Des paradis

Composition for a dance piece by Kevin Jean / Ève Magot

” Après l’exploration des rapports gravitaires induits par la suspension, le trio Des Paradis signe un retour à terre. D’une enfance à la Réunion, les origines insulaires de Kevin Jean le conduisent vers des problématiques spatiales, environnementales, relationnelles, comportementales : un individu agit-il différemment selon la taille et la nature de l’espace qui l’entoure ? Peut-il coexister avec d’autres sur des territoires exigus, limités ou au contraire largement ouverts ? À partir d’un dispositif contraignant, évolutif et incertain, les interprètes révèlent la force d’un environnement qui forme, déforme, transforme. Face à lui, la liberté de mouvements déjoue le conditionnement extérieur et offre des résolutions corporelles pour l’accepter, le déjouer, le modifier, l’adapter. Cette emprise réciproque et modulable questionne finalement la capacité de chacun à s’approprier un territoire pour en faire son paradis, sans fantasmes ni préalables. En parallèle à ce spectacle, Kevin Jean travaille sur le projet Des autres paradis, où il invite un groupe d’amateurs à traverser la matière chorégraphique.”

The creation period was a deep exploration on how we can co-exist. Kevin provided me the space to create an aural universe where the dancers could find inspiration, triggers, freedom and guidance at the same time. It is based upon long talks about spatiality, memories, connotations, physical boundaries, habitats, ..  In the second part of the show there is no sound but the acoustics of the dancers. Their feet, breathing, clothing, ..  In the third part I created a track with very subtle sounds, nearly hearable, mixed with the acoustic sound by the dancers. It works very much on the subliminal level and can create very strong physical reactions in hearing. I started working on the concept of ‘silence’ on in the project ‘Borderline’. Listening, non-sound, is as importance in my practice as created sound.

In the composition I used a lot of field recordings. Most of them I did myself. A big thanks to Geoff Sample who kindly let me use his recording of the great snipe lek.

In this project I could fully explore the possibilities of creating electro-organic sounds with Native Instruments ‘reaktor’, a great tool for freestyle audio sketching. I toured with the piece and mixed the tracks live. This gave me also the possibility to experiment with the possibilties of using multichannel sound distribution and placing speakers in odd places to create ‘live reverb effects’. I started to use this technique in ‘For your ears only’.

In october 2016, Festival Plastique Danse Flore invited Kevin Jean to make an outside version of Des Paradis.

The new setting intensified the hypersensitivity aspect of the piece. Soundwise, I tried to let the universe (sound-space) that I created interact with the physical environment. In fact, it became some kind of augmented reality. Especially in the third part of the show, live mixing the delicate, almost inhearable sounds was an unforgettable experience. Listening to the sounds of the surroundings (wind, trees, birds, planes) while mixing simultaneously into the very same natural sound environment is a pure delight for me as a sound artist and human being.

Working and sharing space and time with Kevin, Sebastien and Laurie in this very specific setting – the gardens of  ‘le Pottager du roi’ in Versailles – was again a pleasure. The festival hosted several great performances, all of them outside in the gardens. It is run mostly by volunteers. I’m very happy and thankful to be part of it!