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(is) night Valgeir Sigurosson / Paul Corley / / Liam Byrne

MUSIQUE

Label et collectif islandais cofondé en 2006 par le musicien, compositeur et producteur Valgeir Sigurðsson, Bedroom Community jette des ponts distin- gués entre musiques classique, électronique, expérimentale et folk. En une dizaine de références discographiques, l’enseigne de Reykjavík a prouvé son excellence en matière d’architecture sonore. A l’image de sa tête pensante Sigurðsson dont les paysages apaisants, symphoniques, stellaires ou glaçants ont fait le bonheur de Björk, Feist ou Coco Rosie.

A La Bâtie, il dialoguera avec des complices tout aussi atmosphéristes et mé- lancoliques, soit les Américains Paul Corley et Nadia Sirota dont les partis pris expérimentaux novateurs ont séduit jusqu’à Grizzly Bear ou Arcade Fire. Pour ajouter à la féérie islandaise ambiante, le Temple de Saint-Gervais met à disposition ses bons offices intimistes.

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Valgeir Sigurðsson Valgeir Sigurðsson’s boundless approach to music Valgeir founded and collective Bedroom informs his work as composer, musician, engineer Community in 2006; the label is home to Sam Ami- and mixer. In high demand as a producer, Valgeir has don and and has launched the solo recor- spent over a decade cultivating projects by diverse ding careers of Nico Muhly, Daníel Bjarnason, Puzzle international artists whilst developing his own parti- Muteson, Paul Corley and Valgeir himself. After years cular magic brand of recording artistry – now with of success in the recording industry, Valgeir debuted three solo to his name. Valgeir is the founder his own Ekvílibríum, which The Fader Magazine of the Bedroom Community record label as well as heralded as “a singular album, as ornate as it is di- ’s top recording facility Greenhouse Studios rect.” In 2009, collective members Valgeir and Muhly where his collaborators include Björk, Feist, Bonnie co-composed and premiered Scent Opera for New ‘Prince’ Billy, Camille, CocoRosie, The Magic Numbers, York City’s Guggenheim Museum. In 2010, Bedroom múm and many others. Community released an album of Valgeir’s docu- mentary soundtrack for Dreamland (Draumalandið). Valgeir’s formative years in a small Icelandic village Valgeir then wrote for the Chiara Quartet proved fertile soil for his forays into self-taught recor- and scored Architecture of Loss by choreographer ding technology; he studied classical guitar and plays Stephen Petronio, the latter which was released in keyboards, bass, percussion as well as electronics/ September 2012. Valgeir’s works are available from programming. In 1991 he earned a Tonmeister degree Benjamin Britten-founded Faber Music. from ’s SAE Institute. His career flourished in 1998 when fellow countrywoman Björk requested In all of his projects, Valgeir bends and blends familiar him as engineer and programmer for ’s sounds to expose the new within the known, lending soundtrack, a monumental project depth to pop and mainstream music through care that combined Valgeir’s passion for electronic, or- and an ear for esoteric, eclectic sonic experimenta- chestral and film music. The soundtrack’s I’ve Seen It tion. His aural oeuvre and collaborative contributions All, Björk’s duet with , was nominated for collide organic with synthetic, acoustic with digital, an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Valgeir’s connection with isolation, and domestic with ethereal musical relationship as one of Björk’s primary stu- – resulting in a body of work ripe with emotion, curio- dio collaborators from 1998 to 2006 thrived through sity, and humanity. contributions to her albums , , Medúlla, and Drawing Restraint 9.

Paul Corley Disquiet is the debut album of American composer, sound recordist and engineer Paul Corley. Disquiet is music that never settles. Music that makes the listener fiercely attentive to the present, to the very idea of listening. It takes some doing, and some patience, to produce an atmosphere so unearthly and yet so radiant, to organize fragmented - sometimes found - sounds into such sparse, sustained and spiritual coherence. As we listen to Corley listening to himself listen and seek a fixed genre point for this music, we perhaps rub together glitch, drone, sound art, post rock and alt-classical, and an as yet unspecified genre called ‘hazard a guess’, and then employ our own discretion.

Although Disquiet is Paul Corley’s first album on Bedroom Community, he is no stranger to the label. Having collaborated extensively with the Bedroom Community collective since 2007, the label is proud to add Cor- ley to the intimate roster that now comprises of seven highly original artists. Disquiet is a welcome addition to the catalogue; at the same time an album of delicate, primal (prepared) piano variations, a sequence of exquisitely reflective slow songs, and a metaphysical field recording where resonances are set off by real and imaginary geographical features. The album seems to be the recording of a dream, not necessarily Corley’s own, as if he slipped into the mind of someone asleep and calmly set up his equipment. Disquiet suggests a walk through an icy wasteland under a darkening sky, with unspecified creatures lurking at the edge of vision, a drifting walk that ends in the shadows of a vaguely familiar deserted city. Some might dis- cern in the distance the footsteps of Morton Feldman who has once passed nearby or is about to, or might spot some wires discarded by Chris Watson and a question or two written into the sand by Anton Webern.

When asked whether this is music representing something coming into being - a growing in confidence or something dissolving into deep, equivocal quiet beyond which there is only space - the answer is simple, yet complex. “Both at the same time,” Corley replies - somewhere between hazarding a guess, and knowing for sure.

2 Nadia Sirota Nadia Sirota is best known for her singular sound and expressive execution, coaxing solo works from the likes of Nico Muhly, Daníel Bjarnason, Judd Greenstein, Marcos Balter, and Missy Mazzoli. Her debut album First Things First was released in 2009 on New Ams- terdam Records and named a record of the year by , and her sophomore album, Baroque, was released in March on Bedroom Community and New Amsterdam.

In addition to her work as a soloist, Nadia is a member of yMusic, ACME (the American Contemporary Music Ensemble) and , and has lent her sound to recording and concert projects by such artists and songwriters as Grizzly Bear, Jónsi and Arcade Fire. Nadia also hosts a radio show on WQXR’s New Music radio stream, Q2Music, for which she was awarded the 2010 ASCAP Deems Tay- lor Award in Radio and Internet Broadcasting. Sirota is the recipient of Southern Methodist University’s 2013 Meadows Prize, awarded to pioneering artists and scholars with an emerging international pro- file. She received her undergraduate and Masters degrees from the , and since 2007 has been on faculty at the Manhat- tan School of Music in their Contemporary Performance Program.

INFOS PRATIQUES

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