The Phénix de Valenciennes will be ablaze on February 3 with the latest creation from the city's musical creation center, Art Zoyd studios: Paysages des enfers (Landscapes of the Underworld). A multi-faceted show in which live music, dance and video crackle together in a rereading of Gérard Hourbette's latest compositions.

Art Zoyd Studios was founded in 1999 by Gérard Hourbette and Monique Vialadieu. Aficionados of progressive rock and free jazz will recognize the name of the group founded by Hourbette, who led it until his death in 2018. Génération sans futur, Les Espaces inquiets, Haxan... Art Zoyd's electronic compositions left their mark on the 1970s-80s. The Centre, born in the wake of the group's sound experiments, now organizes residencies and distributes its musical compositions, essentially electroacoustic: experiments whose keystone is the practice of new instruments and sound exploration. Art Zoyd the band is no more, but the studio is in full swing.

Musical testament

Paysages des enfers (Landscapes of the Underworld) is a palimpsest work, with Dantesque and Baroque tonalities, as it includes the last pieces composed by Gérard Hourbette. Before his death, Hourbette wanted to bring these pieces to the stage, and they have been recorded. These last pieces marked a turning point in Gérard's aesthetic," explains Monique Vialadieu, director of the Centre. He often worked with electronic instruments, doubling them with acoustics. The pieces in Paysages des enfers are much more electronic, more radical."

Four-hand composition

Gérard and I were to work together on Paysages des enfers, some ten years ago," recalls the other musician on the project, composer and bassist Kasper T. Toeplitz. We didn't quite see eye to eye: I wanted a live show from the outset, he less so. We had different desires, but we didn't stop getting along. In any case, he brought the project to a successful conclusion on his own, on the record. When Gérard Hourbette died in 2018, Kasper T. Toeplitz took over as artistic director of Art Zoyd Studios. " The idea was to finish the work that had been done and end up with a show!" confides the musician. It's a four-handed piece of writing that brings together two musical memories. "So I started with the music composed by Gérard, took what I liked and reworked the sound material, continuity and duration.

Teaser Paysages Des Enfers - Created February 3, 2023 at Phénix - scène nationale Valenciennes from Art Zoyd on Vimeo.

Presented as an "immersive musical exploration", Paysages des enfers is a three-dimensional show. Onstage, a dancer, Myriam Gourfink, lights and Dominik Barbier's symbolist video, projected on a giant screen at the back of the stage. " The video mixes different representations and icons of hell with images of musicians and dancers," explains Monique Vialadieu. As for the musician, he's at the edge of the stage, working live on the sound spatialization. You can see him, but you can't really see him. A character in his own right, the immense loudspeaker system broadcasts the music. Gérard had left a few notes saying that music should be at the heart of this scenic project," explains Monique Vialadieu. He wanted a form of musical brutality, a real immersion that would allow us to get to the heart of the sound." Kasper T. Toeplitz is also used to working with dancers: "I've worked with many contemporary dance companies in Europe. My musical approach is never to stick to the dance, to repeat what the movement says. They are two distinct languages which, together, create a third.

Landscapes of the underworld The plural is important, because the hells evoked during the hour-long show are multiple. Dante's Inferno, in counterpoint, collective hell and individual hell with physical and mental confinement, the hell that inhabited the ailing Gérard Hourbette at the end of his life. A chiaroscuro show that ultimately offers a form of physical, visual and, of course, musical transcendence.

Suzanne Gervais

Creation of Landscapes of the UnderworldFebruary 3, 8pm at Le Phénix, Valenciennes

Photos © Art Zoyd studios