Didascalies by Luc Ferrari

released March 16, 2017

The story of the last part of a trilogy

The idea of bringing together Rencontres fortuites, Didascalies and Tautologos III - two recent works for piano, viola and electronics, and one open-ended work - imposed itself at a concert at the Boendael Chapel in Brussels, where Collard-Neven and Royer performed Didascalies, with Ferrari attending. A few months later, we found ourselves in the legendary Brème studios, having to deal with the waiting, the Tonmeister's mood swings, and Luc, sick, having a hard time with long commutes and schedule changes. And so the last work was finally developed at La Muse en circuit, the studio Luc already knew so well, in a suburb of Paris. On the 9th of July 2005, we were getting to know the surroundings; Luc, Brunhild and Christophe Hauser were already there. The musicians were on a train back from a concert in Germany. While waiting for them to arrive, we started filming the empty studio. A film perhaps, and a new album. We were with Luc in early July 2005, when he was working with Jean-Philippe Collard-Neven and Vincent Royer on what would become his last recorded piece: a new version of Tautologos. We were there, insisting, filming the whole session. Luc: "The tape is 21 minutes long and there are three rules," and the piece got woven, piano and viola breaking down, starting anew in the opposite direction, discreetly s tepping out, bandoneon, DX7, building themselves back as the night crept in. The air displacement of books being closed every two and a half minutes...the musicians in the darkness of the studio, absorbed, counting, Luc in the control room, not seeing the scene, simply focused on listening "while making mostly silence..." A month later, we learned the news. / Guy Marc Hinant