Persepolis Plus Remixes Edition 1

Track Listings
Disc: 1

1. Persepolis GRM Mix - Iannis Xenakis

Disc: 2

1. Per Se [Remix] - Ryoji Ikeda

2. Doing by Not Doing [Remix] - Zbigniew Karkowski

3. Glitchè [Remix]

4. Whorl [Remix] - Laminar

Editorial Reviews
Album Description
In 1971, former Iranian dictator Muhammad Reza Shah hosted a lavish and highly choreographed event amidst the ruins of the ancient Persian capital of Persepolis in order to celebrate the 2500th anniversary of Iran's founding by Cyrus The Great. This commemoration of modern Iran's beginnings was part of the Shah's own struggle with the country's increasingly politicized Shi'ite Muslim clerics, led by the late Ayatollah Khomeini, to secularize Iran. Declaring himself to be heir to Cyrus' legacy, the Shah presided over a cast of 6,200 vintage Persian costume-wearing vassals in an outlandish ceremony affirming the Shah's own interpretation of Iranian history, one which paid little deference to Islam.

The third annual Shiraz arts festival was held that same year at Persepolis. In keeping with the 2500th national anniversary celebrations, the Shah commissioned Greek composer and computer music pioneer Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001) to write a piece of music exalting ancient Persia's aristocratic pre-Islamic religious culture. Selecting Xenakis to author such a work could not have been more symbolically appropriate. A central figure in the development of computer composition, this half-blind former architect, WWII resistance fighter and associate of Le Corbusier evolved a new approach to music, most notably one that employed mathematical probability functions as a compositional methodology.

Titled 'Persepolis', in honor of the location in which it was to be performed, Xenakis composed a fifty-six minute, eight-track tape piece of musique concréte for the occasion. A noisy, apocalyptic-sounding piece distinguished by rising waves of intensity, Persepolis' debut must have been quite an experience for those lucky enough to be in attendance. Persepolis takes on an even greater significance when listened to as a musical work whose purpose was to serve a failed secularist ideology overtaken less than a decade later by a fundamentalist Islamic revolution.

In light of the events that have consumed the world since September 11th 2001, the notion that a radical composer would align himself with a political figure like the Shah shows how very few places such a brilliant artist could go to receive support for their work. Creative modernism is left with choosing between authoritarianism and religion. Hence the inclusion of a second disc of remixes in this edition of Persepolis. Disc 2 of this recording contains ten remixes of Persepolis by an international cast of avant-garde musicians, transforming Xenakis' original work in entirely distinct contexts, imbuing it with compellingly new meanings.

Otomo Yoshihide, Merzbow, Ryoji Ikeda, and Construction Kit contribute Japanese readings, while Spanish artist Francisco Lopez, Polish musician Zbigniew Karkowski and German Ulf Langheinrich bring the so-called noise from Europe. Americans antimatter and Laminar round the global aspect of this collection out by providing their own compelling takes on the original. Despite their distinctiveness, what unites all of these remixes is a shared sense that all great works of art can transcend the contexts in which they were first conceived in order to explore, and perhaps fulfill their greater purpose.

Persepolis Plus Remixes Edition 1, Music, Masami (aka Merzbow) Akita, Antimatter, Construction Kit, Ryoji Ikeda, Zbigniew Karkowski, Ulf Langheinrich, Francisco Lopez, Fred (aka Laminar) Szymanski, Iannis Xenakis, Otomo Yoshihide, Classical, Classical Vocals, Electronic/Avant-Garde/Minimalist Music, Electronic/Computer/Tape Music, Mixed Media, Rock/Pop

Persepolis Plus Remixes Edition 1
Average customer rating:

history in progress.

electronic music masterwork from 1971

Persepolis Plus Remixes Edition 1
Iannis Xenakis
Manufacturer: Asphodel Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00006GO8K
Release Date: 2002-08-13

Album Description

In 1971, former Iranian dictator Muhammad Reza Shah hosted a lavish and highly choreographed event amidst the ruins of the ancient Persian capital of Persepolis in order to celebrate the 2500th anniversary of Iran's founding by Cyrus The Great. This commemoration of modern Iran's beginnings was part of the Shah's own struggle with the country's increasingly politicized Shi'ite Muslim clerics, led by the late Ayatollah Khomeini, to secularize Iran. Declaring himself to be heir to Cyrus' legacy, the Shah presided over a cast of 6,200 vintage Persian costume-wearing vassals in an outlandish ceremony affirming the Shah's own interpretation of Iranian history, one which paid little deference to Islam.

Customer Reviews:

history in progress........2006-05-15

I have not heard this particular recording, but I like _Persepolis_ a lot. I will comment on that work only. This is one of the best electronic works I have heard by far, along with anything by Birchville Cat Motel. First let me say that Xenakis' mathematical composition processes and colossal orchestral works have had quite an impact on me, but my favorite piece of his so far is _Persepolis_, for eight-channel tape. As with any music that evokes such uncommon thoughts and emotions, it is difficult to describe. Somehow, it is a rare electronic masterpiece with dignity and elegance guiding its experimentalism. This radical piece was, amazingly enough, commissioned by the Shah of Iran in 1971 and scored as part of a light show, to commemorate the nation's founding.

