The Girlfriend: Ekomane/Nancarrow

Music written for a machine passed through human bodies, and computer logic translated into amplified instruments — bagpipes, violins, banjos and guitars. La Nòvia launches Conlon Nancarrow's extraordinary dialogue with Jessica Ekomane.

Nancarrow composed his Studies for piano in order to exceed the physical capabilities of the performers. He layered disparate tempo, acceleration and rhythmic canons, creating music that human hands would not be able to play. La Nòvia does not try to reproduce it faithfully. He transfers mechanical scores to bagpipes, violins, banjos and electric guitars, revealing the hidden timbres, drones and tensions between the precision of the recording and the fragility of live performance.

Jessica Ekomane is leading this experiment in the opposite direction. He translates the logic of sound synthesis and algorithmic processes into instruments related to oral communication and traditional dance music. Delays, Permutations, Limites and Plateau were created specifically for La Nòvia, but they do not form a separate block. Their parts will be intertwined with Nancarrow's studios, so the music of both composers will begin to comment and transform each other.

The instruments will be amplified, sampled, processed and reintroduced into the musical circuit. Also, light and black and white video will become part of the score: flickering patterns evoke perforated piano rolls and experimental films by Peter Kubelka and Tony Conrad.

The Polish premiere of the project will be the culmination of La Nòvia's residency at this year's festival. This relationship already began during the previous edition: the regulars of Sacrum Profanum may remember that Yann Gourdon and Guilhem Lacroux participated in InstaImprovisations, and the La Baracande group represented the collective in a program inspired by Easter laments. Now his artists will appear at several points of the program to take up the challenge in this most elaborate joint production: can traditional instrumentation become the technology of the future?

Concert under the patronage of the French Institute in Poland.

Availability:

The show will last about 70 minutes and will take place without interruption. The audience will sit in the chairs. In the process, you can leave the room and enter it again.

All instruments will be amplified and processed live. Music can be loud at times. The show uses contrasting black and white projections, fast flashes and strobe effects. People who are sensitive to flashing light, including those with photogenic epilepsy, are asked to exercise caution.