Reinhold Friedl, Eryck Abecassis

In retrospection it seems significant that Reinhold Friedl and Eryck Abecassis met for the first time in Marseille, a brute and operatic melting pot of cultures and sounds and noises. The idea of a common project came up, but it took almost ten years to be realized. Finally, François Bonnet (GRM artistic director) supported enthusiastically the collaboration and invited the two composer-performer to the Akousma Festival 2019 at Radio France in Paris.

Intense rehearsal periods in Vienna and at la muse en circuit in Paris defined the compositional directions: precise transitions between accurately defined musical states: the raw furious energy textures of animal électrique 1 and 5, the contrasted calm with shaking fog horns “à la Lucier“ of animal électrique 3 and 6, noise & notes in the astonishing fusion of animal électrique 2 (which could also be titled “Tsunami and minor thirds“), and finally the delicate non-tempered vocality of both piano and synthesizer in animal électrique 4, a detuned operatic aria. Animal électrique is a melting point of piano and synthesizer, both put into musical travesty: the piano becomes a sound & noise machine, with strong electronic influence; The analogue synthesizer starts to sing and to hoot, producing raw and brutal instrument-like sounds, in line with brute electronic synthesis. This allows Eryck Abecassis and Reinhold Friedl to combine the exigence of composing with the instant pleasures of the game.