Power of three

The trio Astraea (above left) was an important early sounding-board for many of Gubaidulina’s ideas. Set up in the

1970s by Gubaidulina herself alongside fellow composers Viktor Suslin and Vyacheslav Artyomov, Astraea began playing its members’ works before turning its attentions to improvisation. Its sole album, featuring Gubaidulina’s Archipelagos of Sounds in the Ocean of Time, Dolcissimo and Death Valley and performed on non-western folk and Western instruments, has recently been reissued by the Divine Art label (MSV28595; above). Astraea disbanded but reformed in the 1990s with a different line-up, and last year it performed with Gubaidulina, Suslin’s bassplaying son Alexander, bayan player Geir Draugsvoll and trombonist Heinz-erich Gödecke.