This work, writes Xenakis, is a "symbol of history's noises; unassailable rocks facing the assault of the waves of civilization. Childhood's awakening must be maintained because it represents active knowledge, perpetual questioning which forges the becoming of man. To invent light trajectories, to create signs, destinies on stone: on mountain and ruins, through sound, through fire, through light. . . . _Persepolis_ is neither a theatrical spectacle, nor a ballet, nor a happening. It is visual symbolism, paralleled and dominated by sound. The sound, the music must prevail absolutely. This music corresponds to a rock tablet on which hieroglyph or cuneiform messages are engraved in a compact, hermetic way, delivering their secrets only to those who want and know how to read them. The history of Iran, fragment of the world's history, is thus elliptically and abstractly represented by underground currents of sound. The listener must pay for his penetration into the knowledge of the signs with great effort pain and the suffering of his own birth."

Who knows what he was thinking, exactly. Xenakis had a rather obtuse way of thinking about music. Yet this is an unexpectedly accessible and immediate work, constructed out of a small set of sound forms, such as heavily manipulated acoustic instruments and something like a ghostly machines. Even so, for all acoustical purposes you will never hear the same things twice. The piece is certainly noisy, but not in a derogatory, annoying way like a dog barking at you on the street or a garbage truck waking you up at some obscene hour, but in a very immaculate, deliberate way. At high volumes, _Persepolis_ can crush you with its power, but at low volumes, where one must pay more attention, one is really made aware of the hidden beauty here. This is a multilayered world of exquisite sonic evolutions that is both tragic and inspiring - just like human history. _Persepolis_ makes a human connection you wouldn't expect.

Unfortunately, this is a difficult piece to find the right sound setup for. Since it is supposed to be mixed for eight channels surrounding an audience, really high quality headphones would probably enable one to hear the music most clearly. Since there are never going to be any recordings mixed for eight channels, it's all about the layers. At the very least try and surround yourself with the music as much as possible.

electronic music masterwork from 1971.......2004-01-26

"Persepolis" is an hour of electronic music, composed for an outdoor performance in the ruins of the ancient Persian city of the same name. Organized by the Shah of Iran in 1971, this event featured 59 speakers in and around the audience, lasers and spotlights evoking the Zoroastrian belief that light is eternal life, and bonfires on surrounding hillsides. Quite a spectacle! I won't go on in this vein as the liner notes describing this history are already generously excerpted on the site.

Unfortunately there is much less information about the music itself. Apparently a truncated version of the original recording was released on vinyl in the 1970s. This Asphodel version, called the "GRM mix" (for the Institute National Acoustique -- Groupe Recherche de Musique) is apparently a much more recent mix of the original tapes, but I have not been able to find the specific dates. The liner notes say only that the mixing and engineering was done in Paris by Daniel Teruggi "under the consultation of Iannis Xenakis."

According to James Harley, a former student of Xenakis, the music is created "...from the layering and variation of 11 basic textures. These range from strange-sounding clarinet multiphonics to glassy string harmonics to grating metallic sounds and distorted wind effects ... one or another of these entities tends to dominate, and is usually heard in at least a couple of layers simultaneously, often juxtaposed with single layers of one or two other textures at the same time." It is a continuous flux of these electronic textures -- there is no large-scale structure to the piece, no breaks, or movements, or notable crescendos of any kind. "Persepolis" is evocative of cosmic energies -- the Zoroastrian contest between Light and Darkness. I find it to be endlessly fascinating -- there is more than enough complexity to sustain interest and repeated listening.

We get a bonus second disc from Asphodel, which includes 9 remixes of the original Xenakis work. These are a mixed bag, ranging from "glitch" pieces that I cannot stand to a few creative and compelling extensions of the original vision. Zbigniew Karkowski's contribution in particular is excellent -- Karkowski was a "curator" of the project, so presumably he gathered the remixes. Even if you find you don't like any of the remixes at all, you still get the entire Xenakis work for the price of a single disc.

Between 1971 and 1977 Xenakis further developed his vision and craft. "la legende d'eer", which like "Persepolis" was commissioned for multi-media performance, this time for the June 1978 opening of the Pompidou Center in Paris, is another spectacular 8-channel tape work (available on disc from Naive Montaigne). The 1977 work adds a macro-structure, building from sparse sounds to loud noise and then subsiding back to sparseness. For anyone who enjoys "Persepolis" it is well worth hearing.

There is only one book on Xenakis in English at the moment, by James Harley, who studied with X in Paris, and it's well worth checking out. One book is scarcely enough. Xenakis was a prolific genius, and I'd like to know more about his youthful participation in the Communist resistance to Italian fascism, so I hope the information gap will be closed in the near future.

I consider Xenakis to be one of the Three Best late 20th century composers, along with Elliott Carter and Gyorgy Ligeti. See my list THE SONIC REALM OF IANNIS XENAKIS for more reviews and recommendations.

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