Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri
Solo for generators, motors and wind resonators (2019) #15’ — création mondiale
pour flûtes à bec et installation

Commissioned by Festival Archipel, Supported by Pro Helvetia

D.R.
In concert

Solo for Motors and Wind Resonators, a performative sound installation explores physical forces in action with a captivating elegance. It reveals the bodily relationships between instrument, devices and space. Solo for Motors and Wind Resonators reflects Papalexandri's fascination of the forces of nature and the phenomena of physics—friction, electricity, vibration—making us wonder at what we see and hear. It combines acoustic prepared instruments (recorders, woodwinds) and motor-driven sound objects with mechanical devices for moving air ( centrifugal fan, gebläsen), that function both as sound sources themselves -autonomous sound objects- and as active preparations that determine speed, dynamics, and other musical parameters. The result is a slow, purposeful «unfolding» of sound: an intense procedural sequence of elegant motion movements produces complex and
concentrated minimal sustained complex sounds and textures over time. The works consist of a number of different performative actions with no breaks in between. Each scene is been defined by the performer who interacts with the devices and makes use of them to activate the instruments as well as to amplify the sounds (recorder as a resonant body). The works aim to create a composition that emerges out of an installation and vice versa. With this work Papalexandri intent to invites the audience to a refined and focused exploration of objects and sounds carefully shaped and place in space. The performative installation setting offers the performer a possibility to alternate between being a sound source, a kinetic element, and an active mechanism.

Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri