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Jean-Philippe Antoine
Nouvelles Musiques Anciennes / New Ancient Music

Album SE 2011 on Firework Edition Records label
Electronic (Modern Classical, Experimental)

A Few Short Notes On New Ancient Music 1. Tiento Boreal (2009). Remembering Joseph Zawinul's "sounds," this piece pays homage to the tientos of the Spanish baroque organist Correa de Arauxo and to his ways of "lightly touching the keys" : a conversational manner that refrains from fully becoming a fugue. 2. Quasi-Choral (2005). Realized with a vintage Danelectro bass guitar and a bit of electronic hardware, this piece is an amateur's homage to Bach's chorals, in which melody and rhythm try to establish themselves, from above and below, without ever succeeding, because of the rhythmic and tonal uncertainties that undermine them. Rather than coming to a full stop, the piece just dissolves. 3. Finis Terrae (2010). I borrowed this medieval plainsong theme from a 17th century gloss by Correa de Arauxo. The sound of the guitar comes from somewhere farther up in the North, as do the harmonies. 4. Superfredons (Superhummings, 2005-2010). Several people hum and sometimes whistle, with the sounds recorded separately. Humming is a solitary occupation, often done entirely unaware. After reworking the sound, I assembled the various recordings into a more choreographed performance : people hum together in a peaceful, joyful, and in its very duration, improbable occupation. The volume is low, befitting "music for furniture ". 5. Squirrel Island Water Music (2010) is a site-specific composition, recorded on the shore of Squirrel Island, Maine. It's a concert of intense boat traffic-lobster boats, outboards, cruise ships, motorboats-recorded on July 31, 2010, between 11 AM and noon, looking northeast, on a fair day. 6. Gouttes De Fraîcheur (Cool drops, 2005). Another piece of music for furniture, Gouttes was realized in the same conditions as Quasi-Choral, but this time without any idea of a progression, and simply trying to stay cool in the heat. 7. Superfredons canonisés en jungle (Superhummings, canonized into a jungle, 2010). This version of Superhummings is a canon, with distant and irregular repetitions that make the sound texture more dense and musical. All's well that ends well. And life goes on. Jean-Philippe Antoine lives and works in Paris. http://www.myspace.com/fredons http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xb4y0z_conferenceperformance-jeanphilippe

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