DESCRIPTION:
Open Scale trio
http://www.sons9.com
Live in MPAA Paris november 2010. Photos Alain d'Ortoli, Michèle Belletti, Nicolas Minet, Alain le Cam

Véronique Wilmart: acousmatic and machines
Joël Grare: world percussion / Chamonix bells
Jean-Luc Fillon: oboe, English horn, duduk, bass clarinet, electric bass and double bass

A "trendy" version of the Vitruvian Man... The oboe, invented 2800 years ago on the banks of the River Euphrates, and the bells, stemming from the discovery of fire and metal casting, are transcended here by the incredible processes of the latest digital technologies. The wealth of instruments and tone colours is justified by the numerous occurrences of sound managed by the computer.
Stage right: Joël Grare, in the midst of his unique and impressive instrumentarium, built up, patiently, over the years, with gongs, Chinese cymbals, kalimbas, udus... even Chamonix cow-bells, proposes, as a fine aesthete, a highly colourful universe of sound.
Stage left: Jean-Luc Fillon, alias Oboman, an improviser keen for encounters, an original multi-instrumentalist, oscillating between Jazz, improvised music, influences of contemporary music and encounters with world music, long time bass player in rather "electric" musical contexts, combines all of his instruments together in a unique performance, thanks, notably, to the possibility of processing the sounds live.
Centre stage, Véronique Wilmart, "mistress of ceremony", is settled comfortably behind her machines: a generic and rather simplistic term to describe the collection of electronic instruments and digital processing tools used by the operator (Macbook, "live" software, samplers and plug-ins, keyboards,...) but, above all, the enormous bank of concrete sounds which Véronique has constituted over the years: superimposed music boxes, paper rustling, shoes creaking, somebody crunching on an apple, a locomotive breaking, all sorts of voices, frogs, rubber bands. Gifted with a strong sense of musicality, of form and an extensive knowledge of contemporary music, Véronique can activate, in real time, these myriads of sounds and interact with Joël and Oboman.
Thus, the sound perspectives of the trio are almost unlimited, thanks to the multiplication of processes and sources: reflections of the sounds of the oboe and the bells blending together... and processed live, launching of non-stop rhythmic circles, at times very fast and very energetic (inhuman!!!), a profusion of rich, suggestive sounds, clicking, twinkling, grinding, all this provoking sound textures from the most elementary to the most elaborate (almost orchestral)