To Arsène Souffriau, in memoriam

The matter of a sound body has its own life, its triggered temporality, maintained by the musician’s gesture. In the studio, the act of listening focuses on this gesture, and it respects and amplifies the dynamic traits provided by the sound body, beyond its own material. Here, the development of the piece is organized by the series of dynamics / movements and the transitions from one to the next, regardless of the materials: percussion/resonance (spectral colour), accumulation of corpuscles, oscillations, swaying, rotation, friction, percussion and resonance (allure).

Sound bodies were exclusively selected from the huge collection gathered by Arsène Souffriau since 1959 and organized by materials, ranges, and frequencies. I adapted my listening to his own, and used some of his pitch structures and families of materials: metal, wood, glass, wind, skin… and I emphasized or modified the spectral colours of their resonances.

By using polyphonic writing in spatial movements, I added complexity, enlivened the inner dynamics of the sound bodies and, most of all, highlighted the human presence, the creative gesture of the musician.

— Annette Vande Gorne [English translation: François Couture, v-20]

Au-delà du réel [Beyond Reality] was realized in 2013-14 at the Métamorphoses d’Orphée studio of Musiques & Recherches in Ohain (Belgium), and an excerpt premiered on March 27, 2013 in the concert Électrobelge at Espace Senghor in Brussels (Belgium), while the complete piece premiered on March 19, 2014 in the concert ÉlectroBelge et nouvelles productions de M&R at Espace Senghor. The 16-channel version was realized in 2015. The work was revised in 2016, and the definitive version realized in March 2020. Thanks to Sylvie Bouteiller and Marie-Jeanne Wyckmans, the “instrumentalists” musicians who gave a lot of their time to explore this collection.

Premiere

• March 27, 2013, Under the title Hommage à Arsène Souffriau; Premiere of the 8-channel version: Électrobelge: Hommage à Arsène Souffriau; Panorama de la musique électroacoustique belge actuelle, Le Senghor, Brussels (Belgium)
• March 19, 2014, Premiere of the 8-channel version: Électrobelge et nouvelles productions de M&R, Le Senghor, Brussels (Belgium)
• February 11, 2015, Premiere of the 16-channel version: Créations M&R + Carte blanche à Åke Parmerud, Le Senghor, Brussels (Belgium)