The Budapest Music Center’s coverage of Peter Eötvös continues with this disc of electro-acoustic pieces mainly from the early 1970s. As the composer himself sees it, the distinction between musical ‘construction’ and ‘improvisation’ becomes blurred at the hands of a responsive interpreter – of relevance when the music is situated, as here, near that boundary line in the first instance.

Music for New York synthesizes, literally and conceptually, the improvising of zither and hurdy-gurdy – to which, 30 years on, saxophone and bodhrán (single-headed frame drum) contribute further layers of improvised material. It adds up to a vibrant, multi-layered texture – redolent more of electronic-jazz experiments à la Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis than the collective improvisations of Stockhausen, with whom Eötvös worked extensively at the time. A ‘sound-play’ based on Samuel Beckett’s Embers, ‘Now, Miss!’ has violin and electric organ – again transformed by synthesizer – simulate the dialogue of characters on a beach, against which the sound of waves functions as an ambient backdrop. Evocative, but not so intriguing as Electrochronicle – eight studies, created at sessions during June 1974,in which two electric organs are transformedin a way that recalls the No Pussyfooting process-pieces of Robert Fripp and Brian Eno. Curious how such connections are suddenly made apparent after three decades.

Dating from as recently as 1993, Dervish Dance opens out the implicit harmony of a solo clarinet into a plangent, threefold image of itself. It rounds off a fascinating insight into Eötvös at his most experimental, though with a sensitivity towards sound and its transformation that has been carried through to his impressive concert works of the past decade. Brief butinformative notes from the composer complete a release that admirers of Eötvös and electronic music in general will need to acquire.