Pascale Murtin
Éparpiller
© © Véronique Ellena ©
Concept and songs, Pascale Murtin
Partitioning, Babeth Joinet
With François Hiffler, Anne Lenglet, Pascale Murtin, Jean-Baptiste Veyret-Logerias, Margot Videcoq, Roland Zimmermann and 60 backup singers
Produced by Nanterre-Amandiers, centre dramatique national ; Nos Lieux Communs
Coproduced by Grand Magasin ; Parc départemental du Sausset (Aulnay-sous-Bois) ; Festival d’Automne à Paris
With the support of the Fondation d'entreprise Hermès
With the support of King's Fountain...
In collaboration with Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers
It is Sunday at the park and the various spectators out for a stroll are invited to wander around at their leisure, taking in the different vocal ensembles scattered across alleyways, woods and lawns performing around fifteen songs composed by Pascale Murtin. The occasion gives rise to a random form of poetic experience which is both visual and acoustic, collective and personal.
Over the course of these dispersed concerts, duos, trios, quartets and larger vocal ensembles make themselves heard, simultaneously, at different points across the site, giving spectators the opportunity to wander around guided only by their own curiosity. Opening up their ears to the echoes between the songs, passers-by can choose to remain on the spot or head off in the direction of what they can hear in the distance, giving them the opportunity to compose their own private concert. The event is an invitation to stray off the very same beaten paths the glory of which Grand Magasin (the duo formed by Pascale Murtin and François Hiffler) so elegantly evoked in Éloge et défense de la routine. Here, the ordinary or the everyday consists of the park, in which we pass the time of day, to the sound of the birds and children playing. This environment is part of the concert: the singers move around in accordance with the sound characteristics of each place, their unamplified voices abiding by the rules of open-air acoustics. There no blue notes in these green spaces, the songs written by Pascale Murtin are polyphonic miniatures, the forms of which evoke the repertory of amateur choirs. There is something distinctive about these miniatures, and their blend of minimalist melodies and open texts with play on words and the surrealism of everyday life. They arouse our curiosity and invite us to participate in this acoustic and visual experimentation of the landscape, its distances and its contours.
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Due to the health situation, this performance is postponed until the autumn of 2021.