Earle Brown Contemporary Sound Series Vol 4 Wergo WER 6937 2 (3 CDs)****

American composer Earle Brown (1926-2002) masterminded a series of 18 LPs of contemporary music in the 1960s and 1970s, documenting the work of avant-garde composers, famous and obscure, many of whom made their first appearance on disc through the series. Wergo is reissuing the recordings in six three-CD sets, the fourth of which includes works by Boulez ( Livre pour quatuor), Xenakis ( Achorripsis), Scelsi (Fourth Quartet), Aldo Clementi ( Triplum) and Bo Nilsson ( Szene IIIand Frequenzen), among others. The sets provide an invaluable record of how the challenging music of the time was presented when it was new, with the musicians approaching it with more concern for edginess and rather less freedom than players might choose now. It's a time machine experience, offering transport back to a time when rebarbativeness was more fashionable than it is now. wergo.de