Premiere

• March 25, 2006, Multiphonies 2005-06: Concert, Salle Olivier Messiaen — Maison de Radio France, Paris (France)

Premiere

• April 10, 1998, Cycle acousmatique Son-Mu 98: Concert, Salle Olivier Messiaen — Maison de Radio France, Paris (France)

Premiere

• February 15, 1993, Concert, Salle Olivier Messiaen — Maison de Radio France, Paris (France)

Premiere

• February 27, 2010, Multiphonies 2009-10: Akousma, Salle Olivier Messiaen — Maison de Radio France, Paris (France)

Performers

• Alexis Galperine, violin
• David Simson, cello

Signes émergents, premier prix au Concours international de musique électroacoustique de Bourges (France, 2003). Pièce électroacoustique en 8 canaux. Commande de l’Ina-GRM. Réalisée au GRM.

Awards

• Prize, Studio Electroacoustic Music Prize, 30th Bourges International Electroacoustic Music and Sound Art Competition 2003, Bourges (Cher, France)
• Public prize, International Electroacoustic Music Contest of São Paulo 2003, São Paulo (Brazil)

Premiere

• February 14, 2009, Multiphonies 2008-09: Akousma, Salle Olivier Messiaen — Maison de Radio France, Paris (France)

Awards

• Special Mention, 6th Biennial Acousmatic Composition Competition Métamorphoses 2010, Ohain (Belgium)
• Mention, Concurso Internacional de Composição Electroacústica Música Viva 2011, Parede (Portugal)

Premiere

• March 25, 2006, Multiphonies 2005-06: Concert, Salle Olivier Messiaen — Maison de Radio France, Paris (France)

Premiere

• April 10, 1998, Cycle acousmatique Son-Mu 98: Concert, Salle Olivier Messiaen — Maison de Radio France, Paris (France)

Premiere

• May 16, 1994, Cycle acousmatique Son-Mu 94: Concert, Salle Olivier Messiaen — Maison de Radio France, Paris (France)

Les objets obscurs [Hidden Objects] was composed during an intensive period in the summer of 1991 in the Studio 116 of the Ina-GRM in Paris (France). Since I was invited to do a piece at this very honorable institution, it was natural to do something that related closely to the historical tradition represented by the GRM. The concept as well as material and compositional methods lie within the basic framework of classical musique concrète. Through its lyrics the piece is self-explanatory, but some background information may still come in handy. Les objets obscurs is a set of riddles partly describing the physical object producing the sounding material and partly describing some aspect of the musical content of each movement. The answer to these riddles may be found in each of the four movements. It works like this: a short text is read (in French) presenting the riddle, immediately followed by a movement, the musical equivalent of the riddle. Each movement is based on sounds and transformations of sounds produced by one single everyday object (like a chair, a glass…). One movement — one object. In the end of the last movement the ‘solution’ of all the riddles is presented. These answers, however, set up a new ‘inner’ riddle, to which no answer is given.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, listen to the hidden objects!

The first is the point from which an enigma arises.

The second: A walking landscape. A perpetual displacement. Something that grazes without touching. An aimless movement. An object of rest.

The third: Convex bodies thrown into a series of collisions. Hazardous movements on irregular surfaces. Something that is loved without loving. Something that comes together and scatters immediately.

The fourth: The union between the first and the last. The first being the origin of the enigma. The last, the dissolution of the first.

The solution: the first is a lock; the second is a chair; the third is twenty-two stone marbles; the fourth is both voice and language, and the enigma of hidden objects is… Music.”

[English translation of the original French text.]

[viii-18]

Les objets obscurs was realized in July of 1991 in the Studio 116 of the Groupe de recherches musicales (Ina-GRM) in Paris (France) and premiered on October 27, 1992 in the Grand Auditorium of the Maison de Radio France (Paris, France). The piece was commissioned by the Ina-GRM. Thanks to: Dominique Andrieux (recorded narration). Les objets obscurs was awarded the 2nd prize at the 2nd Prix international Noroit-Léonce Petitot (Arras, France, 1991) and a Prize at the Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition (France, 1993).

