Karlheinz Stockhausen

amazing (an cheap) double CD set  featuring most of the Stockhausen "intuitive music" (ie quasi improvised). The first piece is Zyklus for solo percussion performed here by Tristan Fry in 1974. Zyklus was one of the first works with a graphic score allowing the performer some freedom to improvise. In the late 60s Stockhausen developed the idea of scores which determined a process rather than the exact content & his group toured the world playing this music. Several pieces are included here from the latter stages of the intuitive music period: Spiral I & II, Pole, Japan & Wach - all played in 1971 by core members of the group - Eotvos, Boje & Caskel. The difference between "intuitive music" and free improvisation is that free improv usually has free jazz roots with an emphasis on expressive solos & interplay. Stockhausen is more interested in liberating sounds than musicians & his concern seems to be with designing processes that allow sounds to be more dynamic & in a constant state of flux, modification or transformation.