Nouvelle Couleur is a sound composition in 3 movements. In homage to the musical measures of the so called „contemporary music“, Nouvelle Couleur aims to link between live performance and machine electronic production and reproduction conditions. The components of the 3 movements were performed by seperate instruments and blended together. A connection can be drawn to Luigi Nonos piece „La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura“, where he mixes the recording of only one violinist to a piece of sound, and evokes an orchestral experience with the help of technical possibilities. The delivery of Nouvelle Couleur takes place not in stereo but on six-channel tape equipment, which also means that the performance of the piece is only possible under certain acoustic space circumstances.

 

Movement 1:

 

S1: Choir for three voices

In the „choir for three voices“ physical and emotional borders are explored with the help of the voice pushing past exhaustion and returning again to the voice. In order to produce the appearance of a continuous tone, in several runs the voice of the jazz musician Isabella Sedlak was looped through a effect processor with middle delay time. Without measure and the inconspicuous increase of the pitch, the listener cannot find a direct musical reference point, whereby a certain „state of suspension“ is evoked which creates a feeling of timelessness.

 

From the deepest singable tones to the highest possible, Sedlak sang the individual notes in the 1/4 tone steps. They are sung „breath long“ until complete physical fatigue occurs. This was repeated with a second trace around a 1/4 tone higher, and again a third time with several directed tonal movements, in her possible pitch range. To achieve the desired „suffering“ in the tone the physical exposure was repeated until an emotional slackening was achieved. The voices were not digitally processed afterwards, only the panorama was electronically altered.

 

Nouvelle Couleur (Mvt. 1)

2005/2010,  Audioinstallation/Live Performance 06min 30sec