
In his novel « Looking Backward 2000-1887 », American writer Edward Bellamy imagines a music broadcasting program that, in a future era, would change according to the different hours of the day and be broadcast in public places.
Taking up this idea of music « programmed » to respond to certain times of day, the artists imagined a sound installation for the Comédie hall, using real-time atmospheric and meteorological data from Reims and other information from the planets. This transcription of local and astral phenomena into a fictitious soundscape offers, in a multiple play of resonances, a non-invasive and discreet presence in the place: like a furtive silhouette at the bend of a column, a breath escaping from a corridor, a perfume crossing the space.
More than a sound score created for the site, the composition leaves room for uncertainty and the imaginary, as sound plays on its evocative power and invites visitors to let themselves be surprised.
A calm, benevolent sound universe that can be apprehended in its entirety, there is neither beginning nor end, yet an invisible temporal structure weaves its way through the site over the course of hours, days and months, as the data evolves. This structure creates a fragile sound ecosystem with its own logic, its own rules, depending, for example, on variations in the magnitude of Venus, the distance between the Earth and Mars, the phase of the Moon, the temperature felt in Reims, or the amount of Nitrogen Dioxide in the air… The musical score is self-generating and evolving, potentially over several years.
These structures and rules bring coherence to the textures and create repeated patterns, making the sound piece almost familiar. But its nature, which also follows random phenomena, is in perpetual motion and never exactly repeated, offering the possibility of attentive listening to subtle variations ad infinitum.
Programming and composition: Nicolas Charbonnier – Laurent Guérel
Design: Afif Riahi – Laurent Guérel – Nicolas Charbonnier
Production: Comédie – Centre Dramatique national de Reims