Christian Calon

Les Corps Éblouis is a single work of almost 23 minutes by Christian Calon, commissioned by the French State and the Ina-GRM and realized in the GRM studios in Paris in 1992-93. It was first presented in June 1993 at the Maison de Radio France, with Francis Dhomont at the sound projection, then reworked in 1994; the present version premiered at the Théâtre national de Marseille. The disc was a finalist for the Prix Opus 1997-98 album of the year.

The piece uses a single source, the electric guitar. Calon’s challenge was metamorphosis: finding tools and processes to make that one material evolve so that its transformations produce a spiral. The form is only legible on the surface and grows on the listener through what he calls an irrational process. His note speaks of matter that strikes us, through the proliferation of its forms, with the measure of the ephemeral, and of the music as an answer to the prodigality of matter. The work is dedicated to Chantal.

Les corps éblouis won second prize at the 22nd Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition in 1994 and received distinctions at Prix Ars Electronica in 1995 and 1997.

Born in Marseille in 1950 and based in Montréal as a freelance artist, Calon works on listening and spatiality through sound art, audiovisual works and radio, and improvises with the collective Theresa Transistor.

CD in crystal case, empreintes DIGITALes IMED 9838, 1998.