Sound Art@het Apolllohuis

Various performers Wergo WER 2069 2 (2 CDs)***

The Apollohuis in Eindhoven in the Netherlands, an all-embracing arts centre, presented more than 500 concerts in the final two decades of the 20th century. This new Wergo set collects 24 performances given there and brands them as "sound art", a description that doesn't even get an entry of its own in Grove's Dictionary. The experiments documented here range from Judy Dunaway's concert for balloons to Jaap Blonk's sound poetry and Petr Kotik on solo flute (sounding like an odd man out in this company). There's also a range of electronic and computer set-ups to works by composers known to Irish audiences through the concerts of the Crash Ensemble – Phill Niblock, Arnold Dreyblatt and Michael Gordon (a crazy re-working of Schubert's Erlkönig). The accompanying 76-page booklet provides useful documentation and photos. See wergo.de