The circle and the square have been symbols of the creation of beings and things in all civilizations since antiquity. They symbolize the same plane of creation, contraction and dilation, the solid and the aerial, the earth and the sky. They are complementary like the horizontal and vertical planes, World and Man. They represent both the genesis and limits — the sum—of the entire cosmos. They form the mesh that contains and fixes scattered elements, that maintains cohesion and order in structures.

Cercles et surfaces is an answer to this principle of equilibrium in movements between rupture and connection, movement and statism, flux and rhythm, crossings in space, filigree polyphonies. In this aesthetic, seemingly chaotic and dissimilar sound patterns approach one another and combine in arborescent forms to produce a new order.

— Elsa Justel [English translation: François Couture, iii-19]

Cercles et surfaces [Circles and Surfaces] was realized in 2012 at the GRM studio in Paris (France) and premiered on January 26, 2013, as part of Ina-GRM’s Multiphonies concert series at MPAA’s Auditorium Saint-Germain (Paris, France). It was commissioned by the State (Direction de la musique, France) and Ina-GRM (Paris).

Composition

• 2012, Groupe de recherches musicales – Institut national de l’audiovisuel (Ina-GRM), Paris (France)

Premiere

• January 26, 2013, Multiphonies 2012-13: Akousma 4, Auditorium Saint-Germain — MPAA, Paris (France)