Karlheinz Stockhausen

*2022 Stock.* Karlheinz Stockhausen – “Oktophonie ” Realized at the Studio für Elektronische Musik, WDR, August 23 - November 30, 1990 & Aug. 5-30, 1991. " (...) Stockhausen also points out that the production and spatialization are described in the separate OCTOPHONY score. This score is indeed a very meticulous and detailed one, indispensable for aficionados who will want to enter the inner workings of the OCTOPHONY structure. It is an extreme score in this aspect, in the minute details of its contents.  It is a fact that the ultimate OKTOPHONIE experience occurs with the proper loudspeaker set-up in the spatial shape of a cube in a hall, but you come far with good equipment at home too, especially if a sub-woofer is included. OKTOPHONIE is rock bottom music as well as light-of-dawn music; a firm basis in the lower chakras and a rising of spirit through the higher ones; Dionysus and Apollo in one long breath of heavy matter slowly transforming into transparent spiritual ether!  Since I’ve lingered on OKTOPHONIE quite extensively in my text on DIENSTAG aus LICHT, I will simply supply some – as always! – subjective aspects on the piece here.  I have often found, with Stockhausen’s music, that what ever occupies my mind at the time of listening – i.e. the dominant intellectual or emotional force of the immediate period surrounding the elusive now-moment – fits right into the experience of the music. This can’t be just by chance. It must have to do with the enormous potential of the music; the inherent depth and width of the compositions and, ultimately, the waves of sound they emit, making them perfect vehicles, no matter what your mind is set on, as long as the force within is allowed to flow along the natural and so-called intuitive paths of enlightenment, which can happen if you let go and let happen, provided you’ve reached a stage at which you’re worthy of this.

" (Excerpt from Ingvar Nordin / Sonoloco extensive review)