Listen to pieces where I improvise

Listen to versions of myPlay Station Portable made by random people

Here are improvisations where I take part either on the electronic or with instruments. The most recent extracts are at the bottom because I add them as I go along.

Play Station 3, festival Akouphène 2005

Here is the official premiere of the Play Station 3 in the improvised version, for the festival akouphène in 2005, with Anne Gillot playing the recorder and Laurent Estoppey the saxophone. I am on the electronic.

Play Station 3, but not the same one, festival Akouphène 2005 again

This is on the same night, but later, with, from left to right, Alex Babel on the percussions, Christian Magnusson on the trumpet, Benoît Moreau on the clarinet, and John Menoud on the guitar. I am still on the electronic.

Play Station 3, but another one again, Uni-Mail, Geneva, March 2006

This is a quite short version (not even 8 minutes) that we made with Anne Gillot, recorder, Laurent Estoppex, saxophone, and Benoît Moreau, clarinet. The mix is in binaural format (which simulates the front and the back, on top of the sides), so if you listen to this with headphones, you will have such a spatialisation that you will not believe it yourself.

Super Play Station 3 Turbo, Lapin Vert (Février 2007)

Here is an extract from the recording of the "Super Play Station 3 Turbo" (half an hour out of the hour it lasted for), that we made with Anne Gillot and Laurent Estoppey, with an installation made of huts by Blakam, in which the audience was comfortably seating in, surrounded by many tiny loudspeaker everywhere, well, it was very cheerful. It took place at the Lapin Vert in February 2007. Noticeable fact: a retard just seating by the microphone forgot to switch off his phone, which produced this noise at the beginning.

Baby impro Lapin Vert, Lausanne (May 2007)

So here is an improvisation without electronic (you: “yeaaaah!”). These are the five last minutes of a duet by Cyril Regamey and Brice Catherin whose theme was “baby”, in the tradition of my pieces “pérégrémotion I” and “II”. One will be particularly amazed by my powerful melodic abilities.

Le Car de Thon plays and dances in improvisation Lapin Vert, Lausanne (May 2007)

So here is finally a second improvisation without electronic (you: “yeaaaaah”). That is the full (you: “yeaaaah”) improvisation of the first part of the show “le Car de Thon plays and dances in improvisation”, which lasts for forty minutes. We have Edmée Fleury and myself sharing voice, instruments, toys, etc.

Bristophe Hamburg, July 2007

So in July 2007, one can say that the music world changed radically as Christophe Schweizer and myself founded Bristophe, which is so great that I will give you three more extracts here, here and here.

New relationships to the instruments Théâtre du grütli (Genèva), 2nd of March 2008

This is one of le Car de Thon’s improvisation laboratories, whose name is “new relationships to the instruments”. We are four musicians and there are two concepts: first we are two people on a single instrument, here and in the last piece we have Samira El Ghatta and Anne Gillot on ONE paetzold recorder, with Jocelyne Rudasigwa and Brice Catherin on ONE double bass. And then, here, here and here, the musicians are playing on an instrument they do not know; here the double basses for the recorder players and the recorders for the double bassists. We finish with going back to the first concept, and this is here.

Free improvisation, baroque obstructions Théâtre du Grütli, Geneva (3rd of February 2008)

Here is a duet by Anne Gillot (recorder) and myself (baroque cello). We play for one of le Car de Thon’s impro labs, whose name is “free improvisation, baroque obstructions”, in which we put together baroque pieces filtered and served with different amounts of contemporary sauce (in this precise case we are being quite nice: we add silences and a tremulating continuo), with free improvisations that are “framed”, let’s say with obstructions. All the pieces are in crossfade, so before listening to this improvisation, one can rush to the "listen to pieces I did not composed but played" section and click on the matching extract of this very same laboratory, in order to listen the unbelievable piece that preceded this improvisation. A word to the wise is enough.

Super Play Station 3 Turbo Théâtre du Grütli, Geneva (14th of June 2008)

When you put four rascals together and make them perform my “Super Play Station 3 Turbo”, it gives this kind of things. The first five minutes are missing, but it is alright, enjoy these thirteen here, with Yannick Barman on the trumpet, Brice Catherin on the electronic, Cyril Regamey on the drums and Christophe Schweizer on the trombone.

Bristophe on the 26th of June 2008 and Bristophe on the 27th of June 2008 in Hamburg (Germany, yes)

Bristophe is Brice Catherin + Christophe Schweizer. But sometimes we have guests all of a sudden, and it makes this. In the first piece, we are with a pianist whose name I forgot (sorry), and in the second piece, a pianist (another one) and a violinist, whose names I also forgot (sorry and sorry). All the other instruments are being played by the valorous members of Bristophe.

Edmond and Catherine, on the 26th of August 2008 in Saint-Genis Pouilly in my living-room (France)

Edmond et Catherine is Edmée Fleury (voice) and Brice Catherin (cello and stuff). Here is a nice little improvisation in a bad recording.

A first, a second, a third, a forth, a fifth, a sixth, and a seventh piece that was dismissed for the movie “Frankenstein”, February 2009 at home.

