# Some of some guy's favorite post-Stockhausen electroacoustic music for Air



## Guest (Nov 24, 2011)

First off, far as I can tell, the umbrella term is usually "electroacoustic," electronic being reserved for electronically produced music only. But usages vary. And often there's an agenda behind a particular usage.

Secondly, I must really emphasize the aptness of "some." So few as to be ridiculous. Electroacoustic music has now been around as long or longer than the so-called classical era and has been even more various. Though that impression of variety may certainly only be an illusion from standing so close to it.

Thirdly, I don't know how easy any of these things will be to find. Without broad support, these things go in and out of print very quickly. I have at least left off the pieces that I have gotten straight from the composers on CD-Rs, that you cannot find unless you visit me or the composers. Not that either of those would be a _bad_ thing! I could put out some chips for you or something. Some beer or juice. Mango/orange.

Anyway, here goes:

Jonathan Berger, _Meteora._ (1987) Probably hard to find. It only came out on a two CD Cultures électroniques set. _The Lead Plates of the Rom Press_ is probably easier to find and is also quite nice. _Meteora_ is has a strong narrative feel to it, so good for people who are more used to instrumental music.

Michèle Bokanowski, _L'etoile absinthe._ (2000) Only three or four things going on in its twenty minute span, but I've found it enormously compelling and can listen to it with as much pleasure the hundreth time as the first.

Ludger Brümmer, _La cloche sans vallées._ (1993) The first piece of Ludger's I ever heard, so it has a special place in my heart. I like all of Ludger's music, however. There are several youtube clips.

Francis Dhomont, _Corps et âme._ (2002) A bit on the short side for my tastes, but one of my favorite Dhomont pieces. So hard to choose. For all of these people, really.

Iancu Dumitrescu, _New Meteors and Pulsars._ (1982). My first Dumitrescu. Still a favorite, even after twenty or so discs by Dumitrescu and his wife Ana-Maria Avram later. The disc this is on also has three other very delightful pieces, by Avram, Cutler, and Hodgkinson.

eRikm, _Stéme._ (2003) I picked this because it's a solo album. In common with a lot of other people in the live electronics, turntable, noise fields, eRikm can usually be found in collaboration with other people. His _What a wonderful world_ with Jérôme Noetinger is quite nice.

Luc Ferrari, _Et si tout entière maintenant...._ (1987) I should just have picked names rather than names and pieces. _Et si tout entière maintenant...._ is _a_ favorite of mine. _The_ favorite? Nah. Luc wrote too many other things.

Beatriz Ferreyra, _La Riviere des Oiseaux_ (1998-2000). This is a suite of three pieces, with some borrowing to make the whole thing seem like what it is, a whole thing. Very rich sounds and inventive.

Gilles Gobeil, _Le vertige inconnu._ (1993-94) This dramatic and percussive piece was also used by Dhomont in his _Frankenstein Symphony,_ a piece made up of bits and pieces of pieces by Dhomont and many of his colleagues.

Christine Groult, _Etincelles._ (2005) Christine's music is really rich and interesting. Lovely, lovely sounds and very tightly constructed pieces. Hard to choose just one, as usual. And, of course, me choosing just one piece has more to do with just getting Air started out than anything else. One could easily pick any other piece by any of these people and have a delightful listening experience.

Anyway, I see from my clock that it's time to get back to work so I can go to Thanksgiving dinner without feeling like the day's been totally wasted. Maybe I'll continue this survey later on. Depends on how importunate Air is, I guess.:tiphat:


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## Air (Jul 19, 2008)

Now this is _really_ helpful! 

Thanks for the effective, concise list of recommendations. I'm sure many others here will be interested too. I hope you don't mind me asking you questions as I begin to explore the music of these composers, because I know I will have questions. Haha. 

I'd say that, some guy, from the other thread, you've paid me back more than tenfold. 
Thanks (and have a great Thanksgiving dinner)! :tiphat:

Do you recommend that one go chronologically, or does it not matter what order one listens to them in?


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

@some guy: Thanks for this list. Given my past exploration, I suspect I may not find these compelling, _but_, I will try some and listen. I have been pleasantly surprised by music before, and I expect I will continue to be surprised in the future.


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## Guest (Nov 24, 2011)

I don't think chronology matters much in this context. Easiest place to start might be just to search youtube for Brümmer.

Otherwise, many of the people I mentioned can be found in short but longer than 30 second clips on the electrocd site.

http://www.electrocd.com/en/


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

No Zeena Parkins? I really like her.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

So now I know what member _some guy_ really likes - electroacoustic music! Not many of the listed names above appear to have been posted at youtube.

This piece by Ludger Brümmer, _Speed_ (2006) appears relatively tolerable to me. It's not just straight industrial noise; close, but not entirely so. Not quite my cup of tea by a long shot. I'm still not quite sure how music like this might be considered as art music though. Regardless, it's whether I enjoy listening to it or not that matters. I'm afraid I don't.






Using more traditional instruments, this string quartet piece is still up the bizzare street. Maybe you might enjoy it. I didn't.

IANCU DUMITRESCU " Spectrum" for string quartet (part 1/2)


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## Guest (Nov 25, 2011)

violadude said:


> No Zeena Parkins? I really like her.


I stopped at G so I could work at my real job for awhile before Thanksgiving dinner. I'll get to the P's, just you wait!!


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## Guest (Nov 22, 2014)

SeptimalTritone just now "liked" the opening post of this very short thread from a few years ago.

It's a good list, still. I'd add to it if there were any interest. But these things take time and effort. And there are always other things to occupy me.

