To Martha

La Mer is made up of two independent movements: La mer bleue, and La mer profonde.

The hum of the bees treated electronically creates the waves of the sea. A string quartet, also treated, reminds the light on the surface and the liquid fluency. La Mer expresses the joy and the purity of the water and proposes a listening in two levels. The first one is an imaginary perception of the sea. Serene or stormy: the sun sparkles on the water, the colours-frequencies become blurred during the descent, the darkness of the profound… The second is a symbolic perception: the deep of the sea is the cemetery for the shipwrecks and the image of the fecundity, the passage to Hades and the road to new discoveries.

[ii-08]

La mer [The Sea] was realized in 1996 at the Métamorphoses d’Orphée studio of Musiques & Recherches in Ohain (Belgium) and premiered in June 1997 in Mons (Belgium). It was awarded an Honorable Mention at the 1st Biennial Acousmatic Composition Competition Métamorphoses (Brussels, Belgium, 2000) and was a finalist at 27th Bourges International Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Art Competition (France, 2000).

Premiere

• June 1997, Concert, Mons (Belgium)

Awards

• Mention, 1st Biennial Acousmatic Composition Competition Métamorphoses 2000, Ohain (Belgium)