To Éveline Legrand

Speed, channel-hopping, agitation, indifference, fragmentation: the image of Western urban civilisation as seen through the eyes of an immigrant Arab poet. The fragments are also those of the inner being, fractures that each of us experience and carry with us as we leave childhood behind. A cry of revolt and a hand held out towards the Other, so similar to oneself. The last stage of a series of works using the human voice, these fragments allow the text, the sound of the text, to occupy the whole field of the work. The narrator’s voice and expressiveness is at its centre. The musical moments, a series of mini-forms marked by a few discreet reference points to give the thread of memory, are the fragments of a longer poem, which, in the live version, dialogues and resonates with the performer.

— Annette Vande Gorne [English translation: François Couture, ix-07]

Fragments de lettre à un habitant du Centre [Fragments from a Letter to a Resident of the Centre] was realized in 2002 at the Métamorphoses d’Orphée studio of Musiques & Recherches in Ohain (Belgium), and premiered on October 1, 2002 during the 9th International Acousmatic Festival L’Espace du son at Théâtre Marni (Brussels, Belgium). The piece was commissioned by Éveline Legrand with support from the ministry of Communauté française de Belgique. The text is excerpted from the book Fragments de lettre à un habitant du Centre / Brieffragmenten aan een inwoner van het Centrum by Kamal Ben Hameda (L’Harmattan, 2001). The recorded reader is Éveline Legrand. Thanks to Hans Tutschku for his precious support.

Premiere

• October 1, 2002, L’Espace du son 2002: Concert de créations, Théâtre Marni, Brussels (Belgium)