Air doesn't seem to have posted in over a year, and unless ArtMusic is HarpsichordConcerto in disguise, HC has not been around for even longer, but Violadude is still active, so I want to give Zeena Parkins a nice shout out for him. She's way cool, I think. I'd love to see her live. I've met her colleague Elliott Sharp. What a cool guy he is.

Quite a lot of nice music out there, to be sure, though fielding the contentless remarks of the naysayers does get a trifle old after the first, oh, forty years or so. (That's how long I've been listening to "contemporary" music, and how long I've been exposed to the jerking of knees at the mere mention of new music. The obvious seems so so so difficult to accept: that the music is fine, quite delightful, actually, and that there are people who thoroughly enjoy it without any effort at all. I'm always surprised and, of course, inordinately pleased at how patient and mild and even urbane I can be in responding to naysayers. I must be a freakin' angel.:angel


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## SeptimalTritone (Jul 7, 2014)

some guy said:


> SeptimalTritone just now "liked" the opening post of this very short thread from a few years ago.
> 
> It's a good list, still. I'd add to it if there were any interest. But these things take time and effort. And there are always other things to occupy me.


I would be interested!!! And I know that there are a sizeable number of people on TC who would as well 

BTW I'm enjoying the sheer strength and depth of Iancu Dumitrescu - Pierres Sacrées [Ideologic Organ] (2013)


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

I've only heard of Luc Ferrari (who could forget that name?) and Iancu Dumitrescu. The Dumitrescu CD I have is of him producing thick streams of bowed harmonics on a contrabass. So I'm not surprised to see that the Youtube clip is a string ensemble. I really consider him to be primarily a Spectralist. Now, disagree with me.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Yea, I really dig this stuff. The other thread we have of this genre contains videos and clips of some other great artists.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

What does "for air" refer to? Acoustic music?


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

millionrainbows said:


> What does "for air" refer to? Acoustic music?


The member Air.


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## Stavrogin (Apr 20, 2014)

millionrainbows said:


> What does "for air" refer to? Acoustic music?




In case you're not being sarcastic... this list has been poste for a user called "Air" (you can see him in post #2).


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## Guest (Nov 22, 2014)

SeptimalTritone said:


> I would be interested!!! And I know that there are a sizeable number of people on TC who would as well
> 
> BTW I'm enjoying the sheer strength and depth of Iancu Dumitrescu - Pierres Sacrées [Ideologic Organ] (2013)


Yeah, he's pretty cool. In person, too. The first time I saw him, he watched me gawping at him and walked across the auditorium, stuck out his hand and said, "Hello, I'm Iancu Dumitrescu." I stammered, "Um, yes. I know." And then Ana-Maria, who was sitting right where we ended up, looked at me and said, "And I'm Ana-Maria Avram. "Um, uh, yes, I know that, too!" Ack! Talk about starstruck. But there it is. They're really delightful people.

Hey million, since Ana-Maria and Iancu think of themselves as spectralists, it would be a trifle daft of me to disagree with you. I am perfectly capable of daft, I'm sure you all know, but not quite _that_ daft.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

I really like all of what I heard from Dumitrescu, one of my favorite spectralists and electroacoustic composers.

Anyway, Galaxy, Etude granulaire , etc.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Some Guy, do you like Gordon Mumma's music? I had a chance to meet him last week at my school. He was giving a lecture but I caught him in the "backstage area" an hour before.


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## Guest (Nov 23, 2014)

I like Gordon's electroacoustic music very much. His _Hornpipe_ was a watershed work for me. It was way beyond my capacities to listen to when I first heard it, but I knew (or "knew") that this was the real thing, this was where music was going. Of course, even then I didn't really mean that literally, as I knew that music was going in all sorts of different directions. But _Hornpipe._ Wow. It still gives me chills to listen to that.

And the whole Sonic Arts Union thing. There's a splendid and, in spite of the scrappy sound, quite listenable boxed set of the Michigan years. It's called Music from the ONCE Festival. Highly recommended. Mumma, Reynolds, Oliveros, Behrman, Ashley, and several more. An amazing time and an amazing place for this particular part of the time to have happened.


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## Guest (Nov 23, 2014)

But I suppose I should continue with H, eh?

Especially as that means starting with Jonty Harrison, who uses a lot of unprocessed (or apparently unprocessed) sounds in his works. The combination of processed and unprocessed sounds is always interesting, I think. The sounds one hears as simply recorded but not manipulated in any way can alter how one listens to the sounds that are manipulated. And vise versa. Or so I've found.

My favorite Harrison album is the one with _...et ainsi de suite..._ and two other pieces, by two other composers, that play off of the Harrison piece, Horacio Vaggione's _Harrison Variations_ and Trevor Wishart's _Imago._ It's a great idea for an album, I think. [Edit: the album's name is ETC.]

That's not to say that I would want to be without _Articles indefinis_ (which also includes ...et ainsi de suite...) or _Environs,_ because I would not.

Next is Haswell & Hecker's _Blackest Ever Black,_ which I hesitate to include in a list of favorites because I haven't listened to it enough for it to be that. But I am listening to it now as I type this. This is all real-time recordings using the UPIC at CCMIX. I want to be there. Now.

Erdem Helvacioğlu, on the other hand, is definitely a favorite. Really rich and lovely music. _Altered Realities_ was my first and is still my favorite, though I must say that Erdem has not let down in any way over the years. An amazing talent.

Tim Hodgkinson. (See Iancu Dumitrescu, above.)

