Bach To 3D is a choreographed instrumental concert for headphones. Inspired by the work of Bach, it was conceived, composed, staged and produced by Soizic Lebrat, a cellist who stands apart in the world of musical creation. Committed to an experimental approach, she likes to challenge and reflect on her own postures, experimenting with creative practices and processes by integrating scientific research.

With Bach to 3D, Soizic Lebrat continues her experiments, begun in 2016 with Radiophonium, in search of a sound art that is in touch with its time and accessible to all. Here, she proposes a singular, hybridized composition inspired by Bach's first Suite for solo cello , a universal and timeless work, weaving with great finesse the threads between baroque music, contemporary music, electroacoustic music and musique concrète.

On stage, three cellists and a sound engineer.
Equipped with headphones, spectators are immersed in an immersive sound device and invited to enter a three-dimensional listening experience, with the sensation of being surrounded by moving sounds. Atomized, multiplied, extended and deconstructed in cubist fashion, Bach's familiar score is reinvented in our ears, gradually revealing a new, coherent work.
A fascinating, intimate and singular listening experience.

Bach To 3D - Trailer #1 from SL on Vimeo.

Bach To 3D is performed on cello by : Suzanne Fischer, Benjamin Jarry and Soizic Lebrat
Performed sound recording: Alice Duchesne
Sound engineer: Anne-Laure Lejosne
With the help of Eric Leenhardt and Eric Planchot on lighting and Lucas Pizzini on sound.
Bach To 3D premiered on January 14 & 15, 2023 at Stéréolux as part of the Festival Trajectoires, and was performed again on January 18, 2023 at Arsenal Cité musicale-Metz as part of the Festival Traverses.

Bach To 3D - Trailer #2 from SL on Vimeo.

"Interior night or almost. On stage, a dancer and three musicians at the three corners of a triangle, sometimes tracing lines of light. The spectators wear headphones, immersed in the sound. A sound that carries you away. String rubbing, vibrations, rustling, the dancer's breath... As if movement and sound were one. She moves away from and closer to the instruments, blending into the half-light... Life outside blends into the score for a moment when the dancer briefly leaves the stage for the street. In her ears, the sound of rain on cobblestones, the rolling of cars. Bach To 3D is astrange, unidentified object that makes you lose your bearings... A moment out of time, a delightful interlude of poetry." Yasmine Tigoé, Ouest France 16.01.2023

Soizic, why Bach?
It's a benchmark work for cellists, and it's also widely known, whatever your age. And in the end, no matter how much you like the music, it becomes a starting point that leads from the original work to its present-day recomposition. To feel Bach and hear it in a different way is also one of the strengths of this proposal.

Can we speak of cubist writing?
Bach's work is multiplied. In the manner of a cubist painting, which shows in the same image the different points of view of its author, I propose a staging that allows the multiplication of listening points through the movement of the dancer and the musicians. This choreographic writing of listening points is made possible by a device invented and experimented with as part of a Radiophonium research-creation project that began in 2016. In Bach To 3D, the performer-dancer captures the sound of the three cellists using miniature microphones placed in her ears.

Is it a personal composition?
Indeed, my own musical compositions blend with Bach's atomized work. They both link the movements of the Bach suite together and open up new sound spaces. They are the fruit of three different compositional approaches: the first stems from a tradition of instrumental writing, specifically for the cello, and is based on the principal material of this Bach piece, the note G; the second stems from musique concrète, and is an electroacoustic composition captured at the moment of the performance's sound production; finally, the third, choreographic in nature, is a work of staging that corresponds to the performer's path through her sound environment, that which is created on stage. 

We feel totally immersed in the sound...
Yes, I wanted the audience, wearing headphones, to enter into the intimacy of the dancer's ears; to be able to imagine the movement of the sounds, the movements of the body in the scenic space, and perhaps even to have the sensation of being the dancer's body!  

Production Ultrasonore
Distribution support SACEM, ONDA, Institut français (Art de la reprise)
Coproduction L'Agence du Verbe, Les Docks du Films, Pannonica Stéréolux, Laboratoires Vivants , La Soufflerie, Musique et Danse en Loire Atlantique, Athénor - CNCM, Coopération Nantes-Rennes-Brest pour un itinéraire d'artiste(s), Radio Jetfm
Development assistance Region Pays de la Loire (Artex), DRAC Pays de la Loire (DICAM)
Creation support Maison de la Musique Contemporaine, DRAC Pays de la Loire, région Pays de la Loire, département de Loire atlantique, ville de Nantes, Centre National de la Musique
Recovery plan DRAC Pays de la Loire
In residence Les Laboratoires Vivants (Nantes), La Soufflerie (Rezé), Le Grand Lieu (La Chevrolière), Chapelle Derezo (Brest), Fabrique Chantenay-Bellevue (Nantes), Le Grand B (Saint-Herblain), Au bout du plongeoir (Rennes), Lolab (Nantes), Conservatoire Musique & Danse, Athénor CNCM (Saint-Nazaire)
Partner Radio Jetfm
Distribution support and communication Partner: Hémisphère son

Photos © Damien Lejosne
Photos © Lucas Pizzini
Photos © Maria Hayes Fischer