The 30-year-old French composer, based in The Hague, was on the bill at the latest edition of the riverrun festival in Albi, where the Dutch ensemble Modelo 62 performed for experiencers. An opportunity to look back on the career of an expatriate artist living in the Netherlands.

Lucie Nezri could have become a dancer, but she chose music. "During my years of classical and contemporary dance at the Conservatoire, I always had a very strong relationship - perhaps too strong - with music. I was never able to fit into the frameworks that were proposed to me by dance, I was always in a form of resistance, I wanted to develop a creativity of my own" confides the composer. Contemporary dance enabled her to discover music that struck a chord in her ears. "I have a vivid memory of seeing and hearing the Japanese dancer and choreographer Hiroaki Umeda, who writes his own music, including a show with an electro soundtrack based on factory recordings. I was 13 years old and that sound marked me for life."

Yet, at seventeen, she began studying... law. Immersed in books, she listened to Mendelssohn and Bach. At the same time, Lucie began dijing in clubs, initiated by her DJ friends. Then came the Paris attacks of November 13, 2015. "A big wake-up call for a lot of young people of my generation," recalls Lucie. "The law no longer made sense, and my desire for music was more and more keen." She took a year off and enrolled, "a little by chance", in Gino Favotti's electroacoustic class at the Conservatoire du 20e arrondissement in Paris. "He opened up an enormous listening field for me! I embarked on my first composition with practically nothing: a piece for eight loudspeakers, just sounds I'd recorded, and a bit of processing."

That same year, she also took thecomputer-assisted music class taught by Argentine composer Octavio Lopez. "He told me about the Institute of Sonology in The Hague, Netherlands, which specializes in electronic music". The idea took off and... one thing led to another. "In June, I called Kees Tazelaar, the director of the institute, suggested I come for an interview and see if there was a place for me. Within two months, I was packed and settled in the Netherlands, where I'd never been before.

Since the Middle Ages, Holland has been a land of welcome for musicians, and today many of them settle here and establish their careers. Lucie Nezri was immediately struck by the open-mindedness of the programmers... and the audience. "I heard some incredibly divers concerts, the likes of which I'd never experienced in France. I discovered styles of music I'd never heard elsewhere. The very first concert I saw, almost as soon as I got off the train, was by Latvian composer and guitarist Edgars Rubenisa magnificent piece for ensemble. We became very close friends. A few weeks after starting her studies in The Hague, Lucie discovered Studio Loos, a laboratory-like venue for experimental music where she is now programmed. "At the time, I saw some incredible, intimate concerts there, like the one by composer Michael Winter. It was mind-blowing, and left a lasting impression on me". At this concert, she met Ezequiel Menalled and Elliot Simpson, guitarists and founders of the Dutch ensemble Modelo 62.
A lover of early music, Lucie is also steeped in the Baroque heritage of the Netherlands. She is particularly interested in the acoustic and sonic properties of the harpsichord, which she has recorded on several occasions.

At the Sonology Institute, classes are international: "Germans, Italians, Greeks, Israelis, Americans, people from the Baltic States, the Czech Republic, Korea, Japan, South American countries and a few French, more and more. The Dutch are in the minority". But when she began her course, women were rare: five out of around 70 students. "We had a lot of discussions about diversity during my years at the institute," recalls Lucie. "Today, the proportion is more balanced, there's been great progress and we're gradually finding that balance again in the programming."

Today, Lucie has completed her studies at the institute, where she is now a research associate. The composer is starting to be programmed. For the riverrun, in Albi, she reworked her piece entitled for experiencers, commissioned by the GMEA, to adapt it for ensemble. "This new version is an adaptation of ideas I'd had for solo instruments, with non-measured notation and the questions of interpretation that this raises. What interested me was to see what kind of dynamics non-measured notation could create within an ensemble, to find forms of phrasing collectively while finding a way to arrange individual and collective levels of playing." Performing the piece is the Dutch ensemble Modelo 62, also based in The Hague since 2003. "Modelo 62 is one of the leading ensembles for contemporary and experimental music. A large part of the piece revolves around the part for two guitars, performed by Ezequiel and Elliot. The respect and friendship that unite these musicians is evident in their interpretation: they give each other space to "sound", time to understand and expect each other. They also have a great sense of humor, of "play" and... of relaxation, which is not only pleasant but also, in my opinion, humbling! I've learned a lot thanks to them."

Lucie, who works a great deal with computer programming, mathematical probabilities and the notion of just intonation, has embarked on a new cycle of research into traditional North African, Berber and Andalusian music. "Through this musical work, I'm trying to understand my family origins: my father was born in Algeria. We'll see what comes out of the mix!"

Staying in the Netherlands? "A big question," confides Lucie, who feels at home here. "I feel I'm in a bit of a limbo, because it's not easy for musicians of my age - late twenties, early thirties - to know how to fit into the experimental music scene. A lot of us sail back and forth between the Netherlands and other countries, just waiting for things to fall into place, for orders to come in, quite simply."

Suzanne Gervais

Photos © GMEA ALbi