Minus X: A Tribute To The Music Of Iannis Xenakis

Recording: Amendola : The Shine Box, Berkeley, CA Kaiser: Santa Cruz, California Lopez: Studio zOaR - NYC E#: Studio zOaR - NYC Mixed by E# at Studio zOaR except for Stochastic Rock mixed by HK in Santa Cruz Mastered by HK Though weaned on Varese, Hendrix, Trane, Cecil Taylor, Sonny Sharrock, Albert Ayler, Stravinsky, Captain Beefheart, Stockhausen: the universe cracked open for me in 1968 on first hearing the music of Iannis Xenakis, a composer who had captured the glorious chaos of subatomic weather in a cloud chamber, found fibrillating grooves in burning charcoal, the majestic blues of the elliptical arc, and sonified the chaos imbuing the natural order of the universe. While most composers made music with notes, Xenakis transformed pure philosophies into sound. With his experiences as a mathematician and architect equally informing his musical approach, Xenakis manifested these connections in emotive and exciting compositions that made clear the mapping of independent processes to those in sound. Not content to make overwhelming music, Xenakis also outlined his thoughts and methods in his volume Formalized Music. My old friend Henry Kaiser shares my passion for the music of Xenakis as well as for many other musical visionaries. For this tribute we hypothesized a Xenakis tribute band to make audio reconstructions of key compositions by the master for which we added fellow intrepid explorers Brandon Lopez and Scott Amendola. This project was conceived and executed during lockdown which necessitated remote recording (though Brandon was able to record his tracks at Studio zOaR). The title of each piece is an anagram that reflects the elements of its source. Pieces were mixed to create the fiction of a live band playing in a room. For the coda, Henry mixed all of the tracks together to create our own neutron-star-density Stochastic Rock.