The first complete recording of Xenakis' string quartets, recorded in surround sound with full video.This body of work represents one of the most important contributions to music for strings of the post-World War II era.
The first new recording of Xenakis' first three quartets since 1994.
The only available recording of Xenakis' last quartet, 'Ergma', from 1994.
The first commercial release by the JACK Quartet, a young New York/Boston based group that has been garnering high praise for their performances of complex and challenging new music.The members of the quartet met while attending the Eastman School of Music, New York.The quartet has since studied closely with the Arditti Quartet, Kronos Quartet, Muir String Quartet, and members of the Ensemble Intercontemporain.
Liner notes by James Harley.
“ I would never have expected to see a crowd at a downtown nightclub erupting with whoops after performances of four hypercomplex, cutting-edge string quartets by Iannis Xenakis. But in this setting these dense and kinetic works came across to this open-minded audience as just more hip, wild, out-there contemporary music." The New York Times, Sunday, December 21, 2008
Awards Issue 2009
“…discs which feature this kind of contemporary repertory are so rare that the enterprise of Mode Records must still be highly commended. Xenakis's music for string quartet provides an enthralling demonstration of a radical thinker in sound engaging with a medium whose traditions and conventions he takes great delight in subverting... the performances of Tetora and Ergma are the most effective, the mixing in of shots of the musical score in the former adding to the rather mannered artificiality of the experience. The sound in itself is admirably vivid, the performances immensely confident.”
Click on any of the works listed above for alternative recordings.
