Music Current 2026: Proxima Centauri - Mouvements (Concert)

Proxima Centauri (photo credit: Frederic Desmesure).

PERFORMERS: 

Marie-Bernadette Charrier, saxophone
Sylvain Millepied, flute
Hilomi Sakaguchi, piano
Julien Pellegrini, percussion
Christophe Havel, electronics
Peter Fahey, narrator.

French ensemble, Proxima Centauri, presents Mouvements, a concert programme that creates a space for dialogue between the sound textures brought by electronics and the live interpretation of the instrumentalist. The artist's sensitive presence contrasts with the spatially diffused electronic sound surrounding the listener, and offers multiple forms of dialogue, juxtaposition and conflict. The instrumentalists confront and merges with the sound, making electroacoustic music take on an almost sculptural aspect. The coexistence of these two sound worlds allows the listener, or perhaps more accurately, spectator, to be at the heart of the musical discourse and its poetry.

Mouvements are tangible elusive and omnipresent, giving life, rhythm, and meaning to everything around us. From the most discreet gesture to the most powerful wave, it is the flow that crosses bodies and minds. It becomes abstraction in a painting, melody in a symphony, or simple balance in our daily actions, whether consciously perceived or not. It is embodied in dance, true gestural poetry. It animates nature, with the breath of the wind or the regularity of the tides, and unites crowds, whether in collective fervour or common struggle.

Mouvement are also the flow of ideas, cultures, and history—currents that illuminate our understanding of the world. It is the very essence of life, a constant reminder that nothing is still, just like the universe.

This program is enriched by the dualities inherent in the personalities of composers who share the experience of emigration. From Ireland (Peter Fahey) to Argentina (Demian Rudel Rey), and Rocío Cano Valiño's dual France-Argentina culture, each composer is enriched by his expatriate experience, developing both a critical and nostalgic view of his original culture.

- (Proxima Centauri)

Proxima Centauri is a music ensemble that rewrites the codes of chamber music by using electro- acoustic as a full-fledged member of the formation. For over twenty years, Proxima Centauri has been cooperating with many artists, other musicians; interpreters or improvisers, dancers and visual artists. The ensemble has a multidisciplinary artistic approach combining musical creation and visual arts.

Under the artistic direction of Marie-Bernadette Charrier, the ensemble follows an active commissioning policy and creates many works by composers of this century, alternating with the interpretation of the great masters of the 20th century. Proxima Centauri invests all the dimensions of creation, from research in contemporary instrument-making down to the transmission of know-how to young interpreters.

Its influence extends beyond the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region and the borders of France. Internationally renowned, the ensemble is invited to numerous festivals and tours in Europe, America, Asia and Oceania.

Programme

Thierry Alla - Artificiel (7’) for flute, saxophone, percussion and electronics

Rocio Cano Valiño - Pirucha* (10’) for flute, saxophone, piano, percussion and electronics 

Demian Rudel Rey - Nemorensis (11’) (premiere work) for tenor saxophone, electronic and video

Peter Fahey - Máthairtheanga** (10-12’) (premiere work) for narrator, flute, saxophone, piano, percussion and electronics

Pierre Jodlowski - Coliseum (10’30) for flute, saxophone, percussion, piano and electronics

*Sacem commission for Proxima Centauri

**Commissioned by Proxima Centauri with funding by the Arts Council

Tickets

€10 tickets until 10 March,€22/20 thereafter. Booking at Project Arts Centre.