With Womens Work: Annabelle Playe - Ad Astra

Wednesday, April 21st, at 8pm EST, ISSUE is pleased to stream Ad Astra, a new work by French multidisciplinary artist Annabelle Playe. The piece is part of the With Womens Work series, commissioning artists to interpret and respond to scores included in Womens Work, a magazine first edited and self-published in 1975 by Alison Knowles and Annea Lockwood.

Notes from Annabelle Playe on Ad Astra:

Ad Astra is a Latin phrase meaning "towards the stars.” A force comes to us from the universe. Brute. Inevitable. Perhaps it will lead us to consider living with more gentleness? I’m going to compose with modules, reverbs, a compressor, a MFB Synth II, and a polyphonic synthesizer. Ad Astra will consist of a series of pieces. The duration of each piece will be variable. Long or very short. This creation will take the format of an electroacoustic piece but it can also be played live from the instruments mentioned above. Each piece will be, in a general way, minimalist, born from the musical gesture. According to astrologers, the planets influence us in an invisible way. I want to express this magnetism through this music. I don't know yet if I will choose among the planets of the solar system or if I will try to express the energies of the 12 planets, or even 13, since the discovery of Eris in the 2000s. The attacks, beginnings, and ends of these will be in the center of my attention. In the idea, I want to precisely delineate the pieces as an autonomous force that can act brutally. The instrumental gesture will be closely linked to the texture of the sound and it is from this that the piece will be formed, like the glassblower working on a breath. It is therefore the conduction of a sound that will be central to this compositional approach. The succession of the pieces will constitute the systemic elements of a whole that surpasses us but acts in an invisible, more or less direct way. In Ad Astra, music becomes the medium of our solar system, a tiny part of the universe. I would like this creation to remind us of this scale of greatness.

1. Sideral : 0'00
2. Venus : 4'29
3. Tilt : 10'26
4. Virgo : 15'17
5. Aries : 17'39
6. Gold : 21'06
7. Pluto : 25'29
8. Uranus : 28'54
9. Silver : 30'07

Thanks to Alexandra Radulescu, Tsz-Man Chan, Gregory Robin, Yves Tanné, and Gabriel Soucheyre.

The piece responds to the "ZODIACAL MEDITATION" score by Julie Winter included in Womens Work Volume #1, 1975.

Annabelle Playe is a multidisciplinary artist. She enjoys exploring voice, sound, video, and writing. She studied classical singing and composition with Sergio Ortega in Paris. She is a soprano and she interprets contemporary music. Today her music is oscillating between electroacoustic, drone, and noise. She focuses on the physicality of sound and on timbre, with an emphasis on musical structure. Her live setup is made of electronic instruments. She performs in France and abroad. She plays alongside Marc Siffert, Alexis Forestier, Hugo Arcier, Alexandra Radulescu, and the choreographers Mylène Benoît and Marcela S. Corvalan. In 2010, she founded “AnA compagnie”, a production company dedicated to cross-disciplinary projects. Her first albums “Matrice” (2012), “Vaisseaux” (2014) and “Geyser” (2019) were published under the label DAC Records. She has written two theatre monologues, “Ligne” and “Mater”, published in French by Alna Editions. From 2018 to 2020 she was an associated composer with “Scènes Croisées de Lozère” through the DGCA-SACEM Platform. She was awarded the SACD prize “Musique de Scène” with her music for the play “Delta Charlie Delta” by M. Simonot. She received the SACD New Talent Music Award 2019. She performed at “Vive le Sujet!” for the 73rd Avignon Festival and she was selected by the Face Foundation for a tour in the U.S. with her piece “Geyser.” She created “InLAND” at the 104 Centre in Paris for Biennale Némo. She will perform at the 75th Festival d'Avignon in July 2021 on the occasion of the next creation of the choreographer Mylène Benoît.