“CHANTIER”
EXPLANATORY NOTES
I wanted to work with mechanical, metallic sound sources; raw and repetitive like ostinati, which I am particularly fond of: engine noises, stones and bits of metal falling down, circular saw, etc.
Cinematic sounds, very common but paradoxically rarely associated with music. This search for sounds led me quite naturally towards a construction site. Other elements – the crane, the roughness, the forbidden – fitted well with the project and so the construction site was the obvious choice.
Even in the way it contrasts with the piano, both aesthetically and melodically: roughness and dirt opposed to the shine of a polished piano. This for me, is a way to continue the code reversal and renewal movement which started with PIANO VERTICAL.
The discovery of James Turrell’s work and his skyspace at the Temple Hotel in Beijing at dusk was another trigger for this project. Viewers were completely immersed, placed specifically – lying down, looking up – at a precise moment – dawn and dusk – and urged to take a fresh look at the sky. This was a revelation for me.
This was my inspiration for “CHANTIER”: to sit the viewers in a specific place and space-time, to equip them with headphones so they become completely immersed and involved both collectively and individually, then to invite them to give in to a vertical recital.
“CHANTIER” yearns to make the viewer feel the need for beauty; a moment, unique, light, without artifice.
Alain Roche, designer, composer, performer