Andy Hosch, _Quelques sacres du printemps._ This is six recordings of Stravinsky's ballet played simultaneously. It's as outlandish as you might expect and strangely beautiful. The album also includes some electronic detritus from the mixing process, making up a track about the same length as the original. This is my favorite bit. Called _Ghosts of Spring,_ it has a vaguely Stravinskian flavor without ever really sounding at all like Stravinsky. Disorienting and fascinating. A lovely piece.

This is a multi-CD set with _The Messiaenic Organ,_ which mashes all seven hours of Messiaen's organ music down to one CD and a couple of other treats, Beethoven's 8 3/4 symphonies, Night in Tunisia, and Caravan. Frighteningly entertaining.

The interwebs refuses to accept that this is a thing, but if you want a copy, PM me, and I'll offer a suggestion for how to get it.

I'll work my way through the alphabet as I have time. Oh, it's fun. I have other things to do, too. No, really, I don't.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Iancu Dumitrescu's music for bass harmonics (that I heard) indicates that he is "tuned into the drone." I got this same sense from Francois Bayle. There is a tamboura in a pawn shop here in town, for $199. Perhaps I should do a lay-away on it, and give it to myself as a Christmas present.















These are the two I have...


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## Rapide (Oct 11, 2011)

Is electroacoustic music "classical music"? I think it's more a sub-category of composed music.


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## Guest (Nov 24, 2014)

I want that GRM disc, millions! Not yours, of course, but one just like it. Some of my very favorite people are GRM people.

But on to J, I being free of electrons. That is, of ones favored by myself. Ichyanagi is of course quite prominent, and he was admired by no less person than John Cage. So listen to him, why not?

I have numerous recordings by Philip Jeck, acquired in a burst of concentrated buying of music produced by reproductive technologies. Mostly turntable music, but by no means confined to that. _Songs for Europe_ is a particular favorite of mine, even though it's remarkably free of much of what attracted me to turntable music in the first place (which were the kinds of things Christian Marclay was doing in the 80s*).

On to one of my favorite people, regardless of all this flummery about music and such, Elsa Justel. I first met her while attending a Synthese festival in Bourges. (This was quite a handy way to meet people in electroacoustics. It's where I met Ferreyra and Dumitrescu as well, for instance.) Elsa is one of the many Argentine composers who spent a good deal of time in France. She has gone back to Argentina, where she is flourishing by all reports.

The album of hers I cherish is called simply _Mâts._ Elsa's music, at least the ten or fifteen year old pieces I know, is quite rich and resonant. Often very simple sounds but always resonant. Not often very complex, at least texturally, but that just allows you to revel in the richness of each sound in itself. Quite rewarding, all told.

Kagel, _Transiciòn II._ This is one of those mixed pieces that we were talking about on another thread. It's for piano and percussion and electronics. The percussionist's "drum" is the harp of the piano. This was one of my early favorites when I was first buying any LP that had the word "electronics" on it, the US practice at the time to use "electronic" as the umbrella term, a practice that tripped me up when I got back to Europe in the early aughts. I've also heard this piece live, twice, in two radically different performances.

Kagel wrote mostly acoustic music and stylistically he is all over the map. He is one of the more protean composers I know. Highly recommended.

I should stop here. I have a lot of work to do, work that might eventually bring in some money. You know. That stuff you exchange in stores for products. Because the next person up is someone I have adored since I first heard any of his music, whom I have seen live several times, one of those times being one of the two or three most shattering concerts I have ever attended. And since I have attended numerous concerts over the years, averaging around 150 to 200 a year in the past ten years, to be one of the two or three most shattering is quite the achievement.

Zbigniew Karkowski.

Anything. Truly. Any of the _World as Will_ series. Any of numerous other collaborations, with some of the more talented musicians alive. (His premature death about a year ago still hasn't sunk in completely.)

One and Many
Live at Waterland Kwanyin
Penetration
KHZ
/0
Disruptor
Unleash (with my erstwhile neighbor in Portland, Daniel Menche*)

Many more, including, sadly, many more that I do not have yet. I wish I could see him again.

Lots more good K's coming up, though.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Thumbs up Some Guy! I've just spent €240 on buying CD's with composers from this list that I did not have previously!

/ptr


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## Guest (Nov 24, 2014)

Wow! Are you ever in for a real treat!!

Two thumbs up.


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## scratchgolf (Nov 15, 2013)

I've based everything I know on the assumption that ptr had heard and owned 3 versions of everything! I need someone new to idolize here. some guy?


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

scratchgolf said:


> I've based everything I know on the assumption that ptr had heard and owned 3 versions of everything! I need someone new to idolize here. some guy?


By jove, it's high time that You got some better role model to kling to! (BTW, most of the music, like 75%, in my library, there's seldom ever been more then one "commercial" recording available!, What does that say about me other then that I'm an incurable hoarder? Obsessed music lover perhaps?)

/ptr


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

some guy said:


> I want that GRM disc, millions! Not yours, of course, but one just like it. Some of my very favorite people are GRM people.


Ah ha! I have something that someguy doesn't! I noticed the Amazon price on this is beyond ridiculous. I have several of these GRM's that I bought at the Austin Record Convention a few years back.


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## Guest (Nov 28, 2014)

More K's.

Donald Knaack.

I first knew about Knaack from an album of Cage percussion music. Knaack is also a pretty interesting composer, too, though, and _Dance Music_ is my favorite album of his. Actually, as far as I know, it's his only album. Lemme go to discogs and see about that.... I'll be right back. Ooooh. There's an LP from '83 with Peggy Knaack. Why why why did I get rid of my turntable?

