Cat No: EDRZ1011-12 Label: EDITION RZ Genre: EARLY ELECTRONIC / SOUNDTRACKS

Franco Evangelisti

Boomkat Product Review:

In 1998 the ever-revelatory Edition RZ issued this 1st CD collection of works by Franco Evangelisti (1926-1980), who’s perhaps best known as founder of Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza. However, beyond the most crenellated realms of modern composition, his name hardly rings a bell, but judging on the dynamic strength and depth of sounds inside, it really should for anyone with an interest in pioneering Italian avant-garde movements.

We’d fairly speculate he’s not as well known as other Gruppo members such as Morricone or Macchi due to his music’s relative difficulty and lack of commercial appeal. However, just like the work of group member Roland Kayn, there is a worldly, far-out wonder and probing scope to these recordings that warrants much closer inspection if you want to peer beyond Italian library music into its avant garde abyss.

“This two disc retrospective features studio audio-footage and lab-experiments, featuring performers Aloys Kontarsky, David Tudor, Eberhard Blüm and the LaSalle Quartet. Spanning the last 40 years, virtually all forms of post-1950 invention are represented here from the pure electronics of "Incontri di fasce sonore, composizione elettronica" (recorded at the WDR, 1957) to the stuttering orchestral developments of "Ordini, strutture variate per sedici strumenti" (composed in 1955, presented here as a 1993 recording by the Ensemble Streumentale de Camera). A key player in the field of pan-stylistic modernalia.”

2CD (14)