)
Mentioning the name Raphaël Cendo immediately brings to mind saturation, a movement he created fifteen years ago with Franck Bedrossian, soon joined by Yann Robin.
These composers claim and theorize the use of a " saturated total ", which reveals " all the hidden zones of the sound " (Bedrossian) while allowing " the complete indifferentiation of the parameters by an extreme fusion " (Cendo). White noise, complex sounds, distortion and excess energy, with the instability that it can bring, up to the loss of control of the sound by the instrumentalists and the search for a certain "animality", invite the listeners to find in subversion and discomfort a new ideal of beauty.
Beyond electronic effects, the saturators also appropriated new extreme instrumental gestures that they codified, transforming lutheries (notched bows, addition of objects), exploring extraordinary nuances, and arousing great virtuosity (diversified playing techniques executed with dazzling speed), in order to achieve the sought-after principle of an " exaggerated sonic deployment in a limited context " (Cendo). If saturation has never been organized into a school, as serialism or spectralism were in their time, which had many emulators by conveying new grammars, each of the protagonists has been able to develop his or her style within this common aesthetic base and to deploy it over the years. Our era is no longer one of schools and dogmatic discourses.
Raphaël Cendo (born in 1975) has always affirmed a political dimension in saturation, a form of resistance to the single technocratic and neo-liberal model of thought, the manifestation of a desire for survival: " Excess teaches us to live. "This disc, recorded by theEnsemble Linea under the baton of Jean-Philippe Wurtz, presents three stages in his aesthetic evolution (we have chosen to present them in chronological order). Action Painting (2004-2005), is a manifesto of the first moment of saturation, when the radical complexification of the writing, the howling of the instruments and the musicians, the unbridled virtuosity, the excessive use of sound masses, of overloaded counterpoints and of out-of-this-world speeds of execution, all came together in an immense cry of violence at the limit of the bearable. Beyond his fascination for the saturation of Jackson Pollock's lines and for the ritual he created around his act of creation, Cendo was influenced in his youth by rock, the Velvet Underground, punk and noise. He was able to channel these energies into this score.
The second part of Action Painting, exploring a saturation of minute detail, already announces the period of the "infra-saturated": after the raw, radical and explosive energy of the beginnings, the composer approaches around 2010 a "dark matter", i.e. what could remain in a devastated, post-apocalyptic world. This is clearly heard in Graphein (2014), a mosaic of a thousand colours in search of an infinite number of nuances of saturated matter.
The latest development is the formal saturation experienced in Corps (2015), achieved through extreme structural fragmentation, the 25-minute piece consisting of more than 240 parts. This piano concerto is performed by a furious Wilhem Latchoumia in a terribly physical performance of brilliant eloquence and flawless virtuosity, on an instrument augmented by numerous objects.
A synthesis work of great complexity and immense diversity of character, it presents a mature composer in full possession of his means, capable today of transcending the initial energy that launched his trajectory at full speed. For several years now, these rich and inspiring pieces have been emerging from his pen, such as the masterpiece Registre des Lumières, premiered in Donaueschingen in 2013.
The Ensemble Linea and Jean-Philippe Wurtz show themselves to be perfectly accustomed in this recording to the outbursts of Raphaël Cendo's scores, which they have been working on with brio for nearly a decade. They know how to tame the energy while letting it roar at will for our greatest pleasure. The programme is skilfully constructed, taking the listener from the infinite variety of Corps to the primary outburst ofAction Painting, which provides a soft landing, notwithstanding the final fatal percussive blow.
Guillaume Kosmicki
