guy reibel: douze inventions en six modes de jeu

Karlrecords kicks off its Perihel series with previously unreleased material by GRM member Guy Reibel, one of the most enigmatic figures of the 20th century's electronic avant-garde. 180-gram LP including download code and insert with liner notes by Reinhold Friedl (zeitkratzer). Limited edition of 500 copies. Guy Reibel (born 1936) started out with a double qualification; he first became an engineer and then studied composition in Paris with Olivier Messiaen, teacher of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis, François Bayle, to name just a few. Pierre Schaeffer, the director of the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM), soon offered him a chance to edit and work out the famous 1967 Solfège de L'Objet Sonore three-LP box (the practical part of his theoretical manifest Traité des objets musicaux), and to codirect the class for electroacoustic music at the National Music Conservatory. During that period Reibel worked intensively in the studios of the GRM. Not only did he compose some milestones of electronic music, he also developed a very music-based theory of electronic music, implementing ideas of musical gesture and game theory -- in the '60s, long before anyone else discussed those issues. Conflicts with other members of the GRM led to Reibel's departure from the group (though he had been considered Schaeffer's successor as director), and Reibel toured the world as conductor of his newly-founded Groupe Vocale de France (who realized the first recordings of Ligeti's choir work) and took over a director's position at Radio France. Meanwhile, his electronic music almost disappeared (there were only two or three LPs available on the early GRM series, later just one CD). Douze inventions en six modes de jeu, one of the reference pieces for many younger composers, was digitized at the GRM studios in December 2014. It's a milestone in electronic music and a perfect example of Reibel's musical austerity, in which defined, limited musical material results in concentrated and dense forms. The unusually vital character of the music is also due to Reibel's use of hybrid sound production; he often combined amplitude envelopes of acoustic sounds and noises (especially of polysteron) with synthetic electronic sounds. A few of the pieces are even played at least partly live. This album documents how Guy Reibel succeeded at composing a music that combines the density and purity of electronic music with an unbelievably sensuous sound. A real listening experience, here released for the very first time.