Album: Viktor Ekimovsky, The Mirror of Avicenna (Wergo)

A leading light of the Russian avant-garde, Viktor Ekimovsky believes that each new work should be new in every respect, rather than reflect linear developments in a composer's method.

Hence there is no Ekimovsky "style" as such, which makes this collection of five pieces a wild ride, switching from the brittle, Partchian percussion of "27 Destructions" to the creative ferment of "The Mirror of Avicenna". Else-where, the gentle, muted gamelan of metal, skin and wooden timbres that is "The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin" contrasts markedly with the cacophonous, blaring turbulence of "Symphonic Dances", with its sharp piano clusters clanging against waves of brass and shrill strings

DOWNLOAD THIS: Symphonic Dances; The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin