Présences électronique, the 3-day festival curated by the GRM, took place this year for the 10th time. The festival programmes the most exciting of contemporary electronica in combination with a number of greats from the rich history of the GRM – the Parisian institute associated with the likes of Pierre Schaeffer, Pierre Henry, Iannis Xenakis & the recently deceased Bernard Parmegianni and which has focused on the creation and development of musique concrète and electronic music since 1958,
brief interview with Christian Zanési and François Bonnet of GRM about the festival
The location of the festival is the stunning Le Centquatre. Located on the border of the 18th and 19th arrondissements, where the city turns into the into the suburbs, this former ‘city department for funerals’ has been transformed into an art centre / neighbourhood house / meeting place. You will find concert halls, rehearsal rooms, ateliers, a bookshop, a restaurant, a café, a health food shop, a secondhand shop, an ‘artistic’ childcare service……
On pretty much every square inch of free space there are young people practising their street-dance skills, young actors practising a play or young couples just sitting and enjoying the exuberant environment. The weekly organic market is dominated by a convivial bustle and children run around playing between the art installations.
You can really feel that this is a meeting place where locals, cultural 'added-value' visitors and hip young Parisian families all find something to suit their tastes.
The concerts take place in 2 venues. The ‘Salle 400’, a concert hall where the stage is in the middle of things and the audience (350 seats) sits around the performers, and in ‘Le Nef Curial’, the central covered hall, where there is a large podium and room for 700 seats.
Both locations are fitted with a multi-speaker installation (26 and 32 speakers respectively) which adds an extra dimension to the performances and gives you, as spectator, the feeling that you are completely surrounded by the music.
We joined in on the 2nd day of the festival, which was opened by Beatriz Ferreyra and Christine Groult. These ladies, respectively 77 and 64 years of age, presented a pure ‘musique concrète’ composition in the form of ‘Nahash', which makes use of a sampler (laptop) and 4 Revox tape recorders. It is an impressive piece whereby they receive the undivided attention of the audience for the entire duration of the performance and are rewarded by a warm applause.
The second performance is a composition for prepared bass-guitar by the French audio-artist Pôm Bouvier D. While sending a pre-made recording through the speakers, bassist Floy Krouchi gets the craziest sounds out of her bass-guitar, sounds which she then adapts with a bow, aluminium foil, e-bow and a bottleneck. The work is rather minimalistic but the audience is very attentive now too and the appreciation is great afterwards.
We rounded off in Salle 400 with Bertrand Gauguet. The saxophonist had created electronic work especially for this evening. His composition was recorded in multi-track prior to the performance and, here too, the artist only operated the mixing table. I found this piece less exciting and, judging by the people who left the venue during the performance, I wasn't the only one.
After a brief break, the second part of the evening commenced on the large stage in Le Nef Curial.
As an ode to Parmegianni, who passed away in November 2013, this part of the evening commenced with his composition Pop’electric. Extremely impressive to be able to hear the many speakers around and above us and it once again confirmed that he was a unique composer who always did his own thing, averse to every trend.
The first main act on Saturday was Matmos, probably the most important reason that 700+ people showed up on this evening. The gents didn't make it easy on the audience though, they only played 2 pieces. An own composition in which the rhythm was indicated by a metronome that we saw projected in shadow on a large screen. Then the last part of ‘Perfect Lives, Private Parts’, an opera by avant-garde composer Robert Ashley, who should also have appeared at the festival himself but who passed away in early March. It was an extremely beautiful piece whereby M.C. Schmidt played acoustic guitar and recited the lyrics and Drew Daniel operated the electronica and gave everything an amazing vibe.
The evening was rounded off by Fennesz, who performed, just like a few weeks ago when I saw him play in ‘t Stuk, an extremely inspired set whereby the guitar played more of a main role than ever before and again sent shivers down your spine. A worthy closer for the 2nd evening of this festival, whereby Fennesz demonstrated once again that he is a unique artist with a very own approach and sound.
The last day of the festival commenced with yet another ode, this time to Dutch composer Dick Raaymakers who passed away in September 2013. Those early pioneers of electronic music are dropping like flies these days!
We heard a diffusion of 4 of Raaymakers' compositions, mixed by Gabriel Paiuk. The audience was again present in large numbers and, thanks to the wonderful acoustics of Salle 400 and the many speakers around and above us, we were able to enjoy these unique musical pieces to the full.
Second in line this evening was French duo OttoannA. Their piece was built up out of electronic and electro-acoustic sounds and field recordings. Rodolphe Alexis operated the mixing table and Valérie Vicancos sent the sounds throughout the entire venue with the assistance of her laptop. They made creative use of the many speakers, which only improved the listening experience, but the work itself didn't really hold my attention.
As the last show in Salle 400 on this Sunday, Asmus Tietchens came to operate the mixing panel. The expectations were clearly high for this German experimental-electronica pioneer who has been receiving much attention again of late and from whom there will be various re-issues out on the Bureau B label in coming weeks. As was expected, he presented an extremely abstract set with 4 CD players and a mixing table. Not easy, but very beautiful.
The last concerts of the festival once again took place in Le Nef Curial. Jean Scharwz, a GRM veteran, opened the evening at 8pm on the dot. The 75 year old Schwarz was received with a warm applause. He steered his latest composition into the venue via the FOH: Swan, an ode to Parmegianni. It is yet another pure musique concrète piece, but definitely one of top quality.
As warmer-up for the main act of the festival, Xavier Garcia and Lionel Marchetti presented their ‘Performance pour ordinateur, clavier, magnétophones et micros’. They quickly found a fine balance between electronica, the tape recorder and the objects fitted with contact microphones, so that their musique concrète composition was able to count on much support from the audience.
The gents from the legendary Nurse With Wound, led by Steven Stapleton, were last to arrive on stage. We saw guitars, a bass guitar, a saxophone (unfortunately not by Eberhard Kraneman) and much electronica set up. Their 1 hour long set began very dark and had an almost hypnotic effect on the mass of people that turned up for the show. One minute their dark ambient rustled softly through the speakers, after which they would then head into overdrive a few minutes later and the entire venue vibrated to heavy industrial sounds. Nurse With Wound was entirely convincing and they proved that after more than 30 years they still continue to create relevant and exciting music.
Présences électronique is a festival where music is primal, where the listener is well provided for, not only by the high artistic quality but also by the listening comfort. There is a great mutual respect between artist and audience, so you never saw anyone taking photo's or filming, for example. There is sufficient time between the concerts, so you don't have to hurry from one venue to the other and you don't see any over-obvious advertisements from sponsors. Definitely one to recommend visiting in coming years.
