You can listen preview of this album on this page, buy it on our shop or go to our Bandcamp page.
Tracks
Pavana Electricæ – 6:44
Bastien Pouillès : accordion, Benoît Segui : electric guitar
Composer : Bastien Pouillès
Chess pieces – 8:42
Bastien Pouillès : accordion, Benoît Segui : renaissance guitar
Composer : John Cage
The 5th Season, I – 2:31
Bastien Pouillès : accordion, Benoît Segui : classical guitar
Composer : Keiko Harada
The 5th Season, II – 6:18
Bastien Pouillès : accordion, Benoît Segui : folk guitar
Composer : Keiko Harada
The 5th Season, III – 5:00
Bastien Pouillès : accordion, Benoît Segui : classical guitar
Composer : Keiko Harada
Lacrimosa – 9:48
Bastien Pouillès : accordion, Benoît Segui : electric guitar
Composer: Louis Andriessen
Bastien Pouillès & Benoît Segui (arrangement)
Knights of the Strange – 11:25
Bastien Pouillès : accordion, Benoît Segui : electric guitar
Composer : Chaya Czernowin
Accordica III – 10:30
Bastien Pouillès : accordion, Benoît Segui : classical guitar
Composer : Uroš Rojko
About the album
Traversée I is a project based on the multiplicity and tranversality. First, multiple contemporary music: from the repertoire (Cage, Andriessen), the music of today from alive composers (Czernowin, Rojko, Harada), and an original composition, a world premiere recording (Pouillès). Multiplicity of the periods, with some nods to the Renaissance music (Pavana Electricæ, Lacrimosa), a period highly active in artistic research and experimentation, and which presents a singular analogy with contemporary music. Last but not least, the accordion meets several guitars: the electric guitar, the classical guitar or the renaissance guitar (and even the folk guitar in The 5th Season second movement!), in a perpetual desire to explore the combination of timbre and space.
Traversée I is also not only conceived as an album, but also as a live performance and mediation project to be developed. It represents their desire to bring contemporary music to a wider audience, and to rethink the concert experience. Silhouettes Contemporaines are looking for new means of expression, whether in the layout of the stage, in the spatialization of sound or in the dialogue between the arts (theatre, dance, circus…). They also propose workshops and activities around the music of today, in order to give some keys of understanding.
About Pavana Electricæ
Pavana Electricæ was especially composed for the program of the Silhouettes Contemporaines album. The piece is born from an idea to use the material of the Pavana Lachrimæ by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (itself taken from Flow my tears by John Dowland), to distort it, to confront it with our modernity and with the other pieces of the album. The structure is preserved (four parts), but nothing in the original piece is recognisable.
The piece starts with a modern pop rythm that reminds us the connection of the Pavana to dance. This rythm gets into the piece and influences the second part of the composition. In the third part, the intervals used simultaneously by the guitar and the accordion are fourths, seventh or ninth, that are a tension in the Renaissance, but that are never resolved here. In this part, I wanted to create a sound ambiguity: the sound of the two instruments is blended, so that is difficult to know who is playing what. Each bend of the guitar keeps the same interval, so we change our perception of the tension and lose that of time. At this point it sounds more and more electric, like the performers are fading behind. The piece ends with electric noises which seem to be auto-generated. Their duration and characteristics are the result of the previous events.
About Silhouettes Contemporaines
Benoît Segui
Throughout his studies and still today, he diversifies his instrumental practice, exploring improvised, experimental or ancient and traditional music. These artistic researches are all carried out following a pronounced taste for the contemporary creation, all forms confused. For that, he doesn’t hesitate to go towards the other arts, whether it is with dance, the circus or the theatre, that convinced him to start a thesis at the University Aix-Marseille. He pays particular attention to the creation of shared moments with the public. These intimate contacts take the form of activities, immersive shows or exchanges. He currently performs with different ensembles and companies, such as theatre companies Sandrine Anglade, Les Aubes de l’Ouest, Les chants égarés ; Silhouettes Contemporaines ; the circus company LaterrateraL. Benoit currently lives between Paris, Marseille and Bruxelles.
Bastien Pouillès
Bastien Pouillès is a French accordionist, composer, improviser and multidisciplinary artist. He is multi-graduated: he got a Master in Research & Musicology in Aix-en-Provence, a Bachelor in Pedagogy and Performance in Bordeaux, and a Master in Contemporary Performance & Composition from the CNSMD of Lyon, an international program that also led him to study in Tallinn (Estonia), Stockholm (Sweden) and Hamburg (Germany). He is particularly active in contemporary music, including the 20th and 21st century repertoire, improvisation and multidisciplinary projects. He is constantly exploring new sound and performance possibilities notably through electronics, multimedia and installations. His international experience led him to collaborate with many composers and ensembles. Bastien is currently based in Paris.
Silhouettes Contemporaines
Both from the south of France, Benoît Segui and Bastien Pouillès met at the University and Conservatory of Aix-en-Provence (France). The idea of creating a duo became obvious and never left them. During their career in higher education institutions in France and abroad, the project was further developed through their meetings and experiences, to specialize in creation, contemporary music and new concert experiences.
Technical credits & informations
– Recorded on 21-25 February 2022 at Entre Terreau & Béryllium studio (Sault, France) – Sound engineer: Valentin Becmann
– Editing: Bastien Pouillès
– Mixing & mastering: Giovanni Onorato
– Cover photo credit: Silhouettes Contemporaines – Cover design: Oionos artist