Composition

• June – September 1991, Studio 116C — Groupe de recherches musicales – Institut national de l’audiovisuel (Ina-GRM), Paris (France)

Premiere

• October 27, 1992, Cycle acousmatique Son-Mu 92: Concert, Grand Auditorium — Maison de Radio France, Paris (France)

Awards

• 2nd prize, 2nd Noroit-Leonce Petitot International Prize 1991, Arras (Pas-de-Calais, France)
• Third Mention, Studio Electroacoustic Music Prize, 21th Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition 1993, Bourges (Cher, France)

Having lived and worked with electronic instruments over a period of twenty years, my attention was lately drawn to the tendency of retrospect interest in old analog synthesizers. These instruments represent to me not only a different quality of sound but also a different mode of composing. This in turn deeply affects the musical structures coming out as the final result. Digital systems have a greater flexibility in terms of time and spectral control on a point to point basis. Analog systems on the other hand offers a way to create complex structures with a direct physical control coupled with a unique ‘raw’ quality of sound lacking in digital instruments.

Composing with ‘old’ analog systems is a rare phenomenon in todays world of computers, harddisc recorders and digital synthesizers. With increasingly few exceptions, analog synthesizers are more often missing than present in modern electroacoustic workspaces. The transition from analog to digital systems as the main composing tool in electroacoustic studios has taken about ten years. The development of medevial instruments to their modern counterparts took several centuries.

I have felt an urge to work with ‘old’ instruments for some time — the last time I worked with analog systems was in 1986, more than ten years ago — and the invitation from the Groupe de recherches musicales (GRM, Paris) to make a piece gave me the opportunity to explore a renaissance of the analog in the digital domain. The piece is based on sounds from a Serge modular synthesizer and some additional sounds from renaissance instruments like drums, lute, krumhorns and viola da gamba. My intention has been to create a virtual meeting between the sounds, composing methods and aestethics of the analog and digital worlds, painted on a remote canvas of medevial timbres and rythms.

Renaissance was realized in 1994 at the composer’s studio and premiered on January 31, 1995 in the Salle Olivier Messiaen of the Maison de Radio France (Paris, France). It was commissioned by the Ina-GRM. Renaissance received a Honorable Mention at the Prix Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria, 1997).

Composition

• 1994, Personal studio, Gothenburg (Sweden)

Premiere

• January 31, 1995, Cycle acousmatique Son-Mu 95: Concert, Salle Olivier Messiaen — Maison de Radio France, Paris (France)

Awards

• Honorable Mention, Computer Music, Prix Ars Electronica 1997, Linz (Austria)

What does someone who cannot see dream about? What happens during sleep in a mind to which images of the world are primarily perceived through sound? Dreaming in Darkness is an attempt to create surrealistic fragments of a blind person’s dreams. The piece gradually develops from a starting point which resembles the soundtrack of a film where ambiences and situations change through the opening and closing of doors. Gradually the “representative” sounds are replaced by more abstract and musical material, displacing the character of realism towards an acoustic “in-between” where the boundary between the representative and the imagined is erased.

This piece originated as an experimental collaboration with composer Natasha Barrett. We decided to compose with sounds that we would exchange with each other. The idea was to see how the compositional process is affected by not being able to choose the sounds yourself but rather having to develop a relationship based on another person’s choice and preferences. For various reasons, both pieces went astray from the concept. However, we both ended up using sound sources from each other. In this piece, the sounds from Natasha enter the stage as the piece progresses into the more abstract part of its development.

[xi-14]

Dreaming in Darkness was realized in 2005 at the studio of the GRM in Paris (France) and premiered on March 25, 2006 in Salle Olivier Messiaen of Maison de Radio France (Paris, France). The piece was commissioned by the Ina-GRM. Thanks to Natasha Barrett.

Composition

• 2005, Groupe de recherches musicales – Institut national de l’audiovisuel (Ina-GRM), Paris (France)

Premiere

• March 25, 2006, Multiphonies 2005-06: Concert, Salle Olivier Messiaen — Maison de Radio France, Paris (France)

At some point in time I promised myself never to make a piece based on bird sounds; maybe one of the most overexploited sound material in electroacoustic music. I have also promised myself never to write a piece for guitar, never ever a piece for harpsichord and a couple of other no-no projects. I have broken all of those solemn promises for one reason or another.

So now I have broken the “no birds piece” promise as well… because I met a New Zealand visual artist in Colombia who introduced me to recordings of bird sounds from his native country. Those were amazing. Some of these birds sounded completely electric or maybe like an animal from another planet. I simply could not resist!

In the first half of the piece, almost all sounds are unaltered. Even the bass sounds in the beginning are natural and are from an apparently quite small bird. How that is acoustically possible is a mystery. Nature is indeed awesome. It is only towards the second half of the piece that I started to push the original sounds into the processing universe.

