Hypersphères

The piece was composed specifically for a percussionist, although, since it uses no actual percussion instruments, it could in principle be performed by any musician-performer, not necessarily a percussionist. Written for percussionist Philippe Spiesser, it explores the links between motion capture, sound production (synthesis) and real-time computer graphics.

The title refers to the hypersphere, an n-dimensional mathematical object used, among other things, to calculate the rotations of the sensors and deduce their positions. In musical terms, the piece travels through multidimensional spherical spaces in which different sounds and synthesis techniques are triggered, revealed and modulated by the captured gestures. The computer graphics and the percussionist’s movements in space are also closely tied to these spheres, their deformations, and the sounds spatialised over an eight-channel system.

It could be described as a generative piece, with a large element of improvisation based on instructions given to the percussionist. Although the entire sequence of the piece is written in the electronic score, the performer is completely free to choose their gestures, and to stretch or accelerate their duration and type, and therefore those of the piece.