Ouverture : Hors-champ

Simon Steen-Andersen designs his works like meticulous devices for eyes and ears, like traps that call on the acuity of the listener-spectator. A voluntarily low-tech universe that is taking off today. “Be sure to show, as much as possible, how much you are doing.” With Black Box Music, the orders given by the Danish composer to his performers have found their highest achievement. Everything is played using a magic box in which the choreography for the percussionist’s hands is found; the same percussionist who conducts the musicians from the Ensemble Modern, off stage.

Run Time Error is the filmed performance of a run through a building that the composers “sounds” following a few rules; it is also a double sonic and visual projection in which the tracks are sped up or slowed down live. In this performance, the epitome of Steen-Andersen’s aesthetic, the projection space—here, the Centre Pompidou—surreptitiously enters the film, in situ.

Ensemble Modern
Håkon Stene percussion/actor
Simon Steen-Andersen live video, live electronics

SIMON STEEN-ANDERSEN BLACK BOX MUSIC, RUN TIME ERROR French Premiere

An IRCAM/Les Spectacles vivants-Centre Pompidou coproduction.