Interviews

According to the Book of Joshua in the Old Testament, Jericho was the first city in the land of Canaan to be conquered by Joshua and the Hebrews. On the seventh day after the siege began, the walls of Jericho were said to have collapsed by the will of God, following the procession of the Ark of the Covenant and seven priests blowing seven shofars (trumpets). The procession is said to have paraded around the city seven times over seven days, after which Jericho was completely destroyed and its inhabitants exterminated.

This is the source of the title and form of a concerto for trombone and orchestra composed by Samy Moussa, originally from Montreal and living in Berlin, where PAN M 360 contacted him a few days before the performance of his work by the OSM, his principal trombone James Box, under the direction of his principal conductor Rafael Payare.

The viewing (below) of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra’s performance of Yericho, Trombone Concerto, allows us to virtually experience what will happen on the stage of the Maison symphonique, on Wednesday 22 and Saturday 25 October.

Samy Moussa offers us several other keys here to help us understand his work.

INFO AND TICKETS HERE

PAN M 360: How did you construct this work around the trombone?

Samy Moussa: I’m going to start with the instrumentation angle because that’s where I started.

PAN M 360: Already, the trombone is an instrument that is rarely used as a soloist in a symphonic context.

Samy Moussa: The trombone as a solo instrument does indeed pose certain problems. One of them is its history and repertoire. Indeed, there are very few trombone concertos. In general, the way the trombone is used doesn’t always convince me. I tried to do something different with the trombone, that is, to restore all its facets, that is, its strength. Also, it is an instrument capable of vulnerability. It is also an instrument that can be extremely virtuosic.

PAN M 360: Absolutely. It’s precisely an element that is very little exploited in the classical world, whereas in jazz, solo virtuosity has been so for the trombone for a long time.

Samy Moussa: Naturally, I speak from my expertise.

PAN M 360: You are absolutely right to say that in the classical, modern or contemporary repertoire, there are very few solo works for trombone.

Samy Moussa: That’s an important element for me. Obviously, there’s the heroic aspect of the instrument that also manifests itself. That’s for the trombone. Then, it had to be given a setting. And there, the usual orchestra, whether classical or romantic, didn’t suit me either for questions of timbre, questions of color, to be more precise. I didn’t want an orchestra that was too colorful. I wanted an orchestra that had fewer colors. I told myself that it wouldn’t be more monochromatic overall, but I didn’t want extremely distinct, extremely particular timbres. I wanted a sound mainly in brass and strings. There are also percussions (timpani) and the organ, an organ that isn’t a soloist but is very much part of the orchestra. Obviously, there’s a certain depth.

PAN M 360: So, an organ that blends into the orchestra. How many players are required in total, behind the trombone?

Samy Mousa: It depends. There are strings. It varies. There are two trumpets, four horns, the organ, two timpanists, and a solo trombone. It’s small but very powerful.

PAN M 360: It’s not an intimate work at all, indeed. And how many strings?

Samy Moussa: Strings vary. It depends on the orchestra. It depends on what we can do where we are. For example, we can play a Mozart symphony with eight first violins, but we can also play the same symphony with six, or with 12, or with 14. That’s what varies. Obviously, it won’t be tiny either, but what I mean is, it’s not a huge orchestra.

It’s a fairly small orchestra, but very powerful. Especially since the soloist plays a powerful instrument in its own right.

PAN M 360: It’s an instrument that has long been used to give power to the orchestra. And now, it becomes a soloist. And increasingly, it will become more so because you won’t be the last to compose for solo trombonists, I imagine.

Samy Moussa: In any case, there are several concertos that have been created before me, and there will be more after, for sure. But I still insist on the fact that it is an instrument capable of vulnerability and inner feelings. So, the trombone is not simply a fanfare instrument.

PAN M 360: The way you use it, we’re far from that! That is to say, you have nevertheless developed a complex melodic discourse. The motifs that the trombonist has to execute are difficult, very demanding.

Samy Moussa: I would like to point out that when I write this piece, regardless of the works I consume, virtuosity is not such an important element for me. It’s not an element I think about. Obviously, it’s a virtuoso work, but it’s not an end in itself.

PAN M 360: Of course, it’s not the spectacular aspect of a work or composition that guarantees its quality. Virtuosity, technical efficiency, and the acrobatics of a great musician are certainly no guarantees of good music.

Samy Moussa: Yes, that’s it. There is virtuosity, but this virtuosity is born, let’s say, from the necessity of expression. I hope it’s quite organic.

PAN M 360: It is. There are many elements in this speech, it’s very varied. In this regard, how did you script your own compositional speech for trombone and orchestra?

Samy Moussa: In terms of its overall form, there are seven movements that follow one another. There is, however, a moment in the middle of the work where there is a pause. So, it’s a work that is in two parts divided into seven movements. This is important because the seven movements are inspired by biblical symbolism. What the orchestra does at the beginning is transformed throughout the work.

PAN M 360: I’d like you to quickly go over how the trombone work was done specifically. Because there are some extremely interesting note clusters that are served up. But you could explain it much better than I can.

That is to say, motifs return and are expressed in an upward spiral. And we arrive at a certain apotheosis towards the end.

Samy Moussa: Obviously, there’s a trajectory. It’s a piece that I unified and didn’t separate. It’s still, let’s say, a single piece. Let’s say that the purpose of this work manifests itself in several ways. And that’s important to me. So, from that point of view, it’s not a classical work. Generally, there are very contrasting things in a classical work, whereas, in this case, it only stops once in the center and then starts again in a slow movement, which very quickly picks up the elements from the beginning. So, we find ourselves in the same movement, in the same space.

The work begins with a descending semitone, quite violent, quite insistent. And this motif metamorphoses throughout the piece, adopting different facets. Even in the slow movement, we find it again, it loses its aggressive side, becomes insistent, becomes supplicatory, becomes something else in any case.

And at the end, this descending semitone element that slides, we find it a little faster. And it seems new in a certain way. It’s very technical, I don’t know if it’s interesting.

PAN M 360: Yes, it’s interesting! We’re fed up with cultural journalism that says nothing about forms.

Samy Moussa: Okay! (laughs) The first movement, or the first two, I don’t remember, well the beginning to be sure I’m telling the truth, is based only on chords that are neither major nor minor, and which are still chords with thirds, but the thirds are neutral. Which means that these thirds are between major and minor, it’s really between the two. It’s a quarter tone lower than a major third, or a quarter tone higher than a minor third.

PAN M 360: Could we say that this choice is close to the scales of oriental music?

Samy Moussa: No, I have no expertise in these things. Quarter tones are found all over the world, and they are found here too. I’m currently studying American folklore, and if you listen to children singing nursery rhymes, for example, they will often use neutral thirds. So, there will be quarter tones by instinct as well. So, it’s not something exotic at all.

PAN M 360: But why are they neutral thirds?

Samy Moussa: Because there’s a trajectory where we go from neutral thirds at the beginning of the work and become major or minor, and major at the end. So, it’s a completely neutral color, to arrive at an affirmative color at the end. We’re in C-sharp major. And at the beginning, we’re in D-flat E-major/minor, let’s say. So, it’s a bit of a parallel we can make with pre-romantic composers like Beethoven, whose Fifth Symphony in C minor makes the progression between a C minor and a C major, the triumph at the end. It’s a bit of that kind of trajectory.

PAN M 360: You speak of seven movements inspired by biblical writings. Could you explain this structure inspired by the number seven, and which bears an absolutely biblical title. Yericho recalls the famous trumpets of Jericho, mentioned in the Old Testament, which bring down the city’s palisades.

Samy Moussa: It inspired me a lot. Inspired isn’t the right word, actually. It allowed me to activate my imagination, let’s put it that way, because inspiration isn’t a word I normally use. And what interested me was the idea of ​​ritual.

PAN M 360: And how does this idea resonate in your music?

Samy Moussa: Ritual is an integral part of classical music anyway. It’s always a ritual, the concert, but mass is certainly a ritual, and theater is also a ritual. Yes, there are all kinds of rituals. Some are sacred, some are not. And so, that’s very interesting, very important to me, the idea of ​​ritual. And of intensification.

PAN M 360: And in the context of this work?

Samy Moussa: So, it’s this ritual where we surround the city of Jericho for 7 days. So, it’s a 7-day ritual, hence the 7 movements. And so, on the first day, we surround the city once, with the army, second time… On the 7th day, we surround the city 7 times, with a horn and a shout. And this shout brings down the city. And what’s interesting is that there are 7 horns, so I also have 7 horns: solo trombone, 2 trumpets and 4 horns, that makes 7.

PAN M 360: The Maison symphonique will resist, all the same!

Samy Moussa: We hope so! (laughs) And there’s an optional chorus that I wrote. At the very end, it’s 8 notes, it’s almost nothing. It’s symbolic, it’s not at all necessary, but it’s still in the score, if we want to do it eventually. That won’t be the case in Montreal, but it’s an option for other performances.

PAN M 360: Do you have any spiritual convictions regarding the Old Testament, or is it strictly a choice that lends itself well to this evocation of ritual?

Samy Moussa: I don’t really know how to answer this question, it’s a bit private… yes.

PAN M 360: It’s your choice, it’s everyone’s choice.

Samy Moussa: Let’s just say that what interests me is the idea of ​​ritual and everything that comes from it. Symbolically, it’s a form of obedience too. Ultimately, why does the wall fall? It’s not the ritual that brings the wall down, it’s obedience to God. But here, we’re moving a little outside the musical realm…

PAN M 360: Your aesthetic refers to several overlapping eras. You’re not concerned with the era of references. It comes out, and you’ve chosen to combine different stylistic references.

Samy Moussa: I don’t work at all with what you might call references or referents; I don’t have that post-modernist approach. I don’t think about it. One of my teachers, José Evangelista, told me, “We write the music we can.” At the time, I found it quite simple. I finally understood. Obviously, there’s always the question of decision, because the artist is constantly deciding. That’s what’s exhausting about this work. The bases on which we rely to make these decisions can only be aesthetic, in my opinion. They are not political decisions or historical questions.

PAN M 360: You are nevertheless part of a historical continuity.

Samy Moussa: Yes, what’s important is continuity. It’s about continuing the tradition, doing your bit as best you can. And that’s it.