[iv-15]

Electric Birds was realized in 2012 at the studio of the GRM in Paris (France) and premiered on January 14, 2014 as part of the Multiphonies series presented by the Ina-GRM at the Auditorium Saint-Germain of the MPAA (Paris, France). The piece was commissioned by the Ina-GRM.

Composition

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

Premiere

• January 14, 2014, Multiphonies 2013-14: Akousma 3, Auditorium Saint-Germain — MPAA, Paris (France)

Premiere

• January 25, 2013, Multiphonies 2012-13: Akousma 3, Auditorium Saint-Germain — MPAA, Paris (France)

Premiere

• December 6, 2009, Multiphonies 2009-10: Akousma, Salle Olivier Messiaen — Maison de Radio France, Paris (France)

Premiere

• January 14, 2014, Multiphonies 2013-14: Akousma 3, Auditorium Saint-Germain — MPAA, Paris (France)

Premiere

• January 21, 2017, Multiphonies 2016-17: Akousma: Concert de créations, 1, Auditorium Saint-Germain — MPAA, Paris (France)

To Francis Dhomont

extrémités lointaines uses recordings I made during a four-week concert tour in Asia in the summer of 1997. I recorded city sounds, the music of churches and temples, and the songs of children in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. These unexpectedly rich sound worlds, quite different from ours, remain inscrutable even if they open doors for us.

For many years, I have been integrating vocal and instrumental sounds into my electroacoustic compositions with the esthetic concern to maintain the cultural context of the source. Even though in extrémités lointaines I use a wide variety of sounds resulting from travels through four countries, these connections remain very strong. The piece is structured in 15 sections describing different locations. The intensity of the impressions I experienced during the trip has resulted in a dense compositional structure.

[xii-99]

extrémités lointaines was realized in 1998 in the studios of Ina-GRM (Paris) and first performed in the original 8-channel version on 23 February 1998 during the Cycle acousmatique Son-Mu of GRM. The piece was commissioned by the French State (Music Office) and the Ina-GRM (Paris). extrémités lointaines has obtained a Mention in the Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition (France, 1998) and a Distinction at the Prix Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria, 1998).

Composition

• 1998, Groupe de recherches musicales – Institut national de l’audiovisuel (Ina-GRM), Paris (France)

Premiere

• February 23, 1998, Cycle acousmatique Son-Mu 98: Concert, Salle Olivier Messiaen — Maison de Radio France, Paris (France)

Awards

• Mention, Studio Electroacoustic Music Prize, 25th Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition 1998, Bourges (Cher, France)
• Distinction, Computer Music, Prix Ars Electronica 1998, Linz (Austria)

About this sound recording

This stereophonic version was realized in 1998 at the Ina-GRM (Paris, France).

Remixing

• 1998, version 2.0: Groupe de recherches musicales – Institut national de l’audiovisuel (Ina-GRM), Paris (France)

Premiere

• January 13, 2007, Multiphonies 2006-07: Akousma 2, Salle Olivier Messiaen — Maison de Radio France, Paris (France)

Premiere

• September 20, 2008, Hommage à Oscar Wiggli, Salle de spectacle — Hôtel de ville, Saignelégier (Switzerland)

À Herbert Velasquez

Deux images sont à la base de Migration pétrée: des pierres volantes et des oiseaux encagés. Elles sont toutes deux utilisées comme modèles, d’énergie et de densité — et quelques rares moments mis à part, les sources enregistrées sont difficilement reconnaissables.

Nous retrouvons l’énergie des pierres à la plage, sous le poids des pieds, leurs craquements dans la main et même, à l’intérieur d’un piano. Durant plusieurs années j’ai enregistré des sons venant de petits cailloux, oscillant jusqu’aux bruits impressionnants des blocs de pierre tombant. Ils se confrontent avec l’image sonore des milliers d’oiseaux, enfermés dans des cages au marché de Porto, qui n’ont guère l’occasion de prendre leur envol. L’expression de leur énergie vivante se heurte à la contradiction de l’enfermement. Nous rencontrerons des pierres de la légèreté d’un oiseau et des groupes d’oiseaux migrant lourdement.

Composition électroacoustique en 8 canaux. Commande de l’État (France).

Awards

• Honorable Mention, Category A (fixed medium), Musica Nova 2001, Prague (Czech Republic)