Philippe Manoury: The Book of Keyboards

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For its third release on the New Focus label, the Chicago-based ensemble Third Coast Percussion presents works by the French composer Philippe Manoury in an album of intriguing tone color studies called The Book of Keyboards. The group employs instruments that range from the conventional vibraphone and marimbas to the more exotic Thai gongs and the Sixxen, a collection of microtonally-tuned keyboard instruments devised by Iannis Xenakis. Manoury is best known for his work in electronic music, both as a composer and researcher at IRCAM, and some of his compositions owe their textures and effects to electronic music, though for this CD, Third Coast Percussion plays only acoustic instruments. To some extent, the six movements of Le Livre des Claviers and the stand-alone piece Métal evoke the virtuosic percussion sextet Pléïades by Xenakis, though Manoury’s timbral palette also incorporates bell-like effects reminiscent of Indonesian gamelan. The performances have a hypnotic quality, and Third Coast Percussion delivers plenty of atmosphere, though the ensemble’s playing is clearly well-rehearsed and precise, and the players’ subtlety is evident in their graded dynamics and the variety of their attacks, which are cleanly reproduced in the recording made at Northern Illinois University Recital Hall.
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