MANASONICS //
/ L'ENSEMBLE ITINERAIRE
This project was born out of a meeting between Benoît Delbecq (Bureau de Son Paris) and the artistic directors of Ensemble l'Itinéraire, Lucia Peralta and Grégoire Lorieux.
The aim is to celebrate different approaches to contemporary musical practice, by bringing together a trio of master-improvisers, Manasonics (Steve Argüelles, drums, usine - Nicolas Becker - sound design, modular - and Benoît Delbecq on piano and electronics), with a trio of three performers from the essential Itinéraire ensemble. Playing works by Scelsi, as well as MedekšaitÄ—, Delbecq, and Manasonics, which will be a world premieres.
As well as inventing new ways of writing and improvising, Egedijia MedekšaitÄ—, Benoît Delbecq and all the musicians will be designing compositions, phrases and timbres in which everything seems to be one, like a suit of fine cloth - futuristic, ambitious music, jostled with recycled samples and memories.
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25.
11 //
samedi
SONIC ART RESEARCH CENTRE
/ BELFAST
Cloreen Park,
Belfast BT9 5HN, UK
19h30
PREMIERES BY //
/ EGIDIJA MEDEKSAITE
BENOIT DELBECQ
MANASONICS
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WORKS BY //
/ GIACINTO SCLESI
Ensemble l’Itinéraire (Paris)
Julie Brunet-Jailly, flute
Juliette Adam, clarinet
Lucia Peralta, viola
Manasonics (Paris)
Steve Argüelles, percussion, disklavier/ usine
Nicolas Becker, sound design, foley, field recordings
Benoît Delbecq, piano, electronics
Yohann Henry, sound engineer
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Egidijia MedekšaitÄ—
TEKSTIL 1
for two pianos (disklavier and piano), 2017
Asavari for flute, clarinet, viola, piano, e-bows, percussion - premiere
Giacinto Scelsi
KHO-LO
for clarinet and flute
Benoît Delbecq
THE FIRS OF CATHEDRAL GROVE
for flute, clarinet, viola, piano, percussion, foley and electronics - premiere
Manasonics
SATIN THREADS
Manasonics trio plus flute, clarinet and viola – premiere
Manasonics
TWO PIECES
by Manasonics trio.
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30.
11 //
jeudi
ATELIER DU PLATEAU
/ PARIS
5, rue du Plateau Paris 19
19h
07.
12 //
jeudi
ABDIJKERK
/ GRIMBERGEN
Kerkplein 1, 1850 Grimbergen
Belgium
20h30
EGIDIJA MEDEKSAITE //
/ COMPOSER
Dr Egidija MedekšaitÄ— (b.1979) is based in Durham (England). She has received a PhD in composition from the Durham University by Prof. Richard Rinjvos and Dr Sam Hayden in 2016.
She studied composition at the universities of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (Prof. Rytis Mažulis), and Stuttgart Academy of Music, where her teachers included Marco Stroppa and Caspar J. Walter. In 2003 she took part in the Programme of Composition and Music Technology in Tampere (Finland). In 2004 she attended master classes in Istebna (Poland), Dundaga (Latvia) and the Acanthes Composition Workshop in Metz (France), where she studied with Jonathan Harvey, Philippe Manoury and Martin Matalon. The composer participates in various interdisciplinary projects, writes music for dance performances and movies, her music is constantly performed in contemporary music festivals in Lithuania and abroad.
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Egidija MedekšaitÄ— composes mostly chamber music, often combining acoustic and electronic sound. One of the most important underlying principles in her work is strict organization of all parameters of music, based on some predefined patterns (progressions of pitches or durations, different numerological prodecures, etc). However, MedekšaitÄ—’s music sounds more as a meditative flow than mathematically built structures.MedekšaitÄ—’s music was performed by Quatuor Bozzini (Canada), Apartment House (UK), Ruthless Jabiru (UK), Lithuanian National Symphony orchestra (Lithuania), chamber choir "Jauna muzika" (Lithuania), Stuttgart Vocal Ensemble (Germany), string quartet "The Smith quartet" (UK), string quartet "Chordos" (Lithuania), cellist Anton Lukoszevieze (UK), ensemble "Oneplusone" (Latvia), bassoon quartet "Vilniaus fagotynas" (Lithuania), orkest de Volhardong (Netherlands), Šv. Kristoforo chamber string orchestra (Lithuania), vocal group „Cosmos“ (Latvia).
