Philippe Petit – Passing Thru CD

Lively, visceral electroacoustic experimentation combining modular synthesisers with modified piano, sculpting unstable electricity into fluid, constantly shifting forms. Raw, physical and unpredictable, the music favours instant composition, rhythmic movement and psychedelic aural illusion over conventional notes and structures.

Lively, energetic, and oneiric while managing to stay unpredictable…
Come travel the paths of the unexpected…

"Mum used to forbid me to play with the fire and now I am playing with electricity! I have been drawn in without end by the sound of unstable electricity under attempted control, those moments where I thought I might actually be getting electrocuted.

I love to marry acoustic with Electronic, and more specifically Modular Synthesizers! An instrument which can be built in various forms, simply reorganizing each of its module and thus permitting new sound figures, a new reflection of the musical language.

To me the most interesting part is that 'Electronic Lutherie' permitting to change the instrument, surprise myself and adapt to various projects/ideas/desires. Speaking of lutherie I have chosen to play a modified piano, only its soundboard being amplified by multiple piezo glued inside the wood, adapting such a « noble » craftmanship, elaborated over several centuries, so that it could become concrete and joining the synthesizer.
I like to play it, I wish to touch this fluidity lost since the musicians make sound design using DAW and do not play in a visceral way as it was the case in the 70s. A time when no corners were cut, when consensus was not the rule.

Rather than writing an abstract score, I like to sculpt the sound. I seek to establish morphologies, sound forms, almost all of which are derived from sliding, constantly changing sound through the pitch scale. Few notes per se, tempered pitches and more a search for a rhythmic fluidity. Physicality, viscerality, pure movement, RAW !

I am playing, instant-composing with the idea that someone could enjoy it, and not just be staring dumbfounded at some kind of abstract sound sculpture… This is not for the sake of Art, this is music in full color.

For me music presents itself like magic : you know that there is a trick but it doesn’t matter how it is done. If the illusion becomes visible the magical delusion is no longer interesting, the illusion only works if the composer-magician and his audience want to play along.

All that we hear never corresponds to the reality of the sound, it is a question of aural trickery: 'Earlusionnism'!"