Xenakis: Atrées, ST/10, 1-080262, Polla Ta Dhina, Akrata & Achorripsis

Iannis Xenakis’ centenary is one of the main musical celebrations of 2022 – a fascinating exhibition about his career is being held until June at the Philharmonie de Paris. We are re-issuing the recordings made under the aegis of his friend, fierce advocate of contemporary creation and founder of the Ensemble instrumental de musique contemporaine de Paris Konstantin Simonovitch. This album gathers major works from 1956-1965.

Polla Ta Dhina, featuring the Maîtrise de Notre-Dame de Paris, is a stunning psalmody after Sophocles’ Antigone. Achorripsis and ST/10 are organized using probability theory, the latter with the help of a (then) powerful calculation software designed by IBM. Atrées derives from the same program and refers to both the Atreidae and the mathematician Blaise Pascal to whom it is an homage. Akrata for winds is based on number theory.

These are the only existing online recordings for Atrées, ST/10, 1-080262 and Polla Ta Dhina.