Chantier 1 documents the first in a series of radical sound investigations by Pascal Battus(rotating surfaces, found objects), Bertrand Gauguet (amplified and acoustic saxophones), and Eric LaCasa (microphones), set directly within buildings under construction. More than conventional performance, their method is intervention: improvising amidst the ongoing labor of construction workers, letting the site dictate form, rhythm, and interruption. Sounds of drilling, hammering, and machinery aren’t filtered out but allowed to shape and color the trio’s own gestures - performers and workers cohabiting a liminal, acoustically unstable space.

Rather than pursuing musical narrative or abstract gesture, the trio “listens through” industrial layers. Gauguet’s saxophones merge with the environment - sometimes vanishing in the din, sometimes shimmering above it - while Battus’s prepared objects and LaCasa’s microphones extract and reshape architectural detail. The result is a dense, living palimpsest: soundscapes resound with buzzes, echoes, footfalls, and fleeting dialog, all as much a part of the music as the instrumental interventions themselves. This real-time composition, created with minimal rehearsal and almost no post-production, relies on sincerity and presence more than virtuosity.

Chantier 1 is far from background ambience; it is live, unpredictable, and shaped by mutual attention and the realities of site and labor. The album questions what it means to play music “in public” and “with” a place rather than despite it, blurring lines between structured improvisation, environmental sound art, and field recording. The effect is striking: as tension and empathy ripple through the air, music and work blend into an immersive sonic architecture that feels urgent, necessary, and unlike anything else in contemporary chamber practice.