Milan Knížák. A precursor to Christian Marclay. _Broken Music_ is the album. Broken up and reassembled LPs. Spectacular.

Paul Koonce, _Walkabout and back._ Sweet guy. Great music. This is the kind of thing that the Bourges festival (Synthese) existed for, and Paul was one of its stars. _Walkabout and back_ has four pieces, _Walkabout_ and three others.

Kotra. (Dmytro Fedorenko.) _Dissilient._ This was one of those albums that I just picked up because I could, knowing nothing at all about it. Much like most of the other albums on this list, come to think of it. _Dissilient_ is mind-alteringly gorgeous. Really harsh, sharp, bright electronic sounds. A lot of reverberant sounds too--there mainly to make the sharp ones sound even more sharp and distinct.

Well, there's lots more to K. Christine Kubisch, for instance. But I'd better get on to L or I'll never get through this. Why did I start this, again. Oh, right. Air. Who isn't even posting 'round here any more. Oh well.

L.

Jean-Françoise Laport, _Sound Matters._ Nice pun, eh? Five tracks that each start off very softly but which are each very different sound worlds. Kind of like that Bruckner guy, remember him? Very cool stuff. Laport's music has a lot of "natural" sounds--mechanical sounds, animal sounds, wind, and a piece that goes inside a brass instrument, probably a trumpet. Way inside.

Way cool.

Les sculpteurs de vinyl, _Memory & money._ Not sure this is in the right place. It's where I have it, in the L folder, not S. And it's a group, not a composer. But it's so much fun. And it is exactly what you would imagine from the name. That is from the Les sculpteurs de vinyl name.

Francisco López. Another giant, like Karkowski. Still alive, though. And prodigiously fecund. Plus he puts out a lot of albums. They're not all equally good, but I don't care. I like all of them. There's a fun, concept album called _Quartet for the End of Space,_ which has short pieces by López, Pauline Oliveros, and a couple of other guys.

And there's a five CD box on Kairos, surprisingly enough. (López is more a Staalplaat or Mego kinda guy.) It has some stuff that was out of print for awhile, so its appearance was not only surprising but quite welcome. And good on Kairos for doing a box set.

López is described as a minimal, electroacoustic composer, which is certainly true, but which probably gives the wrong idea. (In this case, for instance, minimal really does mean minimal and not "repetitious" or "phase." Very sparse, stripped down music, with long stretches of silence, some over twenty minutes long. And some superbly loud, and sudden, bits too. Another thing about this description is that it gives a very false idea that López's music sounds pretty much all the same. Pretty much it all sounds quite different.

Anyway, he's a real monster, and if you haven't heard any of his music, you should probably really give it a try. That Kairos box is a great place to start, I'd say. Probably be pretty easy to find. There's one on discogs right now for 24.10 euros. That's 4.82 per disc. Not too shabby. On the Kairos site, it's 25 euros. I'll let you do the math on that one. Should be pretty easy.

Alvin Lucier, _I am sitting in a room._ I had this in my car's disc player several years ago. My youngest son took the car into L.A. to do something. When he got back (to Redlands, where I lived for 24 years, for my sins), his eyes were huge: "Dad, what is that "sitting in a room" thing? I couldn't stop it. I must have played it four times. So I told him a little about it, Lucier recording his voice and then playing the recording back and recording that, over and over again, so that the voice gradually disappears and you have essentially just the resonant frequencies of the room. All well and good. But then he went to school and asked his music teacher if he knew about this piece. And he said, "Oh yes!! That was the defining piece for a whole generation of music lovers."

High praise indeed.

Well, I'll leave it there for awhile. There's an expat Thanksgiving dinner party coming up tomorrow and a Star Wars marathon on Sunday. (The original versions of the original three.) I'll check in from time to time, though.


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## Guest (Dec 2, 2014)

M.

Marchetti, Lionel. He has done fixed media works and has teamed up with many different people to do eai. My favorites of the latter are the things he has done with Jerome Noetinger, but the other things are also quite good. I just listened recently to _Double Wash,_ again, which also includes Voice Crack. Sweet album.

Marchetti, Walter. _Antibarbarus._ So hard to decide, as this Marchetti has done a lot of different things. But _Antibarbarus_ is the one I keep coming back to. Rich, saturated sounds and lots of silence (or nearly so).

Christian Marclay. Hard to know whether Marclay should count as "electroacoustic" or not. On the one hand, none of his work would have been possible without electricity. On the other hand, .... Wait. On the other hand, none of his work would have been possible without electricity. OK. It's my list. I guess I get to decide.

_Event,_ with Yasunao Tone and Christian Wolff. Mind exploding talent. Mind expanding music. Whatever. Something will happen to your mind if you listen to this.

Elio Martusciello. _Unoccupied Areas._ Obsessively listenable acousmatics. Some very funny snippets from 1950's ads and radio evangelists. And some gorgeously resonant sounds in which those snippets swirl around.

Francisco Meirino. I first knew him as Phroq, from a Ground Fault album called _Collapse._ His music explores the sounds electronic and electrical systems make when they're failing. My favorite of his is I believe the last album he put out before deciding to use his real name. That album is _Connections, Opportunities for Mistakes,_ which title sums up his aesthetic quite well.

Plus, it's a stunning album. Lots of really hard, sharp noises that sound equipment makes when it fails. Really good for your ears.

