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Showing posts from 2014

A couple of 2015 projects

A couple of projects coming up for 2015: Composition of a new piece for the Austrian Bass Clarinet club, a bass clarinet sextet led by the amazing Petra Stump & Heinz-Peter Linshalm; Performance during the Electr[o]cution interactive music festival in Brest, in the Spring; Première of Electroclarinet 4, for Eb clarinet & (analog) live electronics; Design & composition of an interactive alpine cow bell... presentation in July, in the Alps. I'll let you know more about these in the coming months. Enjoy the end of 2014!

Electroclarinet 6 - from manuscript to score

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Looking for the studio album? Visit www.electroclarinet.com After the recording , here are a couple of pictures, from the early sketches to the score: Part I , first sketch & score: Part II , from my pocket notebook: Part III , sketch & score excerpt:

Electroclarinet 6 - listen online

Looking for the studio album? Visit www.electroclarinet.com After the première of Electroclarinet 6 in November , I just posted a recording online. The composition is articulated in three parts: Part I: 0:00 to 6:15 Part II: 6:15 to 9:25 Part III: 9:25 to 14:06

More bass clarinet coming up

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Monday, last week in Helsinki, in the green room before the première of Electroclarinet 6: the clarinet fixing kit was precious when it came to fine-tuning this old Buffet bass clarinet! I had a wonderful time in Finland, where I met with great musicians and artists. Expect more about this musical trip in upcoming posts. In the meantime, I am performing Electroclarinet 6, for bass clarinet & live electronics , on Friday, November 28th, in Brest. Hope to see you there!

Electroclarinet 6 premièred at MuteFest'14

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Looking for the studio album? Visit www.electroclarinet.com On Monday, November 17th, I'll be performing in Helsinki, in the beautiful "Black Box" space at the Sibelius Academy, during the MuteFest'14 electronic music festival . Information is also available here, in Finnish . I'm looking forward to meeting the academy's dynamic artistic community, as well as cellist Émilie Girard-Charest, who is performing on Monday, too . Program notes I'm going to première Electroclarinet 6 , for bass clarinet & live electronics, and perform Electroclarinet 5 , as well. Tentative program notes: Electroclarinet 5 is a composition for clarinet & live electronics, and an homage to Igor Stravinsky . The score is built around four motives directly inspired by Stravinsky's Three Pieces for Clarinet solo and Piano-Rag-Music . The performer plays around the score, following paths of her/his choice, or adventuring out of the suggested paths. The live electroni

Workshop on Musical Timbre

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I'm looking forward to meeting a number of friends of mine in Paris tomorrow, for a Workshop on Musical Timbre , at the invitation of Juan Bello .

Jam at Espace Léo Ferré

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Two musical evenings celebrating the 20 years of the Léo Ferré space . On stage Wednesday, Nov. 12th, 9 p.m.: Nikolaz Cadoret, harp & electronics Jean-Philippe Le Coz, tuba & trombone François Lucas, saxophone, oboe, English horn & electronics Céline Rivoal, accordion Christian Sarrau, saxophone & electronics Jean-François Charles, clarinets & electronics And of course, our host: Thierry Tremintin, drums

10th International Biennial for Electroacoustic Music of São Paulo

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Yesterday opened the 10th International Biennial for Electroacoustic Music of São Paulo, organized by composer Flo Menezes , the founder of the Studio PANaroma de Música Eletroacústica . Check out below the amazing program, including the projection of Stockhausen's Hymnen in a 52 speaker sound theater! I had the great pleasure to meet Flo Menezes in Kürten, Deutschland, when I attended the Stockhausen courses for the first time. Flo Menezes is as generous as his music; his experience and knowledge is immense, and he is always ready to share with musicians and students. Nova Ars Subtilior Last year, Wolke Verlag published Flo Menezes's new book: Nova Ars Subtilior - Essays zur maximaoistischen Musik . The book includes all of Menezes's Cologne lectures, as well as a conversation with editor Ralph Paland, in German. Menezes wrote other essays in English, about not only maximalist music , but also electroacoustic music, music and politics, Adorno, time in music, and mor

Del vero e del falso: Daniele Bravi's new album

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I met composer Daniele Bravi in Roma, at the Villa Medici , when we were both participating in a one-week workshop with Pascal Dusapin . We had a great time there, sharing lively musical talks, and exploring instrumental possibilities on the clarinet that would match a spectral compositional approach. Then, we spent a lot of time together when we were studying with Ivan Fedele at Strasbourg Conservatory . I am delighted to bring to your attention a new monographic album with Daniele Bravi's music: Del veto e del falso - The True & The False . You are going to discover beautiful piano colors in Lettere dal manicomio... , while Meditazione Quarta is full of very nice timbre combinations: Daniele has always been very attentive to the inner ligfe of the sounds in his works. Personally, I was thrilled to hear the bass clarinet solo Aris : clarinetist Roberta Gottardi plays beautifully, with delicate, refined multiphonic sounds. It reminded me the days we shared when we played

