condition (disc/cover): M / M (still sealed) Éphémère on Mode adds Vincent Royer to the Luc Ferrari duo, triangulating the collaboration. The title announces preoccupation with transience, with sounds that exist only in their moment of sounding. But Ferrari always composed the ephemeral; recording doesn't preserve so much as transform, creating ghosts of events that no longer exist.
Mode Records, the American label devoted to contemporary music, gave this late work international distribution it might otherwise have lacked. Royer's contributions thicken the texture without cluttering it, adding instrumental colors to the electroacoustic palette. The trio functions as conversation, three voices interrupting and completing each other's sentences.
By this point Ferrari was in his seventies, still producing, still curious. The ephemeral of the title might also name his awareness of time running short, each piece potentially the last. But there's no valedictory heaviness here, no self-pity. The music remains light on its feet, ready to vanish, comfortable with its own impermanence.