PROGRAM

Rafael Payare, conductor

James Box, solo trombone of OSM

Brian Manker, solo cello of the OSM

Œuvres

Richard Wagner, Tannhäuser : « Ouverture » (12 min)

Samy Moussa, Concerto pour trombone « Yericho » (25 min) 🍁

Entracte (20 min)

Ernest Bloch, Schelomo, Hebrew Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra, B. 39 (20 min)

Richard Strauss, Ainsi parlait Zarathoustra, op. 30, TrV 176 (33 min)

Electroacoustic percussionist and composer Sébastien Forrester creates music that is simultaneously emotional, kinetic, and intellectually explosive. Through his choice of instruments, he explores the recesses of a repressed imagination, linked to rare materials—in this case, minerals and stones. In this interview, he explains the unfolding of this exploratory process, and why the Satosphère represents its ultimate culmination.

Les Yeux Fermés invites the imagination to fully embrace space through sound. This acousmatic experience will reveal the Satosphère as a cinema for the ear, where two renowned artists unveil the fruit of a spatialization residency. December explores a new musical territory in an ambient style composed for the image, while Sébastien Forrester develops his hybrid practice, at the crossroads of percussion and electroacoustic composition. An experience not to be missed.

Les Yeux Fermés at the SAT, October 23. Info and tickets HERE

PAN M 360: You will be doing a residency at the S.A.T. this week. Are the pieces being presented next Thursday new creations composed for the occasion, or are they reinterpretations of your existing works?

Sébastien Forrester: I hesitated at first, then I realized that adapting pre-existing works – especially some of my latest pieces, which are very dense and relatively orchestral – would take me a considerable amount of time and energy. So I preferred the first option!

I was fortunate enough to experiment with a small lithophone a few months ago. Having worked extensively with the vibraphone, metallophone, and marimba in recent years, I was struck by the purity of the stone’s resonances. I extracted the body of this new work from it: all the harmonies that listeners will hear come from it.

I have also accumulated a huge amount of mineral and geological field recordings, made between Brittany, Auvergne, Morocco, Reunion Island and Iceland since 2017. I regularly extract patterns, textures, and sometimes even rhythmic sequences from them. With all these elements, I have created a series of sound environments that will serve as a basis for improvising live with a drum kit at the SAT. I wanted to create a dialogue between stone and percussion.

PAN M 360: What do you hope to accomplish during this residency?

Sébastien Forrester: My goal is always essentially exploratory. I work on instinct, I let my emotions guide me and I try, afterward, to extract a concept, a direction or a narrative arc. In the case of this new commission at the SAT, the objective is simply to bring new musical ideas to life in three dimensions and in a limited time, while ensuring that they can be deployed appropriately on the 93 speakers of the dome. I am very much looking forward to confronting them in space.

PAN M 360: In such a unique location, there can be a learning curve with the tools. How do you think you balance this technical learning while maintaining a creative sensibility?

Sébastien Forrester: The vast technical possibilities offered by the SAT’s sound system are proving to be much more stimulating than restrictive at the moment. I’m more focused on projection than execution, as I won’t be going there until next week. However, they have forced me to be much more methodical than usual: to organize the sound sources by layers, by locations, by clusters; to think about their coexistence with the live percussion as well. To establish a real architecture, a precise mapping of the sound. I’ve even drawn placements, trajectories, which had never happened to me before.

PAN M 360: The listening experience you’re offering is unusual. How accessible is it to a wide audience, and how would you recommend preparing for it?

Sébastien Forrester: All forms of sound art are inherently accessible to everyone, insofar as we have been producing sounds, shaping them, and sharing them since the dawn of time. I recently discovered that lithophones have existed for several thousand years. Being able to listen to a work in a place like the SAT represents the height of this sharing approach, because the place offers the optimal conditions for listening, feeling, immersing oneself, and letting oneself be carried away. I would advise the public to come curious and open-minded, in search of discoveries.

PAN M 360: Where do you think this feeling of immersion lies? Is it more sensory, imaginative, or emotional?

Sébastien Forrester: I would spontaneously say all three; they are, moreover, intimately linked. The senses create the first impression, the apprehension of the environment and the experience, then the imagination anchors it in memory and makes it palpable.

PAN M 360: How does total darkness and the ban on phones fundamentally change the audience’s relationship with music, compared to a traditional concert?

Sébastien Forrester: Darkness increases the perception of surrounding sounds. When you’re deprived of one sense, the others are only reinforced. I remember experiencing sounds inside a cave in the Lot region; during the visit, the speleologist briefly deprived us of light. It was then that I truly became aware of the complexity of the sound environment, the richness of the sources, the frequencies, the reverberations, the sounds of our bodies. Being plunged into darkness is immensely revealing.

PAN M 360: The G.R.I.S. spatialization software used at the S.A.T. was designed by composer Robert Normandeau, who is also, coincidentally, one of the pioneers of “cinema for the ear.” What do you think of this strong link between spatialization and sound narration?

Sébastien Forrester: Splitting sound sources, distributing or locating them, moving them, making them evolve in space naturally tells a story. It’s a process that allows us to recreate a certain familiarity, or even to play with it, alter it, distort it, and create a variation that defies understanding. In our daily world, the situations and moments we experience, sounds constantly surround us; they are never distributed across a stereo band like when we listen to WAV or MP3 files. Spatialization allows us to restore this natural arrangement while augmenting it with an infinite number of wonderful possibilities. It’s an extremely inspiring mode of composition, and to be confronted with it for the very first time at the SAT is an incredible opportunity.

Tomas More, also known as December, explains how he found the perfect creative process: accepting that there isn’t one, but despite this fact, having fun. He expresses with conviction that for him, tinkering is vital. But this looseness isn’t reckless; rather, it’s a nuance he brings to a refined and delicate practice. His latest album, released in September, I Stumble, I Walk, attests to this fact. A free but structured music, familiar textures renewed by a powerful emotional current. I wanted to interview December to expand on this sometimes elusive idea of ​​creativity, but I came away with a completely different perspective.

“Les Yeux Fermés” invites imagination to take the place of the image and listening to fully embrace space. This acousmatic experience will reveal the Satosphère in cinema for the ear, where two renowned artists unveil the fruit of a spatialization residency. While December will explore this new musical territory in an ambient style composed for the image, Sébastien Forrester will develop his hybrid practice, at the crossroads of percussion and electroacoustic composition. An experience not to be missed.

Until you experience that, here’s that conversation with December.

DECEMBER 23, UNDER THE SAT DOME. TICKETS AND INFO HERE

PAN M 360: In your artist statement on the album Stumble, I Walk, your vision of experimentation is to “hold on to creation as a movement.” I’d like to expand on that a bit: Was there a time in your creation where you tended to get creatively stuck? How did you learn to keep moving forward?

December: At the heart of the December project is this story of blockage. I have no academic training; I didn’t go to a conservatory, I don’t know music theory, I didn’t play an instrument when I was little. Electronic music attracted me because it allowed people who didn’t have classical training to be able to tinker; to test things with a lot of spontaneity, in a self-taught way.

Before using the name December, I had another alias, and the creation of the December project came precisely from a fairly long period of blockage during which I… It’s not that I couldn’t make music, but I couldn’t be satisfied with it, let’s say.

I wasn’t very excited or inspired by what I was producing and I wanted to change musical direction. Making music is one thing, but making music that feels personal is very different, and that’s important to me. For a good year, let’s say, I struggled with this idea.

So I was doing things, but I found that it wasn’t unique, not original enough, not different enough perhaps from what was being done today.

For a year, I really wasn’t very satisfied, I was doing things that I didn’t really like. And one day, there was the beginning of something that wasn’t at all finished, but there was a lead, you know, the beginning of something that excited me again, that I liked again.

And even the name December came from there, that is to say, I was looking for a new name, which I couldn’t find. When I made this first piece that excited me a little, it was the first day of December, and I said to myself, well, we need something simple, and that’s where it came from.

PAN M 360: It’s curious that this December appearance happened a bit suddenly, you could say. Can you tell us a bit about what happened? Any tools or just a passing thought?

December: The title of this album refers to that. I think it’s quite mysterious; why, for a while, we can’t do what we want to do, we do things we don’t like and then suddenly it happens. It’s inexplicable. And the desire to change the name was more linked to a kind of boredom.

Sometimes, in fact, when we are performing, especially in interviews, we use promotional or journalistic formulas, we are all a little tempted to sell an ideal version of what the creative process is, when in fact, there are plenty of moments where we are disappointed, where we don’t succeed, where we are blocked, where we are bored. And for me it is important that this is not made invisible.

PAN M 360: It may seem like a silly question, but why is it important for you, in your music, to experiment, to renew yourself?

December: So, I think there are several things to answer. First of all, I want to say that experimentation or experimental are words that annoy me a little sometimes, because it can have a bit of an arrogant side when you say about yourself that you make experimental music. Experimentation? I would say yes and no. I do try to avoid formulas and comfort zones. At the same time, I don’t want to make people believe that I’m constantly experimenting.

I think it’s a bit of a cross between the two. It’s about being yourself, being consistent, and making sure there’s a line. It’s important to me in records that things aren’t constantly revolutionary, that they have both a guiding principle and a renewal. So, it’s neither experimentation nor formula, as you say.

It’s a bit of something that’s quite intangible, quite mysterious between the two. How do you avoid reinventing yourself to the point of no longer being recognizable? It happens between redundancy and renewal. It’s a balance. Inevitably, our creations reflect our innermost functioning. I think I have a relationship with music. I say it often and I really mean it, that I wouldn’t like music to become something too serious for me. That is to say, I wouldn’t like to over-intellectualize it. For it to become something too conceptual, too cerebral, too stuffy.

I want it to be a space where I’m a little free because life outside of that is already difficult enough, full of rules, codes, and other things that limit you. Earning a living, managing to survive, living in a world that’s becoming more and more reactionary, even fascist. Having little places where you can feel free to tinker isn’t that common, I think. And it’s very important. I think it’s almost vital, in fact. It rebalances other areas of life where we can do it less, and it keeps us going. I feel like it keeps me going.

PAN M 360: How do you feel about a residency at the S.A.T.? How do you see yourself tinkering in this space?

December: I’ve never been there, it’s the first time I’ll be going to Montreal and Canada. From the outside, it seems like the quintessence of something extremely precious, a very sophisticated, very complex technological screen, which doesn’t seem at all conducive to tinkering. My little pleasure is because I only know how to make music like that.

I wouldn’t be able to invent myself and suddenly become a technician. I’m going to tinker with something that will be, in my opinion, much less sophisticated, much less technical or purely mastered than what many other people, musicians, who perhaps come with the baggage of having done this many times, do. For me, it will be the first time that I’ve done a piece for an acousmonium, at least for spatialization. I’m going to do it in my own slightly tinkered way.

