On Thursday the 23rd of October a great collaboration between Akousma, Electrochoc and Tempo Reale came to fruition in the multimedia room of the Montreal conservatory. The lights go down, and an archive of music and sound is reactivated. The first piece of this program, dedicated to the late Luciano Berio’s one hundredth birthday, was in fact not by the Italian composer, but instead a work created by Simone Faraci and Francesco Giomi.
This work, called In-Naturale, drew from extensive ethnographic and folkloric archives that Berio collected over many years. The piece weaved together voices singing and playful, cartoonish calls. It begins with a simple folk melody that emerges from the back left corner of the room and slowly expands into a sweeping composition that harmonizes a French lullaby with a Russian folk song and fragmented acoustic instruments.
The next piece, Thema (Omaggio a Joyce), offered a glimpse into the remarkable collaboration between Berio and Cathy Berberian, one of the most accomplished and innovative singers of her time. Her voice begins speaking clearly at first, straight in front, then gradually shifts through the room.
The following piece, Chants Parallèles, struck me as far more contemplative. There’s greater ambiguity in the sources used in its creation; it floats between sounding like a soft synthesizer and, at times, a distant choral voice. The second half of this piece was particularly moving because of its sheer delicacy. This contrasted with the final piece, Visage, a theatrical tour de force. In this rare North American multi-channel presentation, it filled the entire room, once again featuring Berberian’s extraordinary talent, her voice shifting conversationally through grunts and gibberish.
This concert was a beautiful dedication to Luciano Berio. I have still heard very few things that sound anything like Berio’s music. He was a composer who reached both forward and back. He created something deeply complex yet so inviting, or ‘accogliente’, as Francesco Giomi put it.