The directors of the extremely great “Frankenstein” had asked Bristophe (Christophe Schweizer + Brice Catherin) to record pieces for their movie. We made about twenty of them, and they were all dismissed. Hihihi! Here are seven of them.

Talking about Bristophe, here is another extract of an improvisation at the Alfred Schnittke Akademie, on the 14th of May 2009 in Hamburg.

It was a good concert. After us, a specific gentleman called Mister Bjoern played a solo set on the drums, and then we finally played all together, and it made this, yes, that’s it, thank you.

Orchestra improvisation n°4, Orchestra improvisation n°3, Orchestra improvisation n°2, and Orchestra improvisation n°1, at the Cinéma Oblo, Lausanne, April 2009.

There was: Edmée Fleury (voice), Jocelyne Rudasigwa (double bassa), Brice Catherin (cello), Vincent Daoud (saxophone), David Doyon (guitar), Ariel Garcia (guitar and/or trumpet), d'Incises (electronic), Christian Magnusson (trumpet), Luc Müller (drums), Yuji Noguchi (bass clarinet), Jean Rochat (percussions), Christophe Schweizer (conductor, trombone and tuba), Laurent Waeber (saxophone). The obstructions were: improvisation with conductor and soloists, improvisation with conductor and without soloist, improvisation without conductor and with soloists, improvisation without soloist and without conductor, but not in this order.

Oh, well, anyway, talking about Bristophe, I give you some more in a four hands piano version in Hamburg.

We recorded this and many other things during the summer 2009 for a CD to be released some day.

And to close the Bristophe in 2009 chapter, here is the Best of Christianskirche, the alleluia, the gospel, the sermon, the sanctus 1, the sanctus 2, the Agnus Dei and the Ite Missa Est, November 2009 in Hamburg (Christianskirche).

These are extracts of a mass that lasted for more than two hours and that we improvised with lots of piano, harpsichord, and church organs on top of our usual instruments.

From the 3rd to the 6th of June 2010 in Sierre (Switzerland), for the festival SISMICS, we played almost all the “scores composed by illustrators who do not know music”, which includes: Yassine's "Tweet-tweet", that can be seen here, Olivier Texier's "Massacres are always made with passion", that can be seen here, Baladi's "Tidy your street", that can be seen here, Franz Gallo's "Under my shower"that can be seen here, Abstien Gachet's "No title"that can be seen here, Geraud's "No title", that can be seen here, Andréas Kündig's "No title", that can be seen here, Fraz Gallo's "René", that can be seen here, Fatmat's "No title", that can be seen here, Mattt Konture's "no title", that can be seen here, Jean-Christophe Menu's "no title", that can be seen here, Vincent Pianina's "it has rained, he has died", that can be seen here, Julie Bal des chiens' "Proche de l'Ohio", that can be seen here, Baladi's "whateveranything", that can be seen here, Coco's "no title", that can be seen here, Mokeït's "no title", that can be seen here, Néoine Pifer, Buster Yannez and Lyne's "no title", that can be seen here, Coco's "Sweet Videur Symphony", that can be seen here, Jacques Velay's "no title", that can be seen here, Camille Besse's "Sismics", that can be seen here, Jean-Yves Duhoo's "Aux Puces 12", that can be seen here, Quentin Faucompré's "no title", that can be seen here, Coco's "This is a song for the fans of Cousteau", that can be seen here, Coco's "Vase-Line", that can be seen here, and another Abstien Gachet's "no title", that can be seen here.

And here is the history of the “scores composed by illustrators who do not know music”, explained by Coco. The musiciens were: Yannick Barman, trumpet (every days); Brice Catherin, cello (every days); Didier Métrailler, percussions (3rd and 4th June at 2pm, 6th all day long); Fancesko Miccolis, drums (3rd and 4th all day long); Alexandra Bellon (5th and 6th all day long). Along with the audience and the illustrators in some cases. Beside this, if you wish to use one of these images, please send me an email to ask for the official permission of the illustrators.

Insub Meta Orchestra, on the 17th of September 2010, AMR (Geneva)

So this is very funny, that’s the part of the first concert of the meta insub orchestra that I directed (with a stick, can you imagine?). You have to imagine that what we hear on the right was actually on the stage, and what we hear on the left was subtly spread in the audience. More powerful than Avatar somehow, even though the effect lost some of its interest with the recording. It finishes abruptly because my part was cross-fading the following improvisation that I did not put here.

The 21st of May 2011 in Besançon, at the médiathèque Pierre Bayle, we played few “scores composed by illustrators who do not know music”, and premiered "Sans Titre" by Pier, that you can see here. Yannick Barman is playing the trumpet and Brice Catherin the cello.

On the 31st of May 2011 at the cinéma Spoutnik, Geneva, it was the first concert of DEATH AND THE MAIDEN. It's a band that plays minimetalism, a sub-category of experimental metal. With Frédéric Danel (voice), Brice Catherin (electric cello) and Stéphane Galland (drums). The structure and the concepts of each part are written, and we improvise inside them.