BENOIT DELBECQ //
Fascinated by the subtle constructions of Aka pygmy music, by those of his mentors Steve Coleman, Mal Waldron, Steve Lacy and György Ligeti, Benoît Delbecq has successfully conceived a personal compositional and instrumental toolkit, nurtured by calligraphy, linguistic and sound engineering studies, mathematics of proportion and science in the broader sense, as well as a passion for playing subtle and elegant polyrhythmic worlds.
On the piano, which he partially prepares with wood and blue tack, he has brought the soul of jazz to the John Cage prepared piano. When using electronics, he transforms his keyboards into a drum'n bass device. Marked at a very young age by the creative toolkits of the Oulipo and the Bauhaus, as well as by the musicological work of Bela Bartok, the entire history of jazz and folk music worldwide, Delbecq is fond of compositional constraints which he recycles into his improvised playing. By creating his own functionalities as of poetic tools, he thus brings his quest for organic music into his own extended techniques, that he branches out towards the collective.
STEVE ARGUELLES //
Starting out as a teenager in England with youth orchestras which were part of the British jazz scene, later joining groups led by John Taylor, Lee Konitz, Dudu Pukwana and important associations with musicians such as Steve Lacy, Alex Balanescu, Shirley Horn, Hugh Masekela and Ronnie Scott. Together with pianist Django Bates, he formed the group `Human Chain’, and they became key figures in the legendary British big-band `Loose Tubes’ who continue to inspire a new generation of young British jazz musicians today. This led to Steve becoming one of the most in demand drummers in Europe.
In 1991 he moved to Paris and began regular collaborations with Benoît Delbecq, Noël Akchoté, Marc Ducret and Corin Curschellas, as well as leading a quintet with his brother saxophonist Julian Argüelles. His experience as a producer developed from recording his own records (Steve Argüelles Quintet, The Recyclers) and then albums for the Swiss singer Corin Curschellas. In 2000, when The Recyclers began a 5-year collaboration with the French singer Katerine, he launched the label Plush, an influential reference for electro jazz and, as a result, artists such as Dhafer Youssef, Omar Sosa and Ashley Slater became part of an impressive roster of innovative recording artists seeking Steve’s production skills on their records. Omar Sosa’s album ‘Mulatos’ was nominated for a Grammy award.
His compositions are marked by a very original sense of musical time doubled with a rare melodic inventiveness that continues to influence the international scene, his unique playing style and sound at the drumset as well as his use of on-the-fly electronics are at the forefront of today's evolutions of music.
NICOLAS BECKER //
Has more than 270 motion pictures to his credit. His field of action has gradually expanded and he has naturally turned to sound design and, together with Manasonics, composition and live performing. A poet of sound associated to image, he was awarded the Oscar for Best Sound at the 2021 American Academy Awards for the film The Sound of Metal. He also collaborates with visual artists, such as Philippe Parreno, for whom he has been designing the entire sound environment of numerous installations since 2004. He collaborates with audio processing companies, and is leading a research program for the perception and subtitling of a sound codification intended for the deaf and hard of hearing. Delbecq and Argüelles have first collaborated with Becker in 2007 for the Banlieues Bleues Festival which led to the birth of Manasonics as well as the Bureau de Son organization.
