creation : 10/12/94, Festival « 38ème Rugissants », Grenoble (France)
musicians : 6 percussionists et 1 djembe
duration : 20 ‘
Autres contacts were composed for Les Percussions de Strasbourg and the African griot Adama Dramé.
This meeting is a challenge: to combine two musical practices that are as foreign as the cultures from which they originate. On the one hand the oral tradition (music is transmitted by ear, imitation and improvisation play a predominant role), on the other hand the contemporary expression of the “learned” Western tradition (music is written, the work is signed by a composer).
The aim is not to achieve a fusion but a conversation within a cohabitation, with the surprises, disagreements, arguments and agreements that this entails.
The title alludes to the desire to meet cultures other than one’s own, but also to the search for other forms of contact with the instruments one plays.
“While the melodies or harmonies inherent in one culture sometimes have difficulty blending with other musical cultures without losing some of their essence, rhythm, on the other hand, or the division of time into equal or unequal spaces, allows for many encounters.
Rhythm and percussion being first cousins, the idea of making African culture and contemporary European culture converse through percussion seems relevant!
And when it comes to musicians like Adama Dramé and Les Percussions de Strasbourg, all hopes are high! For they have in common not only the drum and the infinite network of rhythms, but also the high variety of sounds and, an invaluable quality, enthusiasm. Because on these elements the projected work would like to build on in order to try to achieve the happiness of playing and communicating to the listeners. On the instrumental level, the lesson of the Djembe will be learnt: to obtain from a single instrument a maximum of sounds through the variety of techniques. So very concentrated material for the group, and virtuosity in the changes of attack. As for the Music, the aim will not be to achieve a fusion, but a conversation within the cohabitation, with the surprises, disagreements, arguments and, hopefully, the chords that this entails”.
Jean-Pierre Drouet