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you should start with Varese, because you'll already have some hints about his rhythmic ideas. Also I think he's probably the best known composer in this medium whose work I really respect. (John Cage is more famous, but he doesn't have any tape pieces I would recommend. Karlheinz Stockhausen might also show up at the library, and if they have "Gesang der Junglinge," i.e. Song of Children, check that out. But Varese is better.)
Most of Varese's work was for conventional instruments, albeit used in unconventional ways. He doesn't use what we call functional harmony, the idea that chord changes lead up to cadences that define the key you're in. Rather, he instructs his musicians to play notes that interact like the beams and struts that keep a building from falling down-- and he used this metaphor himself. So when he got to use a tape recorder, some 40 years after he began composing, he took to it immediately-- his aesthetic was ready for it long before it was even invented.
So Philips commissioned him to do a tape piece for their pavilion at the Brussels World's Fair in 1958/59, so he did an 8 minute piece called "Poeme Electronique." The sound sources he used included both electronically generated noises and natural sounds, including human voices and (some) musical instruments. It's weird, but I do get an emotional sense out of it. (And, I regret to say, not a happy one.)
If you can find it, I think a record called "Quatermass," by Todd Dockstader, is better-- more interesting sound sources, and a more heroic vibe overall. But it's considerably more obscure-- Dockstader never wrote for conventional instruments, and in fact considered himself more of a technician than a musician, so "real" musicians tend to dis him. But I like inspired amateurs.
Hope this helps.
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