Daniel Menche. Portland, Oregon resident. I lived only a few blocks away from him when I lived in Portland and had a chance to hear several live shows of his (all of them after he had sworn never to play a live show in Portland again--lucky me!).

Lots and lots of cool albums. But I'll pick _Screaming Caress_ for this thread. Realistically, no album of his that I have bought has disappointed.

Merzbow. Seriously prolific. And quite impressively various as well. An enormous talent. As hard to choose just one as it is for López. So I won't. Two extremes can be represented by _1930_ and _Venereology._

Gordon Mumma. His _Hornpipe_ was one of my personal watershed pieces. I had it on a very thrashed LP of Sonic Arts Union pieces. _Hornpipe_ was the only one I could even partially understand or enjoy, but I knew that this stuff was the real stuff. In a way, _Hornpipe_ was my gateway piece into the contemporary music of the time. Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra was my introduction to twentieth century music generally. Mumma's _Hornpipe_ was my introduction to the hardest of hardcore avant-garde. And I mean that, you know, in the best way possible.


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## SeptimalTritone (Jul 7, 2014)

Nice lists some guy!

I'm really enjoying this: Alvin Lucier- Septet for Three Winds, Four Strings and Pure Wave Oscillator (1990)


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## Guest (Dec 2, 2014)

Yeah. Lucier, unfortunately, is known for one piece. And it is a doozy, but still. He has had a long and fruitful career since that piece, and as you have noticed, a career well worth attending to.

The _Music for piano with amplified sonorous vessels_ is also from 1990.


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## SilverSurfer (Sep 13, 2014)

some guy said:


> Yeah. Lucier, unfortunately, is known for one piece.


Hello, "algún tipo" , and congratulations for your list and your effort.

I would dare say that Lucier "became" known for that piece, and it's his most famous work, but there is plenty of music recorded for those who want to go further; for instance:


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

SeptimalTritone said:


> Nice lists some guy!
> 
> I'm really enjoying this: Alvin Lucier- Septet for Three Winds, Four Strings and Pure Wave Oscillator (1990)


Knowing you, I think you will greatly enjoy Lucier's Music for piano with amplified sonorous vessels.

Edit: oops, it seems some guy beat me to it two posts above. I can't compete with that living encyclopedia! I retire honorably and concede the victory!

Edit 2: not so fast! here's my counterattack right in the back! Scelsi - "Aitsi" for amplified piano


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

some guy said:


> Beatriz Ferreyra, _La Riviere des Oiseaux_ (1998-2000). This is a suite of three pieces, with some borrowing to make the whole thing seem like what it is, a whole thing. Very rich sounds and inventive.


I just noticed that she's from the city in which I live now!

This is pretty cool: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xn...ro-actif-la-gaite-lyrique-novembre-2011_music


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## SeptimalTritone (Jul 7, 2014)

Zbigniew Karkowski- Nerve Cell_0 (2012) for cello and electronics

Aaaahhhh so energizing!!!

You are totally right some guy: he really sticks out. It's terrible that he died so young (in his 50s!), depriving us of potentially 20-30 years of incredible music.

Who's his best student?


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## Guest (Dec 3, 2014)

I wish he had had students.

I know of none. I don't think he was a teacher kinda guy. Probably would have been a great one, in the "hands off, let people go their own way" tradition of teaching, anyway.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

SeptimalTritone said:


> Zbigniew Karkowski- Nerve Cell_0 (2012) for cello and electronics
> 
> Aaaahhhh so energizing!!!
> 
> ...


I'm usually not so high on the "noise" genre... I could hardly bear what I've heard from Merzbow. But this I like, a lot.


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## Guest (Dec 4, 2014)

aleazk, Beatriz and Christine have been doing eai for several years now. (They are both acousmatic composers as well. Beatriz was second generation GRM.) I finally got to hear one of their sets live this year, at the Centquatre festival in April. It was delightful. I think there's a video of that somewhere. Lemme see...

...yes. Four and half minutes of the one I saw. 




Vesuvius, much as I love Masami Akita, and I do, there's something special about Karkowski. I feel very lucky to have seen several of his shows. Really lovely music.

Anyway, N.

Nordheim (Polypoly, aka Lux et tenebrae) for old school; Neumann (anything) for new school; Normandeau for acousmatic; Nurse With Wound for genre-defying electronics.

And O. Dominated by Ostertag and Oswald, of course, though I have only ever liked _Getting a Head._ Oswald is best known for plunderphonics, but he's also a quite talented acousmatic composer. I have more of that than of his plunderphonics, which are quite fun, and you should get to know them.

Otherwise (which I just noticed starts with O), there's Niblock and Noetinger (whom I've mentioned in connection with Lionel Marchetti), whose _Dos d'ânes_ album is both his and my favorite, and there's Oliveros (protean) and Matthew Ostrowski, whose _Vertebra_ album was one of many dozens of albums I have purchased sound unheard,* and which I find a vastly entertaining mix of acousmatic and turntablism.

*Highly recommended as a strategy, if you like surprises, that is, and aren't too caught up in whether they are pleasant or unpleasant.

[EDIT: I just realized that I had skipped K.K. Null entirely, owing to not wanting to mention him in the K section (even though that's how I have him alphabetized) and then not thinking of him when I was in N. But yeah. K.K. Null. I couldn't find his set from the same Centquatre festival that Ferreyra and Groult played in this past April. But here's a few minutes of a long set from 2009: 




As for albums, I recommend all of them, of course, though if I had to choose, I might choose _Kosmik Engine._


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

some guy said:


> Vesuvius, much as I love Masami Akita, and I do, there's something special about Karkowski. I feel very lucky to have seen several of his shows. Really lovely music.


