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piste@imed_10103-1
“Butterfly flutters dancing // Startled from its dream // Hums, shudders, trembles // Travels through underground worlds // Wondrous dream // Flying here and there, to the whims of the wind // Wings beating // The shadow of the butterfly, colour of its wings // Autumn light // Crosses the corner of shadow // Teeming, countless numbers beating their wings thus” — Ingrid Drese
[vi-09]
Papillon, abîme, nuit [Butterfly, Abyss, Night] was realized in 1999 at the composer’s studio and premiered on November 17, 1999 during the 6th international acousmatic festival L’Espace du son, at XL Théâtre du Grand Midi (Brussels, Belgium). Papillon, abîme, nuit was a finalist at the 1st biennial acousmatic composition competition Métamorphoses (Brussels, Belgium, 2000). It has been previously released on the compact disc Métamorphoses 2000 (MR 2000).
"In the background: an endless flow of words. // Sounds without beginning nor end. Inarticulate and smooth, always. // Figures; the voice, its colours, its emotions. // Words as meaning carriers. // Presence. // Figures over a background, connected by symbols and images.” — Ingrid Drese
"The structure of this text is in two levels. The project consists in making them live together, knowing that they have nothing in common.” — Étienne Leclercq
[English translation: François Couture, vi-09]
Tout autant [Just As Much] was realized in 2000 at the composer’s studio and premiered on May 26-28, 2000 during the Musiques en marge forum at Théâtre-Poème in Brussels (Belgium). It was commissioned for Musiques en marge by Le bureau des arts (Brussels, Belgium), with support from the Service de la musique of the Direction générale de la culture, ministry of Communauté française de Belgique. Thanks to Renaud De Putter and Stephane Ginsburgh of Le bureau des arts. Thanks to Fabienne Henry, recorded voice. Tout autant has been previously released on the compact disc Passerelles (Sub Rosa, SR 161).
To Renaud De Putter
Plis de la nuit is subtitled ”Nocturne.”
“‘Sonic geology,’ folded like those pieces of paper handed out as gifts. // Truncated ‘images of sounds’ overlaid, point by point, by the memory of a music. // Like stratified matter, sounds rise, emerge, make folds, free the winding path of a dreamed-up song. // Pieces of music in superimposition, bent out of shape by unfaithful memory; the curved pictures of a folded score. // These sounds twisting and giving way under the weight of impressions accrued day after day. // Faraway melodies, a counterpoint transformed by the filter of time; the melancholy of intertwined waves reaches us. // Idealized memory, an offset picture; this song which, at the end of the night, has left a wrinkle on the forehead and unsettled the soul; and some of its breath has infiltrated the folds of the heart. // The inverted traces of the folds of fabric on the skin; a palimpsest of forgotten stories; ‘now the night can only fold back its sails…’” — Ingrid Drese
[English translation: François Couture, vi-09]
Plis de la nuit [Folds of the Night] was realized in 2008 at the composer’s studio and premiered on April 23, 2008 during the Ars Music festival at Rotonde du Botanique in Brussels (Belgium). It was realized with financial support from the Service de la musique of the Direction générale de la culture, ministry of Communauté française de Belgique. Thanks to Renaud De Putter for his trust and generosity.
To Annette Vande Gorne
The inspiration for this reverie came from an extraordinary experience: a dome slowly opening to the sky. Fine as a stroke from a Chinese brush at first, the picture of the sky fills up your head and places there dreams of sounds and poetic spaces.
Anchorage-Far
“‘After the long night, her sister, bringer of distress and fear, dawn.’ // Rocked by calm waves, sounds are articulated smoothly and emerge softly; slow transformation of nocturnal energy. // Soon, the laziness of continuity will be broken.’
