[ISEA2000] Artist Statement: Roland Auzet – Percussion and Live Electronics: Composition and Performance

Artist Statement

Roland Auzet’s approach to percussion reflects the movement of contemporary music, while nonetheless drawing its inspiration from the African and Middle-Eastern traditions of storyteller-percussionnists. For several decades, the expansion of the performance techniques has renewed gesture; the voice, often internal, participates in this musical practice. In the traditional performance of storyteller-percussionists, musical discourse, serving the dramaturgy of the tale, is simultaneously borne by voice, percussion and gestures intrinsically tied to them. Coupling percussion with a computer device leads the composer/ performer to redefine his relationship with the instrument. Roland Auzet chose to draw on this internal voice accompanying performance: he materializes the gesture and reveals it musically through live electronics.

  • Roland Auzet. Awarded the first prize from the International Meeting on Contemporary Music at Darmstadt in 1990 and the prize from the Fondation Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet pour la Vocation in 1991. In 1991 he proposed the first recital for percussion at the salle Pleyel in Paris. Since 1992, he authors numerous performances and at the same time follows a soloist carreer. In 1996, he is enrolled in Ircam’s Year-Long Program in Composition and Computer Music (OROC.PAT for zarb and live electronic). In 1998, he creates the “ Cirque du Tambour”, a multimedia performance, presented again in june 2000 at the Villette, Paris, as part of the Ircam Festival Agora.