Four fascinating compositions by Pascale Criton exploring microtonalities on instruments tuned in 1/16th tone (violin, viola, guitar) based on gestural processes developed in close collaboration with the musicians: one duo with Silvia Tarozzi and Deborah Walker, one solo piece with Deborah Walker, and two pieces performed by Dedalus Ensemble.
"Infra includes four compositions by Pascale Criton: one duo with Silvia Tarozzi and Deborah Walker, one solo piece with Deborah Walker, and two pieces performed by Dedalus Ensemble (Didier Aschour guitar, Amélie Berson flute, Thierry Madiot trombone, Silvia Tarozzi violin, Deborah Walker cello).
"The pieces gathered in this CD all call on instruments tuned in 1 / 16th of tone: violin, violin - that, guitar. My interest in microintervals goes hand in hand with my attraction for small differences: the minimal intervals reveal the qualities of the sound, the complex components of the timbre and the noise. They allow one to introduce minute variations of time and movement. These slight differences stimulate awareness of sensations, variations in velocities, degrees of fluidity and energy involved in dynamic transformations.
All the pieces are based on gestural processes developed in close collaboration with the musicians. A script of variables in transformation allows the gesture to be built smoothly, except metric and fixed heights, under the "identity" of the note. The microtonal tuning renews the expressive sensitivity of the instruments and requires attentive listening to control tiny sound variables while experiencing the limits of perception.
Bothsways (2014) for violin and cello explores expressive traits and extended microtonal techniques. The general idea is related to the instability, the fluid and reciprocal passage between different states or ways of playing. Both (two, together) and Sways is composed of four movements (solos and duets) of two minutes, approximately: Shift (vlc); Coalescent (vl and vlc); Impulse (vl); Sways (vl and vlc).Process (2013) for flute, trombone, guitar, violin and cello, installs a balance of first floating variables (descending motion) which then stabilize in a beat pattern. Steppings (2013) for flute, trombone, guitar, violin and cello stands on a constant battuto gesture. The microtonal tuning of the strings associated with the multiphonics of the wind instruments makes very fine sound variations possible at the border of the timbre, the sound and the noise.
Chaoscaccia (2014), written in collaboration with Deborah Walker, develops a style specific to the chord in sixteenths of tone with the cello. A journey of the instrumental gesture, unstable and continual, the script (diagram) is built around the idea of change - shift. It is a question of grasping the musical gesture in its dimension of event, of seeking its motor and processual idea. Attention is directed more to the velocities, to a constant, unstable energy. Various states coexist, their tension is maintained, always in rupture, the gesture itself is guide, the action is "listening"."-Pascale Criton (translated by Google)