Ravel Landscapes

2013
Audio-visual concert.
Dual HD projection, live piano, realtime graphics custom software.

Visuals by Quayola & Sinigaglia
Music by Maurice Ravel
Performed by Vanessa Wagner

Ravel Landscapes fuses generative image, created by visual artists Quayola & Sinigaglia with the classical pianist Vanessa Wagner’s interpretations of Ravel’s Pavane, Les Valses Nobles et Sentimentales, Gaspard de la Nuit and Ma Mere L’Oye. By application of custom software, the polyphonic sound of the piano is analysed and transformed into complex visual compositions.
Quayola & Sinigaglia are interested in addressing the same oniric dimension Ravel intended with Gaspard de la Nuit, where due to technical challenges and profound musical structure, the 3rd section, Scarbo is considered one of the most difficult solo piano pieces ever written. The visuals encompass concepts alluding to a landscape of the psyche, where tangible dimensions exist as a reverie and linger in waking realities.
A journey between polarities unfolds; conscious and unconscious, real and unreal, intuitive and orchestrated realities develop synchronously through sound and image as dynamic sequential scores.

Credits

Visuals: Quayola & Sinigaglia
Musician: Vanessa Wagner
Sound Analysis: Adam Stark
Producer: Keri Elmsly

Commissioned by Cité de la musique

Realtime graphics custom software developed in vvvv

Performances