Second instalment of this fascinating series that collects ‘stray’ short tracks from the GRM Vaults: this one concentrates on early pre-1976 works from four composers who went on to blaze singular trails. Denis Smalley is probably best known for his amazing 1979 recording The Pulses Of Time and he is represented here by 1974’s “Pentes” a beautiful piece of widescreen drone based around the sound of the Northumbrian Pipes. Dominique Guiot’s 1974 recording “L’oiseau de Paradis” presents a series of dramatic soundscapes scored as if they were a screenplay, Pierre Boeswillwald’s 1971 “Nuisances” is an eerie noise/drone work that uses ‘pollutants’ or ‘nuisances’ while Rodolfo Caesar’s “Les Deux Saisons” from 1975-76 is an improvisation using glass organ and a frequency modulation device. 

Intense collection of GRM works from the composer Iannis Xenakis recorded 1958-1962: this one features “Concrete PH”, a piece of ‘architectural music’ recorded for the 1958 Brussels World Fair and designed to be played back through 400 speakers and fill the room ala Blue Cheer... “Orient-Occident” is an endlessly mutating work scored for a film by Enrico Fulchignoni for UNESCO, “Diamorphoses” is from 1957/58 while the version of “Bohor” here comes from a previously unissued 1968 rendering of Xenakis’s epic work dedicated to Pierre Schaeffer. 

Amazing series of ‘Presque Rien’ work – ‘almost nothing’ minimalist pieces – from the composer Luc Ferrari: “Presque Rien #1” remains one of his most hallucinatory and profoundly affecting works, a re-edited recording taken from a day of field recordings, of a “fishing village waking up”. “Presque Rien #2” is just as amazing, an attempt to “psychologise” night via field recordings of night-time. “Presque Rien Avec Filles” is another particularly hallucinatory work where “within paradoxical landscapes, a photographer/composer is hidden whilst girls are having a sort of picnic on the grass. Without being aware of it, they offer him the spectacle of their intimacy.” Finally, “Presque Rien #4”, a Presque Rien ‘fake’ that evokes “the ascent into the old town of Ventimiglia”. A stunning set, profoundly affecting, and possibly the best GRM instalment to date. Highly recommended.