in honour of olivier messiaen's 100 birthday

colin andrew sheffield's signatures due december 10th
in honour of olivier messiaen's 100th birthday

in collaboration with invisiblebirds.org, the art of memory is pleased to announce a new release by colin andrew sheffield

limited to an edition of 60 examples,
which includes a bonus 3 inch cd broken light, a booklet with abstracted photography by tarrl lightowler and text by richard inwards f.r.a.s, plus an original print from tarrl lightowler.
all encased in a lovely hand-made box.

(please reserve copies soon because nearly half are sold)

audio excerpt available here

robert bresson, olivier messiaen, i listen to my films as i make them

the composer olivier messiaen comes to mind as the closest parallel to bresson in the other arts. a devout catholic, the organist of the trinité in paris, messiaen has always been a radical modernist and a seminal figure in the evolution of modern music (in addition to his compositions, he deserves the credit of teaching stockhausen and boulez). nevertheless, the material of messiaen's art, pure sounds, submits to simultaneous modernism and theophany more flexible and more radical than narrative film.*

that is a question of composition. i use the word "composition" as opposed to the word "construction." i listen to my films as i make them, the way a pianist listens to the sonata he is performing, and i make the picture conform to sound rather than the other way round. transitions from one picture to another, from one scene to the next are like shifts in a musical scale. our eyesight occupies a large proportion of our brain, perhaps as much as two-thirds. yet our eyes are not so powerful a means of imagination, not so varied and profound as our ears. and so, as imagination is a critical element in any creative process, how could one not privilege the sound aspect?**

olivier messiaen: from vingt regards sur l'enfant jesus (1944) played by his wife yvonne loriod (1956)


* from p. adams sitney's the rhetoric of robert bresson: from le journal d'un curé de campagne to une femme douce

** from i seek not description but vision: robert bresson on l'argent (interview with robert bresson by michel ciment) - both found in robert bresson edited by james quandt, cinematheque ontario, 1998

mouchette and some french field recordings

robert bresson: mouchette, 1967

examples of french field recordings:

the work of yannick dauby,

sound artist:

select discography:

-songs of a few cicadas from taiwan, kalerne temporary editions, 2007

-songs of a few crickets from europe, kalerne temporary editions, 2007

-songs of a few amphibians from taiwan, kalerne temporary editions, 2007

-février, cherry music, 2006 (my favourite from the list)

-sarus cranes circling above, boxmedia, 2004

-symetry never happens in nature (entrelacs project with michael northam), s/r, 2004

-low valley, edition..., 2004

-bruissements (on another kind of language: dedicated to andrei tarkovsky comp.), and/oar, 2003

-une topographie sonore... (from thomas koner's zyklop), mille plateaux, 2003

-sundew (on infernal proteus comp.), the ajna offensive, 2002

-descendre cinq lacs au travers d'une voilé (with alio die), aqua, 1998

the work of eric la casa, sound artist:

select discography:

-air.ratio, 2007

-cci 1 (on intransitive twenty-three comp.), intransitive recordings, 2004

-fonderie. paccard, collectif & cie, 2001

(based on recordings from the site of a foundry for making bells in annecy, france)

the work of eric cordier, sound artist:

select discography:

-osorezan: selected field recording 1993 - 2007, herbal international, 2007

-breizhiselad, erewhon, 2006

("yvonne loriod would accompanied birdsong expeditions with a tape recorder." from messiaen by peter hill and nigel simeone)

the ornithological activities of olivier messiaen (bird notation and recording):

"the catalogue d'oiseaux ostensibly returns to the naturalist intentions of portraying birds- all french birds- in their habitats, but there are the same structures of alternation and palindrome, along with further infiltrations of non-birdsong material. usually this material is justified as illustrative, but the mechanisms of illustration are codes peculiar to messiaen, the most important being his equivalence of colour and harmony."

(from modern music and after: directions since 1945 by paul griffiths, page 124)

"in his transcriptions, based on notation in the field, he tried to convey the melodies, rhythms and timbres of many different bird songs, and some of his later works were created very largely from this natural material.

the catalogue d'oiseaux for piano (1956-8), for example, is a collection of pieces, each painting a sound picture of a bird in its habitat, together with its companions, often at a particular time of day."

(from modern music: a concise history by paul griffiths, page 125)

"for me, the only real music has always existed in the sounds of nature... the harmony of wind in tress, the rhythm of waves on the sea, the timbre of raindrops, of breaking branches, of stones struck together, the different cries of animals are the true music as far as i am concerned." (this passage describes the bresson soundtrack very well)

(from olivier messiaen: music and color, conversations with claude samuel, page 135-139)

bell recordings:

jean-luc herelle: pastoral bells (clarines et sonnailles), sittelle, 1996

(recordings of bells worn by herds of cows and goats)

(i encourage listening to the robert bresson soundtrack while reading this post, "discovered" using techniques pioneered by steve roden)