For the last few years I've been dipping into various of the Pierre Henry Philips box-sets. I have to say, whoever suggests that the more recent Henry isn't worth your time is either way out of line or has not yet had the pleasure of something like "Pierre Henry 8.0". Yes, okay, there are indeed some of the quite horrific disco-ish beats slapped into a (very) few tracks, but these represent but a tiny portion of the overall excellent soundwork on offer. The bulk of this collection (8.0) he composed/performed in 2007 at the age of 80(!), and fuck me if this isn't simply top - darkly splendored, weirdly idiosyncratic, drawn-out soundscapes, peppered with metal-percussive thudgery and other close-mic'd weirdness. All very nicely paced according to a fairly transparent narrative scope. Single lengthy tracks like "Grande Toccata" or "Utopia" hold the attention for the duration, but more epic, multi-part pieces also serve up some choice sounds.
Personal fave is the seven-part Une Tour De Babel (1999), which for me came with a collection entitled Mix 1.3. Descriptors-cum-hyperbole: wide ranging, cacophonous, multidimensional. Your quintessential orgy of sounds. All rather mellow, on first approach, but can be quite overwhelming as the chasmic depths (towering heights?) are revealed. A nice atmospheric undertow provides an anchor on which to orient attention, but one hardly need bother. Rather, lay back, immerse self, get lost in the shimmering miasma [/hyperbole]
(Unfortunately, the second part of the disc, recorded live in Tokyo in 2002, is more of that gawdawful disco crap. Can't have everything.)