PAN M 360: Earlier, you were telling me that for the SAT project, you have new musical ideas that you wanted to propose, a bit like the beginning of a project moving away from what we hear in your music, which can be more “club”. Can you tell us a bit about this new approach?

December: Since I was a kid, my dream has been to make film music, soundtracks. And despite having this job for about fifteen years in the cinema, I never wanted to force this practice. I always wanted to wait for the right moment, especially because I’m annoying, I have rather annoying tastes in cinema, quite specific. And I wanted to wait for people whose films I really like to eventually suggest a moment to do this kind of exercise. And it turns out that for the past year or two, some friends around me have been making films and have asked me to write the music for their films.

And so, this piece that I’m going to play at the SAT is part of a kind of evolution over the last year and a half, two years, where I’ve been working on music for images. Maybe next year I’ll have a new alias that will really be dedicated only to more ambient things, without rhythm. There, it will be something where there will be very little rhythm or none at all, much more ethereal, much more minimalist and which has, let’s say, the particularity of stepping back a little and leaving space for the image. And what interested me in the approach of the SAT concert, which Guillaume Sorge invited me to play, is that there, it’s an evening where there will be no image. We will be in this magnificent room, a dome with screens everywhere, but which will be turned off.

I think that often, when we listen to music, we imagine shapes, images, even when we don’t have any images in front of us. When we listen to records that we like, that was a bit of an exercise that I wanted to try.

PAN M 360: It reminds me of cinema for the ear. Music composed visually, without images. You now work in the film industry, composing soundtracks. How would you describe the relationship between sound and image?

December: I find that we underestimate sound, in a society of omnipresent images, we underestimate the power of sound. And what you describe, I didn’t know, but it interests me, to imagine that almost the best way to evoke cinema is not to show images, it’s to just listen to music that would make you think of cinema, or of scenes, or of images.

For me, there’s nothing purer. And in the history of cinema, there are multiple examples of films that, for example, don’t have music, but are nevertheless very musical in their own way. Or film scenes where there are no images, only sound. And yet, they are extremely powerful from a formal point of view. And the relationship between image and sound, I find that it’s always like that. One is always linked to the other, even when it’s not present. Especially when things are minimalist.

I find that minimalism is very powerful for that. So, for example, I’m going to play this music that I’m going to call ambient because I don’t have any other words and language is annoying because we don’t always have the precise words, but we have to use it. So I want to say ambient to be quick, but it will be mixed with field recordings that I recorded in different places, notably during a residency at the same time last year.

Exactly a year ago, I was lucky enough to receive a grant from the French Institute to go to Hong Kong for six weeks to record a sound project. And I recorded sounds in different neighborhoods, including a completely crazy neighborhood that was destroyed in the 90s. When the British colonial administration handed Hong Kong back to the Chinese regime, they destroyed a neighborhood that was crazy, that was very, very unsanitary, but that was quite fascinating, in West Kowloon, the Kowloon citadel.

And I recorded in this place where now there’s a park and everything, a lot of sounds, and I’m going to play some of it at the SAT. So there will be a mix of field recordings: street noises, kids, people playing basketball, and very ethereal ambient music. And I think the field recordings are really powerful too. You really feel like you can feel things more sometimes when you just have the sound of a street. Focusing only on the sound is sometimes more powerful as a truth.

PAN M 360: Yes, there is a beautiful tradition of concrete music with recordings, Luc Ferrari is a good example.

December: A fairly modest example, yes.

PAN M 360: What would you say are some cinematic references, in terms of sound and image, that have had a big impact on you?

December: In terms of imagery, it’s Memoria by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, which is really a film about someone who hears a sound. It’s almost a film without music, you see, it’s a film that has the courage, the intelligence to think of sound as something other than this often hackneyed idea that music is orchestral compositions, stuff that’s always hyper-melodic, hyper-demonstrative.

There, it’s someone who hears a sound and doesn’t know where it’s coming from, who goes looking for it. What is this almost visceral relationship with sound? It’s a crazy film for that. There’s a scene for me that is really incredible at the end, when Tilda Swinton meets this man who scales fish along a river and who talks to her about things a bit like often in Apichatonga’s films, about ghosts, past lives, previous lives, things that are a bit crazy, a bit psychedelic.

She follows him into a house, they sit down at the table and they have a rather long discussion where he tells her about past scenes that he is supposed to have experienced in previous lives. And at one point, he describes a scene that we don’t see and the sound of their discussion, the sound of the scene we are watching disappears. And it is the sound of these stories that just appears like that.

Honestly, it’s something technically super simple. It’s been around since the Lumière Brothers, since the invention of cinema. It’s almost a basic trifecta in the history of the invention of cinema, but it’s incredibly powerful. When I saw it, I said to myself, damn, but in fact, all the 3D, CGI, 4DX in the world will never have this power of simple things when they’re done, of seeing a scene and having the sound of something else. And for a few seconds, you say to yourself, what the hell is this? It’s something physically super powerful. Really, really, it’s very powerful.

The scene in the studio too, where she’s trying to get a producer to find the sound she’s hearing, and he’s playing her samples of kicks, percussion and everything, it’s great.

PAN M 360: I imagine you can relate to that feeling.

December: It’s a pretty common feeling to hear something and not know what it is. You think, but wait, what was that noise? Especially a sound, though, that doesn’t exist. There are a lot of concepts in this film that are fascinating.

PAN M 360: Thomas, thank you very much for this discussion. Very interesting!

December: Thanks, Loïc. It was great.

Three nights in a row this week, Chants Libres presents Fantôme de Roy, a musical theatre inspired by a medieval confrontation between the King of England, Henry II Plantagenet, and his chancellor, Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury.

Nearly a millennium ago, this confrontation culminated in the assassination of the archbishop in 1170: four knights who supported the king executed Thomas Becket near the altar of the famous English cathedral. The “turbulent priest,” to use the term used by the king, who was exasperated by his former friend’s ambitions, was eliminated while attempting to strengthen Catholic power in England, something Henry II strongly opposed.

An artistic evocation of this mythical conflict between royal power and clerical power, Fantôme de Roy raises the intrinsic fury and violence of human power, “in a dramatic fresco woven from medieval and contemporary texts”.

Grand organ, electric guitar, electroacoustic score, choir and solo voices, this is the musical configuration of this Fantôme de Roy, to which is juxtaposed a libretto made up of texts from the 12th and 13th centuries. The texts of the medieval author Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence have been taken, adapted and rewritten by the Austrian author Thomas Ballhausen and the composer Thomas Cornelius Desi. The performers of this musical theater will be the guitarist Jonathan Barriault, the organist Olivier Saint-Pierre as well as the mezzo-soprano Marie-Annick Béliveau.

The latter being the artistic director of Chants libres which presents this production with the support of Vivier, she is the perfect interlocutor for this interview.

Fantôme de Roy is playing from Thursday, October 23 to Saturday, October 25 at Sacré-Coeur de Jésus. Tickets and information are available here.



PAN M 360: How, roughly speaking, is the plot of this “dramatic fresco woven from medieval and contemporary texts” drawn?

Marie-Annick Béliveau: We tried to keep a formula that could refer a little to average French, to the French of that time, because the essential text of the booklet is written in French from the 12th and 13th centuries. So, we tried to make a compromise so that it would still be readable and speak to today’s audience. But it’s an expression that we took directly from the langue d’oïl.

PAN M 360: What was the primary motivation?

Marie-Annick Béliveau: For me, it’s mainly this interest I had for this language, also because it tells the story of the assassination of Saint Thomas Becket which took place at the end of the 12th century. And we take texts that tell, that relate the events. These texts were written shortly after his murder.

And what I found fascinating was to see that Thomas Becket was completely bilingual. When he was in his circle, he spoke English, but when he was at court, he spoke in French. And I found that it was very similar to my reality today: in one day, I will have as many activities in English as in French, I have French-speaking and English-speaking collaborators, I work and I live in both languages. Like Thomas Becket! In almost 1000 years, in fact, it has changed very little. We were already in the Bonjour, hi! at the time.

PAN M 360: Haha! Compared to the Montreal reality, it’s indeed comparable. And where does your own participation come from?

Marie-Annick Béliveau: This show premiered in Vienna in 2023. Composer Thomas Desi asked me to create this show here, which was originally given on the occasion of an anniversary of the Chapel of the Imperial Palace in Vienna. And so, it was in the context of these festivities that the show premiered in Vienna and that composer Thomas Desi composed this score.

What I found quite sweet was that Thomas contacted me and said, “I thought of you to create the role of the narrator – who sings a little bit – because it’s in 12th-century French and it’s quite close to the language you speak in Quebec. I laughed at this observation, then I said to myself, “Well, still, we have to do it!” I wouldn’t say I was insulted, but…

And when I started working on this old French with a professor of medieval literature at the University of Montreal, with whom I studied the texts in question and their pronunciation, I had to admit that, in fact, this language is surprisingly familiar to us. You listen to La Sagouine again, then you read the text as we can imagine it was pronounced at the time, and frankly, the similarities are astonishing.

PAN M 360: So yes, there is a part of truth in this medieval component of American French.

Marie-Annick Béliveau: And that means that Thomas Desi wasn’t entirely wrong. But what’s also very surprising is that in the French we speak here, the way we use anglicisms is actually not like in France where we say “parking” and “week-end”; anglicisms here are more diverted, intrinsically linked to our vocabulary. In fact, we share that with the langue d’oïl, which is very particular and really very amusing.

And so, the show includes this whole aspect that is sung or narrated, recited in the langue d’oïl. But there is also modern English, there is also modern French and then there are even little bits in German because, all the same, I wanted to preserve a little bit of the color of the original creation in Vienna.

PAN M 360: Tell us about the text, first that of Guerne de Pont-Saint-Maxence.

Marie-Annick Béliveau: It was a monk who wrote this immense work in the 13th century, the biography of Saint Thomas Becket. And this text is also used a lot. The entire play is based on the illuminations of Matthew Paris, illustrated about a century after the murder of Thomas Becket.

PAN M 360: And Thomas Ballhausen?

Marie-Annick Béliveau: He’s an author and professor at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg. He collaborates with Thomas, which he’s also done on other projects. So everything in modern English and German in the show is written by him.

PAN M 360: And where does Thomas Cornelius Desi come from? Who is he?

