Latences

a piece for carillon, radio and valley

radio art

2023

Catalogue number : 96

You can listen to it by opening the window (if you are nearby) and turning on the radio to hear both sources at the same time. What is it about? Delays, displacements, latency and desynchronization. Written for the Carillon of Forcalquier, a magnificent instrument with thirty-seven bells that is played with closed fists and which is placed at the top of the citadel of the city.

« Latences »   is an invitation to turn on the radio and simultaneously open the window, to listen, to get out of sync. It is an hybrid sound composition that superimposes two simultaneous listening modes:  A) radio montage and a textual collage made in real time and broadcast via FM frequency and audio streaming. B) A composition for the carillon at the top of the citadel of Forcalquier, which can be heard – depending on the weather conditions – up to three kilometers away in the acoustic space of the village.

The two halves of the composition are performed by the carillonneurs and the sound artist, who perform them side by side on the citadel of Forcalquier, and diffused over different media, encountering unequal distortions and resistances depending on whether the sound is propagated by audio streaming or by sound waves propagating in the air at 343 meters per second. The initial synchronization of the two halves of the piece is therefore bound to get out of sync depending on the distance of the listener and the weather conditions, wind speed, etc. The music and text generate a gigantic natural delay effect that extends over several kilometers. Latencies, delays, displacements and desynchronization are thus at the heart of the composition, which is entirely built around synchronicities and correspondences through the combinatorial text and the score for carillon, destined to vary and reconfigure themselves according to the variations and hazards of the reception.

« Latences »  is an in situ creation resulting from the encounter between the sound artist, composer and radio artist Alessandro Bosetti, the territory of Forcalquier and its Carillon – an instrument built in 1925 and entirely renovated between 1980 and 2015. The radio montage is the result of a series of interviews and meetings that Alessandro Bosetti Carrie out in the territory of Forcalquier during the winter 2022, and spring 2023.

Premiere in Forcalquier and on Radio Zinzine, Thursday, May 4th 2023 at 17h and Saturday, May 6th 2023 at 17h30. A co-production Festival Numéro Zéro/Cipm, in collaboration with Radio Zinzine (100.7).

© Alessandro Bosetti / 2024