ANTHONY BRAXTON - 4 Compositions (Ulrichsberg) 2005 Phonomanie VIII (2006) 4CD SET | FLAC (tracks), lossless

Anthony Braxton celebrated his 60th birthday on June 4, 2005. Two weeks earlier, he was in Victoriaville playing three concerts, including an impromptu set with the harsh noise group Wolf Eyes -- all three performances have been recorded and released by Disques Victo as three separate CDs. Two weeks after blowing out his 60 candles, he was in Ulrichsberg, Austria, for a weeklong residency that culminated in four performances, also recorded and released, this time as a four-CD set on Leo Records. And just like in Victoriaville, Braxton kept it all about new, uncharted, daring music, without an iota of nostalgia. Disc one features "Composition 301" for solo piano, performed by Genevieve Foccroulle. It is an unusual venture for Braxton, with unusual results. The 35-minute piece offers plenty of puzzling structural and melodic ideas, but it sounds less immediately "Braxton" than what listeners are used to. The marks of John Cage, Charles Ives, and Witold Lutoslawski are more obvious here than anywhere else in his oeuvre. In his liner notes, Braxton says that there are 11 solo piano pieces at this time and that Foccroulle is working on a complete piano music recording. Maybe this project will provide an enhanced context for "Composition 301." Disc three is one of the very first recordings documenting Braxton's Diamond Curtain Wall Music, i.e., his experiments with live electronics. "Composition 323a" features the saxophonist with trumpeter Taylor Ho Bynum and percussionist Aaron Siegel in an engaging performance. The electronics are rather discreet, enhancing the master's sound palette without denaturalizing it, and the interplay is intense while leaving room for silence. Discs two and four present two hourlong works performed by the Ulrichsberg Tri-Centric Ensemble, a 14-piece orchestra of Austrian musicians with diverse backgrounds. It is "Tri-Centric" because of its three-headed conductorship: Braxton acts as "origin conductor," Bynum is the "synchronous conductor," and Siegel is the "polarity conductor." Conductors and section leaders are free to change course during the piece, creating strange kaleidoscopes that somehow always retain their cohesion. The two pieces performed are radical rearrangements of previously documented works ("Composition 96" and "Composition 169"). Following the various paths taken by everyone involved is a dizzying experience. Braxton's music tends to have a stronger impact when played by smaller groups than this one, but these two performances are worthy of your time. Due to the widely different instrumentations featured in this set, some people would probably wish for separate releases. In fact, if the complete piano recordings do happen, this quadruple set could have been broken down into a two-CD set for the Tri-Centric Ensemble recordings and a single CD for the Diamond Curtain Wall Music trio. François Couture  
Tracklist :
1-1    Genevieve Foccroulle–    Composition 301    34:53
2-1    The Ulrichsberg Tri-Centric Ensemble–    Compositions No. 96 + 134    56:05
3-1    Anthony Braxton, Taylor Ho Bynum, Aaron Siegel–    Composition 323a    47:20
4-1    The Ulrichsberg Tri-Centric Ensemble–    Compositions No. 169 + 147    1:04:54
All Credits

ANTHONY BRAXTON : Piano Music (1968 — 2000) (Geneviève Foccroulle) 9CD SET (2008) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Anthony Braxton's solo piano music represents only a fraction of his oeuvre: ten compositions out of over 360 upon writing this review. It could be argued that they played a crucial role in his development as a composer (and indeed, they seem to have acted as catalysts in pivotal moments), that they represent unique approaches to the instrument, or that they have high historical value (simply consider the fact that Braxton saw fit to bestow his first opus number upon a piano composition). Nevertheless, in the end, his piano music constitutes a fringe corpus, and will be of interest only to the completist, the academic, or very courageous pianists. That being said, Piano Music 1968-2000 offers a great look at the man's solo piano works, updating Hildegard Kleeb's 1996 four-CD set (Piano Music 1 & 2 (1968-1988)) in more ways than one. Belgian pianist Geneviève Foccroulle had already recorded "Composition No. 301" at Phonomanie VIII (released by Leo Records on the four-CD set Four Compositions (Ulrichsberg) 2005). Her approach to Braxton's music is expansive, most pieces reaching new durations in her interpretations. On this nine-CD box set, she tackles all the pieces previously recorded by Kleeb (minus "Composition No. 16 for Four Pianos"), reinstates "Composition No. 31" omitted by the Swiss pianist, and adds "Composition No. 171," "Composition No. 301" (in a different recording), and the hour-long "The Trip." One of the set's highlights, the latter piece picks up on an idea Braxton had written down on the scores of Nos. 30, 31, 32, and 33: that they should be performed together, used as building blocks. These four pieces (Braxton's only true piano music cycle) consist of through-written ideas and fragments whose organization is left to the performer. The resulting "Trip" is a slow-paced, elegant waltz through an intimate, expansive universe seldom heard from Braxton. Another highlight is "Composition No. 171," originally for pianist, 1/4 prompters, four actors, and constructed environment, here all performed by Foccroulle. Split over two discs, this two-hour piece is another trip of sorts: Forest Ranger Crumpton is giving a press conference to explain the new paths and routes he has designed for travelers and tourists through the region. The libretto, entirely spoken by Foccroulle (in a French accent not always soothing to English ears), is actually a commentary on the music being played, with sentences like "The vacationing traveler is advised to follow the principle routes trajectories in the northern sector of the county -- that being routes 33a, 33f, 52, 55 and the crossing at path 40n, and 99a" mapping trajectories through Braxton's own canon of numbered opuses. Humorous and entertaining for the enlightened, hopelessly hermetic for others, this piece is nothing short of a tour de force. And a booklet containing the complete libretto and performance notes is included. The box also includes liner notes by Stuart Broomer, alongside interviews with Braxton and Foccroulle. François Couture  
Tracklist :
1-1    Composition N. 1    9:15
1-2    Composition N. 5    8:01
1-3    Composition N. 10    17:12
1-4    Composition N. 139    15:02
2-1    Composition N. 30    48:43
3-1    Composition N. 31    36:06
4-1    Composition N. 32 (Version 1)    37:10
4-2    Composition N. 301    38:02
5-1    Composition N. 32 (Version 2)    38:36
6-1    Composition N. 33    42:04
7-1    Composition N. 171 (Part 1A)    1:11:23
8-1    Composition N. 171 (Part 1B)    19:05
8-2    Press Conference    2:15
8-3    Composition N. 171 (Part 2)    25:30
9-1    The Trip    1:00:16
Credits :
Music By – Anthony Braxton
Piano – Geneviève Foccroulle
Producer [Recording Produced By] – Anthony Braxton