Description

Appels (1974) brings together eleven musicians: single wind instruments (excepting the tuba), piano, 2 drummers and a double bass. The horn, “often used in music to express calling out afar prayer and call” is in the foreground. Besides, each wind instrument makes a snare drum vibrate in sympathy (“music on second thoughts or music of music”). A very metaphor of human breath the “instrumental sound and vibration” couple is then mixed and redistributed in the hall. Since a “call is an opening par excellence” and “requires an open form”, the composer revives this latter notion: disregarding temporal dynamics (time becomes static) he makes a wonderful display of space. Twenty years hence, the raucous incantations of Appels sound even more ecstatically grave.
Franck Langlois (CD aeon)

Recording

1 CD aeon, AE0104, Par-delà
Appels – Les Réciproques – Voix dans un vaisseau d’airain – Diaclases – Par-delà
Ensemble L’Itinéraire, Groupe Vocal de France, Just’à 5, Orchestre SWF de Baden-Baden