THIERRY PÉCOU (b.1965): Les Liaisons magnétiques for 6 Wind Instruments, Percussion and 12 Strings, Sextet for Flute, Clarinet, Saxophone, Horn, Bassoon and Piano, Soleil-Feu for Violin and Piano, Les Machines désirantes for Piano, Flute, Clarinet, Saxophone, Violin and Cello, Salsa d’Élissa for Saxophone, Congas and Piano, Dominica Reggae for Piano and Percussion.

Description: A combination of sonorist and 'propulsivist' - let us propose a new term for composers who use rapid, repeating rhythmic gestures to propel their music without the process implications of 'real' minimalism - Pécou blends timbres inspired by ethnic musics from around the world with lively, ostinato-driven rhythms in an unusual and original idiom. Les liaisons borrows sounds from Andean music and Dutilleux' unique sonic palette in passages of abstract sonorous texture which alternate with rhythmically driven, much more tonal vitality. The Sextet was inspired by Gamelan music, but aside from the presence of pentatonic modes in the harmony the music does not imitate Balinese styles, rather seeming to recall neoclassical Stravinsky, jazz and the same kind of propulsivist patterning that dominates Les liaisons. Soleil-feu takes its cue from pre-Columbian Mexican cosmogony, alternating whirling patterns and Messiaenic coloristic block chords. Les machines désirantes refers to the controversial book “Anti-Œdipus” by Deleuze and Guattari which imposes psychoanalytical constructs onto socioeconomic theory. The music is complex and obsessive, as fractured and fantastically illogical as contemporary politics. The other short pieces take dance rhythms of Cuba and Dominica and serve them up as incessantly, obsessively active marionette mechanisms. Ensemble Variances, Ensemble Resonanz; Jonathan Stockhammer.