alfred schnittke/edison denisov/sofia gubaidulina/oleg buloshkin/edward artemiev: musical offering

Modern Silence present a reissue of Musical Offering, originally released in 1990. Features works by Oleg Buloshkin, Sofia Gubaidulina, Edward Artemiev, Edison Denisov and Alfred Schnittke. From the original liner notes: "(...) Please, try to imagine a score sounding by itself without a conductor, an orchestra even without musical instruments. This magic is possible by using the musical synthesizer, ANS. ANS is an instrument with which a composer can not only create but even draw his music without notes and orchestra. A Soviet scientist Evgeny Murzin spent about 20 years creating this apparatus which can join together three processes: music creation, recording and performing. All these processes are rather complicated. You can see the twinkling of different lamps, the rotation of grooved discs made of glass - notes are cut on a glass disc covered with a special layer; The drawings on the glass are 'sounding notes'. To listen to the drawn picture you should press the button and a wonderful transformation will begin. Murzin dedicated his apparatus to Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin, that's why he called it ANS. Scriabin, the creator of the 'Poem of Ecstasy', used in his works a highly chromatic, new type of harmonic style designed to express his beliefs, views and wishes. Soviet music lovers already know some recordings made on ANS from the films Into Space, Solaris (1972), Mirror (1975), Siberiade (1979) and others. Works of well-known Soviet composers E. Artemiev, O. Buloshkin, E. Denisov, S. Gubaidulina, A. Schnittke featured on this LP were recorded at the Electronic Music Studio (...)"