We’re so pleased to announce French newspaper Le Monde’s coverage of LE SON DU NOUS today in their Music section. In describing Philippe Starck’s ambitions for the performance, Odile de Plas notes that he hopes to move his audience to the point of tears with his exploration of the sounds of humanity. She describes the performance as being largely improvised, and quotes Starck in saying: “[To hold on to four hours, is easy, I do lectures all the time. What is more impressive, is not to know where one goes with it. I like this idea of surprise in an era as policed as ours and in a life as organized as mine. Sound is a difficult fluid to apprehend, because it is invisible, like the air. But it produces real physical effects, if the decibels are violent enough. I want to evoke all that and try to create a fertile chaos so that together we are able to release the sound of us. To be one in all, and all in one."

Le Monde goes on to quote Stephan Crasneanscki about Soundwalk's archive of sound that he has tapped into to create the audio for the performance: "[There was sound before us: nature, the cosmos. Sounds of us: buildings, noises of life, but also of death, like the silence after 9/11 that I captured. And the sound of after, which we will leave during the performance.]”

The article then refers to Soundwalk’s previous collaborations with Philippe Starck: the first occurring in 2004 for Paris’ la Nuit Blanche event. The second, 24 Hours: the Starck Mix, which Le Monde describes as “[a universe of sound, which one could access by downloading an iphone application, that diffuses the sound of the moment.]” Le Monde conveys the designer’s passion for music: “[Starck always listens to music... it helps him to concentrate on his work... and creates a comfortable space.]”

The article concludes by noting three sounds that Starck says have [shaken] him to the core, “the gutteral trumpeting of an Indian flute, the infrasound of Laurie Anderson’s electric violin, and the cry of an extrordinarily ugly girl in a café in Williamsburg, New York.” Le Monde finishes by quoting Starck as saying, “[...she put all her ugliness into the crystalline beauty of that sound. I was dumbstruck. I threw up my arms. It was my sound.]”

Thank you for the coverage, Le Monde!

Click here to read the full article (in French).

Click here to buy tickets online for tonight’s (Friday, March 19th) and Saturday’s (March 20th) performances, or call MAC Créteil’s box office at 01 45 13 19 19. Tickets are selling quickly!

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Télérama has recommended LE SON DU NOUS in its “Sortir” section this week (March 17, 2010), quoting Stephan Crasneanscki: “[The principal actor in this new performance is sound, not the narrator or the musicians. We are creating a sonic opera, unique and generous like Philippe, who unceasingly shares his ethical and subversive vision of a more just world."  They go on to describe the performance thus: "[The score is made from sounds, not notes, drawn from the incredible soundbank that Crasneanscki has compiled over the past decade. The public, always involved and interacting, will be able to leave their own mark on the show[:] during this extraordinary experience, the public will in effect be asked to produce their own primal sound….]”

Thanks for the coverage, Télérama!

For more information on attending the show, head to the Facebook event page here.

To book tickets: call the box office at 01 45 13 19 19, or buy them online here.

We look forward to seeing you all there!

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Interview du créateur du collectif Soundwalk, Stephan Crasneanscki

The French webchannel Lachainetel.tv has just interviewed Soundwalk founder Stephan Crasneanscki about Soundwalk’s beginnings, Le Son du Nous, the Exit Festival at MAC Créteil, the Ulysses Syndrome, and what Crasneanscki considers to be his own individual sound.

For English readers: a brief summary of the interview -

On SOUNDWALK: ["I began by making synchronized audio tours of my favorite places in New York City using my own voice, for my friends...the tours then evolved into a way to enter into the life of another person for an hour and see the city through their eyes, while following the narrative of their story."]

On LE SON DU NOUS: ["The idea is to create these three movements of sound - natural and organic sounds existing before humanity, internal sounds of the human body, then sounds created by humans' influence on their environment, both small & large: a spoon against a glass, the sound of a building being constructed or crumbling to the ground...to lead us together to find the true Sound of Us."]

On MAC Créteil’s EXIT FESTIVAL: ["An interesting and exciting platform for experimental projects in art and design, where creatives like Starck and Soundwalk can meet and collaborate...."]

ULYSSES SYNDROME: ["The project entails capturing Hertzian frequencies on the Mediterranean Sea, like  fishermen have snared fish throughout history, and melding the sounds into a 24-hour audio collage, resonant of the 24 songs of Homer."]

On his INDIVIDUAL SOUND: ["Since I work with sound as a material every day, in the end I prefer silence, but among sounds my favorites are natural: the sounds of the body, of breath, and of nature - of wind, of falling rain...."]

Click here to tell us about your individual sound and WIN TICKETS to LE SON DU NOUS with Philippe Starck at MAC Créteil! Also watch for more interviews, sound clips, and exclusive sneak-peaks at the show during the next week!

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