The ensemble , based in Los Angeles, has specialized in performances of the music of using the instruments built by the composer, including some that involve a 43-tone scale. This release collects some items that may be little-known but give an idea of the composer's fundamental sense of humor, and if you haven't heard much , you might easily start here. Most of this music has never been performed. The title work , with its "Scherzo Schizophrenia" and "Allegro Paranoia," is for a chamber ensemble using the 43-tone scale. The of 1950 are percussion-heavy works that lead up to 's grand experiments. There are also flirtations with jazz ( , written for but never recorded by ), excerpts from an experimental film soundtrack ( ), a recorded on an Edison wax cylinder in 1904, and most hilarious of all, a live recording of himself, playing and explaining a 1941 work called , which is exactly what it sounds like: a setting, for voice and guitar, of hitchhiker graffiti found in the California desert town of Barstow. There isn't a dull moment here. While admirers may be the primary market, anybody will enjoy this. ~ James Manheim