRM planet and is a required layover for any wayward electro-acoustic music fan. These two discs divide his career into two eras: tape splicing and mouse clicking. “Violostries” (1963) is comprised of a sustained, ominous atmosphere punctuated with violent electro bursts and spooky, tweedling violin. “Pour en Finir Avec le Pouvoir d’Orphée” (1971) is a very mesmerizing pleasure fun center full of glimmering electronics building in intensity—only to give way to downwardly circling whip-cuts, metallic crashes and echoes of the deepest kind. A very empty area of low pulsations with high-pitched tinklings again amplifies and builds in intensity—eventually turning into a swirling mass of rare beauty that abruptly comes to a sudden, beeping stop. Following that is a rather “happy” section of boinging electronic “springs” and whistles that slowly coalesce with a low-pitched drone into a hectic area of stuttered percussive sounds.