Christian Zanesi – Stop! L’horizon; Profil-Desir; Courir
Christian Zanési (1952) is a younger composer who has been active with the GRM since 1977 after studying with Pierre Schaeffer and Guy Reibel. He is “a pure studio composer, a ‘sound sculptor.’ His music, which is inscribed and elaborated in the stereophonic environment, aims at establishing via loudspeakers a physical connection with the listener: that vibrant, organic being.” “Stop L’horizon” (1983) is a classic-sounding late-night storm of swirling buzzes, loud knocking, a lawn mower starting, and chirping; with plenty of sped-up voices, deep wind-tunnel echoes, “slot car” whizzing, echo-knocks, shimmering drones and airplane dive-bombs. “I have the very distinct feeling that music is only a ‘grand noise’ and that its interior is sculpted in a thousand details. It opens like a living organism to let my hearing wander around in it.”
“Profil-Désir” (1988) is similar with sustained whistles, high-pitched drones, hovercrafts zipping up and down, some tape tweaking, “flute” piping, high-pitched ringing, low and slow “breathing” and echo-knocks that all build into a loud orgasm followed by an echo tunnel phase and a synth wash stop. The piece continues quietly with more whistles, drones and a big, echoing breath. After another quiet interlude, some final echo-knocks signal the end. “I open my eyes for a moment. I stare. The VU meters are still. Studio silence. Then I receive the first sound right in the middle of my head, a gentle vibration that will grow rapidly and occupy the whole listening space. The shape of desire, its profile, is of musical essence.”
“Courir” is my favorite track on this CD. It sounds strange—even for this kind of music—with a feeling of extreme tension chock-full of heavy breathing. Very fast, frantic panting, which lasts throughout the track, opens the piece with a high-pitched metallic sound in the background accompanied by an occasional beeping tone. Mellow synth explosions litter the landscape with saucers taking off and landing at various times. The piece builds to an amazing climax followed by an additional, mellower four minutes, as the bad breathing behavior continues. “Real presence of a person establishing his rhythm. I again picture the point of departure: one single recording with the microphone right up against the mouth. To run as fast and as long as possible, speed up the entire body machine to achieve a state where the mind is short-circuited, literally stopped.”—Christian Zanési. The cover displays a nice piece of minimal installation art: a rough, neon blue “room” or canvas with one lighter blue rope extending all the way across and one florescent red rock suspended halfway down just a little left of center.
Label: INA-GRM Catalog Number: INA C 2001 Format: CD Packaging: Jewel case Tracks: 7 Total Time: 52:14 Country: France Released: 1990 Related Artists: Francois Bayle, Luc Ferrari, Bernard Parmegiani, Pierre Schaeffer More: Discogs, Electro CD, YouTube
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