Stockhausen’s Tierkreis Wergo WER 6736 2 * * * *

Stockhausen's Tierkreis (Zodiac)is anything but an ordinary piece. And the Willy Peter organ of the Art Station St Peter in Cologne that Dominik Susteck plays it on is anything but an ordinary instrument. The 12 melodiesof Tierkreiswere originally written to be heard on music boxes in the theatre piece for percussionists, Musik im Bauch.The melodies (which can be played on any melodic instrument, with or without accompaniment) have been arranged for instrumental combinations small and large. The radically modern –

and modern-sounding – Cologne organ has peculiar percussion sounds available, as well as unorthodox mixtures and pitch-bending possibilities. Most arrangements of Tierkreiseffectively over-paint the purity and clarity of the music-box originals. On this organ, it's as if they've been embedded in a strangely shifting soundscape of almost electronic scope. See wergo.de