MAURICIO KAGEL (b.1931): Acustica for Experimental Sound-Producers and Loud Speakers (two versions).

Description: Acustica is another extended, formalized experiment to investigate the nature and meaning of music, so typical of Kagel - perhaps his most extreme and elemental investigation of this type, in fact. The piece is an extended and elaborate piece of music theater (the CD contains two versions, quite different, for reasons that will be apparent). It consists of a virtually unbroken sequence of sounds, emanating from sound-producing devices ranging from adaptations of primitive instruments to corruptions of modern ones, to toy or improvised instruments, to effectively random objects that make some sort of noise when blown, struck or otherwise excited. A kind of acoustical cement is provided by the tape part, which is variably introduced into the texture of the whole via loudspeakers; this is in itself an ironic comment on the ubiquity of the loudspeaker in the contemporary experience of music. At its most basic level, the message is; if it makes a sound, and that sound exists in the context of other sounds or human actions, why not call it music? At the very least, you can call it entertaining and thought-provoking theater (the booklet provides many photographs of the eccentric sound-making objects, giving some idea of the visual aspect of the work). TAM Theatre, Krefeld, Mauricio Kagel (tape playback).