Nature of Things

This show for 8 singers and electronic devices immerses us in the unique soundscape of the garden of Royaumont and questions the way we move, understand, communicate and exchange there. Inspired by the poem in Latin by the epicurean Titus Lucretius Carus, Se Rerum Natura, the work surrounds the audience with a whirlwind of sounds for an immersive concert experience, an experience of expression and understanding for the performers, of listening for the audience.

With modern technology we can be made to feel our world differently and to separate sounds from their original sources. We no longer need to limit vocal sounds to our immediate surroundings, they are free to resonate, not only by moving physically, but more relevantly, by using electroacoustic reproduction. By using this idea of expanding one voice into a multitude of voices and their disappearance into the electronic sounds, I’m soliciting the capacity of the artist and of the audience to truly communicate in a cluttered acoustic environment and to try to tell what is real from what is imaginary.

* The electronic setup is made up of sensors and 24 loudspeakers, hidden (buried in the ground) in a part of the Vegetable Garden.

Les Métaboles are in residence at the Abbaye de Royaumont (2018-2020)

Nature of things

Diana Soh

Diana Soh, Nature of things
R. Murray Schafer, Magic Songs
Clément Janequin, Le chant des oiseaux

Les Métaboles (8 singers and electronics)
Léo Warynski, musical direction

Premiered on August 25th 2018

Dans la presse...

An accurate and flexible interpretation

Olyrix - Charles Arden
 - Nature of things

An accurate and flexible interpretation

Olyrix - Charles Arden - Nature of things

Métaboles inaugurate their residence in Royaumont in the nature of things

Well-built, the program reflects the talents and identity of the Métaboles (recently hailed by the 28th Liliane Bettencourt award for choral singing): eight vocal artists (the most concentrated formation of this modular ensemble) extoll the merits of the art, nature and the link between Renaissance polyphony and contemporary creation. The concert in the garden shows the modernity of Clément Janequin's "Chant des oiseaux" (1485-1558), the spell of the nomads "Magic Songs" by Raymond Murray Schafer (Canadian environmentalist composer, theorist and teacher, born in 1933) before "The Nature of Things", a world premiere of Diana Soh (born in Singapore in 1984, and having composed this work at the end of a residency at: a beautiful passage of relay so with Les Métaboles who start there theirs).

Perfect entry into matter, Janequin's play already combines two cardinal qualities of the following works: a precise and flexible interpretation (like the direction of the conductor) and a noise spreading effect gently amplified by the twenty or so speakers. They will express their full potential by broadcasting touch-ups in real time on the last piece, before that they gently support without betraying them, the sounds mouths closed and sucked of the Inuit but also the cry of the wolf which pays tribute "Magic Songs" of Raymond Murray Schafer.
The choir then explodes around the garden, beginning with the world premiere "The Nature of Things" by Diana Soh, a journey through the flora and electronic voice registers (sirens springing from musical saws, a whisper becoming digital didgeridoo and the soft cantilenes gradually composing extracts of "De Rerum Natura" written by the epicurean Titus Lucretius Carus).

An accurate and flexible interpretation

Olyrix - Charles Arden
 - Nature of things

An accurate and flexible interpretation

Olyrix - Charles Arden - Nature of things

Métaboles inaugurate their residence in Royaumont in the nature of things

Well-built, the program reflects the talents and identity of the Métaboles (recently hailed by the 28th Liliane Bettencourt award for choral singing): eight vocal artists (the most concentrated formation of this modular ensemble) extoll the merits of the art, nature and the link between Renaissance polyphony and contemporary creation. The concert in the garden shows the modernity of Clément Janequin's "Chant des oiseaux" (1485-1558), the spell of the nomads "Magic Songs" by Raymond Murray Schafer (Canadian environmentalist composer, theorist and teacher, born in 1933) before "The Nature of Things", a world premiere of Diana Soh (born in Singapore in 1984, and having composed this work at the end of a residency at: a beautiful passage of relay so with Les Métaboles who start there theirs).

Perfect entry into matter, Janequin's play already combines two cardinal qualities of the following works: a precise and flexible interpretation (like the direction of the conductor) and a noise spreading effect gently amplified by the twenty or so speakers. They will express their full potential by broadcasting touch-ups in real time on the last piece, before that they gently support without betraying them, the sounds mouths closed and sucked of the Inuit but also the cry of the wolf which pays tribute "Magic Songs" of Raymond Murray Schafer.
The choir then explodes around the garden, beginning with the world premiere "The Nature of Things" by Diana Soh, a journey through the flora and electronic voice registers (sirens springing from musical saws, a whisper becoming digital didgeridoo and the soft cantilenes gradually composing extracts of "De Rerum Natura" written by the epicurean Titus Lucretius Carus).

2018

August

Sunday August 26th 2018 - 12 amNature of thingsFestival de Royaumont - Abbaye de Royaumont

This show for 8 singers and electronic devices immerses us in the unique soundscape of the garden of Royaumont and questions the way we move, understand, communicate and exchange there. Inspired by the poem in Latin by the epicurean Titus Lucretius Carus, Se Rerum Natura, the work surrounds the audience with a whirlwind of sounds for an immersive concert experience, an experience of expression and understanding for the performers, of listening for the audience.

Saturday August 25th 2018 - 4:30 pmNature of Things (world creation)Festival de Royaumont - Abbaye de Royaumont

This show for 8 singers and electronic devices immerses us in the unique soundscape of the garden of Royaumont and questions the way we move, understand, communicate and exchange there. Inspired by the poem in Latin by the epicurean Titus Lucretius Carus, Se Rerum Natura, the work surrounds the audience with a whirlwind of sounds for an immersive concert experience, an experience of expression and understanding for the performers, of listening for the audience.