Album Review
The release of The Conet Project in 2000 triggered renewed interest in avant-garde composers and sound artists for shortwave radio and the mystery of number stations. Here, Yannis Kyriakides turns in one of the best works to have appeared in the wake of The Conet Project, "A ConSPIracy Cantata." Written for two alto voices (Ayelet Harpaz and Stephie Büttrich), piano (Marion von Tilzer), radio (via samples taken from the Conet disc), and electronics (Kyriakides), the six-part cantata draws from two forms of cryptic communication: the number stations (which transmitted coded information to spies) and the Delphic oracle, the undecipherable messages of divination of the Pythia in ancient Greece. The two singers turn these messages into strange, haunting melodies over stylized piano insertions and gripping electronic textures. The piece allies the formalism of contemporary music and the grittier, experimental feel of modern sound art. The result is spellbinding and unique. The album is rounded up by two extra 15-minute pieces. In "hYDAtorizon," four small loudspeakers emitting sine waves are placed inside a grand piano. The pianist occasionally strikes single notes to interact with the harmonic field. In "tetTIX," Ayelet Harpaz calls out a soulful, wordless song with Greek folk inflections, while a drum machine mimics the mating calls of insects. A very strange idea to start with, the piece has its moments, but it doesn't match the beauty of what came before it. ~ François Couture, All Music Guide
