Création : 06/10/2018, Théâtre de Hautepierre, Strasbourg, France
Duration : 60′
Command : Percussions de Strasbourg and the Musica Festival
Musicians : 10 percussionists, and many amateur musicians.
Isochronous: the term may be off-putting at first. The dictionary defines it as “taking place in equal intervals of time”. But in Franck Tortiller’s hands, this not very poetic notion takes on an exhilarating playful dimension. The idea is to play with the number 80: eighty beats per minute, the “beat of a healthy heart”, as the project’s project manager jokes. The regular impacts of the instruments first impose an implacable tempo. Then, through subtle rhythmic modulations, this pulse evolves, decelerates, accelerates to a frenzy, while remaining underpinned by the cadence of eighty beats per minute. This dream of taming time goes hand in hand with a blaze of timbres and harmonies, in which keyboards (vibraphone, marimba, xylophone, electronic keyboard) play a leading role. This is hardly surprising from F. Tortiller, a virtuoso vibraphonist whose improvisations are based on a technique forged during his solid classical studies. However, the group is not motivated by the desire to showcase ‘his’ instrument, but by the desire to renew the sound of the traditional big band. The percussion-keyboards, usually treated as soloists, form here a real section with unprecedented colours, and join with the other “strikers, punchers, caressers, dancers who breathe without blowing”. Combining the directive nature of the writing with the freedom of improvisation, mixing experienced musicians with up-and-coming practitioners, Isokrony 2 illustrates the phrase of Françoise Sagan that F. Tortiller chose as his credo: “Youth is the only reasonable generation. “