Concert
Imaginary Landscapes
Pierre Jodlowski Concert
Author: Pierre Jodlowski
Nationality: French
Type of Artwork: Live A/V performance, mixed music concert
Série Rouge
Author:Pierre Jodlowski
Duration: 12′
Year of production:2017
Piano: Valeria Vetruccio
Electronics/lights: P. Jodlowski, LEM
Commissioned by Festival Musiques Démesurées, Série Rouge is based on the heart as an organ, a sound material, engine of the human machine, bringing the red flows pf blood. The musical idea, in particular the material for the electronic part as well as the rhythmic dimension, leans on this « elementary molecule » which constitutes the heart rate.
But like all the other works constituting this cycle, a semantic or pseudo-narrative dimension interfere in the project. Blood, coming out from corpses, spreading from cattle’s neck in the slaughterhouses in Strike by Eisenstein, paving the stage in Je suis Sang by the choreographer Jan Fabre, or surging and covering the ground, nightmare vision in Stanley Kubrik’s Shining… Many different images, energies, memories which draw the lines of a path going from a relative stability to a chaotic, violent and archaic state.
Out of Apocalypse
Author:Pierre Jodlowski
Duration:18’38”
Year of production:2012
Accordion: Germano Scurti
Electronics/lights: P. Jodlowski
This composition refers of course to Coppola’s masterpiece, Apocalypse Now, which I discovered in a rather unusual way : I didn’t actually see the film when it was originally released, but a few years later. I first listened to the soundtrack, on an old L.P(vinyl) which was quite damaged, spoilt with scratches to the extent that the voices of Captain Willard and Colonel Kurtz were scarcely heard. Some time after, I read “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad which Coppola adapted for his film and it was only a few years later that I saw the film in a poor suburban cinema.
What can I remember from this “Apocalypse” ?
A very efficient but completely out of control movement of the mind.., the feeling it was unbearable to listen to Kurtz’s recorded voice at the beginning of the film… images of the hostile jungle and of the river, of man being lost… an impression of irrational power and a great emotion. It was a realistic and powerful lesson on war and its absurdity.
This piece is structured around two main themes: a rather nostalgic atmosphere created by extracts from accordion popular dance music and in the same time, a weird and uncontrolled energy in which one can still hear machine guns, screams and distorted guitar sounds.
This piece is dedicated to Pascal Contet
SOLO
Author:Pierre Jodlowski
Duration:15′
Photo credits: Lukasz Rajchert
Artist bio
Pierre JODLOWSKI is a composer, performer and multimedia artist. His music, often marked by a high density, is at the crossroads of acoustic and electric sound and is characterized by dramatic and political anchor. His work as a composer led him to perform in France and abroad in most places dedicated to contemporary music aswell as others artistic fields, dance, theater, visual arts, electronic music. His work unfolds today in many areas : films, interactive installations, staging. He is defining his music as an “active process” on the physicall level [musical gestures, energy and space] and on the psychological level [relation to memory and visual dimension of sound]. In parallel to his compositions, he also performs on various scenes (experimental, jazz, electronic), solo or with other artists.
Since 1998 he is co-artistic director of éOle (research and production studio based in Toulouse) and since 2019, he has become Artistic Director of Musica Electronica Nova Festival, produced by the National Forum of Music in Wroclaw, Poland. He is currently the associated composer for the Composition Cursus at IRCAM.
He has been collaborating with various ensembles such as : Intercontemporain (Paris), Ictus (Belgium), KNM (Berlin), Nadar (Belgium), PHACE (Austria), the Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain (France), MusikFabrik (Germany), the new Ensemble Moderne (Montreal), Ars Nova (Sweden), Proxima Centauri (France), Court-circuit (France), Ensemble Les Éléments (France), the Berg Orchestra (Prague), Soundinitiative (France), LUX:NM (Germany) and various soloist from the international contemporary music scene. His work and stage productions led him to develop collaborations with visual artists, scenographers, dramaturge and authors.
He has received commissions from IRCAM, Ensemble Intercontemporain, the French Ministry of Culture, Akademie der Künste (Berlin), CIRM, GRM, the Donaueschingen Festival, Radio France, the Piano Competition in Orleans, GMEM, GRAME , Siemens Foundation, the Opera of Toulouse, the European project INTEGRA, the studio EMS – Stockholm, the Royaumont Foundation, Cabaret contemporain, Venice Biennale music festival, Polish Ministry of Culture…
Winner of several international competitions, he won the Prix Claude Arrieu SACEM in 2002, the Prix Hervé Dugardin SACEM in 2012, and was in residence at the Academy of the Arts of Berlin in 2003 and 2004. In 2013 he won a Prize awarded by “Academie Charles Cros” for one of his CD. In 2015 he is the winner of The Great Lyceum Prize in France for his piece “Time & Money”. From 2017 à 2019 he is resident artist in Lux – National Theater in Valence (France).
His works are performed in key places devoted to contemporary sound arts in France, Europe, Canada, China, Corea, Japan and Taiwan and the United States.
His works are partly published by Editions Jobert and are the subject of several CD and video recordings on the labels éOle Records, Radio France, Kaïros, Percussions de Strasbourg. He is living in France and Poland.