“Concentrating on one sense only is a new way of thinking in itself”
For the first time, the Festival d’Automne presents the work of JACK Quartet, one of the most charismatic ensembles in the field of musical creation, comprising violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman, violist John Pickford Richards and cellist Jay Campbell. Founded twenty years ago in New York, where it is in residence at the Mannes School of Music, this string quartet tackles, with a mixture of vitality and rigour, a vast array of styles from established and emerging artists alike. Performing pieces by the masters of modernity from the last century, it also plays a pioneering role, via its close collaboration with the composers whose works they perform. The four members of the quartet pass on, to the best of their abilities, the techniques, languages and the emotions these composers stir up. Music enters into a free-flowing dialogue with performance art, installation, theatrical or dance-based representation, and video. Either on stage or in exhibition spaces, each concert is an experience in itself. Drawing upon new forms of practice, their work broadens the horizons of artistic creation and stimulates, transforms our ways of thinking, and listening.
What is the thinking behind this Portrait and its three concerts?
JACK Quartet: This Portrait offers audiences three immersive experiences. Energy Archive 2 by Ellen Fullman brings us an experience of total immersion. Her instrument consists of long chords stretched out across the space, the pure and intense vibrations of which literally take over the whole body. A form of meditation emerges from energy inherent to sound, that is amplified and with which we interact. We'll also be collaborating with Natacha Diels in order to enter into the spirit of a living canvas. Beautiful Trouble is a post-internet work, featuring video and electronics. We sing, gesticulate, dance, and play our usual instruments – but also a banjo, bells and PVC wind instruments. Through a process of impregnation and intense stimulation, little by little each of us becomes fully aware of the depth and conception of the culture which finds its expression before us. The element of immersion in the piece In iij Noct. by Georg Friedrich Haas, stems from the experience of listening in complete darkness. All perception of space eludes us, and we are enveloped by the music present in the space. In this voyage through the history of European music, all the different forms of frictions exist within our psyche. It makes for a far more intimate experience.
How do you tackle the questions of language?
If music is a language, there must be eight billion ways of expressing ourselves on this planet. Something we've always been attached to in our various collaborations is seeing how different forms of exchange are possible within the unique world we live in, and how to share in new forms of expression. In social terms, it is up to us to invent new ways of listening. If there exists an aim in our exploration, curiosity, and search for new languages, then it is to broaden our consciences through listening. Concentrating on one sense only is a new way of thinking in itself. Listening in a deep way opens up a different relationship to the world.
What characterises the various collaborations that make up this Portrait?
The most important thing for us is to be able to give body and shape to voices, and to be at the service of the wishes of the composer. Most people won't have heard our entire repertory. Some associate us with Helmut Lachenmann, while others with slow, meditative music, or minimalist music from the States. We enjoy bringing along with us all these identities, because we know we can be all these things at once. We discovered the music of Georg Friedrich Haas prior to working together as a foursome. In 2016, we performed his String Quartet n°9 . Here, we go back to one of his older works In iij. Noct., which opens up a whole new listening space. We met Natacha Diels in a different context altogether, while she was a student at Columbia. She composed Nightmare for JACK (a ballet) for us, a short piece which we've integrated into Beautiful Trouble. We made quite a few videos during the Covid period, but we had no way of sharing them.
Our collaboration with Ellen Fullman has been developed on the basis of a common language, that of finding just the right intonation and harmonic sounds. Her Long String Instrument, and the venue itself, the Bourse de Commerce "rotonde" have a profound influence on our way of listening and of creating together. The sound becomes a moving field of interferences, in which certain gestures take on the allure of song.
What are you searching for in this visual extension of the three works?
As a concept, the string quartet, in its traditional format, might appear to be closed in on Itself, like an autonomous system of some kind, insular-like. Often, observing a quartet is akin to witnessing an intimate conversation between musicians speaking a language of their own. In each of these works, we pick up on this familiar form of dialogue, but it is as if, in relation to the composers, the music has been written as if they were seeing it at the same time, enabling seeing and hearing in equal measure. In Beautiful Trouble by Natacha Diels, totally unexpected things happen within this context of a chamber music piece, actions which we would never have thought possible. We play rock-paper-scissors, sticking to the rhythm, but each of us keeps to a different metre, while our cellist, Jay Campbell, plays banjo. Our rhythm is dependent on Ellen. We don't look at her — we feel her movements, inhabit them. When it comes to Georg Friedrich Haas, listening lies at the very of the whole experience of it, but also our sensitivity and orientation at that moment in time. In In iij Noct., we are spread out across the space, without being able to see each other. We need to be able to seize upon the slightest change within this open format, which can change direction at any given moment. It means we have to be extremely receptive to each other, and be ready to follow, reply and surprise ourselves.
Interview of Austin Wulliman and John Pickford Richards conducted by Laurent Feneyrou, March 2025