"A Page of Madness " (Kurutta Ippeiji) is a japanese movie created in 1926 by Teinosuke Kinugasa, after a scenario by Yasunari Kawabata (Nobel prize). It is a movie about mental illness, showing strong empathy towards human suffering, with its opaqueness, its violence and paralysis.
I composed this music like a live movie score, with sonic movements linked exactly to each scene inside which improvisations could blossom. The computer plays both the movie and some fixed electronic grooves & abstract sounds which define different chapters. Several modules/instruments/musicians dialog, brushing against or disturb each other and eventually join together. The string section seals concepts & imagination, delivering the exact musical text. The electronic musician re-appropriates each scene by depicting the abysses of suffering souls as much as the serenity of the relief. The koto is supremely acoustic and pure like a cherry tree flower. Her voice whispers secrets inside our ear, yet screams the hell of life. The double bass, just in the middle between classical & jazz, and the trumpet, a wild card & free spirit in this dramatic theater. And finally the guitar, busy working on all sides like a conductor and as well as a bee. The movie is dark & dynamic, tense & intense, and so is the music. Surely one of the darkest works I ever created, where passion is the only light.
"Une Page Folle", composition by Nguyên Lê, performed on May 2nd, 2015. Commissioned by Sylvie Laurent, Musée des Confluences, Lyon, France
Nguyên Lê, el. guitar, electronics & laptop
Mieko Miyazaki, koto & vocals
Nils Petter Molvaer, trumpet & electronics
Jan Bang, live sampling
Manuel Solans, violin 1
Louise Salmona, violin 2
Emmanuel François, viola
Marie Ythier, cello
Chris Jennings, double bass
Recorded by Huby Cuypers
mixed by Nguyên Lê