L'Ensemble Itinéraire
The iconic new music parisian ensemble was founded in January 1973 by composers Tristan Murail and Roger Tessier. With the participation of composers Michaël Levinas, Hugues Dufourt, Gérard Grisey and François Bousch, it has continued to multiply its collaborations with living composers.
l'Itinéraire proposed from its beginnings to promote the music of young composers resolutely turned towards the future. Immediately encouraged by Olivier Messiaen, the collective encountered difficulties in integrating into the French musical milieu. A victim of political rather than aesthetic conflicts, it became the subject of polemics and the pretext for quarrels between strong personalities, while facing official institutions that were rather suspicious of innovative artistic projects. However, the talent and perseverance of the founders contributed to imposing the Collective's brand from the very first season. The collegiality, inspired by the events of May 1968, and the close collaboration between the musicians have been beneficial to a group that has developed a new way of thinking over the years.
For more than forty years, hundreds of works have been created by an ensemble who operates from solo to large orchestras and therefore remains at the forefront of the scene by renewing its line-up of internationally renowned soloists.
Today, there are two artistic directors, violist Lucia Peralta and composer Grégoire Lorieux. The ensemble was recently at the centre of the Présences Festival (Radio-France) in 2022 where they premiered works as well as performed a retrospective of Tristan Murail’s works.
Each project of l’Itinéraire involves different players who belong to the Ensemble. For this project, the players will be :
Julie Brunet-Jailly, flute
Juliette Adam, clarinet
Lucia Peralta, viola
JULIETTE ADAM //
Born in 1992, Juliette Adam began studying music at the Reims Conservatory, then continued her musical career with a DEM (Diploma of Musical Studies) in Paris. She was admitted to the CNSM in Paris in 2013 and is currently studying clarinet with Philippe Berrod and Arnaud Leroy and bass clarinet with Alain Billard.Passionate about chamber music, Juliette Adam quickly became interested in the reed trio repertoire. She won the Jeunes Talents prize at the Flâneries Musicales de Reims in 2011, and performs in the festival. Juliette is involved in many groups. She performs in sonatas with piano, in wind serenades, in wind quintet, but also with string quartet, like the Mozart quintet at the Jeunes Talents concerts.Juliette Adam also collaborates with orchestras in Paris, such as the Pasdeloup orchestra, with whom she has played at Pleyel, at the Châtelet, or the film music orchestra SPO (sinfonia pop orchestra), notably in a concert for Pixar at the Palais des Congrès. She also collaborates with the contemporary ensemble "regards".Juliette participates in several transdisciplinary projects with both dancers and circus artists. She is currently touring with the Compagnie par terre's show "bal.exe", a hip-hop dance based on Brahms' Clarinet Quintet.She remains open to other musical styles, she is currently taking classes in generative improvisation and instrumental theatre at the conservatory, and has been part of a Balkan and Klezmer music group since 2010 in Reims.For Juliette, music is a way of sharing, hence her involvement in chamber music and orchestra, but it is also a means of communication that can enter into communion with other arts, hence her interest in transdisciplinary projects.
LUCIA PERALTA //
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Born in Colombia into a family of musicians, Lucia Peralta first studied at the Bogotá Conservatory. Spotted at an early age by the violinist Alberto Lysy, she was invited to study at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad, Switzerland. She then moved to Paris, where she continued her studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, in the viola class of Jean Sulem and the chamber music class of Pierre-Laurent Aimard.His artistic activity extends over a wide range of musical horizons. His interest in historical interpretation leads him to play regularly with ensembles such as Les Arts Florissants, the Orchestre des Champs Elysées, La Chambre Philharmonique or Les Talens Lyriques, under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe, Emmanuel Krivine, Christophe Rousset, William Christie, among others. In addition, an important part of his artistic activity is devoted to contemporary music. As a member of the ensemble L'Itinéraire since 2002, she has performed in the most important concert halls in France and abroad, notably participating in numerous premieres. She collaborates with the ensembles TM+, Court-circuit, Le Balcon, Aleph...She teaches viola at the Claude Debussy Municipal Conservatory in Paris.
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JULIE BRUNET - JAILLY
Bureau de Son
101, avenue de Clichy
F-75017 PARIS
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Artistic direction
Bureau de Son for this project:
Benoît Delbecq
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Artistic direction
L’Itinéraire for this project:
Lucia Peralta
Administration: Charlène Pré / Rythmatik for Bureau de Son