The Stump-Linshalm duo: master class for contemporary music 2014

Tomorrow, the Stump-Linshalm duo open their course for contemporary clarinet- and bass clarinet music in Mürzzuschlag (Austria) . Petra Stump and Heinz-Peter Linshalm are awesome clarinetists & musicians dedicated to new music. We met when we took part to summer Stockhausen courses. I was later delighted to contribute to their project ShortCuts . Check out the International Bass Clarinet Research Center 's home page: this month, their album is the featured recording! Never-ending musical transformations Listen to Petra & Heinz-Peter performing composer Ming Wang's piece Verwandlung ("transformation" or "metamorphosis") during the Tage der Neuen Musik Burghausen in July: Brand new music!

Prisma meeting - summer 2014

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This afternoon, I'm presenting at Ircam the interactive machine learning dimensions in my composition Electroclarinet 5 . I'm going to show how I use the Max environment and spectral analysis to route an audio stream to different sound processing channels depending on recognized timbre. I'm looking forward to this meeting of composers, and to learning from talks like: New interpolators for PWGL by Julien Vincenot installation at a Moholy-Nagy exhibition in Berlin , An EAM composition for a swimming pool and A live electronic piece for violin, "Sundogs" by Örjan Sandred École de la création by Jacopo Baboni Schilingi and more... In case you're interested, don't hesitate to contact me, there should still be possibilities to get an invitation.

Fête de la musique with Ensemble Sillages

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Today is the Fête de la musique in France and around the world, as every 21st of June since 1982. Tonight, I'll be performing Electroclarinet 5 and excerpts from Electroclarinet 6 , as well as improvised music with saxophonist Stéphane Sordet . We are playing at the invitation of the contemporary music ensemble Ensemble Sillages . Here is the schedule: Brest, SNCF train station 5 p.m. Jean-François Charles: clarinets, objects & electronics; Stéphane Sordet: saxophones. Brest, rue Étienne Dolet Stage shared with Penn ar Jazz and the Brest Conservatory 5 p.m. jazz students from Brest conservatory 7:15 p.m. ensemble Sillages Stéphane Sordet/Jean-François Charles 8 p.m. Christophe Rocher & Frédéric Briet (creative jazz) 8:30 p.m. Plus d’amour 9 p.m. Moon swing 9:50 p.m. Rrrr + duo Lucas / Trémentin (free jazz/impro) 10:30 p.m. Duo Descofar (revisited celtic music) 11:15 p.m. No pilot (repetitive electronic noise)

Insa Music Studies: 30th anniversary

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The musique études section at the National Institute for Applied Sciences in Lyon celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. The final event consists in a free concert this Sunday, with a program dedicated to Jaco Pastorius . See the concert's poster, and below a couple of links to learn more about the INSA and the Music Studies section. Insa: les 1001 facettes de l'excellence de l' ingénieur : an article in the French Grandes Écoles Journal; Article in the February edition of envue , the school's information letter; The AMI, Association musicale de l'Insa is the dynamic student organization which organizes concerts throughouth the year - a great way for members to learn a lot about artistic events management - and to have fun! La Rotonde , a 400-seat concert hall run completely by a student organization, from booking to the sound & lighting system; The Insatiable is the students' paper. They released a special edition covering the Music Studies a

Tremplin Jeunes en Scènes helps new talents

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Tonight, I have the honor of serving as one of three judges in the competition organized by Pass Musique in Guipavas, near Brest, France. With music producers Ted from Rennes and Cédric Fautrel from Brest, we are going to listen to five groups and five singers, in genres going from rock to pop to hip-hop. See below the presentation of the artists, before listening to them tonight!

When the computer learns how to listen

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After his talk at Telecom Bretagne yesterday , Juan Bello is presenting his work this afternoon during the first Electrocution music festival . Come to the conference, and stay for the concert: it features great music for solo instruments and electronics, including Huayra-Yana , a creation by composer Javier Torres Maldonado for saxophonist Stéphane Sordet .

Conference on Music Information Retrieval in Brest

I'm delighted to invite you this afternoon to a Conference by Juan Bello at Telecom Bretagne . Juan Bello is an associate professor in Music Technology at New York University, more precisely at the Music & Audio Research Lab . During this talk entitled Designing and Learning Features for Music Information Retrieval , Juan will mix music & computer science to explain processes like chord recognition, cover song identification, or music structure analysis. This conference is made possible by the Fulbright France commission , and by Ramesh PYNDIAH at Telecom Bretagne. Juan Bello is a fulbrighter, currently in residence at Telecom Paris .

