I came across a 3-disc set of Scelsi (pronounced like Chelsea) while scouring my local Tower Records classical annex in 1995. This CD box from the French label "Accord" was entirley an aural revelation to me, making this blind buy the most rewarding surprise I've ever had [and which keeps me going forward purchasing composers (and their works) who I have never heard of before.]
So I've been listening to Scelsi for over 15 years now.
The only other Board member I've seen mentioning Scelsi is Lorenz in Italy.
Scelsi is an acquired taste, though, and, although I have not seen "Shutter Island", I've read that director Martin Scorsese had selected a Scelsi piece for usage in his film. I'm glad this is so, because the number of people viewing "Shutter Island" and being exposed to Scelsi music is a far greater amount of people than whomever may be reading the typed ravings here on this Board!
Never heard any Dhomont yet, but based on a portion from that YouTube clip, Dhomont's piece sounds like a RadioPhonic collage from yore, filtered through the prism of current-day "spectralism" music by composer such as Tristan Murail and George Grisey.
Don't know Dhomont -- but I love Scelsi -- I have the Arditti String Quartet CD Set with - Les Cinq Quatuors À Cordes - Trio À Cordes - Khoom; plus a single CD with orchestral works: Aion - Pfhat - Konx-Om-Pax.
I find his music very involving -- a deep and evolving pool of sound that draws you in.
Thanks for resurrecting this thread. I've listened to Scelsi on youtube in the past, never heard of Dhomont, and just found that Spotify has quite a number of their releases.
It is fundamentally changing how much music I purchase, but Spotify has become a treasure trove for me. I have dozens of avant-garde and experimental albums, but feel sated, not much interested in purchasing more. And with my subscription I can hear many composers new to me for a pittance.
Excuse me, Sean N., but I wish to ask about your perspective on the future of music recordings. If one listens to YouTube videos of uploaded album content and one also does not purchase albums, how will record producers now (& in the future) cope with prospects for funding recordings of so-called 'obscure' music by equally 'obscure' composers?
I have purchased (since 1995) many CDs of music by Scelsi. The quantity of Scelsi albums I have is 2nd only to those I own of Charles Koechlin's music. If I (and other consumers) had never bought any of these CDs, I wonder what the current state would be on recordings of Scelsi's music.
YouTube is great, don't get me wrong, but much of the type of music we listen to needs to be patronized financially if its future survival is to occur.
Hi, Zardoz, allow me to reply many months later. (Wasn't ignoring you before, just never came back to the thread.)
I listen on youtube only when things are not available otherwise or to preview something I may or may not want, it helps me decide. Spotify is an enormous boon for me, and I have been a paid subscriber for years. So it is not that no money is associated with my listening.
The fact is I am not buying nearly as much as I used to, in large part because my collection is already enormous. There are many kinds of music I want to experience but not necessarily own. Spotify has been my primary solution for that - and of course artists get a handful of pennies from my listening. Not much, but not nothing.
It seems to me that no avant-garde composer sells enough discs to much matter. Here in Denver, CO, I was often just about the ONLY person buying this sort of thing in the record stores. My guess is it is more of a non-profit kind of thing - the right thing to do whether or not it sells.
I don't lose any sleep over it. I have done more than my part for decades. Composers have been churning out music that very few people want to hear for a long time, and they've been able to go on because of their academic careers, grants, philanthropists - not because of record sales.
) 
