bruma is a creative agency that works with music. We are based in Madrid. We curate festivals and live shows, develop educational projects, and advise cultural institutions and brands on a wide range of music-related projects.


Mark

Pierre Bastien
Une danse des sons pour Raymond Roussel


Client: Reina Sofía National Museum
Type: Live performance based on an exhibition



Inspired by the "thermodynamic orchestra" meticulously described by Roussel in his work, Pierre Bastien's automaton orchestra today has more than eighty pieces that serve as accompaniment in his shows. These instruments are created from pieces of mechano and percussion (drumsticks, bows, etc.). Using timers and small electric motors, they play percussion, string, and wind musical instruments repeatedly, like a loop ad infinitum.

On this musical support, Bastien incorporates melodies with traditional instruments, such as the trumpet, or ethnic ones, such as the harp-lute from Mali, the Rubab mandolin from Uzbekistan or the Angklung from Indonesia. On the occasion of the Locus Solus exhibition. Impressions of Raymond Roussel at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Bastien dedicates his latest show to Roussel, Une danse de sons. In it he uses a series of small video cameras to show on a screen the mechanisms of the sound automatons that accompany him, revealing the secret of their operation.






Mark