***1/2

PHOENIX: THE MUSIC OF ERNÖ KIRÁLY

(ReR)

Yugoslav composer Ernö Király is close to 80 years old, but this CD will likely be the first most anyone has heard of him in the West. Cut off from communication with the rest of Europe by first World War II, then the Iron Curtain, and now civil war (an ethnic Hungarian, he's currently Serbian according to the most recent lines drawn through the Balkans), Király has developed an idiosyncratic style based on homemade instruments with folk models, not unlike the work of Harry Partch.

This CD documents a range of work, utilizing traditional orchestral instruments as well as Király's own strange zithers, cymbalums, and electronics -- but all of it is marked by that extreme sort of musical eccentricity that results in the construction of new instruments. Király's hammered strings have a spooky and also hicky sound -- their origin in the village folk instruments of the Balkans is evident -- but he uses them in a scratchy, cut-up way that merges comfortably with his electronic experiments. This is an exciting discovery for Western new-music fans, courtesy of the English experimental-rock label ReR and its "general editor," drummer Chris Cutler.

-- Damon Krukowski