Luc Ferrari

  Facsimile scores and documents about the work recorded by Luc Ferrari during summer 1977 and premiered in 1979 during Festival d'Automne at Centre Pompidou, Paris. "Ten years ago, 'Presque Rien n°1' bore the subtitle 'Sunrise at the Seaside'. This piece of magnetic tape was in fact a sort of report on this daily event. Thinking about Presque Rien later on, I wondered what it was about. Looking for almost nothing, I realized that it wasn't easy to find. We think we're going to find it somewhere, but no.
A '"presque rien' [almost nothing] is a (that is to say, not two) homogeneous, natural, non-urban place with particular acoustic qualities (transparency and depth) where you can hear both near and far well enough. It's fit for the ear—or as they say, fit for humans. Without technology. Nothing is dominant, so that each of the different sonic inhabitants have their say and this little life-world's multiple layers make up nothing more than an almost nothing. Or the opposite of sensational. And then, something happens and takes up space. 'Presque Rien n°2' is a place like this, a night-time place that gets into my head bit by bit." Luc Ferrari