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Urbaphonix
Artistic direction : Michel Risse
CREATION 2012
Un quintet mobile de musique concrète
Without a word, all of a sudden, a moving five-person crew enters into the soundscape. These explorers play, live and on-site, with the technology, sounds, objects, and people they encounter.
Sorts of “Street-Jockeys,” without turntables or synthesizers, the musicians of Urbaphonix listen to their sonic surroundings and compose using only what is already all around us but what no one listens to: the mechanical sounds of traffic, the hums of heating ducts and air conditioning vents, bodies, conversations, and, especially, urban furnishings, which serve both as the stage and as a limitless source of instruments for this instant theater. In order to create something never heard before, unpredictable, and enchanting, their talent lies in their ability to make us hear what is already there, but what no one noticed, because no one thought to listen.
Disciples of Luigi Russolo, Pierre Schaeffer and Murray Schafer, they faithfully apply John Cage’s advice: “If a sound disturbs you, listen to it!”
Gallery
Team
Artistic direction:
Michel Risse
With:
Jérôme Bossard
Damien Boutonnet
Gonzalo Campo
Stéphane Marin
Emeric Renard
Gaëlle Salomon
Technical direction
Renaud Biri
Staging collaboration
Martine Rateau
Costumes
Fabienne Desfleches
Mentions
Partners:
Ministère de la culture et de la communication - DGCA
SPEDIDAM
ADAMI
Le Moulin Fondu - Centre National des Arts de la Rue - Noisy-Le-Sec.
L’Abattoir - Centre National des Arts de la Rue - Chalon-sur-Saône.
Caisse centrale d’activités sociales du personnel des industries électrique et gazière.
La Paperie - Centre National des Arts de la Rue - Saint-Barthélemy d’Anjou.
Coopérative de rue et de cirque - Paris.
Le Parapluie - Centre National des Arts de la Rue - Aurillac
Le Printemps des Rues - Street art festival - Paris
Résidences :
Le Moulin Fondu - Centre National des Arts de la Rue à Noisy-Le-Sec.
L’Abattoir - Centre National des Arts de la Rue à Chalon-sur-Saône.
CCAS - Caisse centrale d’activités sociales du personnel des industries électrique et gazière.
La Paperie - Centre National des Arts de la Rue à Saint-Barthélemy d’Anjou.
2r2c - Coopérative de rue et de cirque à Paris.
Thanks to La Strada/Die Organisation for their support and thanks to Hannah Lubin for the translation.
Illustration (cover):
Michel Lagarde
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Let’s go out ! Let’s walk together through a great modern capital, with the ear more attentive than the eye, and we will vary the pleasures of our sensibilities by distinguishing among the gurglings of water, air and gas inside metallic pipes, the rumblings and rattlings of engines breathing with obvious animal spirits, the rising and falling of pistons, the stridency of mechanical saws, the loud jumping of trolleys on their rails, the snapping of whips, the whipping of flags. We will have fun imagining our orchestration of department stores’ sliding doors, the hubbub of the crowds, the different roars of railroad stations, iron foundries, textile mills, printing houses, power plants and subways.
Luigi Russolo, The art of noises (1913)
Urbaphonix slides continuously, appears and disappears where we least expect it.
The specific sound system is developed by the company in collaboration with research laboratories in acoustics, audiophiles and experts in sound amplification.
Urbaphonix carries on exploring concepts and tools already developed over the past productions and collaborations, as well as other contemporary contextual and public art forms.