Marie-Annick Béliveau: Actually, he’s a composer I met a long time ago at the Abbaye de Royaumont, when we were both participating in the Voix Nouvelles Academy workshop. He’s based in Vienna, and he’s very active on the European scene of what they call Musiktheater there. It’s a form, I would say, in the making here in Canada, in America, that we’re starting to see emerge a little more. So, it’s not a musical, it has nothing to do with Broadway, it could also be related to musical theater. We’re moving away a little from opera to move into more theatrical forms, which are also something that’s a little more performative. Initially, Thomas is a composer of contemporary music, very well-versed and particularly in the lyrical repertoire. I am thinking of one of the creations he made last year, based on Puccini’s operas, based on the composer’s correspondence.

In addition, Thomas worked extensively with musicologist Eric Salzman, and together they wrote a book that is very important for the history of the development of opera in the 20th and 21st centuries, called Seeing the Voice, Hearing the Body. Yes, a reference work, very important for the development of opera in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. And as a little anecdote, the cover of the opera is a photo of Pauline Vaillancourt!

PAN M 360: Let’s talk about the musical performance. First, Jonathan Barriault is the guitarist who accompanies the singing and narration.

Marie-Annick Béliveau: Yes, electric guitar. I’ve been collaborating with Jonathan for years, both as an electric guitarist and a classical guitarist. And then Olivier Saint-Pierre plays the great organ at the Sacré-Cœur Church. Because the Church is a crucial element here. While the Imperial Chapel in Vienna was the starting point for the project, we really wanted to adapt the piece to the Sacré-Cœur Church on Ontario Street.

It’s a very interesting church because, first of all, it has retained its community character. In addition, (choirmaster) André Pappathomas has taken over the artistic direction and encourages creativity. In this church, creative artists coexist with the local community. The parishioners, we can also call them that, feel very involved in these creative projects.

PAN M 360: Living paintings are also part of the production, but what else?

Marie-Annick Béliveau: It’s a very important part of the show. In Vienna, we worked with children who embodied all the living paintings, those who personify the historical figures, and were also the choristers. Here in Montreal, I chose to play on proximity and on the anchoring in the Centre-Sud neighborhood to make it a community project. So we have amateur and volunteer choristers, some of whom come from the Grand Chœur du Centre-Sud, others from the neighborhood or elsewhere in Montreal. It’s the same for the actors who embody the living paintings.

PAN M 360: How did you create these tableaux vivants?

Marie-Annick Béliveau: We chose eight medieval illuminations by the English monk Matthew Paris that tell this story. These illuminations are literally a comic strip, because at the time, people were illiterate. Since the monks addressed the people, and since it was the life of a saint, we wanted everyone to have access to it. These illuminations are a real comic strip that tells the different episodes of this dispute, this anger. Thus, the show is built around this succession of illuminations, actors personify these living paintings. I narrate while they mime the actions described in the text.

PAN M 360: All we have to do is go to the church!

CREATORS

Thomas Cornelius Desi
Thomas Ballhausen
Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence

INTERPRETERS

Marie-Annick Béliveau
Jonathan Barriault, guitar
Olivier Saint-Pierre, organ

This is precisely the meaning of Ségui Sô, the title of the most recent album by Donald Dogbo, the Ivorian drummer and percussionist based in Montreal since 2014. He chose this term in Bambara to mark a return to the ancestral origins of African rhythms while blending them with contemporary jazz. With a percussionist grandfather who passed on his passion for this instrument to him, today, it is his turn to pass this on to his son Ziya, who can be heard on the track “Ségui Sô.” Donald Dogbo considers himself a mentor to young artists arriving in Montreal and serves as their guide, having received the same welcome from more established artists upon his arrival in Quebec. Sandra Gasana spoke with him for PAN M 360 a few days before his launch show at the Ministère, on Saturday, October 25.





Big weekend for Bozzini! The Montreal quartet will perform twice in collaboration with Le Vivier. On Saturday and Sunday at Espace Orange du Wilder, we are treated to two packed programs, extending the quartet’s 25th anniversary celebrations until the twilight of 2025. Cellist Isabelle Bozzini and violinist Alissa Cheung help us dissect the material presented in the two concerts.

PAN M 360: So, first up, on October 18, at the Espace Orange at Wilder, at 7:30 p.m., there’s the Brook, Di Castri, Miller concert, featuring, of course, the three Canadian composers who are on the program. Their works this year are 2025: Vinetan Songs by Taylor Brook, Delve by Zosha Di Castri, and Three Songs by Cassandra Miller. So, ladies, tell us about the basis for this program.

Isabelle Bozzini: These are three artists we have known for a long time. They are three artists who have lived in Montreal, studied in Montreal, and worked in Montreal. In Cassandra’s case, we worked together, even at the Bozzini office. We’ve known them since the mid-2000s, a good twenty years. Emerging at the time, they are now established composers, you could say.

We have a long-standing relationship with Cassandra Miller in particular. We worked with her at Composers Kitchen in 2009, then another quartet in 2011, another in 2016. And now this is the fourth. We also have a recording of her music. She is truly a collaborator we greatly appreciate, who is also very close to us in our work.

PAN M 360: How did you work on this particular piece?

Isabelle Bozzini: For Three Songs, she had us sing. We’re together in the same studio where we are for this interview. We were with Cassandra, and she asked us to sing songs from our youth, or songs we sang to our children. She often asks us questions like, what kind of music do we like? What was the first concert we ever went to that made an impression on us? These questions are very personal, they encourage sharing. I think that’s also reflected in her music.

PAN M 360: How do you approach this piece as a performer? What are the challenges? Any examples?

Alissa Cheung: In the first movement (Angel), the second violin dialogues with the other three instruments. The second violin is somewhat of a soloist.

PAN M 360: In that case, who is the second violin?

Alissa Cheung: That’s me. In the second movement (Claire), it’s mainly the cello and viola that play the melody.

PAN M 360: You vary your roles from one work to another, don’t you?

Isabelle Bozzini: Yes. In Brook, Clemens (Merkel) is number one. In DiCastri, it’s Alissa. It’s very folky music, based on songs. It’s in Cassandra’s style: she treats the material in a slightly folk way, but the form is treated in a contemporary classical way. It’s interesting where she goes with that.

These are often works that require a little patience and development. For us, therefore, the challenge is to bring this music to life, within the calm or length that it imposes on us.

Alissa Cheung: I find Cassandra’s music very accessible because the material is very melodic, very lyrical. The way she works with the material is very clear; you can hear it. So there’s nothing hidden, nothing mysterious in her constructions. In the third movement, for example, the two violins and the viola are in canon. Then the cello becomes like the lead guitar, all pizzicato.

PAN M 360: Let’s move on to Taylor Brook’s work.

Isabelle Bozzini: Taylor Brook is also someone who did Composers Kitchen around 2010, I can’t remember exactly. In any case, he’s in the same vein as Cassandra. But it’s a bit of a coincidence that he also wrote a series of songs, Vinetan Songs. He’s into science fiction, and his works evolve in imaginary worlds. This time, he started with this kind of mythology of Vineta, an underwater city in the North Sea, something like that. And then he wrote us a series of songs inspired by this imaginary world.

PAN M 360: And what about Zosha Di Castri?

Isabelle Bozzini: We didn’t commission songs from anyone; it’s a coincidence. In the case of Zosha Di Castri, it was a series of tableaux in which she plays with the timbres of different mutes. It’s veiled, muffled, then comes back very open at the end. In a way, it’s like a series of tableaux, it’s also like a series of five movements—four with mutes and one without a mute.

Alissa Cheung: But there are also different materials used in each movement, so it’s hard to say exactly how many sections there are. So at first glance, it’s less segmented. With Zosha, it’s our first commission. We’ve wanted to work with her for years, but it was never the right time. Then she became a professor at Columbia University, and her work is being performed all over the world, especially her orchestral pieces. We think she has a truly unique voice. And she has a very collaborative way of working. And for me personally, we come from the same city—Edmonton.

PAN M 360: Why call this specific program the 25th anniversary program when all your 2025 programs are called that?

Isabelle Bozzini: Because the very first concert we gave in a Montreal series was on October 20, 2000. So, since our programs are presented on October 18 and 19, we thought, well, this is an opportunity to mark the occasion. The 25th, yes, because of October 20, but also because we have three major commissions that we co-commissioned with Le Vivier and international partners—Darmstädter Ferienkurse, Time:Spans, Earle Brown Music Foundation, Soundstreams, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, and Gaudeamus. With Bozzini, there are seven of us who commissioned these same works.

PAN M 360: So it is a pool of organizations that jointly finance the commissions for these works.

Isabelle Bozzini: Yes, absolutely. Miller’s play was premiered in Darmstadt. Then we did the premiere of all three, the first official premiere in New York in August, and then we revived it in Zosha Di Castri at Gaudeamus. So this is the third time we’ve performed Cassandra and Zosha, and the second time we’ve performed Taylor. These are the Canadian premieres. These works are only three months old. It’s exciting!

PAN M 360: There is still a risk involved in the results! Even if we like the composers in question, that is no absolute guarantee of success.

Isabelle Bozzini: That’s true, but we’re lucky, these compositions are really interesting and very varied, making for a well-balanced program. The first performances went very well, in any case.

PAN M 360: On Sunday, October 19, at 7:30 p.m., in the Orange Room of the Wilder Building, you will present the Composers Kitchen program. The program includes works by Julia Mermelstein / Brush, Nikolaus Schroeder / Freeze Piece, Lucie Nerzi / Pour Quatuor Bozzini, and Corie Rose Sumah / We, To Be So Transformed. Remember that Composers Kitchen is a springboard for young composers, and here’s another batch!

Isabelle Bozzini: Yes, it’s the 20th batch. So, we’re celebrating 25 years of QB, but we’re also celebrating 20 years of Composers Kitchen, and 5 years of QMP (Québec Musiques Parallèles) this year, so we’re celebrating multiples of 5! And in this case, it’s in exchange with Gaudeamus. For over 12 years now, we’ve been doing an international exchange around Composers Kitchen. So, two Canadians and two others from the host country. This year, the two composers live in The Hague in the Netherlands, even though they’re not Dutch nationals—Nikolaus Schroeder is American and Lucie Nezri is French. It’s always one of the highlights of our season. It’s always a stimulating discovery for us.

PAN M 360: First, Nikolaus Schroeder.

Alissa Cheung: He writes a lot of multimedia pieces. So this piece is another example of his work. In this case, there is a tape and a video. He wanted to comment on the history of string quartets. So he used images and quotes from classical music for string quartets in his work.

