Iannis Xenakis

The first complete set of Xenakis’ percussion ensemble, percussion duos, and solo percussion works. As Steven Schick states in his comprehensive essay accompanying this set, Xenakis was the “progenitor of modern percussion music.” Of course Iannis Xenakis did not create percussion music, his first major contribution to the percussion repertory came more than three decades after the American percussion revolution of Edgard Varèse, John Cage and Henry Cowell. But as Jorge Luis Borges said of Kafka, he was so important that he influenced even those who came before him. Indeed, our early 21st century ear for percussion music has been so tuned by the music of Xenakis that we cannot fail to understand the first cacophonous noise constructions of Varèse’s Ionisation (1931) and Cage’s First Construction (1939) through the retro-lens of the raw and terrifying noises in Xenakis’ percussion works.

red fish blue fish is the resident percussion ensemble of the University of California, San Diego. The group functions as a laboratory for the development of new percussion techniques and music, and has toured widely. Its concerts have included Lincoln Center, as a part of two Bang on a Can marathon concerts, the Agora Festival (Paris), the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella Series, the Centro des Bellas Artes in Mexico City, and the Percussive Arts Society International Convention. In addition the group offers a regular series at the University of California, San Diego.

For the past 30 years, Steven Schick has championed contemporary percussion music as a performer and teacher. He studied at the University of Iowa and received the Soloists Diploma from the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany. Schick has commissioned and premiered more than 100 new works for percussion and has performed these pieces on major concert series such as Lincoln Center’s Great Performers and the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella concerts as well as in international festivals including Warsaw Autumn, BBC Proms, Jerusalem Festival, Holland Festival, Stockholm International Percussion Event and the Budapest Spring Festival among many others. Schick is the founder and Artistic Director of the percussion group, red fish blue fish.

Disc 1
Persephassa (1969) (28:37), percussion sextet
Psappha (1975) (13:59), percussion solo
Dmaathen (1977) (10:57), for oboe and percussion
Disc 2
Pléïades (1978), percussion sextet: Mélanges (8:52), Claviers (10:36), Métaux (13:31), Peaux (11:55)
Komboï (1981) (20:02), for percussion and harpsichord
Disc 3
Kassandra (1987) (20:48), for voice and percussion
Okho (1989) (13:14), for three djembes
Oophaa (1989) (11:49), for harpsichord and percussion
Rebonds (1989), percussion solo: B (5:24), A (6:09)

Percussion Ensemble red fish blue fish: Patti Cudd, Aiyun Huang, Terry Longshore, Brett Reed, David Shively, Vanessa Tomlinson, Gustavo Aguilar, Rob Esler, Ross Karre, Don Nichols, Morris Palter, Lisa Tolentino, Ivan Manzanilla
Steven Schick, percussion
Jacqueline Leclair, oboe
Shannon Wettstein, harpsichord
John Mark Harris, harpsichord
Greg Stuart, percussion
Philip Larson, voice