Michel Redolfi, Immersion - Pacific Tubular Waves, INA/GRM, LP, 1980
Michel Redolfi : Cofounder of the 'Groupe de Musique Expérimentale de Marseille' (GMEM) in 1969, he favors electro-acoustic composition (tape music) in that it continously invites him to imagine his music as a utopia of the senses in the work itself as well as in its sound system : from the conception of a loudspeaker molded to the human body (Homo-parleur = Body-peaker) to his recent endeavors in underwater musical acoustic (project WET - Water Electronically Tuned). Initiator of computer music research in the GMEM, he has concurrently participated in musical activities in the US (in particular, at the Studio or Darmouth College - Hanover, University of Wisconsin - Madison, and the Center for Music Experiment - San Diego) geographical and cultural itineraries that have undoubtably influenced his musical perception.
Side A : IMMERSION (1980 - 24'35) - 1.Surface 2.Immersion partiel 3.Immersion profonde 4.Immersion totale
In april of 1979, I decided to utilize the work "Pacific Tubular Waves", composed the preceeding winter, so that I could play it and re-record it under the same waves that had been the source of my fantasy during the elaboration of the piece in the studio. Thanks to the water-proof equipment, I was able, hydra-phone in hand, to cover the sonorized depths and listen to the natural remodeling of my sounds by the currents of water of the movement of the stones below.
From this underwater recording, I have selected 3 short movements that are inserted between four parts composed by digital synthesizer, and conceived as an immersion in 4 levels.
A mental immersion as the listening process slowly descends, from the spacious swirls of the surface (part 1) to the total immersion (part 4), the unfathomable murmuring of the blue sleep.
The synthesis was programmed with the digital synthesizer Synclavier, and mixed in the studios of GRM (Paris). The underwater recording took place in La Jolla, California, off the shores of "Windansea" and "Birdrock".
Side B : Pacific Tubular Waves (1979 - 24'52) - 1.Inner tube 2.Crystal lips 3.A smooth ride 4.Pacific motion 5.The underwater park at sunset
A wave off the coast of California, a smooth fold that gradually stretches and darkens as it approaches the shore, powerfully lifting itself above the horizon, and in a vain attempt to join with sky, suddenly closes upon itself, capturing in all his length a formidable tunnel of air. This "tube", the ephemeral womb of the wave in its state of grace, soon to explose into foam under the weigth of the ocean, is ritually crossed by the swimmers and surfers of the Pacific.
The vision of this hollow cosmos of water and light, whose enormous centrifical forces seem to epitomize in an instant the history of the planet energy, was the esthetic motivation of this work.
The totality of timbres was programmed on the digital synthesizer Synclavier, permitting me to generate the life - energy of the elements, ranging from the microscopic activity of its cellular sounds, to the large fluctuations of sonorous masses.
Inspired by the wave, outline of the internal evolution of water dynamics, the form of this work traces the contour of matter in movement.
Commissioned by the Groupe de recherches Musicales, de l'INA (INA.GRM).
Award Luigi Russolo 1979, Varese, Italy.
For french readers : Pacific Tubular Waves a une traduction double : les vagues tubulaires du Pacifique / Ondes pacifiques et tubulaires.
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