Festival Présences : Orchestre National de Jazz
The Orchestre National de Jazz and IRCAM present Ex Machina, a creation imagined by the American saxophonist Steve Lehman and Frédéric Maurin, artistic director of the ONJ. These two composers share a taste for exploring new musical territories and have been working for several years to integrate into their writing and improvisation elements influenced, among others, by the works of Tristan Murail and Gérard Grisey, each in their respective ensembles.
This project is the result of a collaboration with the Musical Representations team at IRCAM, headed by Gérard Assayag, and explores for the first time the possibilities of interaction between the instrumentalists and the machine within a large jazz orchestra.
By integrating devices created using Jérôme Nika's DYCI2 environment in the composition process and in the soloists' improvisations in real-time, the computer becomes, in turn, a generator of electronic orchestrations for the composers and an improvisation partner for the musicians.
Part 1
Ghislaine Petit-Volta harp
Isabelle Moretti harp
Orchestre National de Jazz
Frédéric Maurin artistic direction
Christophe de Coudenhove En blanc et bleu – Premiere 2022 of the new version
commissioned by Radio France
Part 2
Orchestre National de Jazz
Frédéric Maurin artistic direction
Dionysios Papanicolaou IRCAM computer music design
Jérôme Nika generative electronics creation and artistic collaboration
Axel Roebel IRCAM-STMS Scientific Advisor, Sound Analysis-Synthesis Team
Steve Lehman, Frédéric Maurin Ex Machina – Premiere 2022
commissioned by IRCAM-Centre Pompidou and the Orchestre National de Jazz
