Pour l'abolition des frontières entre l'électro acoustique et la techno !

Arnaud Rebotini

Du GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales) d'un côté avec Christian Zanési et de l'autre la techno avancée d'Arnaud Rebotini pour un album qui cisaille la frontière des genres. Bienvenue sur la Frontière abolie !

Une frontière imaginaire sépare Arnaud Rebotini et Christian Zanési. Le premier, né en 1970, est l’une des figures de la génération techno apparue au cours des années 1990. Le second, né en 1952, est quant à lui le directeur adjoint, et surtout l’un des compositeurs attitrés du GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales), une institution de référence au sein de ce que l’on nomme la musique électroacoustique.

Aux commandes de ses synthétiseurs analogiques de légende, Rebotini apporte à ce projet sa maîtrise des arpèges, des nappes, des percussions et des séquences qui ont fait la réussite de ses album. De son côté, Zanési, équipé de son ordinateur, délivre toute une série de sonorités électroniques aux timbres tour-à-tour diaphanes, graciles, irréels ou plus rugueux, obtenus à partir du traitement informatique de sons naturels ou acoustiques. La majorité des titres qui composent l’album à venir en avril, possèdent avant tout une forme de construction dramatique, à l’image de « Frontieres », marqué par un très beau sens de la suspension et de la progression, proche de certains climats cinématographiques, sur lesquels viennent se poser des tonalités denses et tourbillonnantes, ainsi que la voix d’Arnaud, transformée à l’aide d’un vocodeur. « Approche/Accumulation » , quant à lui, s’ouvre sur les textures digitales et les timbres chuchotés de Christian, auxquels viennent répondre les sons acid, les nappes de synthétiseurs pour finir dans un climax frénétique. Enfin, « Heaven Ill » lorgne quant à lui vers les atmosphères planantes et les boucles hypnotiques de l’Allemagne seventies de Cluster ou Harmonia.

Et, en attendant le 21 avril, un petit mix d'une demi-heure sur Soundcloud, pour vous donner une idée du son auquel il faudra s'attendre. 

Zanesi/Rebotini:"Ouverture" Pansonic: "Teurastamo" Pierre Henry: "Le voyage" Ectomorph: "Parallax view" Dieter Kaufmann: "Voyage au paradis" Einsturzende Neubaten: "Furio" Rebotini/Zanési: "Approche-Accumulation" Bernard Parmegiani:"Points contre Champs" DBX: "Live dire FRONTIERES - Arnaud Rebotini & Christian Zanési out April the 22. EPK: https://vimeo.com/149734480 (Uk) An imaginary frontier separates Arnaud Rebotini and Christian Zanési. The former, born in 1970, found his place in the world of techno during the 1990s. The latter, born in 1952, is deputy manager and - above all - one of the official composers in the GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales - Musical Research Group), an important institution in the world of concrete and electroacoustic music. No schools, no boundaries These two styles of music - techno on one side and electroacoustic music on the other - are traditionally pitched against each other. However the two schools have a number of things in common, particularly the way they approach tone and the treatment of sound via electronics. Rebotini, who actually composed for the GRM, has often reaffirmed his admiration for composers like Bernard Parmegiani and Luc Ferrari. As for Zanési, after originally being in awe of Bartok and Stravinsky, he studied under Pierre Schaeffer in the1970s before discovering (rather late) the music of Kraftwerk and Cabaret Voltaire.Sharing the same curiosity for classical, contemporary and electronic music (even noise), the two composers decided to bring together and confront their two styles of music in a shared project called Frontières, first on stage and then in the studio.Over the course of their first live shows, the two musicians began to improvise, varying the intensity and length of the songs, whether playing in a club at 2am or in more traditional surroundings. Since the beginning they have been accompanied by video artist Zita Cochet who composes images to illustrate their tracks and serve as a backdrop to their concerts. Digital vs. analogue Playing some of the most revered analogue synthesisers ever manufactured, Rebotini brings to the project his taste for and mastery of arpeggios, layers of sound, percussion and sequences, all of which were behind the success of his classic albums Music Components (2008) and Someone Gave Me Religion (2011). As for Christian Zanési, he uses his laptop to deliver a host of electronic sounds - feather-light, thinned-down, unreal or a little rough - obtained by digitally altering natural and acoustics sounds. And yet, it would be simplistic to describe the Frontières project as just a suite of techno tracks with added electro-acoustics. The majority of the tracks on the album have a definite sense of dramatic construction, such as “Frontier” which deftly suspends and progresses in a way reminiscent of some forms of cinema, using dense, swirling tones and Arnaud's voice transformed with a vocoder. “Approche/Accumulation” starts with Christian's digital textures and whispering notes, countered by swathes of synth and acid sounds before rising to a frenetic climax. And “Heaven Ill” deliberately has a more ambient, looping hypnotic bent that brings to mind German tracks from the 70s by Cluster or Harmonia. A unique album, a unique collaboration between the worlds of techno and electro-acoustics, to be discovered during their autumn/winter tour of 2015-2016. Artwork by H5 INA GRM partner