This week's KDS, from 8-11am Central Time on 101.5 in Winnipeg and http://www.umfm.com/, ventures quickly into thorny musical territory, politics too.

Set #1 - 8:00am - 9:30am

1. Nikos Skalkottas: Series II from 36 Greek Dances (1936-49)

Nikos Christodoulou - conductor, BBC Symphony Orchestra

BIS Records, CD-1333/34

48:29

2. Diamanda Galás: Schrei X Live (1995)

Diamanda Galás - voice

Mute, 9037-2

26:26

("Her works largely concentrate on the topics of suffering, despair, condemnation, injustice and loss of dignity." In programming today's episode, I strove for maximum emotional contrast between the first two pieces. The booklet advises: "PERFORMED IN TOTAL DARKNESS PLAY AT MAXIMUM VOLUME ONLY THIS IS NOT AMBIENT MUSIC" — a prescription for the next piece too.)

Set #2 - 9:30am - 11:00am

3. Iannis Xenakis: Persepolis (1971)

Fractal Records, FractalOX

55:06

(The Goldberg Variations of electroacoustic music! Composed in 1971 for a multi-media spectacular celebrating the 2500th anniverary of the Persian empire. Others have conjured up better metaphorical descriptions of the music than I can. Today, I'm primarily interested in Persepolis and its political connotations: An unpopular Iranian regime, which was about to be deposed, commissioned a Greek composer to create a piece named after the ancient capital which Alexander the Great burnt to the ground in 330 BCE. Was most recently [November 2010] performed in Los Angeles.)

4. Sote [Ata Ebtekar]: Dastgaah (2006)

Dielectric Records, n.n.

34:17
("Voices of ancient Persia" reflected in a distorting electronic mirror. Seeing this album described as "electro-ethnic" gave me pause, but it's far from the inane thumping I expected.)

Where to buy CDs featured on today's show:

Nikos Skalkottas - ArkivMusic

Diamanda Galás - CD Universe

Iannis Xenakis - Amazon

Sote - CDBaby