The Squid's Ear Magazine

Vandromme, Guy / Bruno Duplant

l'infini des possibles (12 etudes pour piano) [2 CDs]

Vandromme, Guy / Bruno Duplant: l'infini des possibles (12 etudes pour piano) [2 CDs] (elsewhere)

Twelve etudes for solo piano by French composer Bruno Duplant and interpreted by pianist Guy Vandromme, each etude consisting of eight lines of lowercase letters a-g representing white keys, with accents, uppercase shifts, apostrophes, &c. affecting those letters, the performer given an "infinity of possibilities" through choices of combinations and repetions of the score.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Guy Vandromme-piano

Bruno Duplant-composer


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Label: elsewhere
Catalog ID: elsewhere 019-2
Squidco Product Code: 31280

Format: 2 CDs
Condition: New
Released: 2021
Country: USA
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at the artis's home in Messelbroek, Belgium, in March through May, 2021.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"l'infini des possibles is a set of twelve studies for solo piano, written by French composer Bruno Duplant in 2019. The score consists of lowercase letters (a, b, c, d, e, f, g) and spaces in between, which leaves the pianist an openness for interpretation and artistic determinations. The Belgian pianist/conductor Guy Vandromme intensely studied these 12 pieces via in-depth discussions with Duplant over two years, and realized them for this recording of a double CD in the spring of 2021, on a Steinway and Son C-Grand from 1896 at his home studio in Messelbroek. Mixed, mastered, cover art by Bruno Duplant."-elsewhere

From the liner notes by Michael Pisaro-Liu

"Let's begin with a proposition: as finite beings, it is impossible for us to have a real experience of the infinite. If that is the case, how does an artwork create a representation of the infinite?

One way is to introduce an infinite potential in the process of finishing the work. A score is indeterminate when it leaves critical decisions for the performing musician. Those decisions compound and quickly add up to a very large number. If one had to make each decision consciously, through calculation, it would take a lifetime to learn to play an indeterminate piece like 'l'infini des possibles'. Luckily, in practice, the musician is guided, inevitably, by his own instincts. He makes many decisions quickly and unconsciously, adapting patterns he already has in his hands and in his ears.

Bruno Duplant's score consists primarily of lowercase letters (a, b, c, d, e, f, g). The letters stand for the "white keys" of the piano. Periods and spaces are placed in the letter stream to give a suggestion of phrasing. Occasionally these letters are affected by accents, uppercase shifts, cédilles and apostrophes, with each of these marks open to interpretation. A line of letters should last about one minute. Each étude consists of a single page of eight lines. While the order of the letters is fixed, their combinations and repetitions are determined by the performer. What looks like melody can become harmony; what appears to be simple, can become complex. The performer is asked to play "soberly, slowly and with a sweet melancholy."

Given the openness of this score, much of the feeling and atmosphere will be the result of a set of substantive artistic determinations made by the pianist. "How much do I use the pedal? Does it sustain, feather or stop completely at the end of this phrase? Precisely how long do I wait before the next note? Are these two letters to be played together or separate? In the same octave or an octave apart? Perhaps three octaves apart? How do I make a rhythm that turns this stream of letters into a figure? Do the a and g ring long enough to harmonize with the e?" There are thousands of such decisions to be made in each of these études.

What begins as a black-and-white figure drawing ends as a hand-colored portrait. Those colors are beautiful: subtle, shaded, nuanced, detailed. Through the sensitive touch of Guy Vandromme, the potentials of the score acquire dimension and expression. In his touch the listener, teetering at the edge of an abyss of sensation, might occasionally feel the hidden specter of the infinite." - Michael Pisaro-Liu (2021)


Artist Biographies

"Pianist/conductor Guy Vandromme is a performer within the fields of opera and music theatre, dance, working as a soloist, accompanist, conductor and artistic director. He has been a major driver behind the program of the European Cultural Capital of Brugge 2002. More recently he became responsible for the festival Klankenstroom bringing cultural heritage, classical music and tourism together. His main focus is to open the boundaries of music theatre, collaborating with contemporary artists, and exploring scores of forgotten music. This year his first solo recording of music of John Cage will be edited by Wandelweiser records."

-Guy Vandromme Website (https://www.guyvandromme.com/)
10/2/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Bruno Duplant is a composer, improviser and multi-instrumentist (double bass, percussion, electronics, phonography...) living in the north of France. He has collaborated with lot of instrumentalists around the globe and has also made solo works for such labels as B-Boim, Engraved Glass, Peira, Ilse, Impulsive Habitat, Con-v, Unfathomless, Et le feu comme matière formatable technologiquement, Audiotong, Insubordinations and his own label curated with Pedro Chambel, Rhizome.s...

For him, composing, playing, improvising music is like imagining, creating and sometimes decomposing new spaces/realities, new entities. But it is also a reflection on 'memory', not the historic one, but a memory of all things, spaces & moments.

His new works, mostly based on phonographies & graphic scores, perfectly reflect that."

-Another Timbre (http://www.anothertimbre.com/az8.html)
10/2/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



SIDE A



1. etude no. 1 (11:30)

2. etude no. 2 (9:50)

3. etude no. 3 (9:05)

4. etude no. 4 (12:50)

5. etude no. 5 (11:15)

6. etude no. 6 (15:00)

SIDE B



1. etude no. 7 (9:30)

2. etude no. 8 (9:20)

3. etude no. 9 (10:20)

4. etude no. 10 (12:10)

5. etude no. 11 (8:45)

6. etude no. 12 (8:40)

Related Categories of Interest:


Compositional Forms
Improvised Music
Piano & Keyboards
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Solo Artist Recordings
New in Compositional Music

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