# New to site and looking for Electric and Electro-Acoustic ensembles



## Soundlab (Feb 21, 2008)

This is my first thread on this site since I am brand new to it. I am not that old (early 20's). I actually got into classical music through progressive rock and ECM jazz. I have been a member of progacrhives.com and pick the progger's minds on there often for listening suggestions. Over the past year I have been listening to more and more modern classical music to the point where thats all that I'm listening to. I don't know if it is my new tastes or my music studies in general, but I am finding progressive rock lacking. I am a huge fan of Varese, Cowell, Bartok, and Ives and the only prog band with any sort of musical leanings for these composers is Henry Cow. I appreciate Henry Cow's experimental chamber improvisation, but I find them completely lacking in things like theme development and harmonic sophistication--things that I've come to greatly admire in classical music.

I could just listen to these composers and be done with it, but I love electric and electro-acoustic sound. I'm a sucker for analog synthesizers, electric instruments, pedal effects ect. The idea of an ensemble orchestrating through electric means is always intriguing to me. But I am also NOT a fan of digital "soundscape" music. Some may like it, but I find it musak and minimalist tripe. So those are my tastes. I was wondering if anyone who is a more experienced classical listener direct me to an electric or electro-acoustic ensemble that performs or draws from any of the above mentioned composers. I figure that Henry Cow and the like are rock groups with modern classical leanings, so there must be modern classical ensembles with a Henry Cow aesthetic. 

I thank you in advance for any suggestions.


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## BuddhaBandit (Dec 31, 2007)

Check out the Ensemble Modern... while not technically electronic, they do some fairly experimental classical works (including a recording of Frank Zappa's orchestral works, called The Yellow Shark).

The Kronos Quartet, as well, tends to devote much of its time to modern works... you might want to check them out.


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## Guest (Feb 22, 2008)

Soundlab said:


> I am a huge fan of Varese, Cowell, Bartok, and Ives and the only prog band with any sort of musical leanings for these composers is Henry Cow. I appreciate Henry Cow's experimental chamber improvisation, but I find them completely lacking in things like theme development and harmonic sophistication--things that I've come to greatly admire in classical music.
> 
> I was wondering if anyone who is a more experienced classical listener direct me to an electric or electro-acoustic ensemble that performs or draws from any of the above mentioned composers. I figure that Henry Cow and the like are rock groups with modern classical leanings, so there must be modern classical ensembles with a Henry Cow aesthetic.
> 
> I thank you in advance for any suggestions.


Welcome, Soundlab. There are a lot of people who play live electronics together, a la Henry Cow. In fact, the Henry Cow members do a lot of work just as themselves and with other people. Tim, for instance, works a lot nowadays with the Hyperion Ensemble (the original one, founded by and still directed by Iancu Dumitrescu.) Things like theme development and harmonic sophistication are not quite the thing with most improv/live electronics groups, though. So perhaps you'll be served well by the composed musics of Dumitrescu and Avram and Hodgkinson.

And perhaps you'd get more of what you want from just straight electroacoustic music, just because the "ensembles" do tend to be improvisatory in nature. Quick and easy sources for that are the Canadian label _emprientes DIGITALes_ and the French label _Metamkine_ and the German label _Cybele._

Not sure you're going to find anything along the lines of an electronic ensemble that plays or draws from your list of favorites. But there's plenty of fine other stuff out there. And perhaps you'll find that your tastes start to include the "soundscape" folks and the many other ensembles out there. Crawling with Tarts is always fun, though nothing to do with that "theme development" criterion. Maybe the Centaur recording of Parallel Lives doing ("doing") Beethoven's Hammerklavier would suit you, though. Hard to say. It's a lot of fun, I can say that! (Try to find it used. It's a full-priced disc with only 38 minutes of music on it. Once you have it, you will NOT regret whatever you paid for it, I'd guess, but still....)


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## Soundlab (Feb 21, 2008)

Yeah...I definatly prefer composed pieces. Improv and experiemental techniques are great if there part of a larger orchestration. I'm looking for electric (synthesizers presumably) orchestration wrapped around an organic, textured core of real (electric and/or acoustic) instruments and percussion.


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