Georges Aperghis: Opal Wood

This is a joint work on a proposal by Uli Fussenegger, developed from sounds he managed to obtain by playing only with the wood of the bow of his double bass. He invited me to listen to these superb, amplified sounds, I found them very surprising, it seemed to me to find there something archaic. As a result, we agreed on the project to create a piece for live double bass and tape made with this pre-recorded material, without any electronic processing.

As time went by, the project constantly continued to grow secretly between the two of us. Then one day Uli started sending me recordings–which later became a habit–a tape that appeared to me as some kind of organic flow. I listened to it several times and I started writing the double bass part. I regularly sent page by page to Uli to try to see how the materials responded. From a distance, one by one, we modified recordings and scores to arrive, step by step, at this concert version.

I have the feeling that I wrote something like a graffiti on the sounds Uli created, a kind of wall that makes me think a lot about prehistory, an ancient fresco.

I also have the feeling that we wrote this piece together and from a distance, as we did a long time ago in the correspondence of the 18th century.
Georges Aperghis