Olivier Cadiot in studio

Published by P.O.L. in the beginning of 2015, Providence by Olivier Cadiot is not a text written for the stage, even less with the idea that computer music take it over. It is a four-sided tale, written in the imperfect, a text in which we meet two marquises (twins) that we can imagine taking out in the afternoon, but also William Burroughs (cryopreserved) and a few other characters that Cadiot plays with in his desire to quickly condense several centuries of literature (the second half, called Illusions perdues, is, according to the author “Balzac accelerated”). A text that, suddenly, almost based on a misunderstanding, or on the spur of the moment, was dedicated to the stage, towards a form of accomplishment or acoustic.

The Technological Challenges

“The sound itself offers a theatrical space,” says Ludovic Lagarde. “The sound event creates forms on the stage.” In light of this, IRCAM’s electronics are not just a support or extra sounds. They consist of a vocabulary defined together, making it possible to model the reality of the stage. Work centers around processing the voice and the stage space.

Past Projects at IRCAM

This will be the third experience at IRCAM for the Cadiot/Lagarde/Poitrenaux trio Un mage en été and Retour définitif et durable de l’être aimé (and its fourth experience with electro-acoustic works if we count Le Colonel des Zouaves, in 1997, a sound work carried out in collaboration with Gilles Grand). Providence was the subject of an initial lab/reading during the festival ManiFeste-2016.

Photo : © Pascal Gely