Trio Xenakis – comprising percussionists Adélaïde Ferrière, Emmanuel Jacquet, and Rodolphe Théry – presents Xenakis-Reich (Live) on B Records, a rigorous examination of two foundational approaches to contemporary percussion composition. This vinyl edition documents live performances that illuminate both the technical demands and philosophical substrates of works by Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001) and Steve Reich (b. 1936). The program opens with Xenakis's Okho (12:47), a seminal work for three djembes that exemplifies the composer's stochastic methodology and his conception of rhythm as organized sonic mass. The trio follows with three Reich compositions: Nagoya Marimbas (4:19), demonstrating Reich's characteristic two-piano-plus-percussion instrumentation adapted for marimba trio; Marimba Phase (17:22), an extended exploration of the gradual phase-shifting process that defined Reich's early mature style; and Clapping Music (1:47), the composer's radical reduction of his process technique to its most elemental form.
Graduates of the Conservatoire de Paris, Ferrière, Jacquet, and Théry bring exceptional credentials to this material. Their residency at the Fondation Singer-Polignac (2018) and subsequent designation as Associate Artists (2025) reflects institutional recognition of their contribution to contemporary percussion practice. The trio's performances at venues including the Philharmonie de Paris, Auditorium de Radio-France, and the Ancient Theater of Epidaurus demonstrate their capacity to operate at the highest levels of international performance. The vinyl medium proves essential to capturing the phenomenological reality of these works. Xenakis's Okho requires the full spectrum of djembe sonority – from bass tones produced at the drumhead's center to the sharp, high-frequency attacks at the rim – information that benefits from analog reproduction's superior transient response. Similarly, Reich's marimba works depend on the perception of subtle phase relationships and the resultant patterns that emerge from rhythmic displacement; vinyl's continuous waveform representation preserves these acoustic phenomena with greater fidelity than digital sampling.
This release represents more than mere documentation. It constitutes a comparative study in compositional philosophy: Xenakis's post-serial, architecturally informed approach versus Reich's systematic investigation of perceptual processes. Both composers privilege rhythm as primary organizational parameter; both expand the timbral vocabulary of percussion beyond its traditional supporting role; both conceive musical form in terms of temporal process rather than inherited structural archetypes.
