Composer Nicolas Mondon's music is deeply influenced by Javanese gamelan, an Indonesian orchestra where instruments play together at different speeds and densities, creating a complex, interwoven texture.
Compositional Technique
Nicolas Mondon's writing often explores heterophony, a musical texture characteristic of gamelan and some Western music since Debussy, where multiple voices vary a single melody non-synchronously.
Performer Biography
Ensemble InSoliTus, founded in 2012 by Nicolas Mondon and musicians from the Paris Conservatoire, is dedicated to performing and disseminating contemporary music.
Composition History
The pieces on this album originated from Nicolas Mondon's doctoral research, where he explored Javanese musical techniques as models for composition.
Composer Biography
Nicolas Mondon, the composer, is also a researcher, teacher, and pianist, with expertise in prepared piano, improvisation, jazz piano, and harpsichord.
Composer's Artistic Vision
The album title, "Bronze battu en herbes" (Bronze Beaten into Grass), reflects Nicolas Mondon's fifteen-year pursuit of a complex, warm sound, inspired by both the resonant qualities of bronze and the delicate vibrations of grass.
Recording & Production
For this recording, the acoustic space of a live concert was intentionally not reproduced; instead, a new sound space was invented through electro-acoustic recording and mixing to suit loudspeaker listening.
