Luc Ferrari

[neuroticdog]

Good Sunday to you all...

I’ve been binging on Luc Ferrari the last few weeks. For me, he was always the odd man out when you compare him to that second generation French electronic circle (Bayle, Parmegiani, Dhomont, etc) probably because he brought more variation into the mix. Not only was he involved heavily in the electronic scene as that 10 cd box on INA GRM attests but he also did a lot of film composing, improvising and more things with orchestral instruments.

I never really was able to grasp what he was doing, and subsequently, a lot of his electronic works went over my head, especially the many environmental/field recordings pieces he did like the Presque Reins and the Far West Stories. After re-listening to that box something finally clicked with me and I found myself very captivatied with pieces I never was able to get into in the past. But not only that, there are some absoutley mind-blowing and ear melting other works in that box, like “Les Arythmiques”, “Archives Genetiquements Modifiees” “Danses Organiques” and “Derivatif” just to name a few.

The point of all this is, if anyone else can recommend some things I should be listening from him, please do. I just bought his “Music for Films” 3cd set from Bandcamp (Sub Rosa) (for only 10 euros”) and am looking forward to that. I have other stray releases that I have not revisited yet but if anyone has recommendations…???

Here is one of my favorite pieces from him:



Best
Michael

[Udi Koomran]

I remember first learning about him through The Recommended Records catalog in the early 80’s

[unclemeat]

There's a very interesting book on electroacoustic music, Sound unseen (2014) by Brian Kane, for the philosophically inclined.

"The logic of the microphone is primary in [Luc Ferrari's] Presque rien, not the logic of concatenating this or that feature of a sound object. The microphone records sounds, whatever they may be. To hear that aspect of the piece requires one to swerve away from both [Schaeffer's] entendre and écouter - to care neither about the specific things recorded nor the morphology of the sound objects invoked, both of which are of absolute indifference to the microphone.
But as an aesthetic position, the law record whatever leads to a paradox [because] the recording is also stuck in the immanent condition of always being a recording of some particular thing. This is the paradox of Presque rien. it is almost nothing because it is almost anything whatsoever."

[neuroticdog]

There's a very interesting book on electroacoustic music, Sound unseen (2014) by Brian Kane, for the philosophically inclined.

"The logic of the microphone is primary in [Luc Ferrari's] Presque rien, not the logic of concatenating this or that feature of a sound object. The microphone records sounds, whatever they may be. To hear that aspect of the piece requires one to swerve away from both [Schaeffer's] entendre and écouter - to care neither about the specific things recorded nor the morphology of the sound objects invoked, both of which are of absolute indifference to the microphone.
But as an aesthetic position, the law record whatever leads to a paradox [because] the recording is also stuck in the immanent condition of always being a recording of some particular thing. This is the paradox of Presque rien. it is almost nothing because it is almost anything whatsoever."

I had to read this paragraph about 5 times before it (started) to make sense to me. I think it encapsulates everything about acousmatic music in a very succinct fashion. I'm not sure who is speaking here (I think it's Brian Kane, not L Ferrari) but my take is that by taking "sound" as a completely separate "thing", the microphone is the conduit, and only the conduit...and furthermore it doesn't matter one iota who or what is creating a sound. if the sound itself has an effect either physically or mentally on the person listening to it...mission accomplished. That, pretty much is what acousmatic music is, right there.

Just FYI, his Presque rien is nothing but a walk though either a real physical space or, it could be a walk through a space that doesn't even exist...i.e. an aggregate of many spaces edited together to create something that's not there. I haven't read up on that piece so I'm not sure what LF's intent was, but...with my recent revisitation to it, I found it fascinating, especially the added electronics layer over the more human one.

If all this sounds like late Sunday afternoon gobbledy-gook, well it probably is.

best
Michael

[SunRunner2]

Not familiar with his music but have always been a fan of his automobiles .

ferrari-f8-spider.jpgferrari-f8-spider.jpg

Now, I will need to explore his works further.

[Mister Triscuits]

Now, I will need to explore his works further.

Good luc.

[neuroticdog]

Another amazing piece for all you tape splicing fans on PE (I know you are out there)



Loud, through headphones or earbuds please

best
Michael

[neuroticdog]

One more, than I'll shut up for the evening...



This is Les Arythmiques which some may categorize as a drone piece (in parts at least). It's the only piece I know that makes a description of a horse saddle sound devastatingly apocalyptic. You'll want to stay away from anything with a saddle if you make it though this.

It's the entire piece, but it's broken down into sections and unfortunately you have to click on each one so it ruins the continuity a little. This is a chilling piece, and even more so if you read Boomkats review which I posted in its entirety below:

One of his final works, Les Arythmiques finds the late musique concrète veteran Luc Ferrari engaging with the cardiac condition that struck him towards the end of his life. Inspired by the jolt of electricity that was prescribed to combat his arrhythmia, this album is a collection of all the sounds Ferrari recorded on his travels over the final few years of his life - an assemblage of images he bluntly describes: "as one says of a drowning man's life passing before him". The forty minute montage pieced together here is continually interrupted by surges of electricity and stuttering timeline edits, designed to mimic the electric jolt Ferrari experienced in hospital. Given that Ferrari passed away not long after the composition was completed, there's an extra degree of pathos installed in these recordings, and the metaphor at the heart of the work proves to be a powerful one indeed, expressing the relationships between age, memory, sickness and mortality. Highly recommended.

I listened to this last night and was completely floored by it's off the chart intensity.

Good Luc

best
Michael

edit, the you tube link above is only for 1 part of the piece, for the whole piece, you have to go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4A6...mptsZs&index=7