'Blues Alif Lam Mim' is available at https://blankforms.org/publication/chorassan-time-court-mirage-blues-alif-lam-mim-2xlp/

Having already unearthed three collections of archival ‘70s recordings by Catherine Christer Hennix, Blank Forms continues our annual illumination of the visionary Swedish composer’s music by turning to more recent work with this first-time vinyl edition of Hennix’s “Blues Alif Lam Mim in the Mode of Rag Infinity/Rag Cosmosis,” a 2014 piece first released as a CD in 2016.

The double album captures the April 22, 2014 premiere of Hennix's composition by the Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage, her expanded just intonation ensemble, featuring a brass section of Amir ElSaffar, Paul Schwingenschlögl, Hilary Jeffery, Elena Kakaliagou, and Robin Hayward; live electronics by Stefan Tiedje and Marcus Pal; and voice by Amirtha Kidambi, Imam Ahmet Muhsin Tüzer, and Hennix herself. Intended to reveal the blues’ origins in the eastern musical traditions of raga and makam, “Blues Alif Lam Mim in the Mode of Rag Infinity/Rag Cosmosis” has its roots in Hennix’s 2013 realization of an “Illuminatory Sound Environment,” a concept developed in 1978 by anti-artist Henry Flynt on the basis of Hennix’s own “The Electric Harpsichord.”

As Hennix explains in Other Matters, Blank Forms’ 2019 collection of her writings:

“Rag Infinity/Rag Cosmosis presents fragments of 'raga-like’ frequency constellations following distinct cycles and permuting their order, creating a simultaneity of ‘multi-universes.’ When two such ‘universes’ come in proximity of each other and begin unfolding simultaneously along distinct cycles, there is a kaleidoscopic exfoliation of frequencies as one universe is becoming two, but not separated—the effect of cosmosis is entrained, binding two or more frequency universes into proximity where their modal properties interact and blend, creating in the process entirely new microtonal constellations in an omnidirectional simultaneous cosmic order with phenomenologically ‘transfinite’ Poincaré cycles (cyclic returns to initial conditions).”

As with Hennix’s best work, the organic unfolding of this quivering drone belies a precision that opens onto the infinitesimal. Upon its mesmerizing ebb and flow, the vocalists incant a devotional poem written in Arabic by Hennix and featuring quotations from the Quran. Also reproduced on the album’s gatefold jacket, Hennix’s reduction of the sacred text to its most elegant formulation invites the contemplator to bring their inner knowledge to the composition for use as a prompt for meditation. Yet the piece offers depth to even the most secular listener willing to immerse themselves in music brimming with such serene intensity.

Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage - Blues Alif Lam Mim Side C

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ACOUSTIC AND   ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC  COMPOSER .
STUDIED  COMPOSITION WITH  SERGIU  NATRA .
ELECTRONIC AND  ELECTROACOUSTIC  MUSIC  WITH YIZHAK  SADAI .
PIANO  --  WITH  PNINA  SALZMAN  , BART  BERMAN  , AVI  SCHONFELD .
CONTEMPORARY CLASSIC  COMPOSER , ACOUSTIC ,
ELECTRONIC AND  ELECTROACOUSTIC   MUSIC , 
EXPERIMENTAL  MUSIC . SOUND  ARTIST .
IMPROVISATION AND INTUITIVE MUSIC .
PIANIST .
ACCORDION AND  RECORDER  PLAYER .
FOUNDED  AND  CURATED    2  SERIES  OF  CONTEMPORARY  CLASSIC  MUSIC   IN TEL AVIV  ,  ISRAEL  -- 
 " NIGHT  HAPPENING -  FORUM FOR EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC "    1986  -  2007
" OTHER  ISRAELI  MUSIC "      1985   -  1987
MANY COLLABORATIONS  WITH  POETS , ACTORS , DANCERS ,  PAINTERS ,
 VIDEO ARTISTS , PERFORMANCE  ARTISTS .
MORE THAN  120  PREMIERS  OF  NEW  CONTEMPORARY  CLASSIC MUSIC - 
ACOUSTIC , ELECTROACOUSTIC , MULTI-MEDIA  --  WERE  PRESENTED
IN  HIS  SERIES DURING  23  YEARS OF ACTIVITY .
HIS  MUSIC WAS  PERFORMED  IN  EUROPE , CANADA , USA .
WON  VARIOUS GRANTS AND PRIZES .