Maybe I've heard the wrong stuff from Merzbow. It's the on-going thick walls of loud static that I can't tolerate.

But yea, Karkowski is brilliant.


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## SeptimalTritone (Jul 7, 2014)

Vesuvius said:


> I'm usually not so high on the "noise" genre... I could hardly bear what I've heard from Merzbow. But this I like, a lot.


You might want to check out this much more subdued piece from Karkowski: Mutation for electronics (1999). Very simple and soft, but very expressive i.e. the stuff you would definitely like!

Edit: Oh I see you liked the earlier Karkowski. This one is even better


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

Vesuvius said:


> Maybe I've heard the wrong stuff from Merzbow. It's the on-going thick walls of loud static that I can't tolerate.
> 
> But yea, Karkowski is brilliant.


My favourite Merzbow record is _Flare Gun_, mainly because it's fairly short and to the point. For me there is often in Merzbow a sense of padding, that things are taking longer than necessary, I'm sure Masami Akita would disagree, but nonetheless I feel it. My second favourite is _Sleeper Awakes on the Edge of the Abyss_, which is closer to what some call "dark ambient", and presents some of his techniques in a dare I say more easily digested manner. There's also _Hybrid Noisebloom_, _Door Open at 8am_, _Venereology_, _Green Wheels_, and the ever popular _1930_ to consider. I think there is definitely, as in such composers as John Zorn, a serious quality control issue when it comes to Merzbow, but when he's on form he's great.

As an aside, Kazumoto Endo's magnificent _While You Were Out_ presents a more energetic and humorous kind of noise that I generally prefer to Merzbow.


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## Guest (Dec 7, 2014)

That was a fun listen, Crudblud. Thanks for that.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

I'm not sure if this qualifies but I thought it was fun to listen to and watch:


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## SeptimalTritone (Jul 7, 2014)

some guy said:


> Next is Haswell & Hecker's _Blackest Ever Black,_ which I hesitate to include in a list of favorites because I haven't listened to it enough for it to be that. But I am listening to it now as I type this. This is all real-time recordings using the UPIC at CCMIX. I want to be there. Now.


Haswell & Hecker- Movement 1 this is very good.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Crudblud said:


> Kazumoto Endo's magnificent _While You Were Out_ presents a more energetic and humorous kind of noise that I generally prefer to Merzbow.


That doesn't even exist on amazon. I wonder if you know where I can buy it?


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

science said:


> That doesn't even exist on amazon. I wonder if you know where I can buy it?


Discs like this are often released in very limited editions sold directly from the label, You can find info here: *Philosophy Shop* (Kant 008 released in 1999)

/ptr


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## Guest (Dec 8, 2014)

science said:


> That doesn't even exist on amazon. I wonder if you know where I can buy it?


Many of the things mentioned in this thread can be purchased at discogs, too.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Some guy, what do you think about Tim Hecker? I've really been getting into his output recently, and I think he's brilliant.

Virgins







Radio Amor







Ravedeath, 1972


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

some guy said:


> aleazk, Beatriz and Christine have been doing eai for several years now. (They are both acousmatic composers as well. Beatriz was second generation GRM.) I finally got to hear one of their sets live this year, at the Centquatre festival in April. It was delightful. I think there's a video of that somewhere. Lemme see...
> 
> ...yes. Four and half minutes of the one I saw.


Cool video, thanks. Too bad it's only a fragment, I would love to see it live.

I have been listening to her oldest pieces as well, e.g., Canto Del Loco.

She also has a soundcloud with some excerpts:

__
https://soundcloud.com/

Very cool composer.

----------------------------------------------

On an unrelated note, this Brümmer piece is very nice: CELLULARIUM


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

This guy lectured at the University I went to.

Andrew Lewis - Lexicon

Warning - Video contains flashing imagery.


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## Guest (Dec 9, 2014)

Vesuvius, I know of Tim Hecker, but I don't recall having heard any of his music.

Looks good, though. Looks really good.

I look forward to getting to know it.

MagneticGhost, I have Lewis' _Miroirs obscurs._ It's too recent an acquisition for me to have an opinion about it, but I'll give it a spin (as it were) as soon as Dvořák's _Requiem_ finishes.

On to P.

Of course Parmegiani. How could it not be? Hard to pick a favorite, but _La Création du monde,_ probably. Lovely guy, Bernard. I miss him.

And of course, Zeena! Yeah. Though her favorite album of mine is a collaboration with Elliott Sharp, so when I get to the esses, I'll cover that one.

Otherwise, P is crammed with good stuff, acoustic and electroacoustic both. I've recently gotten quite fond of Rosy Parlane's music, especially _Iris._ Lovely music.

And, even though it's cheating, my favorite Q is Israel Quellet's _Oppressum._ Why cheating? Because Israel is my _only_ Q.


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## SilverSurfer (Sep 13, 2014)

Discovering Michèle Bukanowski thanks to your warm recommendation during an also warm lunch, the beginning of her "Pour un pianiste" impressed me.


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## Guest (Dec 15, 2014)

Michèle Bokanowski is one of my all time favorites, for sure. As a composer and as a human being.

Also a big fan of warm lunches. That was great fun!

Anyway, on to R, why not? Soon I won't have to post any more at all, and I can settle down to listening to Tim Hecker and other suggestions. I hope there are more of those, too.

