(Even if I dance in silence, I can only do so musically)

“Where the trajectory of sound oscillates in a swinging movement representing the physical laws of attraction.” —Dominique Besson in Les Musicographies, CD-ROM, Ina-GRM

Rituellipses is music of “sounds in movement,” made by and for dance. The sonic objects, made from fragments of concrete or instrumental musical patterns, are swept along as if by centrifugal force. They follow each other in continuous rotational movements that only silence suspends.

These studies of trajectory combinations are developed in short movements that are alternately lively, calm, restrained or uninhibited. Equilibrium had been achieved when the whole appeared to me to be multipliable — complete yet expandable.

Scenes from two films (The Sacrifice by Andrei Tarkovsky and Night Sun by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani) were constantly in mind throughout the creation of this work. They are about the relationships that each of us can have with a tree, that object of archaic worship that, like stone, seems to carry traces of lost wisdom. It is their imprint that imbues the spirit of the piece.

— Stephan Dunkelman [English translation: Tom Carter]

Rituellipses was realized between 1993 and ’96 at the studios of Musiques & Recherches in Ohain (Belgium) and premiered in March 1993 during the Ars Musica Festival (Brussels, Belgium). Rituellipses was awarded a special mention at the Stockholm Electronic Arts Award (Sweden, 1993) and a Honorable Mention at the Prix Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria, 1995). The piece was recorded in 1998 on the disc Project’son, Effects Input (GMEM EI 10) and an excerpt was incorporated in the Ina-GRM CD-ROM Les Musicographies (1996).

Premiere

• March 23, 1993, Ars Musica 1993: Concert de la classe de composition électroacoustique du Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles, Théâtre de Banlieue, Brussels (Belgium)

Awards

• Mention, Stockholm Electronic Arts Award 1993, Stockholm (Sweden)
• Honorable Mention, Computer Music, Prix Ars Electronica 1995, Linz (Austria)