It is still early days in this third edition of La Semaine du Neuf, but it would be easy to imagine the Architek Percussion and Contrechamps performances being counted among the more captivating. The programming ranged from groove based interlocking percussive textures and hypnotic metallic ringing to overstimulating 3D avatars projected on a screen interacting with a mixed ensemble who reacted to its every facial cue and whimsical thought. This is a downright bizarre sentence to see written out, I’m sure, but it is more or what happened on the night.
Architek Percussion kicked things off with the piece The brown gardener by Alexandre Babel. The four percussionists, sitting in a circle, would cycle through various objects that explored “poor” sounds courtesy of materials that could feasibly make up a bird nest. This took the form of planks of wood, sheets of metal, and cardboard squares that would get tapped on with thin sticks and mallets. The players would play and quickly swap out different materials which hung from a metal frame as the piece unfolded. It ended with the four of them ringing out notes on thick-ish metal squares producing sounds reminiscent of Tibetan singing bowls. Musically, it was my favourite piece of the night.
Next, the Contrechamps ensemble who had traveled from Switzerland, performed Crxssfaaz by Nicole Lizée. (Funnily enough, during the preamble the artistic director of the ensemble, Serge Vuille, admitted that he did not know how this title was actually pronounced). The piece was written for mixed ensemble, video, and electronics with the video itself being a rather involved affair with a lot of editing in the way of quick cuts, and collage effects and mostly centering around a turntable with two characters lying face up on the floor with mouths agape. The instrumentation itself consisted of cello, viola, electric guitar, flute, clarinet, a vacuum cleaner, and cereal bowls with metal spoons with the guitar playing more than a few mean licks.
They followed this up with the last piece of the evening: Autorretrato Extendido, by Daniel Zea. Zea, sitting in the middle of the ensemble, would project a 3D avatar of his face and control the image with his own facial movements that were being captured in real time. These facial movements then influenced the scores of the musicians with real time instruction being influenced by Zea’s choices; but so too did other 3D renderings that would orbit the computer generated head of Zea and pop in seemingly at random.
For example, when an image of Mario appeared, the ensemble began to play the New York plumber’s iconic theme song. The image of Mario would give way to Spider-Man and then a gimp mask, a handgun, a wad of cash, different kinds of whisky, and a slew of other 3D images before feathers grew from the avatar’s face and exploded, transforming itself into a housefly. All the while, the ensemble matched the images in intensity. A wild, and very loud affair at times, but attention grabbing in every way. I was particularly drawn in by the use of the deep grumbly bass clarinet.
There is much more Semaine du Neuf to discover but I would say the festival is already living up to its promise. Putting aside the fact that all three pieces were premieres, I definitely got the impression I was sitting through pieces that were original and new. Indeed, we’re off to an excellent start.