So Dick Raaijmakers heads that list alphabetically, obviously. And the choice here is easy: the three CD set of his music. All of his music, I think. Not sure. But there is something else worth mention, and that's the CD of reactions to the music of Dick Raaijmakers, with all sorts of people contributing. That's the title, too. _Reactions to the music of Dick Raaijmakers._ Esay to find on discogs.

Eliane Radique is not so easy. So many things. All different. All excellent. Interestingly enough, I did not like Radigue at first. In fact, she was one of the few composers that I decided I would probably never like, so I got rid of all my Radigue CDs at one point. Then I met Michèle Bokanowski, who admires Eliane no end. Well, the peer pressure was too great. So I got some more Radique and really listened. Michèle was right. And so my present dilemma. I suppose the 3" CD from the same series as the Bokanowski I first heard (Metamkine's _Cinéma pour l'oreille_) might qualify. _Biogenesis._ I look at all the other titles I have, though, and wonder. They're all so good. So compelling.

Guy Reibel is easier. The disc with _Granulations-Sillage_ and two other pieces.

Keith Rowe is easy, too, but only because of how I first heard _Dial: Log-Rhythm._ I was in my car around noon one day and clicking around on the radio. Yes. The radio. And one of those rowdy college stations was playing Rowe's album.

Wow.

The other stuff is great, too, though. I especially like his collaborations with Sachiko M, but everything he does is fine.

My pick for Ako Rozmann is _Dörr med tarar_ on one of those Fylkingen five composer CDs, _Second Coming._ Everything put out by Fylkingen is golden, though.


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## Guest (Dec 17, 2014)

Well, time for some esses, other than Stockhausen, though. This is the in addition to Stockhausen thread, after all.

However much I admire _Hymnen._ And I admire _Hymnen_ very much.

And that reminds me of a gross omission over in the pees. The two composers, Michael Gardiner and John Latartara, collaborated as "Parallel Lives." They put out a spectacular CD on Centaur called _Parallel Lives Conducts Beethoven's Hammerklavier._ This has disappeared from Amazon's ken, but you can still find it elsewhere. It's well worth searching for, the most worthwhile 34 minute CD I know of.

But on to S.

Sachiko M. When I was finally able to listen to and enjoy minimal music, Elaine Radigue may have been the first, but Sachiko M was my favorite. Her 3" CD called _1:2_ gets the most listens on my player, but as I mentioned before, her collaborations with Keith Rowe are also worthwhile. Sparse, spare, stripped down music to its most essential essentials and then pared down even further.

William Schottstaedt, _Dinosaur Music._ This is on one of that series that Wergo put out called Digital Music Digital. Sweet piece. One of my favorite openings. What am I saying? One of my favorite pieces.

As promised, Elliott Sharp and... Zeena Parkins (yay!) in _Psychoacoustics._ This was my first experience of either of these people. And a great experience it was. I got to meet Elliott recently in Ostrava. Great guy.

Alice Shields, _Coyote._ This originally came out on a CRI CD, when there still was a CRI. But I just found a mention of _Coyote_ on a CD that accompanies a book: _Le pioniere della musica elettronica._ That's easy to find as it came out in 2012. And it's only 20 euros. Anyway, it's a sweet piece. It's the scene from her electronic opera _Shaman_ in which the shaman turns into a coyote and then back into a shaman. And there are genuine coyote sounds. Lovely! This was my middle son's favorite piece when he was growing up.

Denis Smalley. Denis is one of those rare people that almost everyone admires. Everyone including (especially) other electroacoustic composers. Give his stuff a listen, and you'll hear why. _Névé_ is one of my favorites, but he's really so consistently good. Anything.

There's a lot more to S than that, but if I can just keep this to favorites, I can get through it and get my other work done, too.


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## Guest (Dec 21, 2014)

Tea time!

Apparently bad pun time, too. And time to feed my cat. I should do that first.

Martin Tétreault. Canadian turntablist. Possibly my favorite among a rather large group of very talented musicians. Another of those people who do lots of collaborations, so if you get any Tétreault albums, chances are you'll be getting others of my favorites.

Like the Tétreault & Yoshihide set--_grrr, tok, ahhh, and hmmm._ I bought this sound unheard and it instantly became one of my very favorite albums. Vastly entertaining tracks from several live shows in Geneva and Brest and Grenoble and Lyon, among other also very nice places. I have it as a four CD set, but you can probably get each CD for less than you can get the set. At least on discogs, which has the set for 50 euros but each CD for 7.50 each.

Doug Theriault. _Orange._ Many fine albums. _Orange_ is only my favorite is all. The others are great. And you can get some sweet downloads on Bandcamp. Doug is a lovely guy, too. Gave many cool shows in Portland when I was there.

David Tohir. _Angels Dancing in Virga._ Another good friend. Another desert island disc, for sure. This is the should be famous "backbone," a feedback device designed by Scott Vance, attached to a trombone, hence the name. Wild, uncontrolled (uncontrollable) noises. A real thrill ride.

Yasunao Tone. One of the giants of glitch. _Solo for wounded CD._ I read or saw an interview with him in which he said that he learned that he had to carry his own CD player with him because the newer ones could read even his grotesquely effed up CDs. The older players would very sweetly skip and jump, as necessary for making music with CDs. I have a Hecker and Tone CD, too, but it's the same Hecker as is on that _Blackest Ever Black_ CD I mentioned earlier. Florian. So Tim is yet in the future for me. The near future, as T is quite close to the end of the alphabet as we know it.

