May song (2022)
six voices and prerecorded audio
Performed by Exaudi, at Exposure 2023, Milton Court, 22 May 23

Cressida Sharp, sop.
Jessica Gillingwater, mez-sop.
Tom Williams, counterten.
David de Winter, ten.
Michael Hickman, bari.
Simon Whiteley, bass

James Weeks, cond.

Text by Goethe (1771), trans. Lisa Jeschke & Lucy Beynon (in Jeschke, Anthology of Poems by Drunk Women, Materials, 2018 http://material-s.blogspot.com/2020/10/lisa-jeschke-anthology-of-poems-by.html.)

How beautiful shines 
To me, the nature! 
How the sun glows! 
How the mead smiles!

Blossoms penetrate 
From each branch 
And a thousand voices 
Out of the shrubbery

And joy, and joy 
From each breast. 
O earth, o sun,
O joy o lust!

O love, o love!
As golden, as beautiful 
As the morning clouds 
On those heights

You bless gloriously 
The fresh field
The blossoms’ steam 
The bountiful world.

O girl, girl
How I love you! 
Your eyes gaze! 
How you love me!

This is the way the lark loves 
Song and air
And morning flowers
The smell of heaven

How much I love you, 
My blood warmed
By you, for me, a youth, 
And joy and courage

For new songs
And dances
May you be happy eternally 
As long as you love me.

Prerecorded sounds include two field recordings of a wind turbine in Bernau bei Berlin, recorded by Peter Cusack, 2021.

Art: Unknown photographer, WT-Energiesystems Albertshof wind turbines, Bernau bei Berlin, c. 2020

Thanks to James Weeks and Exaudi, and to Paolo Carlotto and Nick Moroz for audio engineering assistance.

May song

Extrait de l'improvisatoire avec Pierre Jodlowski — classe d'improvisation générative du CNSMDP — 17.01.2014

Improvisation avec Rafael Angster et Pierre Jodlowski / Texte A.Artaud

Electroacoustic study piece. Lots of oboe samples where used so as to create this incantatory spirit with ASMR-style sounds.

Meditation Incantatoire

Conceived for the radio program Création Mondiale (France Musique), "Nulle part ma voix," for clarinet, violin, viola, and cello, draws inspiration from the eponymous poem by the poet Bernard Noël (1930-2021) and consists of 5 movements, each corresponding to one or two stanzas of the poem. The piece thus offers five variations on the desire to speak, on the impulse that drives expression and encounters various constraints or impediments. Various objects (clothespins, hairpins, paper pockets...) are placed on each of the strings, and the clarinet employs numerous unconventional fingerings, sometimes playing only on the upper body of the instrument. These preparations contribute to bringing out an eminently expressive character from these "hindered" instrumental voices.

Nulle part ma voix

Let Pass My Weary Guiltless Ghost, excerpt #3. Performed by Skogen: Ko Ishikawa (sho), Anna Lindal (violin), Leo Svensson Sander (cello), Rhodri Davies (harp), Magnus Granberg (prepared piano), Simon Allen (vibraphone and percussion), Erik Carlsson (percussion), Henrik Olsson (objects/electronics), Petter Wästberg (objects/electronics), Toshimaru Nakamura (no-input mixing board). Recorded at Atlantis, Stockholm in November 2019, released by Another Timbre in 2020.

Let Pass My Weary Guiltless Ghost

Let Pass My Weary Guiltless Ghost, excerpt 3

Performed by Anna Christensson (prepared piano) and John Eriksson (vibraphone). Released by Thanatosis in August 2022.

Night Will Fade and Fall Apart

Night Will Fade and Fall Apart (for piano and vibraphone)

Ensemble Intercontemporain

Martin Adámek – bass clarinet
Julia Sinoimeri – XAMP microtonal accordion
Aurélien Gignoux – percussion
Vincent Desille – e-guitar
Nicolò Umberto Foron – cond.

01/12/2023, Conservatoire de Paris CNSMDP
rec & mix: Lucas Bergeret

photo: B.Champeaux

Nulle part ma voix

Sylvain Devaux

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