The Orchester symphonique de Montréal (OSM) will think outside the box for Nuit blanche by offering night owls an unusual creation at the Maison symphonique. Fortunately, the program promises to be more original than its name, Mix’n’org: the electronic composer, percussionist and DJ Pascale Project will team up with Jean-Willy Kunz, owner of the great Pierre-Béique organ since its inauguration at the home of the orchestra, in May 2014.
Together, they will improvise three different pieces, a performance that will prove to be “more ambient and more experimental” than what the two are used to performing, as the musician sums it up.
Make the organ better known
The house and techno composer will be in charge of developing rhythmic structures on which her collaborator, the OSM’s organist in residence, will express herself. According to the latter, one of his mandates is precisely “to organize concerts that are out of the ordinary to interest a different audience and thus make the organ better known”, whose some 6,500 pipes adorn the back of the stage of the Symphonic House.
“The organ is an instrument still little known, notes Kunz, but the Nuit blanche gives us the opportunity to make it better known”, the machine as much as its vast harmonic possibilities. With its 83 stops, the great Pierre-Béique organ could be compared to a symphony orchestra of as many musicians, illustrates the organist (the OSM has 92 permanent musicians). The goal, he adds, is “to find a common language [entre Pascale et lui] to design an ephemeral sound object” which, of course, piques curiosity — in any case, it will change us from the fugues of Johann Sebastian Bach!
Mixed improvisation
“It’s interesting to be able to participate in this project, because playing in such a context, I’m not used to that! explains Pascale Project, who, during the pandemic, “experimented with ambient music”, momentarily leaving aside the playful house and electro grooves that she has been offering since the publication in 2015 of her first album, on her own account, Just Feel Good For A Moment (his most recent EP, Where’s the Party?, came out last fall). “I feel privileged to have been invited to carry out this experience, especially since musical improvisation is not something very natural for me; as a composer, I tend to prepare myself” before going on stage.
Surprisingly, Jean-Willy Kunz, a graduate of the Grenoble Conservatory and the Montreal Conservatory of Music, assures us that improvisation is part of an organist’s approach: “Organ music began with improvisation, since the first scores appeared only in the Middle Ages”, while the origins of the instrument go back to the IIand or IIIand century before our era. “Improvisation is the first language of the organ; it was codified later, but organists are used to having to adapt to the context, especially in a religious context”, when the duration of the rituals is less well regulated than music paper.
But Pascale Project’s Nuit blanche will not end after the third and last performance of Mix’n’org, since the artist will then head to Breakglass studios to honor his commitment to participate in the 10and edition of the “first musical marathon in the world dedicated to the culture of vinyl and DJing”, the 24 hours of vinyl, created by Montrealer DJ Alexis. “I invited a few DJs to play with me — Gab Rei, Lis Dalton and Alessandroid — artists who work with me on the Shift Radio web radio project, online on Fridays from the café of the Society for Technological Arts”, says Pascale, who will participate in the marathon with Gene Tellem, Seb Fauteux, Andy Williams and several other 12-inch collectors.
The Mix’n’org program is presented free of charge, but a reservation is required from the orchestra’s website; performances will take place at 8:30 p.m., 9:45 p.m. and 11 p.m. on February 26.
The 24 Hours of Vinyl event will stream online from the Breakglass studio from Saturday, February 26, 7 p.m., through February 27, 7 p.m., at www.24hov.com.