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.

Pierre Bastien began his collaboration with Pascal Comelade in the Bel Canto Orchestra in the 1970s and composed music for dance and film shows. In 1980 he began to devise the Mecanium orchestra at the same time as he did his doctoral thesis on the work of Raymond Roussel. His automaton orchestra works both as a musical accompaniment in his concerts and as an installation in exhibition projects. On the international music scene, Pierre Bastien is considered a pioneer of some of the current sound discourses of experimental or electronic music.

www.museoreinasofia.es/actividades/pierre-bastien
www.museoreinasofia.es/exposiciones/locus-solus