Isabelle Bozzini: Julien Mermelstein is someone we had already worked with at Bozzini Lab about ten years ago. She comes from the Maritimes, lived in Toronto for a long time, and now lives in Sutton. She is a composer who is really into sound exploration. And she has a certain amount of experience, having written pieces for several ensembles in Canada for 12-15 years. I don’t know how to describe it, but I really like her approach. There’s a certain calmness in her way of working, but I sense a maturity there.

Alissa Cheung: Absolutely! As the title suggests, Brush in Air and in Resin is really an exploration of textures, of subtle sounds. And the quartet will be amplified, in fact, to bring out some sounds that are very soft and gentle. So that was her approach, because the first quartet she wrote for us was more conventional. Since then, she hasn’t written a lot of chamber music. She was doing more orchestral compositions, so she wanted to return to chamber music, either with an ensemble like ours that likes to work with sounds, that likes artistic research. So that’s why she applied to Composer Kitchen.

PAN M 360: Let’s move on to Lucie Nezri.

Alissa Cheung: Her piece is based on an Arab-Andalusian mode. It’s her native music. It’s part of her memories. When she presented her sketches to us, they were melodic fragments evoking Arab-Andalusian modal scales.

Isabelle Bozzini: These fragments become distant echoes, like Nubat. It’s quite fluid, microtonal. It leaves a lot of room for communication between us; it’s a fairly open piece, so we can add something of our own to it.

Alissa Cheung: It’s also a very melodic piece.

PAN M 360: And then there is Corie Rose’s play, We, to be so transformed.

Alissa Cheung: It’s based on Marlen Haushofer’s book The Wall (Die Wand). I don’t know how much the book inspired her. Maybe we’ll find out more during the pre-concert talk on Sunday. Corie Rose is a composer I’ve wanted to work with for years. The quartet number 2 she wrote at the end of her bachelor’s degree was so powerful. There was an awareness of the materials used. There was lucidity in her ideas. So we were so excited, and this year we’re working with her.

PAN M 360: You’ll be working hard this weekend!

Isabelle Bozzini: Yes, we’re going to work hard, but it’s like rehearsals for us. It’s already underway. It’s becoming very enjoyable to play, because we’ve mastered the pieces even though they’re still new, still fresh. At the same time, there’s room to mature a little. To get started.

INFO AND TICKETS FOR SATURDAY

INFO AND TICKETS FOR SUNDAY

To launch its upcoming season, the Orchestre de l’Université de Montréal invites audiences to the Festival Vibrations for a journey into the heart of Romantic brilliance, featuring Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 in G major, Augusta Holmès’ symphonic poem La nuit et l’amour, Lalo’s “Ouverture” from the opera Le Roi d’Ys, and Strauss’ Horn Concerto in E-flat major. Winner of second prize in the Orchestre de l’Université de Montréal (OUM) concerto competition, young horn player Noah Larocque will be the soloist performing this flagship work from the repertoire. In an interview with Alexandre Villemaire of PAN M 360, he discusses his attachment to the horn, the technical challenges of the instrument, and the transition from playing in an orchestra to performing as a soloist.

PAN M 360: Tell us a little about your background. What inspired you to pursue a career in music and, above all, to choose the horn as your instrument of choice?

Noah Larocque: I started playing this instrument in high school. It was the only instrument left in the bunch when all the other students in my class had chosen theirs. I had no idea what a horn was at first. So I was kind of forced into it at first, and then it was really difficult at first to understand how it worked. But eventually, I think I was charmed by the challenges the instrument presented. Towards the end of high school, I decided to continue studying music at CEGEP, where I fell in love with orchestral music. It was then that I decided to pursue this path at university.

PAN M 360: So it was pure chance that this instrument ended up in your hands. What attracted you to it, and what were the initial challenges you faced when you started playing it?

Noah Larocque: The horn is a truly versatile instrument that plays with all kinds of instrument families in the orchestra. Often, we play very loudly with the brass section and trombones, which can sound almost aggressive or violent. Sometimes, it’s much more contrasting. It almost sounds like a woodwind instrument at times when we play with the flutes and clarinets. Sometimes it’s more rhythmic with the strings. I think it’s that versatility that really drew me to this instrument. The challenge is that with a single fingering, with a single range of the instrument, you can create several notes. So it’s very easy to hit the note next to the one you want to play and therefore “crack” and make mistakes, as the notes are so close together. It requires a good ear and a lot of work.

PAN M 360: For the OUM’s first concert this season, as part of the Vibration Festival, you will be performing Richard Strauss’s Horn Concerto in E-flat major, a piece that earned you second prize in the OUM concerto competition last March. What can you tell us about this work and its place in the repertoire?

Noah Larocque: First of all, it’s a piece that’s very much part of the horn repertoire. In fact, it’s the most frequently performed romantic piece for solo horn, often accompanied by piano. Performing it with an orchestra is really great. It’s a piece I started playing in college, and I would say it’s very accessible. It’s Strauss, but it doesn’t wander harmonically like Strauss’s later works. It’s an early work. He was 18 when he composed it. It’s still very straightforward and well-defined, while being the Strauss we know, with moments of great intensity and moments that are very majestic and heroic.

It’s a piece that all young horn players who are seriously studying the instrument will perform at some point or another. I never imagined I would perform this piece with an orchestra. It requires a different kind of listening when you start working with an orchestra. Having this platform to perform it is really great.

Since it’s such a classic, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. It’s really great to have this platform to play it on.

PAN M 360: You are orchestra musicians, playing notably in the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, but this will be your first experience as soloists. How are you approaching this moment and what preparation have you had to do as soloists?

Noah Larocque: When you’re an orchestra musician, you’re used to following the conductor and listening to your colleagues around you to play with the other musicians around you. When you’re a soloist, you really have to have your own tempos in mind, your own speeds, and have a lot of leadership in those speeds and in your musical intentions. I would say that I have focused even more on this element, on how to convey my own musical ideas while being clear with the orchestra so that others understand me, so that the conductor understands me, so that my other colleagues in the orchestra understand me.

It’s really a different job in the sense that you become the leader of the orchestra and the musical ideas, the tempo, whereas in an orchestra, you follow much more and listen to your colleagues around you.

PAN M 360: How did the OUM concerto competition contribute to your development as a musician? Was it important for you to try this experience?

Noah Larocque: I really saw it as an experiment at first. I had only played in orchestras before, so for me it was really an attempt to try something new and set myself a personal challenge. My goal was to step outside the orchestral framework and explore other things. It seems that trying to be a soloist allows me to develop other skills and a different way of listening.

Honestly, I was really surprised to win the award. I was super happy, of course, but I guess I never saw myself as a soloist. I think it’s a great string to add to my bow. It’s a big personal challenge, but I see it as a personal challenge to try something new and gain more experience.

PAN M 360: What did you discover when you made this paradigm shift from the perspective of an orchestra musician to that of a soloist?

Noah Larocque: I would say that I discovered that versatility as a musician is extremely important. I had to do a different kind of work to prepare myself for all of this. When you study music, you often realize that it’s the orchestra, playing in an orchestra, that shapes what you learn in your classes. But we don’t really talk about what to do as a soloist. I think I discovered that in myself: this versatility and desire to innovate in my practice, to try other things. I really discovered that with the concerto competition.

PAN M 360: Besides Strauss’ horn concerto, what other favorite piece from the repertoire would you like to play during the rest of your time at university?

Noah Larocque: Strauss wrote two concertos. The first and the second about ten years apart. It would be a dream come true to play the second concerto with an orchestra. It’s completely different from the first. Once again, it brings together the heroic and very powerful themes typical of Strauss, but they are longer with a more elaborate harmonic progression. It’s really different. Having the chance to play it with an orchestra would be a great achievement.

Orchestre de l’Université de Montréal 
Mathieu Lussier, direction 
Noah Larocque, horn (2nd prize in the OUM Concerto Competition) 
Édouard Lalo 
Le Roi d’Ys – Ouverture 
 
Augusta Holmès 
La nuit et l’amour 
 
Richard Strauss 
Concerto pour cor no 1 en mi bémol majeur, op. 11 
I. Allegro 
II. Andante 
III. Allegro 
 
Antonin Dvořák 
Symphonie no8 en sol majeur, op. 88 
I. Allegro con brio
II. Adagio
III. Allegretto grazioso
IV. Allegro, ma non troppo 

Saturday, October 18, 3 p.m. at Salle Claude-Champagne

Billet HERE

Publicité panam

Composed entirely with an instrument he designed himself, Graham Hudson-Jameson (Dr. Jekyll Project) took on the challenging task of melding a completely experimental approach with the traditional style of Lied music. And well, he succeeded.

It is an album that is to be listened to in its entirety, and I would add, several times. While the first listen may be an overwhelming experience of awe and curiosity, the second and third listens reveal the interlocking dimensions that encompass this powerful feeling. In typical electroacoustic fashion, each song manages to orchestrate varying textures and voices which phase in and out of a non-rhythm, meeting naturally at the breaking points of an overseeing storyline. 

Set to a poem which embraces the discomforts of aging, Gwyneth Hudson-Jameson’s intimate confessions of fears, yearnings, and regrets are boldly amplified by the dramatic appeals only a skilled opera singer such as she could execute. In a way you wouldn’t expect, her singing always finds the right tone to either accompany or contrast the music. Sometimes tearful, sometimes standing tall and strong, you can let yourself be carried away, vicariously living through her voice.

In its entirety, this album is exploding with meaning. Graham and Gwyneth are both noticeably experienced, and their chemistry as siblings creates a whole like we rarely see in duos.

With the Festival Vibrations coming up (his performance is on Friday), I spoke to Graham who is preparing their performance with this instrument of his, the Lightbox, to better understand how such an unique approach came to be.

INFOS & TICKETS HERE

PAN M 360 : The album’s central metaphor is the fading of colors to describe the transition from childhood to adulthood. Could you elaborate on how this specific visual metaphor translates into sound, both in your vocal composition and in the electronic textures you create? 

Graham Hudson-Jameson : I was inspired to use the visual metaphor of fading colors because I once read that as we  age, the lens of the eye yellows, making colors appear less bright. I didn’t fact-check it, but the  idea stuck with me. The fading of color reflects the loss of childlike innocence, gradually giving  way to a monochrome, jaded perspective on life. Sonically, I approached this metaphor quite  literally. In the first part, the sounds are bright and clear, and the vocals express freedom while  describing the vibrant world around them. In the second part, the colors and the music begin to  blur, with faster tempos and more chaotic rhythms. In the third part, the sound is almost entirely  choral, with most voices holding sustained, monotone notes, reflecting the monochrome world of  old age. There is also a section that reaches back to childhood, but the memory is fragmented and  distorted before returning to the present.

