La Fête Sauvage – L. Antunes – La Comète, Chalons-en-Champagne, FR – 3 October 2022

La Fête Sauvage required more than two years of filming in the four corners of the world, in Africa, Asia and South America, for director Frédéric Rossif to create this ode to nature and the animals that inhabit it.
Captured in their daily lives, they perform a ballet in front of the cameras that retraces their history. In freedom, giraffes, sloths, anteaters and so many others are revealed in their intimacy, their moments of hunting, resting, playing or even their amorous conquests… Presenting us with a world devoid of any human presence, Rossif wished to reconnect with a lost Eden. He profoundly revolutionised environmental and wildlife cinema, creating a unique visual language in which slow-motion and other montages transcend animal beauty. When it was released in 1976, the film was a huge success, selling almost a million tickets. The original score was by electronic music pioneer Vangelis. To give new life to this visual masterpiece, Lucie Antunes brings all the telluric energy that characterises her musical language. She conceived this sound creation for the Percussions de Strasbourg, augmented by an electronic musician (Axel Rigaud). For our ensemble, she weaves a unique link between acoustic instruments, electronic machines and images. This encounter between the visual and sound worlds of Frédéric Rossif and Lucie Antunes, supported by exceptional musicians, gives nature back all its power and raw strength as well as its purity. A unique moment not to be missed.

Première at the festival War on screen

l‘Air(e) – T. De Mey, F. Filidéi, P. Jodlowski – Decentralised Concerts – European Community of Alsace

© Michel Grasso

s part of the decentralised concerts organised by the European Community of Alsace, the show l’Air(e) will be performed in the towns of Brumath on 9 October, Marckolsheim on 15 October, and Ensisheim on 2 November. In 2016, François Papirer, Rémi Schwartz and Enrico Pedicone developed a programme of contemporary music for young audiences, presenting the diversity of percussion instruments around the world. The show evolves in 2018 and builds a new identity within the Percussions de Strasbourg: the trio No Bad Vibes is born. Today, their show l’Air(e), is a protean object where the universe of rock, the demands of contemporary music, the power of electro, and the Dadaism of an instrumental theatre are mixed together.

9 october 2022 – Brumath
15 october 2022 – Marckolsheim
2 november 2022 – Ensisheim

OZMA XX – Anniversary Concert – 14 October 2022 – La Briqueterie, Schiltigheim, FR

Born in 2002 from the meeting of three students from the Strasbourg Conservatory who were keen on modern jazz but also open to all forms of emerging music of the time, the group OZMA, which quickly became a quintet, has declined its hybrid and explosive universe in multiple configurations, from trio to large ensemble. To celebrate its 20 years of existence in style, OZMA invites us to a retrospective evening and invites three musicians from les Percussions de Strasbourg to play with them!

Info and booking

Antiphonies, Symphony n.8 – Miloslav KABELÁC – 23 October 2022 – St Paul Church, Basel, CH

The 8th Symphony “Antiphonies”, Op. 54, by Miloslav Kabeláč was written in 1970 as a reflection of the composer’s feelings from the invasion of Warsaw Pact troops into Czechoslovakia in 1968 and the onset of so-called “normalization” process in the society, which means renewal of strong dictate of the regime of pro-Soviet communist rulers, including heavy loss of basic freedoms for citizens of the country.
The 8th Symphony was inspired by Les Percussions de Strasbourg which presented its premiere with the Czech soloists Jana Jonášová (soprano) and Václav Rabas (organ) in Strasbourg in June 1971.

Info and booking

Shaker Kami – Nik Bärtsch – 25 October 2022 – Festival Alte Feuerwache, Mannheim, GE

© Michel Grasso

In the continuity of their collaborations with the jazz world (Andy Emler Megaoctet, Bobby Previte, Franck Tortiller Quartet, …), the Percussions de Strasbourg venture into the world of minimalist jazz by Nik Bärtsch with the piece Shaker Kami. His work is at the intersection of contemporary music and jazz, and draws on influences from funk. In his music, the use of repetition and structures based on interweaving elements hints at the influence of minimalist music, particularly that of Steve Reich.

All the info about the concert here

Music in the Belly, K. H. Stockhausen / S. Steen-Andersen – 28 September 2022 – Th. de Hautepierre, Strasbourg, FR – World premiere

© Eloi de Verneuil / Percussions de Strasbourg

Simon Steen-Andersen pays tribute to Karlheinz Stockhausen by staging his dream of music in the belly…

In 1975, Karlheinz Stockhausen composed an enigmatic work for the Percussions de Strasbourg. The score contained more stage directions and didascules than music – and the music consisted of twelve melodies linked to the signs of the zodiac, the Tierkreis cycle, and embodied in music boxes that the composer had made himself. The idea for the piece and its title came from his daughter Julika’s surprise when, at the age of two, she discovered small noises inside her, stomach rumbling: “You have music in your belly”, he replied. A few years later, he suddenly woke up one morning after dreaming the play and put it down on paper.

Nearly fifty years after the composition and premiere of the work at the Royan Festival, the Percussions de Strasbourg asked Simon Steen-Andersen to imagine a new production. While remaining faithful to the score and without adding a single note, the Danish artist reveals a potential for today’s eyes and ears through the use of scenic processes and technologies directly inspired by other pieces by Stockhausen. A simple question guided his approach: what could Music in the belly have looked like in Stockhausen’s dream, before he even woke up?

The World Premiere took place on September 28th during the Musica Festival
Thank you to the enthusiastic audience who attended this beautiful evening!