“… a ribbon around a bomb.” — André Breton

“Neither the inner world nor the outer world is a bed of roses.” — ind>Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Part 1: Peur apprivoisée [Tamed Fear] (Blue Beard, Charles Perrault)

Knowing how to browse to gain access to the darkest secrets. Accessing isolated lairs. Not being afraid of the wound that will not stop bleeding. Following the fearsome intruder who turns crossroads into closed roads. Daring to open the door hiding everything that has been destroyed. Acknowledging and taming this malign force to avoid its destructive energy.

Part 2: Trame de tension [Weft of Tension] (Snow-white and Red-rose, Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm)

A world where roses have no thorns does not portray the realities of life. It needs a bear coming with the roughness of winter. So that darkness can make sense, forgetting the horizon-less Eden and letting the anger — so full of vital energy — explode. Tapping back into the instinct of claws and teeth to pick oneself up and defend.

Indigo was recomposed from Musique défilé (1999-2000) and contains quotes from the music works L’impatience des limites (1992-93) by Bernard Fort, Derrière la porte la plus éloignée… (1998) by Gilles Gobeil, and Électro-Prana (1998) by Jean-François Laporte, plus some early music samples.

The pieces composed for the Nouvel ensemble moderne’s music / fashion show event Musique défilé pour une fin de siècle were later reworked into standalone acousmatic works — Indigo and Le bruit des ailes. They became the first two parts of the large-scale work Griffes (Claws), still in progress and inspired by Clarissa Pinkola Estés’s research in psychoanalysis (Women Who Run With the Wolves) and by Marie-Louise von Franz (Feminine in Fairy Tales). Through the use of sonic metaphors and highly evocative referential sounds, the music stages mental pictures associated with various “wild woman” archetypes taken from myths, dreams and tales. These first two parts are introspective works digging into the intimate space of affects. Also rolling through them are the tragedies of the origins and the fascinating forces of creation. Attempting to explore these buried memories, these untamed torrents, cannot be done without some commotion or tidal waves.

— Marcelle Deschênes [English translation: François Couture, viii-06]

Indigo was recomposed in 2000 from Musique défilé (1999-2000) at the Bruit blanc studio and mixed by Martin Hurtubise at the PRIM, centre d’arts médiatiques, studio in Montréal; the first mastering was performed by Bruno Bélanger in 2004 in the PRIM studio in Montréal (thanks to its coproduction program); the final master was made by Dominique Bassal in 2005. The piece premiered on October 31, 2000 at the Sallw Beverley Webster Rolph of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, during the first concert in Réseaux’s Rien à voir (8) concert series, itself presented as part of the SuperMicMac festival produced by Productions SuperMusique. Thanks to PRIM, centre d’arts médiatiques. Indigo was selected as finalist at the Concurso Internacional ART’S XXI (Valencia, Spain, 2001).

Premiere

• October 31, 2000, SuperMicMac, Rien à voir (8): carte blanche 1, Salle Beverley Webster Rolph — Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montréal (Québec)