Coruscate is a new work for tuned gongs, bowed vibraphone, chime bells & orchestral cymbals, written & produced over a six-month period that stretched from late December 2023 to June 2024.
Sébastien Forrester has always had a recurring interest with traditional and idiosyncratic sounds – his very first encounter with music as a child was indeed the Bwiti ritual drums, while living in Gabon, Central Africa, with his family. Formerly known as Holy Strays, the Paris-based Franco-British percussionist and sound artist collaborated with international labels such as Not Not Fun and Hands in the Dark, bringing to life the crossroads of leftfield drumming, ceremonial atmospherics and eruptive sound design.
“I played idiophones in jazz ensembles while studying at the conservatoire back in the mid-2000s and did not get to perform on a vibraphone – or a marimba – again until my friend Coby Sey asked me to join his band Continue on stage for a few shows from April 2023, which was a real epiphany. Getting to interpret some of his more orchestral tracks like ‘Þingeyri’ on vibraphone felt extremely special and emotional and made me rediscover the instrument through a new prism,“ says Sébastien.
„I felt the urge to bring drums back into the process again, so I started playing an old tambour from the region on „Bouôrgxo„. For its twin and follow-up „Nèplo“, I also wanted to be able to hit things to produce actual melodies and motifs and incorporate that into the writing process. I had access to an entire inventory of orchestral percussion instruments while on a residency with Toulouse-based choreographer Pierre Rigal in December 2023. I used this occasion to borrow a 5-octave marimba to lay down swells, patterns, phrases and what I identified as cascades of notes. That particular stage also definitely opened gates for me. During the same sessions I decided to record vibraphone, thunder sheets and chime bells without any specific intention in mind, just for the sake of collecting sounds and improvisations on the fly.“
Sébastiene later made a soundtrack for photographer and architect Erin O’Keefe’s installation and scenography for a Hermès show in Geneva in April 2024, which lead him to explore the vibraphone from a slightly different angle. „I aimed to erase all the attacks and focus on the most spectral sounds it can produce, using not only brushes, broomsticks, but also bows, which was something I had never experienced before.“
„It felt natural to confront some of those recordings with the chime bells and thunder sheets improvisations I had previously gathered, as those instruments share the same musical properties somehow. I started writing and defining the foundation of ‘Coruscate’, cutting up, slicing, assembling and sometimes resampling them in a way that blurs the lines between spontaneous gestures and composition, as I do very often.“
Coruscate is as much a wide improvisation as it is a composition and a sound collage in a way, as it was recorded over the course of three sessions in very different locations. Editing and assembling the various layers in a coherent way was a real challenge, seeking some coherence that would not feel artificial but reflect the spontaneous and kind of timeless dimension of the recordings. While playing gongs, bells and cymbals, I could almost feel like I was part of a long lineage and tradition, rooted in millennia of practice. I tried to approach them in a very innocent and humble way.
„Despite its dissonances and tensions, Coruscate is probably my most meditative, serene and contemplative work to date.“
I asked Sébastien about the healing effects of music:
„Music practice has definitely kept me alive and sane for most of my life now. It makes me balanced, alert and allows me to inch my dream forward without making compromises. We could say I hit things on a daily basis, drum exercises are truly part of my workout routine. Percussion instruments are hugely cathartic in a sense that they are quite primal and immediate, the vibration is instantaneous. My work as a musician has been healing as I put a lot of raw emotions into playing and composing, but my relationship with drums is usually quite wild and intense, especially when I make electronic music. What is very different with ‚Coruscate‘ is that it’s entirely acoustic and very quiet and still, the pace is slow and restful, and there’s a lot of space in between notes. It is definitely my most serene and meditative piece to date.“
„Coruscate almost sounds like an intimate ritual to me, an inner cure, an attempt at reconciliation and alignment. I have been told by a friend that it feels like finding a shelter in the sparkles that twirl and dance on top of peaceful waters when the sun is out, I like that interpretation too.“
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∎ You can follow Sébastien Forrester on Instagram or Bandcamp ∎
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