Over the last few years, Sébastien Roux has worked with the principle of translation. In practice, using a pre-existent artworks (visual, musical, literary) as scores for new works (radiophonic or electro-acoustic taped music).
In 2010, Roux visited DIA Beacon and experienced Sol Lewitt's wall drawings, each of which consists in a series of instructions executed by a team of draftspeople. Their combination of serial practices and simple geometric shapes impressed Roux for their inherent musicality, and he has sought a system to make these drawings listenable.
For "Inevitable Music", his installation at REVERSE, Roux presents the audience with a line of 9 speakers. The session is a collection of pieces based on Lewitt's drawings and instructions, a series of short works that last from 10 seconds to 10 minutes. Some fragments are based on the same wall drawing, each proposing different variations. A pre-recorded voice gives the title of each piece, giving concise explanations of how each piece is made. Riffing on Lewitt's diagrams and instructions, which are displayed alongside their gallery installations, every sound used in the piece is introduced during the titles.
Voices : Margot Bassett, Peter Sciscioli, DD Dorvillier
Recorded by Brendon Anderegg at Telescope Recording Studio, Brooklyn.
Born 1977, Sébastien Roux came to music as a guitarist in different rock groups until beginning a career as an electronic music composer, working along an eclectic variety of formal trajectories: records (solo as well as collaborations with Greg Davis, Vincent Epplay, and Eddie Ladoire), acousmatic music concerts, improvisations (with Kim Myhr and David Fennech), audiovisual performances (with Kurt D'Haeseleer), music for dance (collaborations with Lionel Hoche, DD Dorvillier and Sylvain Prunenec), radiophonic art (he was awarded the Radio Art Prize by La Muse en Circuit in 2005), live music for cinema (for Nanouk of the North, in collaboration with Vincent Epplay), sound installations (most notably a series entitled “Wallpaper Music”, as well as the soundtrack for Precisions Sur les Vagues, with Celia Houdart at the Festival d’Avignon in 2008), sound walks (with Célia Houdart, at Evento Festival 2009 in Bordeaux and at the Festival d’Avignon in 2010), sound design (with designer and architect Olivier Vadrot). Roux worked as a musical assistant to composers Georges Aperghis, Gérard Pesson and Morton Subotnick.
He has performed in Europe, Australia and North America. He has been invited by several festivals including Musique Action (Nancy) Nuit d’hiver (Marseille), Netmage (Bologna), Whynote (Dijon), Présence Electronique (Paris), Musica (Strasbourg), Net Days (Bruxelles), Santarcangelo (Italy), Akousma (Montreal).
His work is documented by Brocoli, Apestaartje, 12k, Carpark, Room 40, n-rec and Optical sound. He was composer in residence during the 2009-2010 season at Studio Césaré in Reims, and Lauréat du programme "Hors les Murs" de l'Institut français.
REVERSE is a multidisciplinary workspace and art gallery with an emphasis on new and experimental forms of expression. Run by artists, REVERSE is a platform that supports emerging artists with the production and presentation of new work, as well as a space for dialogue and exchange of ideas through exhibitions, workshops, lectures, screenings, and different events.
Designed by sound artist and Floating Points curator Stephan Moore, our fifteen-channel set of Hemisphere loudspeakers re-imagines the concert experience for both performer and audience. Each Hemisphere radiates sound in all directions, activating the acoustics of the space they occupy. Immersive sonic environments are generated, electronic sounds take on the intimacy of acoustic instruments, and location is liberated as a musical dimension.
