Zeruan - María Eugenia Luc - Performed Live by Ensemble du Bout du Monde

ZERUAN (2020)
María Eugenia Luc

Performed Live by:
Ensemble du Bout du Monde
Noa Mick, soprano saxophone
Simona Castria, alto saxophone
Salvatore Castellano, tenor saxophone
Don-Paul Kahl, baritone saxophone

11 November 2021

Kasteliotissa Medieval Hall
Nicosia, Cyprus

www.ensembleduboutdumonde.com

Program Note (written by Mikel Chamizo):
As we ascend from earth into heaven, our listening now leads us to another very recent creation: Zeruan (In heaven), completed in 2020 and dedicated to the saxophone quartet Ensemble du Bout du Monde. Here, Luc explores the specific sonic potential of the saxophone with the aim of giving shape to an initial conceptual idea: the image of the sky as infinite, an unfathomable space of unlimited possibilities. The piece begins with a single pattern made up of three types of sounds with contrasting timbre characteristics: a low and short attack (tongue ram) on the lower instruments of the quartet, a high-pitched sustained note on the soprano saxophone that gradually begins to fade into a bisbigliando, followed by an aeolic sound on the baritone saxophone. This pattern will be repeated in various forms during the first part of the piece, though its three elements will eventually become independent later in percussive sounds (slap, tongue ram, key strokes...), harmonic sounds (bisbigliando, trills, tremolos, multiphonics, arpeggios...) and blows. Zeruan thus evolves through deconstruction, breaking down the timbre characteristics of the original pattern "in order to make each component independent and give them a life of their own". After a brief but forceful cadence of the baritone saxophone, improvised creation of Don-Paul Kahl (saxophonist of the EBM quartet) drawn from a pattern proposed by the composer, the score concludes with an extensive coda in which noise takes centre stage again. It must be noted that, the piece, when heard live, takes on an additional dimension: that of space, thanks to a choreography by the four saxophonists that widens or narrows the acoustic space, giving it movement and direction.