Plane/Talea 31-34 2xLP

Holidays Records HOL-120

Release date: 28/01/2022

Since a few years Alessandro Bosetti has been collecting voices that become part of the Plane/Talea archive. The creation of the archive stems from dozens of individual meetings and recording sessions, in which each voice is detached from its owner or originator and anonymized. With each new iteration and performance, Bosetti plays the archive as if it were an instrument. He searches for hidden details and correspondences through exploration, immersion and contemplation. Each re-activation of the archive results in a dense and swarming polyphony made up of thousands of short utterances - shorter than any word bearing a meaning - recombined and interwoven into complex textures. The particularity of the grain of Plane/Talea lies in the autonomous and darting life that each of these fragments lives in a teeming community of voices. Such polyphonies are rich in microtonal detail emerging from the incessant juxtaposition of vocal objets trouvés. Harmonic relationships are sometimes rough and chaotic, other times surprisingly just. The voices are never treated electronically but only recombined and musical tension is provided by the particular grain, inflection, energy of each one of them in counterpoint to the others and to a frugally used instrumentarium (Harpsichord, Ondes Martenot, Cristal Baschet, grand piano, analog synth, Hammond organ). Implicit reference goes to ancient, modern and postmodern forms of vocal polyphony. "Plane/Talea 31-34" - the continuation of the homonymous 2016 LP - is a work of sampling that projects an imaginary community and a disembodied choir. The four arching and extensive tracks were created between 2017 and 2018 and bear the trace of two specific moments: August nights in a country house in Vicobarone, in the hills of Piacenza (31-32) and a week-long residency at the "Studio Venezia", an environment created by French artist Xavier Veilhan in the French pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale (33-34).  « Encounters of this sort did happen, with the voice still clinging onto its own origin, and then seen, as it were, coming out of the original mouth and caught saying other things, with a slightly different intonation, a slightly different timbre, maybe due to a little aging, an extra cigarette, a cold. At that point we would come out unsettled, or maybe convinced that it was not the same voice anymore, but another. » 
Texts excerpts from: Alessandro Bosetti “Thèses/Voix”, Les Presses du réel, 2020.

Plane Talea #31 #34 Excerpt 2

Plane Talea #31 #34, Excerpt 1

Plane Talea è un archivio di voci anonime che il compositore Alessandro Bosetti raccoglie da alcuni anni. 
L’archivio conserva decine di migliaia di files audio, brevi emissioni vocali — utterances — tutte o quasi tutte appena più brevi di una parola dotata di senso, conservate in cartelle che ne specificano le caratteristiche ma omettono qualsiasi dettaglio biografico sulla persona che originariamente le ha prodotte. 
Nel tempo che segue le registrazioni, il ricordo dell’incontro coi donatori e le donatrici di voce svanisce lentamente mentre il compositore incontra e impara a conoscere delle vere e proprie creature vocali, dotate di personalità propria ed in grado di condurre un’esistenza autonoma. 
Ogni volta in cui Alessandro Bosetti performa l’archivio, si ritrova a percorrerlo in sensi e direzioni nuove, ricomponendo e ricambiando i frammenti vocali senza però mai alterarne la natura sonora. Nessun effetto quale pitch shifting,  time stretching, delay, o frammentazione viene applicato alle voci registrate mentre l’unica strategia compositiva utilizzata nelle performances è quella di organizzare delle rapide ricombinazioni. 
Una certa ispirazione è stata l’Ars Combinatoria di Raimondo Lullo, le cui divine ruote concentriche garantivano di poter esprimere tutte le combinazioni presenti nell’universo, tanto quanto la sua Macchina per Pensare disegnata da lui nella Ars Magna del XIII secolo.

I files non vengono inoltre mai tagliati “nella carne della voce” — ogni uttenrance comincia e finisce per suo conto —  e per quanto minuscoli siano i dettagli di tali inizi e di tali fini essi vengono sempre preferiti a dei fade in o fade out. Come un treno che si mette in movimento oppure frena producendo una caratteristica sequenza di eventi sonori, anche ciascuna delle emissioni vocali di Plane/Talea produce  la sua personalissima sequenza di micro eventi sonori che ne caratterizzano l’apparire e lo scomparire.
Ogni performance di Plane/Talea è una passeggiata attraverso un paesaggio vocale, una communita di esseri sonori o se si vuole un coro immaginario e impossibile e pertanto estremamente reale. Tutti i suoni presenti in questo paesaggio sono esclivamente suoni vocali, non trattati elettronicamente ma unicamente ricombinati. 

Il desiderio composition e l’immaginazione musicale di Alessandro Bosetti si specchiano e si confrontano con una materia fatta di oggetti trovati e vivi, ancora carichi dell’energia e dell’emozione di un incontro di cui si sono perse le tracce. 

L’archivio di voci ne raccoglie oggi all’incirca settanta e continua ad espandersi. 

