Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Dahovi II, for magnetic tape (1961)
Ivo Malec was born in 1925 in Zagreb, where he studied music and won several composition prizes. He continued his studies in Paris under Olivier Messiaen, and later Pierre Schaeffer, and while maintaining close connections with musical life in Yugoslavia, settled definitely in France in 1959, becoming a permanent member of the Groupe de Recherches Musicales. His works, which have earned two Grands Prix du Disque are sometimes for orchestra ("Sigma," "Miniatures pour Lewis Carroll," "Oral"), sometimes for magnetic tape ("Reflets," "Dahovi I et II"), and sometimes for performer and tape ("Cantate pour elle," "Lumina").
Dahovi II dates from 1961. Sounds akin to "breaths" (which translates the Serbo-Croatian word dahovi) furnish the deliberately restricted basic material of this composition. The purpose, in fact, is less to bring out individual sound effects than to emphasise the play of volumes and densities which they form among themselves and which are barely underscored by a few designs of line and shading.
The piece is a result of a successful collaboration of the composer with the director Piotr Kamler on the short film Structures. By making subtle changes to the film score, Malec created a separate work, highlighting in the commentary of his first original record from 1969: "The primary intention of this music is to change white noise (more in a poetic sense than an acoustic one)." [cantus-ansambl.com]
Art by Paul Gustave Fischer
Dahovi II, for magnetic tape (1961)
Ivo Malec was born in 1925 in Zagreb, where he studied music and won several composition prizes. He continued his studies in Paris under Olivier Messiaen, and later Pierre Schaeffer, and while maintaining close connections with musical life in Yugoslavia, settled definitely in France in 1959, becoming a permanent member of the Groupe de Recherches Musicales. His works, which have earned two Grands Prix du Disque are sometimes for orchestra ("Sigma," "Miniatures pour Lewis Carroll," "Oral"), sometimes for magnetic tape ("Reflets," "Dahovi I et II"), and sometimes for performer and tape ("Cantate pour elle," "Lumina").
Dahovi II dates from 1961. Sounds akin to "breaths" (which translates the Serbo-Croatian word dahovi) furnish the deliberately restricted basic material of this composition. The purpose, in fact, is less to bring out individual sound effects than to emphasise the play of volumes and densities which they form among themselves and which are barely underscored by a few designs of line and shading.
The piece is a result of a successful collaboration of the composer with the director Piotr Kamler on the short film Structures. By making subtle changes to the film score, Malec created a separate work, highlighting in the commentary of his first original record from 1969: "The primary intention of this music is to change white noise (more in a poetic sense than an acoustic one)." [cantus-ansambl.com]
Art by Paul Gustave Fischer
