Does it still make sense to release vinyl in 2022 whose main materials are petroleum and plastic? The answer is not in this column, but it does have the merit of opening it up. After a hot summer full of bad weather, music remains a consolation, a refuge and a reason to carry on for most of us. Spending €30 to buy your favorite artist's latest album on vinyl will become increasingly rare in the age of €10-a-month digital platforms. Will the necessary sobriety of energy consumption wipe out the resurgence of this musical medium, which has come back into fashion in recent years? Certainly, the dematerialization of supports - thanks to inflation - will diminish this return to musical fetishism. But the good news is that there are still thousands of records to collect - already pressed and imperishable. Here are two of them, accompanied by three recent releases that are also indispensable. 

Julius Eastman 's music has recently regained its place in the minimalist sphere, thanks to friends who knew him and are making his works available. A recently translated book ( Editions 1989), edited by Mary Jane Leach and Renee Levine Packer, brings together a number of biographical and musical essays, and tells us more about this endearing personality with a chaotic, fragile and fascinating career. Born in 1940 and destitute until his death in 1990, this artist of a thousand faces (singer, pianist, improviser, actor and dancer) rubbed shoulders with all the avant-garde of his time (John Cage, Morton Feldman, Christian Wolff, Arthur Russell and Frederic Rzewski), but his provocative, uncompromising and uncompromising character, as well as his daring stances (on homosexuality and the color of his skin), never won him the recognition of his peers. The four pianists Melaine Dalibert, Stephane Ginsburgh, Nicolas Horvath and Wilhem Latchoumia have been defending his three masterpieces Evil Nigger, Gay Guerrilla and Crazy Nigger in concert and on disc for over a year, with remarkable integrity and energy. It's about time a new version of these pieces appeared! The release of this double vinyl by Sub Rosa is most welcome.

Released last April, Thetis 2086 by thereminist Carolina Eyck is a real UFO, and deliberately so. "We humans often only think about our daily existence and quickly forget to take another perspective on things. We think too little and are only concerned with what's happening in our immediate environment. We escape into little parallel worlds on our digital devices and lose sight of the big picture," warns the committed artist. For several years now, she has been making a name for herself on YouTube as one of the finest interpreters of that instrument so difficult to master: the theremin, invented 100 years ago by Leon Theremin in Russia. The distinctive sound of this invention is produced by an electrical signal controlled by the hands, which never touch the instrument. Everything is done at a distance, giving all performers an impression of extreme lightness. The legendary Clara Rockmore has found her heir and even more, for Carolina Eyck, in addition to being a first-rate performer, is a composer with a rich musical universe of her time. Thetis 2086 is a planet home to an unknown species keen to expose our beautiful Earth and all its wonders. From the moon to the earth, Carolina Eyck takes us to the center of the world through pieces inspired by minimalist (a la Midori Takada), electronic (a la Wendy Carlos), ambient (a la Jon Hopkins) and colorful influences. A very special record for an instrument that is just as special, even though it's a hundred years old. Released by Neue Meister. 

Composed in 1975 The People United Will Never Be Defeated! is the best-known piano work by Frederic Rzewski, the American composer who died in the summer of 2021. This major work can easily take its place - and without blushing - alongside Beethoven's Diabelli Variations and Bach's Goldberg Variations. It consists of a series of 36 variations on the revolutionary song El pueblo unido jamás será vencido by Sergio Ortega, and in just over an hour explores the full stylistic range of the twentieth century: we move cheerfully and subtly from very harsh writing to moments that evoke jazz, minimalist music, folk or even Rachmaninov in the generosity of the writing. It also encapsulates the very best of contemporary musical techniques: the pianist must whistle, make glissandi with the palm of the hand, slam the piano lid, etc. Above all, this work and this recording are a pretext for talking aboutUrsula Oppens, who is undoubtedly one of the most important pianists of our time. She has championed the work of Frederic Rzewski throughout her life, as well as that of Elliott Carter, John Corigliano, John Adams, Alvin Curran, Olivier Messiaen and many others. The People United Will Never Be Defeated! remains one of his most memorable albums. It was Record World 's Album of the Year in 1979, and received a Grammy nomination. For demanding contemporary music, that's exceptional. Today, this work is championed and recorded by pianists such as Marc-André Hamelin, Igor Levit, Daan Vandewalle and Stephane Ginsburgh. 

Wendy Carlos' musical and organological contribution is another universe and another dimension. Almost everything has already been said about her film scores, her transformations of Bach or Scarlatti on the Moog synthesizer, of which she was one of the forerunners, her personal (and sometimes stormy) relationship with Stanley Kubrick, and her transexuality at a time when she was hardly awake. Her score forOrange Mécanique and her two Switched On Bach remain her most emblematic achievements. However, a lesser-known record - virtually neglected - should find its way back to our turntables and ears: Beauty in the Beast released in 1986 by Audion Records. "I always do what I can't yet do, in order to learn how to do it" writes Wendy Carlos on the back of the vinyl sleeve, borrowing this quote from Van Gogh. A fine model, and we believe her as we listen to this music like no other. Gone are the half-comical, half-anxious covers of classics, replaced by free, daring compositions that push this new instrument to its limits. Each piece tackles an aspect, a mode, a color that the Moog and Wendy Carlos can bring to the table, pushing the musical boundaries of what we call ambient, new-age or electronica. We travel to Indonesia, Africa and Tibet for the simple pleasure of drifting. 

Mario Stantchev 's music is contemporary not only because he is still alive today in September 2022 - much to the delight of his audiences - but because he is connected to the music and musicians of his time with an intensity that is rare today. This musician, who was born in Bulgaria but has lived in France for decades, left his mark on Lyon's musical world by creating the "jazz and contemporary music" section at the Lyon Conservatoire. Before being a jazzman, Mario Stantchev is above all a musician with immensely open ears. Released in 2019 by Ouch! Records, Música sin fin is his first solo album featuring his own compositions, an aspect of his life as a musician that he has recently begun to showcase. This jazz pianist is as familiar with Stravinsky as he is with Thelonious Monk, and he's not one to be lectured on how to play Bach or Federico Mompou - to whom he may be heir in certain pieces. As a composer, he has the art of letting himself be inspired by everything around him. An idea he hears at a concert, in a work by Moondog, will give him the impetus the next day for an original piece that - deep down - owes nothing to Moondog. Another time, an impression on a street or simply a mood of the moment will give birth to an original work. This album collects themes and works that have accompanied Mario Stantchev for a good part of his career: a subtle tribute to Messiaen, another to Bach and Verdi, harmonic, rhythmic and melodic experiments make this album a rich musical self-portrait, full of enthusiasm and great sincerity. Contemporary music with this open-minded approach has a bright future ahead of it. 

François Mardirossian