Linda Bouchard, artistic director

Binary Cities Event #4:
Benoit Delbecq pianist (Paris)
François Houle clarinetist (Vancouver)
WITH INTERACTIVE VIDEO AND MIXED MEDIA BY
Frédéric St-Hilaire (Montreal)


Friday, May 16th, 2008 8PM
7PM mixer and post performance artists reception (hosted bar)
Location: swissnex San Francisco

730 Montgomery St., San Francisco at Jackson St.

Click here for directions to swissnex

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   General admission $20


   Student/Senior $15






Bogolandes
François Houle and Benoit Delbecq
from the album "Dice Thrown"

 

       “This was a completely magical and        engaging set…” Bruce Lee Gallanter,        Downtown Music Gallery Newsletter

       “…highly polished improvisers,        responding to the unexpected as the        vital current in their playing, yet        maintaining extraordinary poise.”        Julian Cowley, Wire Magazine

       “…a study in refined chamber        improvisation.” Cadence Magazine

Houle and Delbecq's collaborative performances include pieces for piano or prepared piano and clarinets, solo improvisation, with electronic manipulations. As the music unfolds, composition and improvisation seem to flow together into a continuum where jazz, new music and world music fuse. Delbecq and Houle extend the techniques of their instruments and create their own language of musical gestures through spontaneous musical composition. This collaborative performance with Video & Mixed Media by Frédéric St-Hilaire (aka Cinétik) inspires the audience to listen to a world in constant evolution and transformation.

Delbecq's contemplative piano “fabrics” draw on Cage, Ligeti, and African timbres and polyrhythms, and are characterized by unexpected juxtapositions and patternings. Houle's approach has been inspired by Evan Parker and clarinetist William O. Smith’s multi-layered sonic explorations, and combines a thoroughgoing reinvention of the clarinet's expressive possibilities with an exceptional melodic lyricism. The duo’s rapport results in a highly ordered yet intuitive discourse, echoes and undercurrents of other music continually opening up new directions.

This performance is made possible in part through grants from the French America Cultural Exchange (FACE)- Funds for Contemporary Music and the British Columbia Arts Council. The reception is sponsored with support from the Cultural Cervice of the Consulate General of France in San Francisco.

                                                                   

Many thanks to swissnex for hosting our event.

Click here for hi-res downloadable photos



Benoit Delbecq (b. 1966, France)
Benoit Delbecq is a Paris-based French pianist and keyboardist who has created his own music using ideas and techniques from contemporary classical (Cage, Ligeti, Nancarrow), jazz, Pygmy polyphony, European improv and other sources. In his solo work, he prepares the piano with various materials such as eraser bits and carved wooden twigs, and improvises on short, overlapping vamps and patterns; the result is a complex, spacious sound that hardly seems to be emanating from a single instrument.

Highly acclaimed in Europe, Benoit Delbecq leads or co-leads a number of bands and has releases on Songlines, Plush, Naive, Deux Z and other labels. About Delbecq 5 Pursuit, Popmatters.com said: "...in the best sense, the newest in the new. It manages to push boundaries, sound fresh and smart, and be thoroughly and thoughtfully entertaining."
TReif - songlines.com

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François Houle (b. 1961, Canada)
Born in Quebec in 1961, Vancouver-based clarinetist/composer François Houle has built a body of work that, as Art Lange has written, “hovers unselfconsciously above categories and styles.” He leads the François Houle 5 and other jazz/creative music groups, co-leads the world music trio Safa, is a member of Delbecq 5, and has performed and/or recorded with Marilyn Crispell, Dave Douglas, Myra Melford, Wayne Horvitz, Joëlle Léandre, Georg Graewe, Evan Parker, and the NOW Orchestra. He is intimately involved in the development of contemporary Canadian music as a member of Standing Wave, Turning Point and the Vancouver New Music Ensemble, and also performs classical chamber music regularly. He has appeared at festivals across Canada, the U.S., and Europe, and his recordings are on Songlines, Between the Lines, Spool, Red Toucan, and other labels.

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Frédéric St-Hilaire (Canada)

In 1998, while finishing his film studies, Frédéric St-Hilaire, aka Cinétik discovered Montreal's electronic music scene and fell in love with it. Wanting to unify his two passions (film and music) he decided to present some of his video images during electronic music events. Rapidly, he's been ask to present his work in many new media arts festivals and decided to commit himself to this new form of expression.

For the last ten years, St-Hilaire has collaborated with many well known DJs, musicians, composers, theatre directors and dance choreographers by integrating video with different artistic expressions. His work has been presented in many American and European countries.



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