GIACINTO SCELSI (1905-1988): Nuits, IANNIS XENAKIS (1922-2001): Theraps, ISANG YUN (1917-1995): Für Aki I and II, HANS WERNER HENZE (b.1926): S. Biagio 9 Agosto ore 1207, BENT LORENZEN (b.1935): Tiefe, MANFRED STAHNKE (b.1951): Streetmusic III.

Description: Collectors of the golden age of the avant-garde will want this for Scelsi's ten-minute, two-movement work whose first one is strangely active but whose second is the more characteristic six minute meditation on the note F. Xenakis' nearly unplayable Theraps has two other recordings and sounds like nothing else; Yun's short, minute-long pieces are wistfully melodic; Henze's S. Biagio hovers around E minor and seems like a soporific idyll later interrupted by a mighty outburst; Stahnke makes use of some jazzy textures and Lorentzen plumbs the absolute depths of the bass' sound before stretching the player to both limits of his range. Frank Reinecke (double bass).