NEW RELEASE: AMBIENT CHAMBER MUSIC

 

Classical and contemporary music have played, and continue to play, an important role in my musical universe: chamber music in particular, for string quartet, woodwind and wind ensembles.

I love the purity of sound and instrumental lines, and in contemporary music, harmonic explorations that sometimes border on dissonance...

The experimental dimension lies in the writing and the choices of instrumental playing, a set of constraints in relation to the infinitely open palette of electronic instruments.

“Ambient Chamber Music” is an extension of this fascination, an attempt to blend textures and sound spaces, and to approach the expressivity of a small mixed electro-acoustic ensemble, crossing both minimalist and contemporary threads.

I tried to imagine a small ensemble of musicians, strings, winds and electronics playing and composing in mutual listening, following open scores, where writing coexists with improvisation.

This is basically how Lightwave has functioned, in its various configurations, around the core of Christoph Harbonnier and myself, not forgetting the important creative contributions of Renaud Pion, Jacques Derégnaucourt and Paul Haslinger, trying to approach the intuitive interactions of a small classical formation and the freedom of a jazz trio or quartet...

“Ambient Chamber Music” is a new stage in one of the parallel paths I intend to follow from now on. A chamber music oscillating between electro-acoustic and mixed music, sculpting ambient sound objects that unfold adventurous listening spaces... 

DOES AMBIENT MUSIC FORM A REPRODUCIBLE REPERTOIRE?

I've done a bit of music journalism over the last century (Crystal Infos, Keyboards magazine...) and I remain an attentive and passionate observer of the new and electronic music scene.

 

Basically, I wonder whether one of the characteristics of ambient music is that it doesn't constitute a repertoire that can be interpreted by musicians other than its original creators...

 

No doubt because most of this music is not "written" in the traditional sense of the term, and so its score cannot be interpreted in the same way as a Chopin Nocturne or a Bach sonata. The ambient genre also differs from jazz in that it does not give rise to a tradition of "standards" that can be reinterpreted with greater or lesser degrees of creativity by new musicians.

 

One explanation undoubtedly lies in the nature of ambient music, where sound design and production choices, even more than musical writing itself, are constitutive of the genre.

 

It is undoubtedly difficult, if not impossible, to make a new interpretation of Klaus Schulze's "Mirage" or Brian Eno's "On Land".

 

But there are, of course, counter-examples in the remix genre. Jean-Michel Jarre, Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream have offered us year after year multiple reinterpretations and remixes of some of their "classics", for better, and sometimes for worse.

 

We also remember the "Synthesizer Greatest Hits" compilations, commercial operations that invaded supermarket shelves with ad nauseam versions of "Oxygène" and others.

 

Some of Brian Eno's compositions, such as "Discreet Music", "Music for Airports" and "Thursday Afternoon", have also been reinterpreted by acoustic ensembles: I'm thinking of the Dedalus Ensemble and Bang on a Can, as well as Brian Eno's recent concerts with the Baltic Sea Philharmonic conducted by Kristjan Järvi. Piano lines and vocal parts undoubtedly lend themselves more readily to new orchestrations.

 

 

 

Are there any tribute bands in the field of electronic music, like those that exist for Pink Floyd or Genesis, proposing a musical and scenic reinterpretation of the original works?

 

In today musical scene, I can only think of Mark Jenkins, who is currently offering a reinterpretation of some Kraftwerk classics.

 

But these are exceptions which, it seems to me, confirm the rule. And beyond the technical tour de force and the fidelity of the performance, we can also wonder about the meaning of such a "close" reproduction of originals that ultimately remain irreplaceable.

 

Ambient music, especially that which relies more on sound design than on "classical" writing, remains linked to its original creator and does not become a "repertory work". Each recording remains a unique artefact, and in many cases, a unique masterpiece.

 

The most creative musicians in the genre have created musical styles and currents that give rise to innumerable creative variations: think of the "Berlin School", which still plays such a structuring role in today's electronic scene, or the Eno-Budd-style ambient movement.

 

 

Ambient music would thus be similar to classical music in that it too gives rise to different "schools", distinguished by their sound, compositional principles, degree of abstraction, rhythmic structures, and so on.

Music and Words

  

Composing and recording music is for me an indispensable, essential form of personal expression... I have the impression of expressing and objectifying parts of myself that words cannot convey... There are undoubtedly many links between the music I create and the texts I may write at other times in my life...

Above all, this form of expression obeys a desire and an obviousness: to move from the writing keyboard to the musical keyboard is essential at certain times, often in the evening, in that transition time between day and night, between light and darkness, when sounds and silence take on new reliefs...

Basically, my compositions and the albums I build, often in parallel, are like the pages of a diary...

I write down states of mind, ideas, thoughts, memories, projects...

I create this music first and foremost for myself, as a soundtrack to my inner films, my days and nights...

I only release it, on Bandcamp and other platforms, after careful consideration, but in the end, I don't know whether I'm publishing a musical album or a notebook of my diary... Probably a bit of both... And the attentive listener will be able to read between the sounds and notes the words I haven't been able to say...

I currently have three albums well advanced in the “draft” section of my Bandcamp page.

The first is finalized and will soon be released... “Ambient Chamber Music”... The title says it all...

The second to come, a little later, is “Views of Mind”. A little more work and reflection on the order of the tracks... Release later this summer?

I recorded “Lignes de fuite” this evening, which could in fact become the first track on the album...