London Sinfonietta – Warp Works & Twentieth Century Masters (Warp/Inertia)

When Aphex Twin released Selected Ambient Works Vol 2 back in the early 90s the press were making references to the apparent influence of Cage and Stockhausen – in part to canon-ise and ‘approve’. Aphex later had a brief collaboration with Phllip Glass, and last year New York’s Alarm Will Sound released an album of orchestral ‘covers’ of Aphex Twin’s more recent work. In 2003 and 2004 the London Sinfonietta played a trilogy of concerts in which they reinterpreted several Aphex Twin and Squarepusher tracks and performed them alonsgide modern compositions from Cage, Reich, Stockhausen, Varese, Ligeti, and others. These composers were working with many of the sonic ideas popularised in the 90s through ‘electronica’ many many decades earlier. The Sinfonietta is already known for their support of ‘difficult’s 20th century classical works – critical as so many orchestras continue to trot out the well known ‘classics’ from centuries long gone – ignoring the more difficult, dissonant and often abstract works from more recent times, and in so doing lending weight to the destructive argument that orchestras are outdated and outmoded. This double cd recording cherrypicks the three concerts and presents a selection of fantastically rich live recordings. Up against the ‘heavyweights’ the Aphex and Squarepusher pieces don’t always hold their own, although Kenneth Hesketh’s arrangement of Polygon Window is a suitably rousing closer. Indeed, this double album is best as a great introduction to the often hard to enter world of 20th century classical music. Highly recommended.