BYRNE: “High Life for Nine Instruments”; MORAN:...

BYRNE: “High Life for Nine Instruments”; MORAN: “Music from the Towers of the Moon”; LURIE: “Stranger Than Paradise”; TORKE: “Chalk.” Balanescu Quartet. Argo 436 565-2. Here are four very different takes on the post-minimalist scene. David Byrne’s short piece--requiring over-dubbing--has a blithe, unpretentious lilt over sublimated references to West African pop. Robert Moran’s adaptation of excerpts from his latest opera shows the greatest lyrical range, though slickly scored and often formulaic. John Lurie’s bluesy suite, taken from a film score, allows improvisation into this stereotypically mechanistic style to enchanting effect, while Michael Torke’s big piece unleashes the concentrated fury of discipline. Accomplished post-modern veterans, the Balanescu ensemble offers clean, rhythmically taut textures and gritty intensity.