PAN M 360 : The title “Autoportrait” contains many tracks, suggesting multiple self-portraits. Are these songs different facets of a single self at different times, or are they portraits of different, perhaps archetypal, individuals going through this universal passage? 

Graham Hudson-Jameson : I divided the self-portrait into three distinct parts to  represent different stages of a person’s life. The first part depicts childhood, when everything  moves slowly and the world feels bright and fascinating. The second part represents adulthood,  when time rushes by and life’s beauties blur together. The third part portrays old age, when  everything has turned monochrome, and the person looks back with nostalgia and a hint of regret  for not having enjoyed life to the fullest. Together, the three parts tell the story of one individual  moving through these milestones.

PAN M 360 : You developed the concept for this album in the context of the Musiques Numériques Bachelor program. Can you talk about how mentorship guided you through this process? 

Graham Hudson-Jameson : I started brainstorming ideas for this project while taking the project class with Ana  Dall’Ara-Majek. She helped me develop the Lightbox, an instrument that uses light sensors to  control sound parameters in Max/MSP. I was also taking a writing class with Philippe Gareau, who  helped me understand harmonic structures and choral voicing. Lastly, in a history of Romantic  music class with François de Médicis, I learned about the structures of various Lieder, which  greatly influenced both my musical ideas and my narrative approach. 

PAN M 360 : In this learning curve, is there something you wish you understood earlier on in your studies? 

Graham Hudson-Jameson : The hardest part was coding in Max/MSP. I was taking the class at the same time as I was  writing the album, and I often had ideas that I couldn’t put into practice right away because I lacked  the necessary knowledge of the program. As the course progressed, however, I was able to apply  what I was learning directly to the project. I do regret not taking the class earlier. 

PAN M 360 : What has inspired you the most throughout the past couple of years to keep creating? 

Graham Hudson-Jameson : I’m inspired by stories and narrative structures. I love listening to stories and expressing  them through my music. I believe storytelling is how we connect with one another and how we  come to understand the human condition.

PAN M 360 : Despite having studied electronic music, you are a brilliant composer, and I think this is what sticks out from your work. It seems obvious now, but why did you choose to pursue electronic music?

Graham Hudson-Jameson : I am classically trained on the piano and studied jazz and pop in cégep, but I have always  loved experimenting with the timbre of my instruments. As a child, I would open my family’s  upright piano, scratch the strings, and fill it with aluminum foil or socks just to explore new sounds.  In high school, I saved up to buy my first synthesizer, and I immediately fell in love with electronic  music. I still deeply enjoy classical and choral music, but I also crave timbral experimentation. For  this project, I chose to blend both worlds as a way to challenge the boundaries of musical genres.

PAN M 360 : For this project you chose to work with your sister Gwynneth who is an incredible opera singer. Can you tell us about how this came about?

Graham Hudson-Jameson : I grew up learning music alongside my sister, and we both fell in love with it. She pursued  a classical path, while I explored experimental music, and I’ve always thought it would be  fascinating to combine our worlds. When I asked her to join me on this project, she was enthusiastic  about the idea—and that’s how we came to collaborate! 

PAN M 360 : The Lied tradition and live electronic music seem to be completely opposed practices, yet they work very well together. Did either of you have to adapt the techniques of your respective practices in the process of creating this piece? 

Graham Hudson-Jameson : A Lied is a German song, especially from the Romantic period, typically for solo voice  accompanied by piano. A Lied cycle is a series of songs that together present a narrative or thematic  progression. The tradition began with Franz Schubert in the 19th century, and since then,  composers have written song cycles in many languages and with various accompaniments, sometimes piano alone, sometimes with strings or other instruments. My approach to the song  cycle is similar. I created three songs meant to be performed in sequence as a single musical work,  but I chose to accompany them with my Lightbox instead of piano. The main adaptation was in  execution. Electronic music often relies on improvisation and free time, which isn’t always  intuitive for classical singers. We practiced extensively, and now Gwynneth is able to follow my cues seamlessly.

PAN M 360 : Having completed this intense exploration of a fragile transition, where does this project leave you as an artist? What emotional or creative territory are you interested in exploring next? 

Graham Hudson-Jameson : I am very happy with the results and proud of the work I accomplished with Gwynneth,  but this project wouldn’t have been possible without the support of several others, including Ana  Dall’Ara-Majek, Jules Argis, Dominic Thibault, Nicolas Bernier, Gaëtan Proulx, the Mosaïque  team, and the LFO team. For my next project, I plan to focus on developing a solo repertoire for my Lightbox. While I’m  not yet certain about the specific themes, I want to further explore sample manipulation, synthesis,  and spatialization through the instrument.

Publicité panam

From October 16 to 18, 2025, the 75th anniversary of the Faculty of Music at the University of Montreal coincides with the three days of the third edition of the Vibrations Festival. More specifically:

An international symposium on the theme of music, diplomacy, and propaganda.

A Thursday evening at the Théâtre Outremont to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the U de M Big Band.

An electro Friday with performances and launches of two productions—David Caulet and Graham Hudson-Jameson.

A symphonic Saturday with the OUM conducted by Mathieu Lussier. This is an excellent opportunity to discover emerging composers and performers of the highest caliber! Marie-Hélène Benoit-Otis, associate professor of musicology and Canada Research Chair in Music and Politics, presents the symposium “Music, Diplomacy, and Propaganda” and gives an overview of the Vibrations festival through its programming.

In partnership with La Vitrine, PAN M 360 invites you to discover this university festival open to music lovers.

Publicité panam

Publicité panam

In his last orchestral configurations that marked the history of jazz, the ensemble of the famous pianist Oscar Peterson consisted of the late prodigious Danish double bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (NHOP), the late English drummer Martin Drew, and Swedish guitarist Ulf Wakenius, who is part of the Oscar Peterson Centennial Quartet. The main purpose of this ensemble, needless to say, is to commemorate the centenary of the Montreal-based super-virtuoso, who passed away on December 23, 2007.

As he did last summer at the Maison symphonique de Montréal during the Montreal International Jazz Festival, guitarist Ulf Wakenius will perform on Friday, October 24 at the Palais Montcalm. This outstanding guitarist will be performing alongside the superb Canadian pianist (of Hungarian and Gypsy origin) Robi Botos, Manitoba double bassist Mike Downes, and Montreal drummer Jim Doxas, who is also the 2025 recipient of the Oscar Peterson Award presented by the FIJM and handed over personally by our own Oliver Jones.

The biographical profile of Sweden’s Ulf Wakenius reminds us that he is one of Scandinavia’s most renowned jazz guitarists. His reputation dates back to the 1980s with the band Guitars Unlimited. Then came his association with the late Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Oscar Peterson’s fabulous sideman, with whom he recorded Those Who Were (1996) and This Is All I Ask (1998). Wakenius led the group Venture (1992), which attracted drummer Jack DeJohnette, saxophonists Bill Evans (not the other one) and Bob Berg, trumpeter Randy Brecker, pianist Niels Lan Doky, and bassists Chris Minh Doky and Lars Danielsson. With pianist Haakon Graf, he formed the group Graffiti, which welcomed leading American musicians. His discography is extensive, with more than fifteen albums as a leader (including several opuses on the Act label) and even more as a sideman.

In addition to Oscar Peterson’s famous quartet, the guitarist was also part of the Trail of Dreams adventure with the duo OP and Michel Legrand (2000).

Ahead of the concert in Quebec City on Friday, October 24 at Palais Montcalm, PAN M 360 spoke for a good half hour with Ulf Wakenius, who we reached at his home in Sweden.

PAN M 360: We are delighted to speak with you at your home. Where do you live in Sweden?

Ulf Wakenius : In Gothenburg.

PAN M 360: You came to play in Canada for several months, before and after OP’s death. Now you are the only living member involved in this Oscar Peterson Centennial ensemble. So you are its most prominent member!

Ulf Wakenius: I would start by saying this: joining Oscar Peterson’s band was a dream come true for me as a guitarist. It was a tremendous honor! For more than 10 years, I found myself following in the footsteps of my guitar idols who had played with OP in the past, such as Joe Pass, Barney Kessel, and Herb Ellis. I was able to experience the generosity and greatness of spirit that our Oscar showed us. So when I have the chance to honor him by playing his music, I do so with great pleasure, anywhere in the world. Many musicians from Canada, the United States, and Europe have had the honor of playing with him.

PAN M 360: Some musicians have told me that OP wasn’t always the coolest with some of his sidemen. What about you?

Ulf Wakenius: Maybe, but… in my day, he was happy, welcoming, and calm with his colleagues. My experience with him was always super encouraging and fostered loyalty. When you were accepted into that group, it was because you could play, and so you had his respect. And I have to repeat that Niels Henning and I loved him. It was the experience of a lifetime to play with such a legend.

PAN M 360: Yes, a worthy successor to his main influences: Teddy Wilson, Nat King Cole (an excellent pianist before becoming a crooner), and first and foremost Art Tatum. Nearly two decades after OP’s death, how does it feel to be involved in a tribute band alongside Canadian musicians who are younger than you?

Ulf Wakenius: Honestly, I can only play tribute concerts for Oscar with musicians like these, who are exceptionally good.

My Canadian friends are fantastic! It’s a pure pleasure to play Oscar’s music with them.

PAN M 360: Canadian and Scandinavian jazz musicians certainly have northern affinities!

Ulf Wakenius: Yes! I always feel a bit at home when I’m in Canada. Of course, the nature is very similar. The forests, the cold, the snow… And we’ve exported a few hockey players to your country!

PAN M 360: That’s right! We have some very good ones. From Sweden, Finland, Denmark.

Ulf Wakenius: I’m Swedish, I love hockey!

PAN M 360: How do you see your own evolution through these fantastic experiences as a guitar player? What have you learned or what things have you changed by playing with OP?

Ulf Wakenius: I was always impressed by his stage presence, beyond his virtuosity. One of the best men I’ve ever met in my life. He really gave his all for the audience, night after night. So I learned that you always give 100%. If OP could do it, so could we. It was very inspiring! Every night, he played beautifully. It was simply wonderful!

PAN M 360: And how did things go after his stroke, which affected his left hand?

Ulf Wakenius: He had to relearn how to move his left hand. And it was also very brave of him to explore and discover new sides of himself. Oscar became more tender and lyrical. This led him to write pieces like When Summer Comes, one of his most beautiful compositions, which we always play in our tribute concerts. I remember we performed at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, and when Oscar played, every note retraced the history of half a century of jazz piano. His touch was sublime! Even after his serious illness, his left hand could still do so much.

