Project

Lucioles (Fireflies) is a projet for instruments and loudspeakers. It is also a portrait of the French composer Jean-Luc Hervé. The fireflies are precisely these small loudspeakers, sixty of which were handcrafted by the composer. Disseminated in the concert hall and amongst the public as small sonorous lights, they redefine space around us in a completely immersive way. This project also seeks to reinvent particular spaces – concert halls, theatres, abbeys and their architecture – on musical terms. Lucioles aims at revealing the supernatural and poetic power of sound.

Lucioles is also a portrait of the French composer Jean-Luc Hervé, who was commissioned by Ensemble Cairn a 20 minutes piece for the flute, clarinet, accordion, percussions, violin and cello.

For this project, Ensemble Cairn wishes to fully invest the venue of the concert, from the entry hall, the passageways of the theatre or the adjoining rooms, to the concert hall itself, to the stage if there is one…

Ensemble Cairn has also asked the electroacoustic composer Méryll Ampe to write two short electronic pieces for Jean-Luc Hervé’s sound device. These works will enhance both the loudspeakers and the venue in which they will be installed: the stage and hall of the Orleans Theatre, the concert hall of the Bagnolet Theatre, the walls of the Noirlac Abbey.

To complete this project, Debussy’s music will be doubly revisited, through the means of transcription and by computerized processing, scattering the piece throughout the concert hall. A spacial and sonorous interpretation, determined by the pitch of the sounds (high-pitched sounds in some loudspeakers, medium- or low-pitched in others…) designed to create an elusive anamorphosis.

Programme

\"Being attentive to the world around us. Unmasking the wonders hiding in our environment. This idea has permeated my work for the last few years, seeking a resonance between my music and the venue it is played in. In Lucioles, the music travels trough a unique process, the metamorphosis of an initially reduced material. But this sonorous metamorphosis also transforms the environment of the concert hall: at the end of the live piece, the musical material continues to develop through a network of small loudspeakers hidden throughout the audience, broadcasting at low levels, as if whispering in the listeners’ ear. The venue seems to be animated by a multiple musical presence, rustling sounds spread by the musicians. Just like fireflies in the surrounding nature on certain summer nights, the fragile presence of sound around us is an invitation to listen to the world in a renewed way.\" - Jean-Luc Hervé

Musical program

Dans l'ombre des anges : Jean-Luc Hervé


for flute, clarinette, percussions and cello

Des pas dans la neige : Claude Debussy (rewriting)


for flute, clarinette, accordion, percussions, violin, cello and electronic

Brouillards : Claude Debussy (rewriting)


pour flute, clarinette, accordion, percussions, violin, cello et electronic

Lucioles : Jean-Luc Hervé


pour flute, clarinette, accordion, percussions, violin, cello and electronic

Distribution

flute : Cédric Jullion

accordion : Fanny Vicens


violin : Léo Marillier

clarinette : Ayumi Mori


percussions : Sylvain Lemêtre


cello : Frédéric Baldassar

music electronics producer : to be determined

lighting design : Thomas Leblanc

This projet benefits from the support of the Fondation Francis et Mica Salabert.

This project also benefits from the support of ADAMI.