Jean-Francois Charles

Magma is a composition for contrabass clarinet, stones, and live electronics. I received the commission in 2003 from Ensemble Accroche Note (France) and the Dresden Centre of Contemporary Music (DZzM, Germany) for the exciting project ExperimentMusikTheater . This concert featured new music ensembles from several European countries. The whole event took place in October 2003, during the 17th "Dresdner Tage der zeitgenössischen Musik", in the freshly rebuilt Hellerau . We spent a week of rehearsals with Armand Angster (clarinets), Françoise Kubler (voice, percussion), Jean-Daniel Hégé (double bass, stones), the dancer Michel Kelemenis, and the two other composers who wrote for the group, Philippe Legoff and Gérard Condé. The "bed and breakfast" was a place for creative discussions, while we ate an excellent rösti in the simple Swiss restaurant close to the concert hall. The score of Magma gathers six classes of sounds: Explosion - Ébullition - Expansion - Érosio...

As from September, I will be leading the Dudley Big Band , as well as another group, the Dudley Third Stream . This latter group will feature: String quartet (2 violins, viola, cello) Upright bass And possibly: Electric guitar with multi-effects Winds to be determined, members of the Big Band or not: flute clarinet (if it's me, possibly doubling bass, contrabass, etc.) sax(s) (anybody playing the soprano out there?) flugelhorn horn bassoon Percussion (possibly multi-percussion, "ethnic" instruments, and why not jazz drums) Possibility of live electronics If you want to compose or experiment a piece at the border between notation and improvisation, classical and jazz, serious and fun, it is the place to come! Examples of projects: written piece for the strings, a solo wind improviser collective improvisation with directions arrangement of an existing piece of music (plain chant, classical, pop music or other...) piece featuring a special guest or yourself (turntables...