Symphonie déconcertante

En 1993, dans la fameuse série "L'oeil du cyclone" produite par Alain Burosse pour Canal+, cette "Symphonie déconcertante" conçue par Jean Pierre Lentin, nous relate quelques expériences musicales singulières.
Les instruments utilisés sont ceux créés par François Bourlier, les frères Baschet, Jean Claude Chapuis, Alain Juteau, Jacques Dudon, Jacques Remus, Frédéric Le Junter, Patrice Moulet, Michel Mogli; ce sont aussi de simples mains ou des bouteilles vides avec Hermeto Pascoal, le Graffophone, le Daxophone ou des mécanismes industriels...
Avis aux amateurs de musiques insolites!

Il bacio di Tosca

 

"Il bacio di Tosca" is an amazing and deeply touching movie directed by Daniel Schmid in 1984.

"Before he died in 1902, Giuseppe Verdi inaugurated a home for retired artists in Milan, a project he had worked on for some time. This home is maintained by the Friends of the Casa Verdi, after Verdi's royalties that supported the home ran out in the 1960s. Director Daniel Schmid interviews several of the operatic stars living there in 1984: Sara Scuderi, Giuseppe Manachini, Leonida Bellon, and the composer and conductor Puligheddu. The singers reminisce about their past and display an independent, extroverted spirit that does not need rehearsing to come alive. Both Verdi fans and opera aficionados will especially enjoy this "off-stage" look at a group of performers in retirement." 

Eleanor Mannikka

World’s biggest loudspeaker

The "World’s biggest loudspeaker", even if you whisper you can be heard a mile away.
The world’s biggest loudspeaker is on view at the 7th Audio Fair now in progress in Tokyo.
It measures 15 feet square, and is 35 feet long.
Made of wood it can be transported by truck to large field meetings, or to address vast audiences gathered in the open air. Even a whisper can be heard a mile away.
If it was placed on the cliffs of Dover the speakers voice could be heard in Calais in France a distance of over 20 miles.
Photo shows the outside loudspeaker which has been nicked named ”My Mother-in-Law” by Tokyo wags.

1958

Katsaros

A tribute to the greek musician Yorgos Katsaros, who played a very unique style of "Guitar Rembetiko" in USA in the 20s and 40s,

Yorgos Katsaros biography

the song "Htes to vradi stou karapi"
from the album "Rebetika", 2010, published on Unsounds records.
performed live in 2011 by the guitar player Andy Moor & Yannis Kyriakides

Speaker swinging

"Speaker Swinging" is an experiment for three or more swinging loudspeakers and nine audio oscillators in an enclosed space. The idea comes from hearing such things as Leslie speakers, moving vehicles with broadcasting sound systems, airplanes, and other moving sound sources, both industrial and organic.

The 1st performance of this piece, created by Gordon Monahan, Canadian artist, composer and pianist,  was located at Mercer Union, Toronto in 1982.

Sound America

 Our friend Carol Robinson talks with the composer Tom Johnson about "monophonic composition"

on the blog "Sound America"

"...
CR: Going back to Rational Melody No. 3, the process can be described in digits as:
1 12 123 1234 etc.
...and then you go backwards. You like to go forwards and backwards?
TJ: Yes sure, turn around and go back.
CR: The transpositions are part of the sequence, and as well as retrograde?
TJ: One thing would be:
123 234 345 456 567
That’s obvious.
CR: Do you also use inversions a lot?
TJ: Oh yes, I could do:
123 321 234 432 345 543
That’s very obvious too.
..."  

à signaler également le livre (en français) de conversations entre Bernard Girard et Tom Johnson paru l'année dernière aux éditions "Coll. Musiques XX-XXI siècles"