PAN M 360: I imagine that after his stroke, the bonds between you and him grew stronger, and you musicians became a closer family.

Ulf Wakenius: Yes. Once you were accepted, you were part of the family. And he was exceptionally generous, you know. We would gather at his home in Mississauga; while his wife cooked for us, he would tell us extraordinary stories. Extremely generous!

PAN M 360: His daughter Céline accompanies you in several concerts to pay tribute to her father. She was also there last summer at the Montreal concert.

Ulf Wakenius: That’s right. I’ve traveled all over the world with Céline. It’s like family to me, you know.

PAN M 360: And in this family, the pianist must be extremely talented because he has to evoke OP without imitating him. So you have with you a Hungarian and Gypsy pianist who was listened to by Oscar and who learned from him: Robi Botos.

Ulf Wakenius: So it’s crucial to have a fantastic player to pay tribute to Oscar Peterson. And Robie is fantastic; he was spotted by Oscar for that very reason. He has Oscar’s swing, but at the same time he’s curious and can do other things on the piano.

PAN M 360: What is the relationship with the members of the Oscar Peterson Centennial Quartet?

Ulf Wakenius: They are exceptionally good. Mike Downes is more than just a very good bass player; he arranged the song Trail of Dreams, which we played in Japan. And Jim Doxas is more than just a rhythm section player; he does a lot of things on the drums, he’s great.

PAN M 360: Yes, and Jim played for many years with Oliver Jones, who was an emulator of Oscar Peterson, raised in the same neighborhood and musically educated by Daisy Peterson-Sweeney.

Ulf Wakenius: Yes, Oliver Jones was a wonderful player.

PAN M 360: How do you manage the two harmonic instruments in this kind of ensemble? Oscar has played a lot with guitarists since his early days. But at the same time, it’s not always easy to have a guitar and a piano in a quartet and maintain a real-time dialogue between these two instruments.

Ulf Wakenius: That’s true. You know, I get asked that question a lot. And I always give the same answer: It’s very easy, use your ears, play when you need to play, and also stop at the right moment. It’s just a matter of listening.

PAN M 360: How much creative freedom did OP give you?

Ulf Wakenius: Oscar was extremely generous. He let me play a lot of solos, I had a lot of space to express myself. I pinch myself when I think back on it. It was fantastic.

PAN M 360: Did you change last summer’s program for the Quebec City concert?

Ulf Wakenius: There will be some new songs, others will be the same, I don’t want to reveal the set list! Let’s just say that there are two songs that always have to be played: Hymn to Freedom and When Summer Comes. They’re so beautiful! I also love Cakewalk…. And then we play different songs from different eras.

PAN M 360: One thing is certain: we are very happy to have you back with us in Quebec!

Ulf Wakenius: Yes, I can’t wait, it’s going to be great!

PAN M 360: Can you tell us about your other upcoming activities?

Ulf Wakenius: In short, I play my music all over the world, with different groups. And I will be participating in another tribute in Vienna, with a European ensemble featuring strings and, of course, piano. Whenever I am given the opportunity to pay tribute to Oscar, I do so. So I am a happy man!

Ahead of the release of his album Symphonie publicitaire sous l’influence on 17 October, Alix Fernz invited me to the Club Social on Wednesday afternoon to talk about music. He passionately described the themes of his work and the influences that have made him the artist he is today.

After a series of albums with his band Bloodskin Atopic, Alexandre Fournier experienced a musical renaissance during the pandemic, emerging with a solo project: Alix Fernz. His debut album, Bizou, was the culmination of his love for post-punk. Combining the spirit of artists such as Gang of Four and Gary Numan with the more glamorous and relaxed side of figures such as Wyatt Shears and Ariel Pink, the album explores unbridled authenticity. His presence, style and music form a carefully crafted whole, reflecting a sharp punk freedom that flirts with the experimental and breathes new life into Montreal’s alternative scene.

PAN M 360: What is the status of punk music in Quebec today?

Alix Fernz: Punk in Quebec has grown since I arrived in Montreal in 2019. At the time, it was a bit dead, but now, with bands like Béton Armé, for example, we have a new pillar of French-language punk in Montreal. They put on a hell of a show. The Quebec music scene seems to be constantly reinventing itself, and punk will never die.

PAN M 360: What are the ideas behind the punk movement that you identify with?

Alix Fernz: It’s more than just music. It comes with the collective community movement, the DIY aspect too. For me, that’s what punk is all about. There’s a strong community. Everyone looks scary, but everyone is super nice. That’s always fascinated me. When I was younger, I used to go to shows and see street punks with mohawks and tattoos, and I was like, ‘Damn, they’re scary.’ Often, there’s a lot of drug abuse, and they’re a bit special, eccentric, but in the end they’re super friendly.

PAN M 360: What makes punks so endearing?

Alix Fernz: There’s no pretence. No one’s trying to prove themselves. We mind our own business. We support each other. You know, I’m not saying I’m 100% part of that community, but when I go to events, like shows at Van Horne, there’s this intense energy, but it never turns violent, never turns chaotic. It’s always respectful.

PAN M 360: I remember your first albums with Bloodskin Atopic. You released three in one year, then radio silence. A few years later, you released Bizou, which has a completely different sound, with more post-punk influences like Gang of Four. Can you tell us about that transition?

Alix Fernz: I had just launched Bloodskin Atopic when COVID hit two weeks later. It was a big ‘fuck.’ But COVID gave me time to discover new influences and take the time to rework my sound. I think that before, with Bloodskin, I was really stuck on garage psych, and I was losing myself a bit in that. I would put the guitar really high, I would do the same moves, I wanted to be that. I listened to anything when I was young. I listened to the Top 40. What my parents listened to: Kiss, Rush, good dad rock. Then I discovered Gang of Four, I listened to a lot more post-punk, and more L.A. bands like The Garden. I also listened to a lot of Ariel Pink, even though that can be a bit problematic. I listened to a lot more jazz, Coltrane, lots of more experimental stuff too. I said to myself, ‘Right, I’m going to change my name, I’m going to start again from scratch.’ Start again from scratch like everyone else.

PAN M 360: I remember your first show as Alix Fernz at Le Système. You were alone in the crowd singing to electronic music. It’s not just your style that has changed, but your whole approach, and even your aesthetic. Can you tell us about that?

Alix Fernz: After COVID, I met my current girlfriend, Nora. She inspired me enormously. I really started to get into 70s UK punk in terms of aesthetics. I started dressing that way—I still dress that way today—that’s what got me going.

What allowed me to truly be 100% myself and put on an energetic show was simply dropping the guitar during performances. Before, with Bloodskin, I really hid behind the guitar because I was stressed. I play guitar, but I’m not gifted—I’m capable in the studio, but live I was so stressed. Alix Fernz’s first show was just me alone with a backing track. And it was such a relief. With the vibe that was there, all my friends were there, no stage, down in the crowd, I was like, ‘OK, this is it.’ I did bigger shows. I had a full band… Yeah, no, it just really clicked. And now I’m on stage, I have my band, I’m having a lot of fun. And I still do solo shows, I’m trying to push that a little bit more.

PAN M 360: Let’s talk about the upcoming album Symphonie publicitaire sous influence, scheduled for release on October 17. The titles are particularly evocative. In fact, I looked up 800 Gouin Boulevard on a map, and it’s the address of the Bordeaux prison?

Alix Fernz: It’s an interlude after the song 2h15. The song 2h15 is about a guy who attacked everyone outside a bar for no reason. He ran away. I was looking for a name for an interlude. What could it be? Let’s go to Bordeaux prison.

PAN M 360: Does the album consist of several stories like this that intertwine?

Alix Fernz: More or less. It’s mostly made up of songs I wrote during the Bizou period. There’s even one song, the last one on the album, “CHOC,” which is a cover of an old Bloodskin track. The album doesn’t necessarily have an obvious theme or direct links between the songs. But when I start writing lyrics and composing, I always try to build an album that has a theme, something to say. Often about things I observe. I really try to bring out the slightly sad and negative side of party life. That loneliness that people carry around with them, but hide behind a ‘hey, life!’

PAN M 360: What do you mean by this ‘negative’ point of view?

Alix Fernz: Not negative in the sense that I’m judging, but rather in the sense that I wanted to talk about things that people don’t usually talk about. Often, there are a lot of facades; people party to escape. But there’s also a slightly sad side to it, sometimes, with people abusing substances and things like that. I wanted to highlight this aspect to show people that it happens to far more people than we think. Then there are a lot of things I dramatised. Sometimes, at the bar, I’ll try to imagine that person’s before and after: why did they end up there? It’s 50-50 because building something 100% from scratch is tough.

PAN M 360: This is a question I like to ask artists — and especially you, since you work at L’Esco. In your opinion, what does the Quebec alternative scene need to thrive?

Alix Fernz: There has already been progress. With subsidies, it’s easier for bands to go and play elsewhere and get financial support to break into other countries. But they could definitely have more. I know that M for Montreal does a lot in this regard. They have a lot of showcases at several festivals abroad. I’ve done a lot of them, like at the Great Escape in the UK. They do them in Germany, all over France, and even in the US—I did one for South by Southwest. That’s really what I want for artists here, especially French-speaking ones. We just don’t have enough visibility in the world. We remain a bit stuck and closed off in Quebec. That’s not a bad thing in itself, but it’s not enough. We need to get ourselves on the map!

PAN M 360: Do you plan to move to Europe one day?

Alix Fernz: We’ll see. For now, I’m going to focus on seeing what my second album brings me in terms of reach. I know my songs are playing on the radio in France, which is cool. That’s what my label told me.

Alix Fernz is a gem of the local scene, evolving alongside other Quebec bands that are making waves — Population 2, Mulch, Béton Armé, among others. Mark your calendars for October 17 for the release of his album, and don’t miss his show on November 8, where he will perform all of the songs live.

Photo: Aabid Yousef

Presented in four languages ​​by Chants Libres, Paramirabo, and Le Vivier, uniting music, poetry, and image, Songs of the Drowning promises to be an interdisciplinary performance by Roozbeh Tabandeh, inspired by the poems of Sandeep Bhagwati and the paintings of Khosro Berahmandi. PAN M 360 speaks here with the composer, artistic director, and “unifier” of the disciplines involved in this program presented at the Wilder this Wednesday, October 15.

INFO AND TICKETS HERE

PAN M 360: How is this interdisciplinarity of music-poetry-painting articulated?

