LA FÊTE SAUVAGE – FREDERIC ROSSIF & LUCIE ANTUNES

📅 November 9th Thursday – 8pm
📍 Théâtre de l’Espace, Les 2 Scènes, Besançon, France

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 wanted 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, attracting almost a million viewers.

The original music was written by Vangelis, a pioneer of electronic music. To give new life to this visual masterpiece, Lucie Antunes brings all the telluric energy that characterises her musical language. She has created this sound work for the Percussions de Strasbourg, augmented by an electronic musician (Axel Rigaud). For this leading ensemble of the European musical landscape, 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.

🎫 Info and booking ici.

MUSIC IN THE BELLY – KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN, SIMON STEEN-ANDERSEN

📅 November 16th Thursday – 8pm
📍 De Singel, Antwerpen, Belgium

In 1975 Karlheinz Stockhausen composed an enigmatic work for les Percussions de Strasbourg. The score contained more stage directions 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”, told his father. A few years later, he suddenly woke up one morning after dreaming the piece and put it down on paper.

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

🎫 Info and booking

More info on the piece here.

MYOTIS V, ANTHONY LAGUERRE & LES PERCUSSIONS DE STRASBOURG – ALBUM RELEASE

📅 November 10th Friday

MYOTIS V is a 34-minute journey into the heart of an amplified percussion device blending organic and electronic sounds. Following his solo MYOTIS (2019), Anthony Laguerre wished to extend his research to a group of percussionists. To get to the heart of the matter, he chose to work with an ensemble that already had its own sound. Les Percussions de Strasbourg and their history stood out, offering an immense field of possibilities. The sound of the piece is sublimated by their virtuosity and extraordinary interpretive skills.

As was already the case with MYOTIS, revealing the inaudible is one of MYOTIS V‘s main challenges. How do you make music out of unheard sounds by amplifying them with microphones? The composition uses sound as melody, enriched by rhythms played on skin and metal. This singular palette of sounds is the result of research blending the composer’s various influences, from rock energy to pianissimo nuances. Anthony Laguerre’s signature relies on a very wide amplitude of volume to develop its dramaturgy. The permanent tension and strong dynamics of MYOTIS V build its tribal, trance-like aspect. It’s a minimalist and powerful journey through musique concrète and raw energy, a thorny, caressing, moving landscape.

Label : Sérotine records
Anthony Laguerre : Composition, amplification et électronique
Léa Koster, Théo His-Mahier, François Papirer, Enrico Pedicone : Percussions

Recorded January 2022 at Théâtre de HautePierre (Strasbourg), by Anthony Laguerre and Stéphane Levigneront. Mixed in November 2022 by Anthony Laguerre at Shadyn Studio (Nancy). Mastered in December 2022 by Jean-François Hustin at Studio Organic (Liège).

Electroacoustic piece created for the Festival Météo (Mulhouse) in August 2021. Produced by association Motrice. Co-produced by Les Percussions de Strasbourg, Festival Météo, CCAM Vandoeuvre-Les-Nancy, Ville de Nancy with support from CNM, sacem, DRAC and Région Grand Est.