HALIM EL-DABH
HALIM EL-DABH
"CROSSING INTO THE ELECTRIC MAGNETIC"
Without Fear Recordings
The release of this album is a true event. Electronic composer Halim El-Dabh, a pioneer among pioneers and a giant of the musical avantgarde far longer than the creativity of many composers tends to last, shows his talent with a CD brimming with amazing sounds, constructions and atmospheres. This album gathers a collection of pieces recorded from 1944 to 1974. Quite of them were recorded in 1959 at the legendary Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, where many of the fundamental concepts of electronic music were being shaped. The astounding "Wire Recorder Piece" was recorded in 1944. Halim El-Dabh opened with this ghostly piece a door towards an unexplored sonic region: the electronic universe. Using wire recorders as a tool to compose music, he was able to create a peculiar world, with eerie yet wondrous landscapes, as well as zones of anguish and darkness. In pieces such as, for instance "Venice" (1961) and "Pirouette" (1974), we can listen to the almost impressionist work of Halim with the audio-art and the sound collage. "Leyla Visitations" is an experimental opera, full of complex sonic architectures. In "Electronic Fanfare", Halim had the collaboration of Otto Luening. In all, this is an imaginative album of electronic experimental music, with the philosophy of exploring new sonic continents. Besides its artistic value, this CD also has an unarguable importance as a firsthand sound witness in the history of electronic music. Born in Egypt in 1921, El-Dabh came to the United States in 1950, acquiring U.S. citizenship in 1961. He began to serve on the faculty of U.S. Kent State University's Hugh A. Glauser School of Music in 1969. He has received numerous awards and grants. His music has been featured everywhere from prestigious cathedrals and recital halls to the Giza Pyramids (his music for the Giza Pyramids is still performed there on a daily basis); from major record labels to the background of a James Bond film.
JORGE MUNNSHE
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