Listening then and now

Thierry Pécou
about Sonata

Sonata – the title of which must be understood in its etymology ‘to ring’ – is built around chords of ten sounds composed of successions of perfect fifths that I call light chords. Although inspired by the kabbalistic concept of the Sephiroth, the 10 emanations of the primordial light, this score is not tied to a narrative programme and maintains its own abstract character. The perpetual ‘wriggling’ of the harmonies and the abundant animation of the chords are rendered by a virtuoso piano score which resounds across its broadest spectrum and seems to open up a wide sound space.

Stevie Wishart
about Gardez la distance

Gardez la distance draws on the process of a bird’s learning to sing. I envision this as a means for the performers to learn the language of the composition which will in turn be shared with the listener. The names of the movements (Subsong Plastic Song and Song Crystallisation) are those given by ornithologists to the distinct phases of the bird’s learning. The piece is driven by the interaction of spontaneity, notation, and silence on the basis of avian performance.
Birdsong has given me ideas as a composer, which I find enriching, and which push me in new directions coming from nature, rather than a human source. This feels magical because my ears delve into a soundworld I cannot fathom yet is unutterably musical. Working with bird-song allows me to experience nature in a unique way and so I am overjoyed to be composing for Ensemble Variances, who share my commitment to combining new music with environmental issues.

Thierry Pécou
about Sikus

At the centre of Sikus’ electronic device, broadcast on eight speakers surrounding the audience, the cello dialogues with sampled sounds of Andean pan flutes called ‘sikus’ in the Aymara language (or ‘antara’ in Quechua) which give their name to the piece, as well as other types of flutes from the same region: anatas and quenas.
Because the goal here is to ensure that the timbres of these flutes and that of the cello inter-penetrate, by tricks of writing and by the use of particular playing modes and computer processing.
The electronic output acts as an extension of the cello, modifies its timbre, increases its extent, or even more increases the volume and the presence in the space of the concert hall by reverberation processes. The acoustic / electronic duality which manifests itself in the ambivalence between the sound produced visibly by the performer’s playing on his instrument and the sound generated by the computer is seen as a metaphor for the duality present in the thought of indigenous cultures of the Andean Highlands, in particular in the division of space-time into two large zones: that are visible to man, ‘the place where the clouds fly’ where time comes towards us, opposed to the invisible zone, the bowels of the earth and of the time left behind.