Bernard Parmegiani - (2008) L'Œuvre Musicale En 12xCD

 

 INA-GRM ‎– Ina G 6000/11

Part 1 / 2 / 3

An incredible complete works boxsetwith 33 compositions from 1964 to 2007 with a 92 pages booklet in French and English. The best way to enter into the world of Bernard Parmegiani, French composer of musique concrete, member of the GRM group.
"The Wire magazine recently described this amazing package as "A bargain price treasure chest....containing worlds of inexhaustible spaciousness and strangeness" and, indeed, listening through just some of the 12 cd's included you find yourself drawn into a multi-faceted world of strange sound sources and audio manipulations designed to play tricks on your senses to an extent that has left this reviewer almost paralysed with wonderment. Parmegiani started out working for the French equivalent of the BBC and soon found himself mentored by the founding father of Musique Concrete, Pierre Schaeffer. Making use of technological advances that gave the world magnetic tape and microphones, Schaeffer pioneered a method of taking everyday sounds and transforming them into unrecognisable, detached pieces of music with no identifiable sound source, a style that became known as Acousmatic music.

Parmegiani was hugely influenced by Schaeffer's pioneering work and Groupe de Recherche Musicale (GRM), the French Radio institution that is often described as the French equivalent of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. The work Parmegiani would go on to create would make use of these Acousmatic techniques in creating a body of work which is not only one of the most significant of the 20th century, but also hugely influential on a whole host of musical pioneers that would follow in his wake, with Christian Fennesz, Aphex Twin and Jim O'Rourke being notable disciples. These 12 cd's cover the majority of Parmegiani's musique concrete legacy and include pieces recorded between 1964 and 2007. You can barely believe the immersive and often woozy effect of these recordings, ranging from eerie cut-out tape loops through to popular music plunderphonics and proto-distilled-dub that's impossible to absorb in one sitting. Having so far only made it through half of this gargantuan collection (with the very handy aid of the 92 page book included in the package) - I can safely say that L' Ouvre Musicale is not only one of the most impressive and important collections of music I've heard this year, but also one of the most culturally significant and rewarding.