For she who helps me to tame happiness

Something is instilled into me when, whilst sitting on a park bench watching my kids at play, I contemplate the drift of my thoughts. Or, when the sun surprises me halfway through an errand, I take the time to stop and to let its rays caress me through my eyelids. Or when I am cuddled against my lover, half-listening dreamily to the radio.

These moments share the feeling of a slowing of time, a serene opposition to the polyrhythm of contemporary life, a well-being into contemplation… Happiness, ineffable, emerges as a slow, voluptuous meditation… To paraphrase Daniel Pennac: they are “radiant enigmas.”

[v-11]

Ces énigmes lumineuses was realized in 2010 at the Laboratório Electroacústico de Criação (Lab for Electroacoustic Creation, LEC) of Miso Music Portugal in Lisbon (Portugal) and premiered on September 23, 2010 during the Música Viva festival at the Instituto Franco-Português in Lisbon (Portugal). The piece was commissioned by Miso Music Portugal. Thanks to the whole team of Miso Music Portugal: Paula de Castro Guimarães, Violeta Barradas, Marta Catana, Miguel Azguime, Pedro Ferreira, and Jose Grossinho.

Composition

• 2010, Lab for Electroacoustic Creation — Miso Music Portugal — Miso Music Portugal, Lisbon (Portugal)

Premiere

• September 23, 2010, Música Viva 2010: Orquestra de Altifalantes, Auditório Philippe Friedman — Institut français — Portugal, Lisbon (Portugal)

Mastering

• June 2011, Dominique Bassal • Studio Inverse, Montréal (Québec)