A split album as part of the GRM Portraits series with two electroacoustic pieces by Florian Hecker (computer-generated multiphonic sounds and resynthesized recordings of localized textures) and Okkyung Lee (an acousmatic piece written for computer-generated sounds, pre-recorded materials and cello that was developed for the Acousmonium sound diffusion system during a residence at Ina GRM, Paris, in January 2019).
Statistique Synthétique draws as much from the history of computer sound synthesis as from its latest developments. But well beyond developing simply as a proof of concept, this piece aims to transcend the abstract status of synthetic sound objects and lead them to a properly hallucinatory state, that is to say to a meeting point where the object and perception dissolve into each other, in a sort of transcendental field. Beyond, also, hylomorphism, to reach the world of matter-form fusions, where perception knows how to see “shoulders of hills”, as Cézanne wrote.
Teum (the Silvery Slit) is, as the title suggests, an overture, an opening to the game of multiplications, fragmentations, duplications. But it is also the opening understood as the void that blossoms between two borders, a break from which escapes a double tension, both the pulling force of these two edges which move apart and the opposite force of reconciliation, of compression. Okkyung Lee invites us to a truly telluric moment, a rare moment of expression where tectonic movements and shear stresses become music. If the earthquakes were, as we thought in the 18th century, due to underground thunderstorms, there is no doubt that this piece of music, both celestial and continental, could have been their audible manifestation.
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Perpetrating the fertile collaboration initiated in 2012 with Recollection GRM, INA GRM and
Editions Mego offer the Portraits GRM complementary series, no longer focused on the "classic" GRM repertoire but towards recent creations commissioned by the GRM to artists from all horizons. Under the aegis of
François J. Bonnet, the Portraits GRM series focuses on important and emerging figures of the experimental music scene and highlights the notion of work rather than album. By reaffirming the concept of musical work, the Portraits GRM series seeks to renew with the pioneering work that the GRM Collection series but also the Philips Prospective 21e Siècle collection had achieved so admirably: offer a panorama of current musical experimentations and embrace a more durable scope with works that manage to extract themselves from an increasingly tyrannical and increasingly hazardous present-time. At a time when nothing knows how to "leave a mark", this series aims to address both current listeners, and explorers of the future. Many releases in the collection are contemporary works by two different musicians, each piece taking up the space of one side. Longer works however, fill an entire record.
The GRM Portraits series program is continued as part of the
Shelter Press label catalog beginning in 2022.
Florian Hecker (born 1975 in Augsburg, lives and works in Vienna) is a German artist whose works across synthetic sound, installation, and performance consider sensory perception and the audience's auditory experience. In his sound installations and live performances, Hecker deals with specific compositional developments of post-war modernity, electro-acoustic music, and other, non-musical disciplines. He dramatizes space, time and self-perception in his sonic works by isolating specific auditory events in their singularity, thus stretching the boundaries of their materialization. Their objectual autonomy is exposed while simultaneously evoking sensations, memories, and associations in an immersive intensity.
He has collaborated with artists and authors including Aphex Twin,
Cerith Wyn Evans,
Russell Haswell,
Mark Leckey, Robin Mackay, Reza Negarestani, and
Yasunao Tone.
Okkyung Lee (born 1975 in Daejeon, South Korea) is a cellist, composer, and
improviser who moves freely between of artistic disciples and contingencies. Since moving to New York in 2000 she has worked in disparate contexts as a solo artist and collaborator with creators in a wide range of disciplines. A native of
South Korea, Okkyung Lee has taken a broad array of inspirations—including noise, improvisation, jazz, western classical, and the traditional and popular music of her homeland—and used them to forge a highly distinctive approach. Her curiosity and a determined sense of exploration guide the work she has made in disparate contexts.
Okkyung Lee has appeared on more than 30 albums and has collaborated with Arca, David Behrman, Chris Corsano,
Jacques Demierre, Mark Fell, Ellen Fullman, Douglas Gordon, Jenny Hval, Vijay Iyer,
Christian Marclay, Ikue Mori,
Phill Niblock, Bill Orcutt,
Marina Rosenfeld,
John Zorn, among others.
