Architectes

Music and architecture are both constructions that employ space, volume, movement, form, structures, motifs, proportions, articulations, colours, harmony, and time. Given this concordance of terms, what could be more natural than imagining a project that brings them together? And above all, how can we make personalities or buildings resonate? How can we render the inexpressible perceptible—the song of architecture?

Composers and musicians Jérôme Fohrer, Francesco Rees, and Erwin Siffer, accompanied by graphic designer and photographer Adrien Berthet, delve into this challenging question to present us with sonic portraits of great architects, accompanied by their words, drawings, photographs, and plans.

From Zaha Hadid to Dorte Mandrup, including Odile Decq and Walter Gropius, the piano/double bass/drums trio strives to transcribe their emotional responses to these architectural creations into musical pieces in the manner of the Impressionists—less through symbolic application and mathematics, and more through melodies derived from sinuous and composite scales for Oscar Niemeyer’s curves; harder, staccato rhythms to depict the metal, glass, and angles of Mies van der Rohe; unexpected cadences and minimalism for Le Corbusier’s cells; and wide intervals and spacious chords for Dorte Mandrup’s « The Whale. »

Line-Up:

Erwin Siffer - piano

Jérôme Fohrer - double bass

Francesco Rees - drums

Main organizer(s): neimënster 

Duration: 60 minutes