With a collective intake of breath, the Flux Quartet launched into a performance that explored the challenging, lush, and energized landscape of twenty-first-century experimental music.

The group, known as one of the most prominent and revolutionary new-music ensembles worldwise, performed last Friday night as part of the Crowell Concert Series. The musicians are familiar with Wesleyan; members of Flux have come to campus over the past several years to play graduate student compositions.

“It is so important for student composers to have an ace group play their works,” said Experimental Music Professor Alvin Lucier.

While Saturday’s performance featured Wesleyan composers, Friday night’s program presented pieces from well-known experimental composers like Elliot Sharp, Giancinto Sclesi, and Lucier himself.

“Twistmap,” by Elliot Sharp, was an urgent, engaging introduction to the technical and expressive capabilities of the Quartet. Overlapping contrapuntal lines allowed each musician to convey their own distinct voice. Tom Chiu and Conrad Harris, the two violinists, alternated between unconventionally sawing at the strings below the bridge, producing a fingernails-on-chalkboard sound, and developing more melodic themes with their bows above the bridge. Dave Eggar, in unlaced black boots and a chronically-slipping sash over his shoulder, explored the possibilities of sound on his cello by alternately tapping the wood and coaxing out tonal harmonies with one or two bows. Max Mandel, the violist in tight black jeans and pointy shoes, played off the non-traditional techniques of the other players.

The impassioned players wove in and out of tonal muddiness and clarity, combining to produce a rich musical tapestry punctuated by moments of interesting, if ultimately grating, percussive sounds.

The viewing experience was integral to the enjoyment of all of the pieces.

“The goal of the Flux Quartet is to give humanity to contemporary music,” Eggar said. “It is always a challenge with experimental music to equally address the aesthetic and technical aspects of the music. We want to create a textural landscape that brings the immediacy of the piece to the audience.”

This was indeed the effect of their performance. The music addressed the intellectual endeavors of contemporary composers, rethinking the bounds of quartet music while allowing the performers and the audience to enjoy the experience of the concert.

Many students from Wesleyan’s Experimental Music class attended the concert. Gabriel Gonzalez-Kreisberg ’09 thought the concert complemented the class well.

“It helps to hear the music performed live, rather than sitting in a classroom listening to a stale recording,” Gonzalez-Kreisberg said. “Seeing the interactions between the players helps me get into the music.”

Alvin Lucier’s “Group Tapper” particularly connected the immediate experience of the particular players and their relationship to the unique acoustics of the hall. The musicians stood in different corners of the stage. Each player began tapping on the wood of their instruments with the metal screw at the base of their bows. As the piece continued, the tapping began to pulse around the hall as the vibrations interacted with the specific acoustics of the building.

“The Lucier piece is not written out like a traditional score,” Eggar said. “Lucier describes five parameters that define the rhythms of each voice. It’s a process piece, about listening to the acoustics of the hall.”

Professor Lucier and the members of the Quartet share a mutual respect for each other. Lucier arranged “Group Tapper” especially for the Flux Quartet at the urging of Tom Chiu.

In describing the Flux Quartet, Lucier complemented their versatility and willingness to experiment.

“The Flux Quartet has a wonderful off-beat program that you won’t hear anywhere else,” Lucier said.