animal électrique

Reinhold Friedl – piano

Eryck Abecassis – analog synthesizer

Recorded by Grégory Joubert at Studio Luc Ferrari, La Muse en Circuit, CNCM, Paris, France, June 2019

Mixed by Eryck Abecassis

Mastered by Russell Haswell

Cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnitstelle, Berlin

Special thanks: Wilfried Wendling, François Bonnet, Gilles Sivilotto

In retrospection it seems significant that Reinhold Friedl and Eryck Abecassis met for the first time in Marseille, a brute and operatic melting pot of cultures and sounds and noises. They idea of a common project came up, but it took almost ten years to be realized. Finally, François Bonnet (GRM artistic director) supported enthusiastically the collaboration and invited the two composer-performer to the Akousma Festival 2019 at Radio France in Paris. Intense rehearsal periods in Vienna and at la muse en circuit in Paris defined the compositional directions: precise transitions between accurately defined musical states: the raw furious energy textures of animal électrique 1 and 5, the contrasted calm with shaking fog horns "à la Lucier" of animal électrique 3 and 6, noise & notes in the astonishing fusion of animal électrique 2 (which could also be titled "Tsunami and minor thirds"), and finally the delicate non-tempered vocality of both piano and synthesizer in animal électrique 4, a detuned operatic aria.

Animal électrique is a melting point of piano and synthesizer, both put into musical travesty: the piano becomes a sound & noise machine, with strong electronic influence; The analogue synthesizer starts to sing and to hoot, producing raw and brutal instrument-like sounds, in line with brute electronic synthesis. This allows Eryck Abecassis and Reinhold Friedl to combine the exigence of composing with the instant pleasures of the game.