Azure Vault
“‘The quiet rustling of the stars.’ // It’s like everything is happening above our heads; all the sounds, light, free and willing, take off toward the heights of imagination. In a sequence of instants and simultaneities, the sounds connect, absorb each other, dilate, flutter, and explode in cheerful chaos. Falls, shocks, chants; take-offs, escapes, extravagances in vertical movement. // The Waiting. // Perpetual dance of energies, as rhythms collect until they form strikes of dust. Ear-titillating high-pitch notes, insolent, rushing through the air in a flash, like an arrow; and bodies scintillating in the distance.”
Anchorage-Near
“In the calm of movements, time surrenders to the wave. // Soft undulations of horizontal time.”
Coda
“Elliptical Presences”
[English translation: François Couture, viii-09]
Voix de l’aurore [Voice of Dawn] was realized in 2006-07 at Musiques & Recherches’ Métamorphoses d’Orphée studio in Ohain (Belgium) and at the composer’s studio. It was premiered on October 17, 2007 during the 14th international acousmatic festival L’Espace du son at Théâtre Marni in Brussels (Belgium). Voix de l’aurore was commissioned by Musiques & Recherches. Thanks to François Colas, astronomer at the Paris Observatory, and Marc Moniez, astrophysicist at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), for guiding me in that wonderful place.
“As if lost in darkness, at first; sight wandering. // Areas of shadows; fading silhouettes; uncertain reflections. // Very slowly, the path reveals itself to the eye. // Colours metamorphosing. // The architectural principles of a city built on the mobility of colours will be exposed. // Diffused light, troubled sight, and the inarticulate contribute to the confusion. Low light will be enough to disclose the secrets of matter, colour, and the shape of things. // This story has been told; the quiet entry of characters, simply the suggestion of a presence. // Light asides. // Two worlds tell their stories. The world of words and the world of sounds; occasionally, they touch. // Intersections. Chinks offering their space. // Fortuitious meetings. Relationships are lost. // The path had not been traced. // Lines, points, and smears turn to mass, in turn falling apart. // Incarnate words; tender, serious, serene, sensual, or cheerful voices. // Clearly articulated words, a few at a time, occasionally intelligible, enough to be caught by materials that will spit them out. // Words lost in the colour of sounds; simply. // The shape is sagittal. // The arrow of time flies through these various emotional spaces; pulled off course, caught in turmoil, surprised by too many tremors. // So this arrow, brushing against the seven immutable principles of fragility, ends its trajectory in the darkness of before. Like an eye going back to the undifferentiated, surrendering to the unknown. // May our sights wander.” — Ingrid Drese
“Three centuries before Counter-History, Lus Carolien formulates the architectural principles for a city based on the mobility of colours; the legendary visual artist quotes the authors of an imaginary past that inspired him (poets, novelists, physicians: ‘Œils sauvages’ a spelling license to convey the idea of sight over organ), and words the seven ‘principles of fragility’ at the basis of his work on the colour and dematerialization of colours. So Sept œils sauvages is a fiction, a ‘story,’ told through short and colourful quotes discreetly articulated to the musical materials so as not to challenge the delicate abstraction.” — Marc Jaffeux
Sept œils sauvages [Seven Savage Eyes] was realized in 2003-04 at the studio of the Ina-GRM and at the composer’s studio. It was premiered on May 14, 2005 at Salle Olivier Messiaen — Maison de Radio France (Paris, France). It was commissioned by Ina-GRM. Thanks to Jean-Yves Izquierdo and Jérôme Crosnier, recorded actors. Thanks to Patrick Levy, Anne Behaxeteguy, Roberto Bertolino, Erwan Cossé, Fabienne Delerue, Denis Dufour, Sandrine Fay, Raphaël Mattey, Gilles Thomas d’Hoste, recorded voices.
“The old fire clock of the Chinese. It was made by pouring combustible power in a maze. You lit up one end, so that the fire would slowly spread, as if following a wick. People would tell time from the progress of the combustion. Mazes were usually drawn like mandalas, so these clocks were models, relatively close systems. Once an energetic process had unfolded inside the model, a stretch of time had also completed its course. In this instrument, “time” was illustrated by an internal flow of energy that moved within a given model.” — Marie-Louise von Franz (1915-1998), Nombre et temps, Psychologie des profondeurs et physique moderne. Éditions de La Fontaine de Pierre, Paris, 1983
Horloge à feu. Symbolic space. Selected for its symbolic value, the fire clock shows the coexistence and interrelation of various phenomena like time, energy, and space.
