piste@pscd_72-1
Les objets obscurs was composed during an intense period in studio C at GRM in Paris the summer of 1991. Since I was invited to do a piece at this very honorable institution, it came natural to do something that related closely to the historical tradition represented by GRM. Concept as well as material and compositional methods lies within the basic framework of the classical “musique concrete”. The piece is through its lyrics self-explanatory, but some background information may be at hand anyway. Les objets obscurs (The hidden objects) is a set of riddles partly describing the physical object producing the sounding material, 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 (i.e. the musical equvivalent of the riddle). Each movement is based upon sounds and transformations of sounds produced by one single everyday object (like a chair, a glass or similar). One movement-one object. In the end of the last movement the “solution” of all the riddles is presented. These answers, however, sets up a new “inner” riddle, to witch no answer is given.
[source: reseauxconcerts.com]
piste@pscd_72-1.1
oeuvre@17332
“… he develops the electronic timbral aesthetics with a rich fantasy and a good apetite.
The whole room plays along in this mixed music with its swaying and sliding connections
between instruments and synthetic sounds. It sounds beautiful in its very own raw and juicy
way…”
Politiken (Copenhague, Denmark) 1993
piste@pscd_72-1.6
oeuvre@17326
“… the music of Parmerud is as clear as glass, no matter if one
speaks about pure electronic music or a combination of ‘normal’ instruments and electronics…
His work Alias is probably the most beautiful piece of electroacoustic
music ever composed…”
Tidskriften Musik (Stockholm, Sweden) 1994
piste@pscd_72-1.8
oeuvre@17324
Jeux imaginaires is a fantasy on time and strategics as found in a famous game of chess (Karpov vs Kasparov, 22nd round, world championship 1992). Actually, the piece does not try to mimic the game itself apart from the middlesection where the rhythm of the drumbeats were derived from the pondering times of the first 19 strategic moves opening the round. The game came to be more of a meditational offset for composing the music. Every night after ending my composing session in the studio I played the game (or maybe only a few moves) on my portable chessboard. Apart from it being a nice way to turn my attention from the pure musical problems for a while, I found that playing the game made me more and more aware of the likeness between chessplaying and composing. Apart from the obvious similarity of the strategic opening and and ending sections (with fantasy being most important in the middle of the game), I like to think of musical components (soundobjects, phrases, structures etc) as pieces (of chess) with different charge and strength that may be placed in a variety of relationships, and where the object of composing is that of finding solid constructions of relations throughout the whole musical time. Thus, playing the game as a small ritual every night released new musical ideas and composing energy without necessarely creating detectable parallells between the music and the game itself.
The main sonic features of the music is derived from bells (and some other percussion), a metronome and some stringsounds, representing the possible continuum between the momentary and the continous world of sound and time. The main compositional features are the transformations of time and timbre and the strategics of musical, formal relations. Since the transformation of time also affects timbre, these are often mutually interlocked although it is for instance quite clear in the beginning of the piece that it is the same bells that occur both as high intense “grains” and as low prolonged sounds. As the piece evolves, more complex transformations and relations are presented and finally resolved.
The music was commissioned by Groupe de Musique Expérimentale de Bourges (GMEB) and composed in the GMEB studio Charybde 1993. Jeux Imaginaires was awarded the “Stockholm electronic arts award” 1994.
[source: reseauxconcerts.com]
piste@pscd_72-1.13
oeuvre@17331