AERA

Notice

Aera was commissioned by the French government and written in September 1978 for Les Percussions de Strasbourg. In Greek, the title means air; in Latin, bronzes. Aera is also related to Maraé, another work written for the Percussions de Strasbourg in 1974. But whereas Maraé used only white noise, in this work only instruments with specific sounds are used: Thai gongs, bells, marimbas, vibraphones, timbres and timpani.
Aera is essentially based on the harmonic dimension and superimposed tempi. This harmony has nothing to do with the functions within a tonal or modal system to which tradition has accustomed us. Rather, it is a play on the colors resulting from the blending of sounds like as many chemical components. The law governing the movement of these components is that of an ever-renewed expansion, sometimes homorhythmically, sometimes through the superposition of two to six different tempi. The absence of ideas in the discursive sense of the term, and the particular ability of the timbres used to short-circuit reflection, place Aera in the movement of sacred music, without the work referring to either Tibet or Bali. Through immediate sensory action, it tends to create a particular lucidity, as foreign to hypnosis as it is to analysis. If the word clairvoyance had an equivalent in the realm of sound, we could say that this is what we have sought to awaken.