These realizations of two of Stockhausen's 'intuitive' compositions from the collection From the seven days were recorded in Paris in 1969, within little more than a year of the five days in May 1968 when the brief texts which provide the pieces' only score were dreamed up. All 15 compositions are about ''Verbindung''—connection, communication between the participating performers. But in thes recordings the communication is much more compelling in ''Setz die Segel zur Sonne'' than in ''Verbindung'' itself.
''Set Sail for the Sun'' has, as a title, a striking, alliterative resonance, and it is with resonance—loud, sustained, slow-moving sounds—that this collective improvisation gets under way. It is not difficult to associate this spectacular beginning with images of a launch into space, and although the quieter moments later on seem more desultory in comparison, the music never wholly loses the excitement, the sense of exploration, with which it starts: and the withdrawn, remote ending—receding into distant space—is particularly haunting. Only the frequent use of percussive ticks and thumps create a rather mundane effect—incongruously in such a context.
After this, ''Verbindung'' is disappointingly scrappy, never shaking off the burden of the electronic splutters and shudders with which it begins. The players evidently decided that a more austere mode of expression was called for, with connections more hinted at than fully acted out, and it all seems based on the principle that the less they play the better they can hear each other. There are a few moments of striking fantasy here and there, especially towards the end, but not enough to give the whole a really cogent character. Ther recordings themselves—not previously available in the UK—are good.'