Abstract:

"extrémités lointaines" uses recordings I made during a four-week concert tour in Asia in the summer of 1997. In Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, I recorded the sounds of big cities, the music of churches and temples, and the songs of children.

These sounds were then processed in the studio, using mainly real-time granular synthesis. This synthesis was controlled either by compositional rules set up in MAX, or gesturally - i.e., by "playing" a faderbox and listening to the results. In this way, all the recordings were cut into tiny pieces and reassembled, establishing many new relationships among the sources. Furthermore, filtering and cross synthesis of the sounds' spectrums allowed me to achieve continuous changes between different sources.

For many years, I have been integrating vocal and instrumental sounds in my electroacoustic compositions, while maintaining the cultural context and sound environment of these sources. "extrémités lointaines" continues and extends this process, presenting the sources within the cultural context of four different countries.

The piece is structured in 15 parts, describing different places and atmospheres. The intensity of impressions I experienced during the trip lead to a very dense compositional structure.