L'Imitation du sommeil (excerpts)

A brief excerpt of the guitar concerto I wrote for my longtime friend, French guitarist Jérémy Jouve & the Listen Ensemble.  Premiered in France in May 2015, "L'Imitation du sommeil" ("The Imitation of Sleep") was inspired by a short text by the surrealist Gaston Dehoy, in which a sleeper invents dream after dream to protect him from the sun in a "shadowless country." The music is therefore an hour-long series of dreams in which the soloist, Jérémy, is the principal dreamer, whose dreams are accompanied and shared by the Listen Ensemble.  Instead of a paper score and parts, the entire piece is controlled by a generative system I made in MaxMSP, which tells the performers what to play (and when), and ensures that each performance will be different.  This recording was made during the second performance on 13 December 2015 at Les Passerelles in Pontault-Combault, France.

L'Imitation du sommeil (excerpt 1)

A second brief excerpt -- this one featuring one of the otherworldly countertenor "interventions" sung by Luc-Emmanuel Betton -- of the guitar concerto I wrote for my longtime friend, French guitarist Jérémy Jouve & the Listen Ensemble. Premiered in France in May 2015, "L'Imitation du sommeil" ("The Imitation of Sleep") was inspired by a short text by the surrealist Gaston Dehoy, in which a sleeper invents dream after dream to protect him from the sun in a "shadowless country." The music is therefore an hour-long series of dreams in which the soloist, Jérémy, is the principal dreamer, whose dreams are accompanied and shared by the Listen Ensemble. Instead of a paper score and parts, the entire piece is controlled by a generative system I made in MaxMSP, which tells the performers what to play (and when), and ensures that each performance will be different. This recording was made during the second performance on 13 December 2015 at Les Passerelles in Pontault-Combault, France.

L'Imitation du sommeil (excerpt 2)

STOP
you're listening to the sublimation of reality

right here on ideological premises

where the end of your thoughts

is the beginning of your actions

begin<3



hold 

still 

breaking 

falling 

down



做



hold 

still 

breaking

falling down



梦会



hold 

still breaking

falling down



一边



hold still breaking

falling down



换



hold still 

breaking

falling down



是吧



hold still breaking falling 

down



同擦



hold still breaking falling down



同擦

hold still breaking falling down

Pharmacy

Composer of acoustic & electronic music.  Sometimes I combine the two.  Also music faculty & co-director of The Emergence Lab at Duke University.

L'Imitation du sommeil (excerpt 1)

John Supko