Anthony Pateras (AU, 1979)
Residency period: July-September 2019
My project, Mécanique Céleste, is a 33-minute composition for 4 pre-recorded celestas and live claves, based on the architectural co-ordinates of the building designed by Alberto Figuccio at A&F Architectes in Geneva. The building, which serves as the entrance to HEIG-VD, the most renowned engineering school in the Canton of Vaud, then hosted my concert with percussionist Nicolas Field in October 2020
I first recorded the material for the celesta parts in Melbourne, Australia, at the Astra Chamber Music Society. After sampling each pitch of an early 20th century celesta, the pitches were then organised into ascending scales in SuperCollider by my colleague Rohan Drape. Their intervallic distances were determined by various dimensions of the building (concrete thickness, step length, wall length and curvature). The rhythms were also determined by this data and when they were all superimposed and broadcast inside the building’s imposing walls, psychoacoustic effects and reflections created a strange, hyperreal sonic atmosphere, interpolated with occasional clave attacks.
This work was my latest effort to inquire into how electronic diffusion of acoustic sounds into site-specific situations can radicalise the sound source itself. Through overlaying amplified celestas in different directions and generating conflicting delay times and acoustics, the celesta itself sounded vastly different from every point of the building, transformed into a sonically radical device for generating auditory hallucination.
Anthony Pateras is an Australian composer, pianist and electronic musician active since the late 90s. Pateras is the author of over 75 concert works and has released around 40 albums documenting numerous collaborations and solo activities. His current work focuses on electro-acoustic orchestration, temporal hallucination and sound phenomena.
Credits: Mécanique Céleste, Anthony Pateras, 2020, HEIG-VD Yverdon-le-Bains
Editing by Pierre-Yves Mingard, Nicéphore Productions