You stroll through the corridors of the Chapelle Cité-des-Hospitalières, between the low-pitched drones of modular synthesizers and the clanging of keys on wind instruments. The performers fully inhabit the space, in motion or perched on the third floor. The acoustic tones of traditional instruments blend perfectly with those of amplified and electronic instruments. Your trajectory completes the spatialization of this full, site-specific sound space. It’s the perfect way to rekindle the flame of happening in contemporary music.
The last in a series of four performances, the Émanants show presented by the ILÉA and Bakarlari ensembles, in partnership with Innovations en concert, elegantly exemplified the kind of proposition that can only be captured in a live setting. These two seasoned improvising ensembles put together a program lasting around 1h15, in which spontaneous collective playing and solo pieces followed one another in a coherent progression. For the most part, these transitions were very fluid, blurring the beginnings and ends of the pieces.
At its best, this fluidity created a real continuum of sound, particularly striking between the fifth improvisation and the piece Une musique soluble dans l’air, performed on organ by Gabrielle Harnois-Blouin.
This haunting composition by Kevin Gironnay built, varied and then deconstructed beautiful static harmonies reminiscent of the music of Ellen Arkbro.It was also in such stasis that many of the compositions imagined for the venue unfolded. Think of Corps suspendu / Ballet for Past Skin by Kim Farris-Manning, performed by bass clarinettist Charlotte Layec. This work used loops activated by a looper, over which counter-melodies produced a lamenting effect. At times, what seemed to be a renewed amplification and distortion of the instrument enriched the palette of timbres, as did the sung and declamatory interventions.
In contrast, a work like Ruderalia, written by Olivier St-Pierre for trumpeter Émilie Fortin, was much more sparse in its articulations and made good use of silence. The piece also exhibited a number of extended techniques, performed with dynamism and virtuosity. Andrew Noseworthy’s Insightful, Instructive, Geometrically Satisfying! was a massive rumble of low frequencies.
Performed on modular synthesizers by Pierre-Luc Lecours, this piece immediately had the audience on the move to receive the full force of these vibrations from various listening points. While this piece got the whole chapel vibrating, its transition to the following improvisation fell a little flat. Later, a “Remix” of the same work set up a dialogue between trombonist Kalun Leung and the natural resonances of the chapel, in a language that moved easily from roughness to lyricism.
For their part, the seven improvisations captured attention in one way or another. Between the spectral qualities of the fourth segment, which could have been mistaken for a work by Gérard Grisey or Tristan Murail, and Bakarlari’s luminous harmonies on the fifth, most of the textures one might have wished from such contemplative music were exploited. We were also treated to a gradual rise in intensity in the second improvisation, as everyone moved from a certain quietude to more howling instrumental sounds. The concert also ended with a moment of spontaneous creation, in a sort of energy transfer from one performer to the next, re-exposing the soloist qualities of each one one last time before fading out on a vocal improvisation that we would have liked to have lasted longer.
While classical decorum and disjointed programs are de facto accepted in the world of new music, it’s an event like Émanants, entirely sculpted for a place and according to a thoughtful expressive narrative, that really justifies going out of one’s way to hear live contemporary music.
