Nowadays, Les Percussions de Strasbourg are considered one of the best-known and most important percussion ensembles in the field of new music. The ensemble was founded in 1961 following a proposal by Pierre Boulez, and in its original form consisted of three percussionists from the Orchestre de Radio Strasbourg and three from the Orchestre Municipal de Strasbourg. During its over 40 years of existence, the Ensemble has coped with numerous changes in formation, yet has always retained its prominent ranking, thanks to the creativity of its artistry and the quality of its ensemble-playing. The percussionists have given the premiere of numerous compositions, amongst which Kryptogramma by Aperghis, which is included in this recording. During the course of its lengthy and much-awarded concert and recording career, Les Percussions de Strasbourg have travelled throughout numerous countries, from which they have returned with an enormous amount of ìexoticî instruments. The six instrumentalists now play more than 400 (!) different percussion instruments. By the time they celebrated their 25th anniversary in 1987, their repertoire already consisted of 150 works; they had performed for about one million concert-goers; and furthermore, they had collected 30 international prizes and completed 21 recordings. Three of the compositions compiled in this RQR-CD have been taken from a recording entitled ìEast Meets Westî from the Philips series ìprospective 21e siecleî: Alain Louvierís «andrak‚la and Shima, as well as Georges Aperghisí Kryptogramma. The programme is completed by Francis Miroglioís Extensions 2. Francis Miroglio was born in 1924 and studied composition under Darius Milhaud at the Paris Conservatoire. Between 1959 and 1965, his works were permanently on the repertoire of the ìDarmstadt Ferienkurse für neue Musikî (= Darmstadt summer new music courses). Miroglio has never been a strict serialist. A fundamental aspect of his music is mobility, i.e. it utilizes a more adaptable sound-language than permitted by strictly serial music. In this respect, the so-called ìformes mobilesî came about during the 1960s. However, this musical mobility would have degenerated into simple exercises, had it not always contained a sense of formal dramaturgy and pure sound scenarios. His Extensions 2 for percussion ensemble was originally written for the ìFestival díopéra contemporainî, commissioned by the city of Marseille from its son, Miroglio. Alain Louvier was born in Paris in 1945 and studied there at the Conservatoire, where his teachers included Olivier Messiaen. In 1966, he won the Prix de la Fondation de la Vocation, and in 1968, he went on to win the Prix de Rome. His distinctive understanding of mathematics is also reflected in his music, which translates into sound number sequences, algebraic graphs and geometrical figures. Louvier is especially interested in the development of the keyboard. Furthermore, in some of his pieces, Louvier uses the human body as a sound source in a dialogue with the instrument. The composer described «andrak‚la and Shima as follows: ìBoth works are based on Hindu rhythms. «andrak‚la means ëthe beauty of the mooní. This rhythm consists of three crotchets (the earth), three dotted crotchets (the sun) and a solitary quaver (the moon) ñ in this way, the astronomical relationships are, at least, qualitatively evoked. The composition follows this principle in a highly precise fashion, each of the seven sections ñ Earth 1, 2 & 3, Sun 1, 2 & 3 and Moon ñ is structured as described above. Only metal percussion instruments can be heard and the sound should never be allowed to die away ñ from the opening cow-bells up to the last notes sounding. Shima means ëthe lioní and also ëShiva, the goddessí. The work contains six different rhythms, which ñ like «andrak‚la, by the way ñ are derived from a discourse by the Hindu theoretician «arngadeva, in which Shima appears. This is a kind of poem, which demonstrates the various aspects of the lion. The five movements, which are separated very clearly one from another, are: ëThe Lion Awakesí, ëPlayingí, ëIts powerí, ëThe Young Playingí and ëThe Lion Resting in the Savannahí.î Georges Aperghis, who was also born in 1945 (in Athens), began his studies of percussion and conducting in Paris in 1963. In 1975, he founded the Association Thea‚tre et Musique (ATEM), which he planned to use to bring about his idea of experimental theatre based on audience participation. He wrote a number of important works for stage and music theatre, and reflected ìa poly-aesthetically oriented appreciation of the world and the anti-conformist/experimental spirit of the 1960sî. Aperghis describes his composition Kryptogramma as follows: ìEvery cryptogram conceals a text or number sequence, behind which information is hidden. This work, which I wrote in 1970 for Les Percussions de Strasbourg, is in fact constructed from rhythms borrowed from classical masterpieces and then codified in such a manner as to render them indecipherable. At first, a certain number of simple rhythms are presented: on the one hand, they are developed in a tapestry of soaring movements, and, on the other hand, they are subjected to a mass of variation. Then the work develops in accordance with the relationship between the intervals and rhythms, by means of a series of variations (either continuous or interrupted), which once again are derived from the soaring movements.î