Horloge à feu. Geometric space. Octophonic piece, space delimited by source points set in two squares: internal/external. Like in that clock, sounds move inside a system, a relatively close space. And the square carries an idea of limitation, as it fences off and protect.
Horloge à feu. Imaginary space. It is also a reflection on the esthetic, expressive, and symbolic power of geometric lines and figures. Is there a relation between this organized space and imagination? If so, does that mean there is an archetype of geometric shapes? Temple or wall, there is the will to push back limits, to free one’s self from time; the resulting breach is an opening on other realities.
[English translation: François Couture, viii-09]
Horloge à feu [Fire Clock] was realized in 1998 at the studio of the GMEM (Marseille, France) and at Musiques & Recherches’ Métamorphoses d’Orphée studio in Ohain (Belgium). It was premiered on July 13, 1998 during the Prix supérieur concert at the Conservatoire royal de Mons (Belgium). Horloge à feu was supported by the Service de la musique of the Direction générale de la culture, ministry of Communauté française de Belgique.
piste@imed_10103-1.6
oeuvre@20379
To Francis Dhomont
A friendship offering to Francis Dhomont, for his 80th birthday.
[English translation: François Couture, vi-09]
Sempre dolce was realized in 2006 at the composer’s studio and premiered on October 17, 2007 during the 14th international acousmatic festival L’Espace du son at Théâtre Marni (Brussels, Belgium). Sempre dolce was supported by the Service de la musique of the Direction générale de la culture, ministry of Communauté française de Belgique.
The source materials consist of concrete and synthesized sounds, both having been transposed, chopped up, frozen, repeated, etc. The resulting motives form the first level of the research. The main idea revolves around the following principles: division; opposition; complementarity, alternation, and; emergence. That is, to analyze several principles simultaneously and try to find interdependencies, complementarities, looking to recreate a certain coherence or unity between them. The sounds and their transformations, the writing, and the overall structure have been designed to fulfill the requirements of these principles. For example: The structure of the piece (in four large sections) matches the alternation principle, in the rarefaction/densification of events, and its correlate, time perception.
[English translation: François Couture, vi-09]
Amaryllis was realized in 1996 at Musiques & Recherches’ Métamorphoses d’Orphée studio in Ohain (Belgium) and premiered in July 1996 at the Conservatoire royal de Mons (Belgium). Amaryllis was awarded a 2nd prize at the 5th Prix international Noroit-Léonce Petitot (Arras, France) in 1997. It has been previously released on the compact disc Prix international Noroit-Léonce Petitot 1997 (NOR 5).
piste@imed_10103-1.15
oeuvre@20378
“Guided by the shape of the story, inspired by the mood of the images, in an effort to grasp their meaning, the sounds blend and disappear into them.” — Ingrid Drese
“A glance reflected in the mirror witnesses a metamorphosis in a liquid and subterranean landscape.” — Inés Wickmann
[English translation: François Couture, vi-09]
Paysage avec miroir [Landscape with Mirror] was realized in 2006 at the composer’s studio and at Musiques & Recherches’ Métamorphoses d’Orphée studio in Ohain (Belgium); the video was realized in 2006 at the video artist’s studio in Avignon (France). Paysage avec miroir was premiered on May 21, 2006 during the concert series 3 visages de la musique électroacoustique at Petit théâtre Mercelis in Brussels (Belgium). It was supported by the Service de la musique of the Direction générale de la culture, ministry of Communauté française de Belgique.
DVD-Audio — Advanced Resolution: Stereo (MLP 4824) •• DVD-Video [NTSC, multi-region]: Stereo (4824) •• DVD-ROM: MP3 (320 kbps), AAC (320 kbps) files ••• Mastering: Dominique Bassal