Mahler Entre Sable et Ciel

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Last Sunday, I had the great pleasure to play the bass clarinet in Mahler's Lieder einer fahrenden Gesellen , with the Ensemble Entre Sable et Ciel orchestra in Brest, next to clarinetists Christophe Dravers and Michel Dissegna. Wonderful guests performed with the orchestra: singer Marc Scoffoni and pianist Yun-Yang Lee , who connected deeply with the audience. Next concert, on Sunday April 13th, features Brahms's Trio for clarinet, cello and piano, and Sibelius's 5th symphony.

Composition with live electronics at Composit 2014

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Two years ago, I was very excited to announce Composit 2012, a new music festival with composition courses , organized at the initiative of my friend composer Davide Ianni. In 2014, the project is expanding: the courses include a new live electronic music workshop. Students are going to write for solo instrument & live electronics, with their composition rehearsed and performed during the summer - solo instrument may be violin/viola d'amore, accordion, or classical guitar/electric guitar. Plus, with Emmanuel Jourdan as faculty, you have a first class Max specialist to help everyone get the electronics done, and ready for the concert. It might not be too late to apply for this great summer course, offering to learn with senior composers Joshua Fineberg and Philippe Leroux . Visit the Composit web site to get the details, and do not hesitate to ask any question: the organizers of this even are wonderful and really passionate about new music.

Syhamo and Sy~

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As I mentioned in an earlier post, sculptor Oscar Wiggli is passionate about sounds . This passion, plus his wife Janine's interest in electronics, led to the creation of the Syhamo, a synthesizer interacting with its environment, the kind of project that was not so common at the beginning of the 1980s. Last year, I had the great pleasure to see three students build and program a new version of the Syhamo: they called it Sy~ . Together, we visited the Wigglis in Switzerland - see Antonin Segault's report with pictures of the actual Syhamo . The visual dimension The original Syhamo creates music reacting to temperature, distance from users, a.o. How the Syhamo works: cover of the book Syhamo , published by Iroise . The Sy~ goes further by synthesizing visuals as well as sounds. Here are examples from the original beta version: Sy~ demo from Camille Henriot on Vimeo . Art & Glitch I was thrilled to learn that the three young professionals who created the Sy~ (Cam

Oscar Wiggli, a sculptor and a composer

On Friday, January 31st, director Claude Stadelmann presents his documentary about sculptor & composer Oscar Wiggli at the Théâtre de l'ABC in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. The movie is shown at 6:15 p.m., followed by a concert of Wiggli's electroacoustic music at 8:30 ( more information ). Accompanying three outstanding multimedia students last year in Switzerland, I had the great pleasure to meet Oscar Wiggli and his wife Janine, as well as Claude Stadelmann. Next week, I'll tell you more about this visit and about the Syhamo . Sound lavis In this nice excerpt from the film , Oscar Wiggli is creating a sound lavis , i.e. a graphical creation in which he hears sound. Check out from 0:58 when he explains his work:

Tonight: homage to composer Christophe Bertrand

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I met Christophe Bertrand at the Strasbourg conservatory : we both studied with composer Ivan Fedele . We also worked in the same ARES music school . Unfortunately, Christophe decided to leave this world in 2010. Tonight, you are invited to a concert of his beautiful and energetic music. Two contemporary classical music ensembles join forces for this unique event: In Extremis (co-founded by Christophe Bertrand) and Court-Circuit . Special thought for the In Extremis musicians: we shared intense musical time in the East of France, especially with violinist Szuhwa Wu, flutist Olivier Class, pianist Maxime Springer, and cellist Anil Eraslan. Concert at 8 p.m. Monday, January 20th, 2014 Studio 105, Radio France 116 avenue du Président Kennedy, 75016 Paris Porte B Free entrance. If you can't make it to the concert hall, listen to the live broadcast on France-Musique radio !

Usine presentation: software for music interaction

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Usine Hollyhock is made for musical interaction. In the panorama of music software, it lies somewhere in between Ableton Live & Max . Chief developer of Usine , Olivier Sens is invited in Brest as contrabass player, composer, and improviser, to perform with dancer and choreographer Dominique Jégou in festival Désordre (see also the Désordre poster ). They are also leading an improvisation workshop . Usine software presentation in Brest I'm delighted to announce that Olivier Sens accepted to present the Usine software at the Brest conservatory . You are invited! The interactive presentation happens on Monday, January 20th, at 6:30 p.m., room Bergot 206 (1, rue Chatellier), Brest (France) . Free entrance, plus bring your music instrument for a chance to experience novel musical interactions!