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BOUGE-TREMBLÉ is a summit meeting orchestrated by Guillaume Bourgogne between the worlds of Eve Risser and Guilhem Meier, with the desire to finally collaborate with these two extraordinary artists. Risser and Meier are both composers and instrumentalists with atypical profiles and wide-open ears. Evolving in unclassifiable and hybrid aesthetics, their research often involves the "preparation" of their instruments, piano and percussion, which then become veritable extensions of the sound domain. Navigating between jazz and written music, both contemporary and classical, both have a rich musical writing style that is particularly interested in timbre and space.
BOUGÉ-TREMBLÉ is a work of dialogue in which the artists are also involved as performers, playing together for the first time.
The piece by composer and improviser Eve Risserfor prepared upright piano and 8 instruments, was co-commissioned by Grame, Centre National de Création Musicale de Lyon and Hémisphère son.
The work of composer Guilhem MeierRisser , creation for prepared drums and 8 instruments received the Aide à l'écriture grant from the French Ministry of Culture.
This piece was presented at the B!ME - Biennale des musiques exploratoires - organized by Grame in Lyon on March 21, 2022.
"I always start writing from my piano solo when writing for a large ensemble. Indeed, "Des pas sur la neige" inspired me with timbres, pitches and intensities, resulting in the White Desert Orchestra. Then, in my latest solo, "Après un rêve", I restored the place of rhythm and pulsation, which I had left more to one side during my solo "timbral meditations". This gave rise to the Red Desert Orchestra, which draws its inspiration from West African music, with musicians such as Nainy Diabate (Mali) and Les sœurs Hié and Oumarou Bambara (France/Burkina).
To move from the piano to the ensemble, I create singular materials that all fit together and present themselves in the form of a puzzle that gives rise to possible collective arrangements. The world of dreams and emotions remains the playground from which I draw all my musical intentions. Then it's upstream meetings with the musicians that the writing takes shape. Indeed, I always proceed in situ when writing for groups that are not my own." Eve Risser
Listen here:
BOUGÉ - TREMBLÉ from Ensemble Op.Cit on Vimeo.
For Guilhem MeierThis writing project aims to blend my solo LFant with the Op.Cit ensemble. I intend to exploit the fundamental elements of my solo (improvisation, electrification, free singing) in the construction of the piece, which necessitates the use of microphones and amplification for certain acoustic instruments, the use of voice for certain musicians, as well as an element of improvisation. A spatial interplay between acoustic sound and amplification can be developed. My piece will deal with the impossible quest for freedom within the framework of an institution, drawing inspiration from historical cases where governments or leaders have been overthrown by the people. I will focus on the mechanism of the need to federate, then to dominate, as well as on the breaking point of this domination where the need for freedom takes over again, before giving way to a new need to federate, thus repeating the same pattern. Readings by Noam Chomsky, Ryszard Kapuscinski and Tchouang-tseu nourish these thoughts. I'd draw my inspiration from revolutionary songs, popular songs that can have the face of freedom as well as that of indoctrination. The electrified sound will contain the expressive force of mental distortion that indoctrination creates, but can also paradoxically represent the processes of liberation of the individual, and the mechanisms of engendering creation through destruction. Improvisation, too, contains the paradox of being both the element of freedom and the one that follows the dictatorial script that imposes its framework. Coming from a musical culture that is at once rock, classical, contemporary and jazz, my writing focuses on group music, aiming to form a singular entity. Nourished as much by Ligeti as by Nirvana, my musical language navigates as much in the chiseled combinations of timbres as in the savagery of a primal rhythm."
Guillaume Bourgogne
Conductor and artistic and musical director
Guillaume Bourgogne is the founder and artistic director of the Op.Cit ensemble, whose atypical artistic line brings together composed music and improvisation.
Now a professor at McGill University (Montreal, Canada) and artistic director of the McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble, he is musical director of the Cairn ensemble (Paris), alongside composer Jérôme Combier, with whom he has recorded the critically acclaimed albums Pays de vent (Motus) and Vies silencieuses (æon) by Jérôme Combier, Lieu & Non-Lieux by Thierry Blondeau (æon) and Furia by Raphaël Cendo (æon).
He was principal conductor of Camerata Aberta (Sao Paulo - Brazil) from 2010 to 2014. He has conducted numerous ensembles and orchestras in France and abroad. His album Water mirror won the Bravo! award for best classical music album in 2012.
Op.Cit Ensemble
Op.Cit, Orchestre pour la Cité, is a protean ensemble that ventures onto fertile ground at the crossroads of traditional classical repertoire and improvised music. Each collaboration is a new quest for the unheard-of and for emotions.
The musicians are grouped around two centers of gravity: the string quartet, and a trio formed by piano, double bass and drums. The Ensemble's approach, initiated by its conductor and artistic director Guillaume Bourgogne, is to listen to the contemporary world and its various modes of artistic expression. For its creations, the Ensemble surrounds itself with soloists from the classical, jazz, electronic and traditional music worlds, as well as artists from dance, theater, visual and digital arts.
With : Pierre Horksman, clarinets - Clélia Bobichon, clarinets - Jean-Philippe Cochenet, horn - Eric Le Chartier, trombone - Gaël Rassaert, violin - Nicolas Cerveau, cello - Brice Berred, double bass.
You can also read Guillaume Kosmicki 's interview with Eve Risser for B!ME here.
