“An architecture starts living. The visual space emerges from a shape-shifting stage sculpture that is tied to the sonic imagination and the mobile images. These sculptural entities in constant mutations, protagonists in a mineral dream, are living their lives cut off from mankind.” — Renée Bourassa

On the subject of primitive, mythical light as an object of knowledge, the various forms of stage play are reminiscent of the repeated cycle of beginnings and endings. One finds in it the ever-present vibration of a vital energy, the dualities between power and fragility, outer and inner worlds, expansion and relaxation. The kaleidoscope of sensations and emotions, bellies and knots stacked in levels, creation and destruction of a universe looking for its own meaning.

“Neither pure music nor painting, theatre, sculpture or cinema, but a little of all that. Lux was offering a new stage language blending sound, image, movement, space and voice.” —Renée Bourassa, “Le spectacle total,” Québec-Science, 25:2, October 1986

Lux contains quotes from the following music works: OUT (1985) and Quarks’ Muzik (1983) by Alain Thibault, and deUs irae (1984) (self-referential). It also quotes the writings of Georges Bernard Shaw, Ernest Rutherford, Robert Oppenheimer, Emmanuel Kant and Renée Bourassa.

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

Lux — music for the multimedia presentation by Renée Bourassa — was realized in 1985 at the Bruit blanc studio in Montréal and premiered on December 5, 1985 during the (S)PACE concert presented by the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ) at the Spectrum in Montréal. Lux was composed for Renée Bourassa’s multimedia show by the same title, for two performers, constant-variation multidimensional stage system, multiple projections, special effects, and spatialized electroacoustic music. Lux was realized with support from the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA) and the ministère des Affaires culturelles du Québec. Thanks to Gaël Andrews and Jean-Sébastien Marcoux, recorded voices; Claude Godcharles (synthetic voice, the INRS’s Loquax synthesizer). The first mastering was performed by Bruno Bélanger in 2004 at PRIM, centre d’arts médiatiques, studio in Montréal (thanks to its coproduction program); the final master was made by Dominique Bassal in 2005.

Premiere

• December 5, 1985, (S)PACE, Le Spectrum de Montréal, Montréal (Québec)