** Much-needed repress. Double CD, 6 pages Ecopack Digisleeve ** Over the past few years, an image of the towering talent of the French, electroacoustic composer, Michèle Bokanowski, has slowly come into view. First there was the 12”, La Plage, released by Canti Magnetici / Invisibilia Editions in 2019, and then, earlier this year came the stunning LP, Rhapsodia / Battements Solaires, via Recollection GRM. Now Invisibilia Editions returns with the most ambitious survey of Bokanowski’s work to so far come to light, Musique de Courts Métrages, Music of Patrick Bokanowski’s Short Films, spanning more than 50 years of output across two mesmerizing CDs. Absolutely incredible, bringing to light the work of one of France’s most fascinating contemporary composers on unprecedented terms, this one is long overdue and as essential as they come.

A student of both Pierre Schaeffer and Eliane Radigue, since her emergence during the 1970s, the French composer, Michèle Bokanowski, has carved a fascinating trajectory with the fields of electronic and electroacoustic music. Working primarily for film, television, and dance, over a discography of works that span the decades, she has built a singular world of profound sonic densities, colours, and depth. In the words of GRM’s artist director François Bonnet (Kassel Jaeger), Bokanowski’s immense talent lies in her particular ability to “find the right development for each sound, letting it blossom before altering it, adapting the musical structure to let the sounds 'be', even if it sometimes means returning to the most basic form”, fact that become pointedly clear across the two discs of material collected across Invisibilia Editions’ latest, Musique de Courts Métrages, Music of Patrick Bokanowski’s Short Films.

Musique de Courts Métrages, Music of Patrick Bokanowski’s Short Films collects, for the very first time, the entirety of the music that Michele Bokanowski has composed for the short films of her husband, Patrick Bokanowski - stretching from La Femme Qui Se Poudre from 1972 to Vers Syracuse, written and recorded in 2019 - which represents the largest focused canon within the body of work she created during those years. Imbued with profound sensibility for sonic abstraction, the ten works comprised by this collection - including both long and short form works - traverse a thrilling range of trajectories within electronic and electroacoustic process, from brooding works of musique concrète, shimmering works of meditative ambience threaded with rhythm, to brilliant hybridic conversations between acoustic instrumentation and electronics, Bokanowski quickly proves that her talents are as vast as ground she is capable of covering.

Complex, inward looking, and an absolutely incredible immersion in focussed listening, Bokanowski’s Musique de Courts Métrages, Music of Patrick Bokanowski’s Short Films leaves you on the edge of your seat from start to finish and leaves you wanting more, presenting a truly incredible composer of the highest order who has yet to fully receive her rightful due. Impossible to recommend enough, Invisibilia Editions has done the field of experimental music - historical and contemporary alike - a great service with this one.