Benedictus & Baudelaire: L'examen de minuit

Jean-François Charles and the incredible LIGAMENT duo release Benedictus, a powerful mash-up of the latin text and Charles Baudelaire's poem L'examen de minuit (Midnight Examination), from Les Fleurs du Mal (Flowers of Evil).
The single showcases the stellar soprano Anika Kildegaard and the wild bassist Will Yager.

Update December 2023: the song was re-recorded and is included in the album Missa brevis Abbaye de Thélème.

Reactions

"Sacré Baudelaire! The poem's tragi-satirical lighting has spared no one... and is still hot! The sound is just as irreverent (and addictive); familiar cues appear to be better disoriented... Acerbic!" — DM

"Anika Kildegaard's voice is furiously vibrant & sweetly cruel. Will Yager, in a desperate attempt at brightening the darkness, is setting his bass on fire. LIGAMENT are perfect in this intoxicating Flower of Evil." — CE

Lyrics

Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini ;
Hosanna in excelsis.

La pendule, sonnant minuit,
Ironiquement nous engage
À nous rappeler quel usage
Nous fîmes du jour qui s'enfuit:
— Aujourd'hui, date fatidique,
Vendredi, treize, nous avons,
Malgré tout ce que nous savons,
Mené le train d'un hérétique.

Nous avons blasphémé Jésus,
Des Dieux le plus incontestable !
Comme un parasite à la table
De quelque monstrueux Crésus,
Nous avons, pour plaire à la brute,
Digne vassale des Démons,
Insulté ce que nous aimons
Et flatté ce qui nous rebute ;

Contristé, servile bourreau,
Le faible qu'à tort on méprise ;
Salué l'énorme Bêtise,
La Bêtise au front de taureau ;
Baisé, baisé, baisé,
Baisé la stupide Matière
Baisé, avec grande dévotion,
Baisé,
Et de la putréfaction
Béni, béni la blafarde lumière.

Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini ;
Hosanna in excelsis.

Enfin, nous avons, pour noyer
Le vertige dans le délire,
Nous, prêtre orgueilleux de la Lyre,
Dont la gloire est de déployer
L'ivresse, l'ivresse, l'ivresse,
L'ivresse des choses funèbres,
L'ivresse, avec grande dévotion,
L'ivresse,
Bu sans soif et mangé sans faim !...
Délire, délire pour noyer le vertige !

— Vite soufflons la lampe, afin
De nous cacher dans les ténèbres !

For four translations of Baudelaire's original poem, visit this Examen de Minuit page.

Credits

Performed by LIGAMENT
Voice: Anika Kildegaard
Double bass: Will Yager

Composition & Production: Jean-François Charles
Text after the Roman Sanctus, and Charles Baudelaire's poem L'examen de minuit, from Les Fleurs du Mal

Recorded July 2020 in Iowa City by James Edel, Will Yager, and Anika Kildegaard
Mixed & mastered August 2020 by James Edel

Photography & Graphic Design: Marc Dannenhoffer

Behind the scenes

Anika, Will and I had the honor of being invited on Justin Comer's show: iHearIC radio show with LIGAMENT. Listen to get exclusive information on how this song was made and recorded!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Max for Live: Extreme Time Stretching with Spectral Stretch

Image
There are many ways to achieve audio time stretching without transposition . Some time-based methods build on Pierre Schaefer 's Phonogène . Another approach consists in processing the sound in spectral domain, using a phase vocoder . In this case, the audio samples are converted to spectral data through a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). Then, even if we focus on extreme time stretching, the details of the phase vocoder implementation have important consequences on the sound quality and the tool's flexibility for live usage. Before introducing the Max for Live device Spectral Stretch, let's have a look at a selection of four possible algorithms: Paulstretch Max Live Phase Vocoder Interpolation between recorded spectra Stochastic Re-synthesis from a recorded sonogram Paulstretch Paul's Extreme Sound Stretch , also known as Paulstretch , is an algorithm designed by Paul Nasca for extreme time stretching. You might have heard one application already: to this date,
Read more

GroundSwell 2020 Emerging Composers Competition

Image
Groundswell is a wonderful organization dedicated to the development of new music in Winnipeg and the Province of Manitoba, Canada. I've been invited to serve as a member of the committee for their first electroacoustic music competition, along with composer Margaret Schedel and composer William Brunson . It's been a fun and quite interesting adventure. We listened to more than two dozen compositions. I wish we could have included more than 5 finalists: there were a number of atypical nice compositions. To listen, head to the competition page . You'll find links to the finalists' music.
Read more

A Free Tutorial on Spectral Sound Processing Using Max/MSP and Jitter

Image
When I discovered electronic music during the Centre Acanthes 2000/Ircam , my favorite topic was real time sound processing in frequency domain. Hans Tutschku taught the wonders of AudioSculpt in Avignon, before Benjamin Thigpen taught Max/MSP in Helsinki. Now, the Computer Music Journal just published an article I wrote about spectral sound processing in real time and performance time ( whereas real-time treatments are applied on a live sound stream, performance-time treatments are transformations of sound files that are generated during a performance ). If you are interested in graphical sound synthesis, phase vocoder , and sonograms (or spectrograms) , I hope you will enjoy this tutorial. The great news is that you can download the article for free on the page of the Computer Music Journal, Issue 32, Volume 3 . Max/MSP/Jitter patches You can readily apply the described techniques in the development environment Max/MSP/Jitter . For a hands-on approach, make sure you download t
Read more