Barry Truax. Hard to choose. His _Riverrun_ is a classic. It is also the first piece to use granular synthesis. Or to have been made entirely with granular synthesis. But my favorite is _Wings of Nike._ Though it's hard to choose, did I mention? _Spirit Journies_ is also wonderful. Barry does acousmatic and soundscape both, and both equally well. He worked with R. Murray Schafer on _The Tuning of the World._

David Tudor. The David Tudor. Cage's right-hand man for many years. A wonderful composer himself of pieces and of installations. _Rainforest_ is the most famous of the latter. _Neural Synthesis_ is my favorite of the former. Obsessive and obsessively engaging music.


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

I would like to thank some guy and posters on this thread. I have just scratched the surface, but I am finding wonderful works of electroacoustic music.
Gordon Mumma's Live - Electronic Music (including Hornpipe) is very nice. Not electronic music, but I also found his piano works really beautiful. I like most of López's Kiros set, but some works are almost inaudible and I need to try them again in a better condition. Lucier's I am sitting in a room is famous but I had not heard it in full. It is amazing. Around the end, it almost sounds melodious. Also, other recommended works (Small Waves, Crossings) are great. It's a soothing experience to listen to Sachiko M's Detect (only her solo Album easily available.) Donaueschinger Musiktage 2005 SWR2 NOWJazz by Otomo Yoshihide, Sachiko M, Axel Dörner, and Martin Brandlmayr is a little more jazzy, due to trumpet and drums (although they are very quiet and sparse), and it feels so good.


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## SeptimalTritone (Jul 7, 2014)

Some guy: what do you think of Jean Claude Risset?

I think he's awesome! He hasn't written anything post-2000 though...

Anyways, I've been getting a lot of music from this excellent youtube channel, especially the music of Francis Dhomont.


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## Guest (Dec 28, 2014)

Thanks, torut! It's been fun. Some of López's works are inaudible, that is, some portions of some works by López are indeed silent.

Donaueschinger Musiktage is (are?) good fun. I went in 2008 or 09, I don't remember. It's a small town, but spread out. I missed a few concerts which were on the outskirts because it was just too far to walk there. It wasn't as exciting being there as the recordings are--the only festival I know for which that is true. (Well, it's true for me. I met some people there who had been attending faithfully for six or seven years already.)

Cool website, SeptimalTritone. Not one I knew about. Now I do, though. And glad about it, too.:tiphat: I like Jean-Claude a lot. I like his music, too. I don't know it as well as I should. Not well enough to do that favorite thing with it. But I like Jean-Claude, so that makes it easier to want to like his music. I don't have many recordings. I've enjoyed hearing his music in concert, though, over the years.

Anyway, no U for me, even though one of the giant pioneers is Ussachevsky. I just never liked his stuff enough for it to qualify as favorite. He is important, though. Someone to know, for sure. He and Luening teamed up often. I like that stuff more than either of them by themselves.

Varèse. Not really post-Stockhausen, though. But still. Varèse. Solid stuff. And the big things are from around the time of _Gesang der Jünglinge_ or later, so.... And I haven't really been paying much attention to the "post-" part of things, anyway.

So there's John Weise, of course. Has done a lot of stuff under the "band" name Sissy Spacek. My favorite of his is _Teenage Hallucination._ Consistently strong. Though I have to say, the inconsistencies of other albums is owing to John being a relentlessly exploratory artist. So consistent is maybe not the most positive thing to say about him. Inconsistent is a sign of strength is what I'm sayin'.

And then there's that Greek guy, you know who I mean. Bohor. Orient/Occident. Mycenae-Alpha. Polytope de Cluny. So much good stuff. And towering over all is _Persepolis._ I highly recommend the two-CD set with remixes, too. The original _Persepolis_ is a remastered version done by Zbigniew Karkowski and the remixes are by a bunch of wildly talented electronic musicians, including of course Karkowski.

Y and Z are next, and that's it for my favorites, though the thread can continue on of course, and I hope it does. Maybe even Air will come back and make a guest appearance in the grand old Hollywood tradition.


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

Blake said:


> Some guy, what do you think about Tim Hecker? I've really been getting into his output recently, and I think he's brilliant.
> 
> Virgins
> View attachment 58120


It's beautiful. I listened to _Virgins_ on Amazon Prime. Part of it reminded me of Reich (especially the pulsing figure of bass clarinet(?)), but of course it is not only that. Thank you for posting this.


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## Guest (Dec 31, 2014)

The first thing I'm planning to do after posting Y and Z is give Hecker a spin or two. I've got a lot of 2014 stuff to do before midnight, though. About two months worth of work.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

some guy said:


> The first thing I'm planning to do after posting Y and Z is give Hecker a spin or two. I've got a lot of 2014 stuff to do before midnight, though. About two months worth of work.


He's more on the atmospheric, textural, ambient side... but he incorporates many aspects of the electronic evolution. His albums really should be listened to as a whole piece in itself.


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## Guest (Jan 3, 2015)

Y.

Y?

Y not?

Ahem.

Randy Yau. The Hidden Tongue. Randy was the graphic artist for the Groundfault label, and this is his musical contribution to same.

It's splendid. Very nice and gritty.

Otomo Yoshihide. Another one of those "just get everything" kinda guys. But I'll try:

_21 Situations_ (with Martin Tetreault)

_Vinyl Tranquilizer_

_Trace Cuts_ (with Martin Tetreault)

_Time Magic City_ (with Busratch)

So much. Just get everything!

Lidia Zielinska, _Nobody is perfect._ For ensemble and tape. Very cool piece. Very cool person.

And that's it, folks!!


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