Destination des strates (2022)

Je Joue du Kalimba !

Butterfly Room Service
Texte d'Antoine Gindt, écrit en collaboration avec Cecilia Franco
(commande de l’Académie Voix Nouvelle 2024 de l’Abbaye de Royaumont - Atelier collaboratif de création d’opéra).
Lecture du vendredi 15 décembre 2023, 19Paulfort, Paris
Sakura : Florence Darel
Paruparo : Richard Dubelski
Takao : Eric Houzelot
Didascalies lues par Antoine Gindt
Musique : Cecilia Franco (piano, monocorde dan bau), Alexandre Meyer (e-guitare), Richard Dubelski (percussion), Antoine Gindt (e-guitare)

Butterfly Room Service - Lecture 15 décembre 2023

ALL ANSWERS FORBIDDEN – The Haunting of a Shattered Self (2025)
for soprano, Totem of loudspeakers, large ensemble and electronics

Bengisu Önder — composition and electronics
Natalia Laguens — text material
Orchestre des lauréats du Conservatoire
Simon Proust — conductor
Clémence Martel — soprano  

Arnau Gran i Ramero — technical support
Sébastien Tondo — sound engineer
Jean-Christophe Messonnier — mixing

Salle Rémy-Pflimlin, CNSMD Paris

Program Notes
I have always had a deep interest in psychology and the complexity of the human mind, and the starting point of this piece was my wish to explore existential questions. It feels very human to wonder: why are we here, what is our purpose, what does it all mean? And today, with everything around us, it often feels more difficult to take the time to connect deeply with ourselves.

The piece explores these existential themes from both a personal and philosophical perspective: the inner conflicts of an individual, the fragility of identity, and the shifting nature of the self in a world mediated by technology. It questions our era: is technology becoming more human, while human beings—haunted by emotional overload, a production-oriented lifestyle, and personal loss—are turning increasingly mechanical, disconnected from their deeper essence?

The music becomes a space where these tensions unfold: between presence and absence, impulse and reflection, expression and erasure, hope and despair.

To embody this, the piece features two soloists—the soprano and her alter ego, the Totem (a column of loudspeakers)—representing two facets of the same person. The soprano begins in a dark place: expressive, impulsive, emotionally raw, but her gestures gradually become more fragmented, restrained, even mechanical. In contrast, the Totem begins as an artificial, fragile voice—hesitant and distant—but gradually gains warmth, lyricism, and emotional presence, becoming the voice of hope. This creates an unexpected reversal of roles: the human voice falls into despair, while the machine longs to be human, searching for emotion and meaning. Often opposed, they sometimes mirror each other—two desynchronized reflections, briefly aligned in unsettling moments.

The subtitle, The Haunting of a Shattered Self, refers to this fragmentation of the self—the inner conflict of a person torn between despair and the will to exist. These existential questions are the reason behind the title All Answers Forbidden: it expresses the absurdity of waiting for clear answers to questions for which there are none. Yet the act of questioning remains essential— a profoundly human gesture.

Bengisu Önder

ALL ANSWERS FORBIDDEN – The Haunting of a Shattered Self

Bengisu Önder

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