Concert

Espaces d’interaction aims to explore different modes of interaction through the creation of new works based on the notions of interaction, spatialization, and the human–machine relationship.

The use of technology has been part of SIXTRUM’s artistic practice for many years. Our new Espaces d’interaction series seeks to explore various modes of interaction over the coming years through the creation of new works grounded in interaction, spatialization, and human–machine relationships. Each project will enable the percussionists to collaborate with a group of Québec and Canadian creators, bringing together established artists and emerging voices.

For this first season, Espaces d’interaction #1 explores the notion of control in interactions among musicians, as well as between musicians and the machine, alongside the idea of play—whether playful or entertaining—whose rules are not always explicit. The commission to Örjan Sandred, Professor of Composition at the University of Manitoba, served as the project’s point of departure: Tilting Points, which evokes memories of pinball, places the performers in competition with one another and with the machine, which ultimately designates a winner. 

Ensō by Pierre Michaud, created in 2016 and presented here in a revised version, places the performers in a situation of interdependence, while SextetEmulator by Martin Daigle situates them within a tarot game with somewhat subverted conventions, giving rise to guided, playful improvisations that are unique to each performance. 

A collaboration between composers Alexandre Amat (acoustic component) and Simon Chioini (electronic component), Dissolution proposes a timbral universe in which acoustic sounds interact with one another and continually transform, in the manner of an electroacoustic work, while the electronic part takes up these transformative effects in canon, expanding the diffusion of sound throughout the entire concert hall. 

The works respond to one another and unfold seamlessly, thanks to the creation of short electroacoustic interludes by Gabrielle Caux, who reworks elements from the other pieces mixed with acoustic recordings made during our creation workshops to generate new interactions and guide the audience from one sonic world to another.