Le diverse performance e attivazioni dell’archivio si susseguono dal 2016, questa, presentata per la prima volta su Fango Radio  è la numero 35. 
Alessandro Bosetti : melgun.net

Plane/Talea #35

*** Cet enregistrement se veut la trace d'une performance sonore dont l'expérience complète ne peut se faire qu'in situ. 
Dans le montage proposé ici, seuls quelques-uns des multiples points d'écoute ont été choisis entre ceux s'offrant à l'auditeur qui se promène dans Forcalquier avec une petite radio à la main et qui, en fonction de la distance qui le sépare du carillon et des latences générés entre la partie radio et la partie provenant du carillon même, vit une expérience différente à chaque fois. ***

Latences se compose de deux parties à jouer simultanément : La première est une partition pour carillon. La seconde est une séquence de phrases ou de segments enregistrés qui, joués en séquence, donnent lieu à un montage radiophonique. 
Le carillon n'a pas besoin d'amplification pour être entendu à distance dans les environs, tandis que le montage radiophonique est diffusé à la radio. Le public se promène dans la vallée en écoutant le carillon de loin et la radio de près et en faisant son propre mix entre les deux. 
La partie radio et la partie carillon doivent être jouées en synchronisation, ce qui est plus facile à dire qu'à faire : le son prend du temps à se déplacer, la radio par contre va beaucoup plus vite et de toute façon, l'alignement entre les deux sera différent —même de plusieurs secondes — à chaque position différente dans l'espace. 
Par contre, à l'origine, les deux parties sont jouées ensemble: Un ou plusieurs carillonneurs sur le clavier de leur instrument, une troisième personne sur un clavier midi activant, un par un, les segments enregistrés. 
Dans la plupart des passages, le tempo n'est pas régulier, mais il est marqué par la séquence des segments enregistrés, dont il faut faire attention a la fin, ainsi que au sens qu'ils acquièrent dans l'enchaînement. 
Dans la partition, de petits triangles noirs indiquent l'activation d'un segment enregistré. Selon les différents chapitres de la pièce, les enregistrements sont connectés dans une séquence prédéterminée, ou de manière aléatoire ou improvisée dans une gamme restreinte de fragments. Un programme écrit dans le logiciel max 
msp se charge de changer le mode d'enchaînement en fonction du chapitre ou on est. Il est souhaitable que tous.tes les interprètes puissent être proches l'un.e de l'autre et se voir pendant la performance, de sorte de pouvoir se donner des tops et des signaux. Le tempo de "Latences" est pour ainsi dire élastique et doit être négocié entre les interprètes a chaque moment.


Une co-production Festival Numéro Zéro/Cipm, en partenariat avec Radio Zinzine (100.7).

Carillon : Eric Beulenger
Composition et montage radiophonique en temps réel : Alessandro Bosetti

Merci à :
Tous et toutes qui ont accepté que leur voix soit enregistrée.
Eric Boulenger, Sylvain Roman et les carilloneurs et carilloneuses de Forcalquier.
Michaël Batalla et le CipM - Centre internationale de poésie Marseille. Bat Sheva Papillon, Marion Coste et le festival Numéro Zero à Forcalquier.
Johann Rigolet, Marie-Pascale Rouff et radio Zinzine
Anatole Coste, Samia el Hadj, Iris Kaufmann.

Latences une pièce pour carillon, radio et vallée

Alessandro Bosetti 

Neue Vocalsolisten

Portraits de Voix

CD Kohlhaas Records [KHS 032]

Out February 23rd, 2024

Alessandro Bosetti, Milan-born, Marseille-based sound artist and composer, paints a series of portraits from a collection of conversations recorded in Italy over the course of a Summer. Bosetti chose and collected four voices articulated over three generations, two female and two male. He then disassembled them and put them together in a palimpsest that integrates three elements: a polyphonic writing – collage of thousands of fragments and vocal writing for a portraitist – an electroacoustic writing and an immersive scenic writing.
Such palimpsest translated both into a music theatre and hörspiel portraying a family of incorporeal voices, performed by Alessandro Bosetti along with Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, and featuring the costume design by Canedicoda.
The Portraits de Voix take now the shape of a physical release, wisely mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi, featuring once again the artwork and design by Canedicoda.

– What do you want from me ?
– I’d like to make a portrait of your voice.
– It’s my portrait then ?
– No. I think that you and your voice are not the same thing.


Alessandro Bosetti with

Neue Vocalsolisten

Johanna Vargas - soprano

Truike van der Poel - mezzo soprano Martin Nagy - tenor

Guillermo Anzorena - baritone Andreas Fischer - bass

Alessandro Bosetti - portraitist

Artwork and design by Canedicoda.

Mixed by Alessandro Bosetti. 

Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi.

Recorded in Stuttgart, SWR Studio, October 2021 by Fabian Vossler German portraitist voice recorded in Stuttgart, SWR Studio, October 2021
English and French portraitist voice recorded in Berlin, Deutschlandfunk Kultur Studio, June 2022
Four anonymous voices, recorded in various locations 2019 Mixed by Alessandro Bosetti
Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi
Artwork by Canedicoda
Radio version produced by Deutschlandfunk Kultur
A co-production of GMEM — Centre national de création musicale, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Neue Vocalsolisten, Musik Der Jahrhunderte, Nouveau Théâtre de Montreuil - centre dramatique national, La Soufflerie
Avec l'aide à l'écriture d’une œuvre musicale originale du Ministère de la Culture Supported by Impuls neue Musik
Lauréat 2020 du Fonds franco-germano-suisse pour la musique contemporaine, partenaire du Goethe-Institut et de l'Institut français
Premiere : Festival Propagations, Marseille. May 15th, 2021 Technical Sponsor: Fondazione Bonotto Spatialization and programming: Pierre Fleurence Costume design: Canedicoda
Light-design: Lucie Delorme
Stage manager: Philippe Boinon
All music Alessandro Bosetti © 2020

This track is not available anymore.

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