Outre-nuit as Outre-noir by Pierre Soulages, the greatest nuances on subtle variations. The programme can be listened to in one go between Clara's two compositions, it's Xnoybis, an extraordinary performance by the great Giacinto Scelsi - a piece that makes you feel like you're listening for the first time - Giacinto Scelsi's Xnoybis (1964) is a journey amongst the reliefs contained within one single pitch. Written in three parts, the piece is an instinctive approach to the sound spectrum (the term 'spectral music' will be coined a decade later). A nocturne by Kaija Saariaho focuses on the sound material metamorphosis. Erika Vega and Eva Maria Houben, two young female composers, close the programme. In reality, it's just a journey and this programme as 'sonic listening meditations'.
Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988) Born into an aristocratic Italian family, composer, poet and essayist Giacinto Scelsi traveled in the East, in India and Africa, drawing inspiration from Buddhist philosophy, and from 1952 onwards renewed his compositional technique. He worked on the texture of sound, using static harmony with minimal fluctuations in timbre and microtonal inflection.
Kaija Saariaho (1952-2023) studied composition in Helsinki, Freiburg and Paris, where she has lived since 1982. She have had a major influence on her music and her characteristically luxuriant and mysterious textures are often created by combining live music and electronics. Erika Vega (1987) young mexican composer, she has received several grants and prizes including the Eighth International Jurgenson Competition for Young Composers at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory (Russia), The Henfrey Prize for Composition 2019 and 2021 at the University of Oxford, and the Fellowship for young artist from the National Fund for Culture and Arts 2020 (Mexico).
Eva-Maria Houben (1955) is a German composer, organist, pianist, musicologist and university lecturer. Listening to delicate dynamics up to silence, the sensitization for sound processes and perceptual processes play a central role in Houben's musical thinking. She also plays pieces by John Cage as a pianist. Clara Levy (1991) is a French violinist and improviser living in Brussels whose career is mainly focused on new music performance. She has been developing solo project addressing different topics at the core of contemporary music practice : the blurred lines between interpretation and composition (13 Visions) or the listening experience and dramaturgy of the concert (Outre-Nuit).
Music composed and performed by Clara Levy (violin, voice)
After Hildegard Von Bingen (c. 1098 – 1179) and Pauline Oliveros (1932 – 2016)
Recorded and mixed by Clara de Asís in Rodersdorf (Switzerland) and Leymen (France), April—September 2022
The creation of «13 Visions» is supported by Sonar
Clara Levy plays a violin made by Savine Delaporte
Cover design by Discreet