Creation : 24 April 1996 at Marseille, Théâtre de la Criée
Duration : 18′
Musicians: 6 percussionists and fixed sounds
Publishing : Billaudot
“This four-part piece was composed after La Célébration des invisibles, a work for percussion and choir that Les Percussions de Strasbourg premiered in 1992. When Les Percussions de Strasbourg asked me to write this work, the challenge was to create music that could coexist, in the same concert, with pieces written by composers from the jazz world. Kits is therefore a work of rhythmic and harmonic development based on cells strongly influenced by jazz (kits 1) and funk music (kits 4). The aim was to homogenise disparate elements: the harmonies are the result of calculations (spectral compression, interpolations…) whereas the rhythms refer to jazz and are often freely processed. The contribution of the electric bass recorded in the form of a sequence makes it possible to bring together worlds that would naturally be of a heterogeneous nature. Finally, I wanted this piece to keep a playful and non-theoretical character, and that it be above all intended for the instrumentalists of the Percussions de Strasbourg.” Philippe Hurel.