Roozbeh Tabandeh: The work is situated at the intersection of Sandeep Bhagwati’s poems and Khosro Berahmandi’s paintings. It invites the participating artists to reflect on the themes addressed in Sandeep’s poems and the figures, textures, and colors of Khosro’s paintings, and then to express their understanding through the prism of their artistic discipline. How can an imaginary space be created that invites contemplation on the themes of the poems while drawing inspiration from the visual world of the paintings? What does this space look like from a musical perspective? How do the scenographers and visual artists perceive it? And what does this space offer the public to discover? These are the key questions of this project.

PAN M 360: Through Sandeep Bhagwati’s poetry, the central thread of the work is expressed in four languages. How do you involve four languages—German, English, French, and Farsi—in a narrative framework?

Roozbeh Tabandeh: The decision to present the poems in four languages ​​contributes greatly to the work’s inclusivity and linguistic diversity. German is the original language of the poems and the poet’s mother tongue. Farsi is my mother tongue, as well as that of Khosro, Hadi, and Haleh, three important artists in this work. The work will premiere in Quebec, where the artistic team lived and created for several years. French therefore seems like an obvious choice. And English makes the work accessible to a wider audience across Canada and internationally. This work raises important questions about the condition of human (and non-human) beings in our time. These kinds of themes are broadly inclusive, and the four languages ​​used symbolize the universality of these questions and concerns.

It was also a big challenge because some of the themes addressed in the poem are deeply rooted in culture and extremely difficult to translate. It seems like some parts of the poem just don’t want to be translated! So we had to be extremely careful and find a way to navigate these languages ​​and the cultural connotations associated with them. This reminds us that, although these questions are universal and broad, the perspectives for answering them are extremely diverse and specific to each culture.

PAN M 360: This poetic cycle by Sandeep is said to be a critical contemplation of the human condition in our time. Can you give us some more details about the content and form of these nine texts?

Roozbeh Tabandeh: Sandeep wrote these nine short poems in the post-pandemic context we have all been experiencing, as we grappled with the challenges facing humanity in our time: the senseless wars, the corrupt politicians constantly struggling for power, the way we treat our species, non-humans, our environment, our planet… We are indeed living in troubled times, and we, as artists, cannot simply choose to close our eyes, “live a good life,” and not react to the realities of the world we live in. However, this work is not a statement of reality. Rather, it is a space for contemplation that floats above reality and invites deep reflection.

When I first read these poems, I was also going through a difficult time in my life, facing personal difficulties. So these poems touched me deeply, both in my heart and in my mind. And I thought it might be a good idea to stage this, invite other artists to reflect on these topics, and finally present it to the public.

In short, all the different lines of thought in this work converge around the theme of drowning. However, we try hard to distance ourselves from the negative connotations of this term. Obviously, one can drown in water, but one can also drown in one’s thoughts, memories, daily life, even in a piece of music! There are drownings from which one does not survive, but there are also other drownings from which one survives, but without ever remaining unchanged. It therefore has a transformative and stimulating quality. And this is our goal in this piece: through nine scenes, just as in the poems, we extend the metaphor of drowning (in any form) to several dimensions. The piece slows down the process of drowning, metaphorically placing it under the magnifying glass of contemplation.

PAN M 360: The work fuses these four languages ​​with the music of Roozbeh Tabandeh, yours, as well as video works by Hadi Jamali inspired by the paintings of Khosro Berahmandi as well as a scenography created by the scenographer and architect Haleh Vedadi and Roozbeh Tabandeh. Further explanations?

Roozbeh Tabandeh: The music is composed from the ideas presented in each poem. Then, the formal structure of the music and its timeline define the architecture of the piece, within which other artists begin to create their own spaces. The result is an imaginary space formed by the assembly of these individual spaces, overlapping each other. It is indeed a complex, multi-layered universe.

PAN M 360: The show is a co-production under the artistic direction of Roozbeh Tabandeh, co-broadcast with Paramirabo, Chants Libres and Le Vivier.

Can you explain to us the choices and approaches of your composition (styles involved, instrumentation, arrangement, your own style)?

Roozbeh Tabandeh: Songs of the Drowning is a 70-minute composition, my longest in a career spanning over twenty years. It also concludes the ideas I have explored in several works and installations over the past decade. Thus, in addition to presenting new compositions created specifically for this performance, I make several references to my own past compositions. I also make numerous references to the works of important 20th-century composers.

The dance movement is an obvious homage to Stravinsky’s music in The Rite, which inspired my piece with its abrupt rhythmic structure and the strong ritualistic qualities inherent in his music. In the context of this work, I extend the idea of ​​”dancing oneself to death” from The Rite of Spring to that of “dancing while drowning.” This is an interesting aspect of this piece: here, not only are the subjects aware of their drowning state and express themselves about it, but they even sing and dance while drowning.

The third scene begins with a strong reference to Brian Ferneyhough’s music in his piece Mnemosyne, where an extremely complex and detailed solo bass flute floats above a flattened palette of long gestures presented in the pre-recorded media. The idea of ​​extreme complexity versus extreme flatness reminds me of Khosrau’s painting, where we sometimes find large areas of solid color, such as a huge red circle, and right next to it, an area covered in a dense texture composed of extremely detailed lines, dots, and ornaments. I then staged this idea in a unique context, with a large bell instrument specially designed and manufactured for this piece, which extends to the grille with bells installed above the heads of the audience. Thus, the stage space begins from the stage, but animates the entire architecture of the hall.

In this work, there are also further references to the sound manipulation techniques of early musique concrète, as well as to the traditions of noise music, and questioning the superficial boundaries between music and noise.

So it’s a wide range of musical ideas brought together in a single 70-minute piece.

PAN M 360: Since you work with other creative materials beyond your own composition, what about your artistic direction in the context of this interdisciplinary work?

Roozbeh Tabandeh: As artistic director, my role is to bring people together. To channel the flow in a particular direction while offering artistic freedom to the participating artists. I believe artists should have the right to present their proposals, even if I don’t personally identify with some of them. I don’t think everything should pass through my gaze in a collaborative context like this. On the contrary, it would be counterintuitive for me to comment on Khosro Berahmandi’s paintings, for example: looking at a blue rectangle and asking him to change it to a red circle because I prefer it that way! Because interdisciplinarity also means being placed between several art histories, between different artistic conceptions from multiple perspectives. I don’t have the same knowledge of the history of painting as Khosro. Likewise, he doesn’t have my understanding of music, nor the experience that Haleh and I have in scenography and architecture.

So, while participating artists are invited to express their opinions and react to other elements in the work, we try to go beyond the superficial levels of basic brainstorming and allow a great deal of freedom for deep artistic expression across multiple disciplines. That’s why I believe this work is not dialogical. It’s an imaginary space formed at the intersection of several individual monologues, and my role as artistic director is to facilitate the coexistence of these different voices.

Tableau I

  • We, the Drowning … Are Witnesses
  • Chasing the Sparkle

Tableau II

  • A Scene That Heats Up on Every Side

Tableau III

  • Salty Waters Keep Spreading
  • Dance of the Drowning
  • Metamorphing Beasts

Tableau IV

  • They Will Envy … or Curse Us
  • Monuments Compressed Into Rock
  • Soundless Eternal Language

PAN M 360: Could you briefly explain each painting in the program?

Roozbeh Tabandeh: Each painting represents a poem or group of poems by Sandeep. It’s as if we were creating an exhibition with a sound and spatial collage from fragments of the poems, merged with images from Khosro’s paintings, and presenting them in a performative space where sounds, images, lights, human beings, and objects coexist.

The first scene is the opening, with a reduced number of musicians. The viola joins the ensemble in “Chasing the Sparkle.” The ensemble is positioned at the edges of the space for this scene and occupies a vast area. Then, the musicians physically move to the center for Scene II (A Scene That Heats Up on Every Side) to form a concentrated circle in the middle of the stage. During this scene, the bell instrument extends the sound far around the ceiling. Scene III is a concentrated musical experience. There is no movement onstage, no video, no scenic elements, or changes in lighting. These 24 minutes present some of the most challenging musical ideas in the entire work. On a grand scale, Scene IV constitutes the culmination of the work. It encompasses the most intense moments of sonic and spatial complexity in the piece, as all elements lead to a final moment of defragmentation that ends with a sharp cut, where finally everything and everyone becomes “monuments compressed in the rock,” observed from the perspective of a distant observer, after millions of years.

Sandeep Bhagwati (poetry)
Khosro Berahmandi (painting)
Hadi Jamali (digital visual arts) 
Roozbeh Tabandeh (composition, scenography)
Haleh Vedadi (scenography)
Juan Mateo Barrera (lighting design)
Mélanie Léonard (conductor)
Jeffrey Stonehouse (flutes)
Gwénaëlle Ratouit (clarinets)
Pamela D Reimer (piano)
Hubert Brizard (violin)
Viviana Gosselin (cello)
Lyne Allard (alto)
Pierre-Alexandre Maranda (double bass)
Charles Chiovato Rambaldo (percussions)
Virginie Mongeau (soprano)
Gabrielle Cloutier (alto)
Alasdair Campbell (baryton)

PAN M 360: How did you put together this considerable team?

Roozbeh Tabandeh: These are artists I’ve known for a long time. Khosro Berahmandi was the first artist I met when I moved to Montreal in 2015, and we’ve formed a close relationship ever since. I met Sandeep Bhagwati at Concordia, where I studied music composition. Over the many years I studied with him, worked with him, and traveled with him, he remains one of the most influential people in my artistic life. I’ve also known Hadi for several years. His close relationship with Khosro was also a significant asset in this project: the two visual artists have a deep understanding and respect for each other’s work. I first met Haleh in 1999 at architecture school in Iran. We grew up together 26 years ago! We studied architecture at the same school, founded our own architectural practice, which was active for about 15 years, got married, then immigrated to Montreal together, and worked on several productions over the years. Haleh and I share an extremely similar artistic aesthetic, or at least two complementary facets of the same vision.

I also have a very special relationship with Paramirabo. I’m friends with most of their musicians and have worked with them individually on various projects over the past ten years. But this is my first project with the full ensemble. And it’s just the beginning, I hope! Chants Libres has remained another partner in the project since the presentation of a first version of the work as part of OperActuel 2024. Their fluid structure allows various singers to join them and participate in different productions, such as Songs of the Drowning. Le Vivier has been with us since last year as a host organization, and we have developed a very positive and professional relationship during the production of this project.

PAN M 360: Will there be an audiovisual document from this performance?

Roozbeh Tabandeh: Indeed, the concert and rehearsals will be documented and made available to the public in the future.

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