Iannis Xenakis – Electroacoustic Works (2022)

Iannis Xenakis would have turned 100 this year, and of course this has to be celebrated somehow, even if many events surrounding the composer’s work are surrounded by the stink of musealisation. With the comprehensive box set Electroacoustic Works, however, the Berlin label Karlrecords proves how wonderfully unwieldy his work remains. Sure, especially the early work including the granular synthesis original story of Concrète PH may belong to the canon by now. The late work, however, still hurts the auditory canal and the brain, and pieces like S.709 make the Merzbow catalogue sound like lullabies in comparison. Someone has to create that first, but probably only Xenakis could. Kristoffer Cornils