Dead trees give no shelter Show
2022
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water.
—T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land
"Dead trees give no shelter" is perhaps best imagined in visual terms : surface, pigments, coarseness and roughness, oxidisation and fusion.
The public comes into a disintegrating set where choreographic, musical, architectural and lighting elements combine. They are invited to observe an apparently static tableau and sense the imperceptible vibration ; to ‘Live in the ruin’ as Anna Tsing and her anthropology of damaged worlds puts it.
In this musical and choreographed production, decay appears symbolically in the form of three vertical structures, each six metres high, which evoke Palmyra or the Pompeian baths, Anselm Kiefer’s Sternenfall and the ravages of our more recent history.
Performers and musicians emerge from these structures, becoming a kind of diorama ; their bodies constrained and held back by a space whose boundaries gradually disintegrate leaving only the oxidised remains.
‘Space carries us, then space overwhelms us. Humanity exists in this period of time’ (Aurélien Bory)
I invited Helge Sten, icon of the Norwegian electro-ambient scene, and the choreographer Soa Ratsifandrihana to experience this space. The electric vibration created by the density of Sten’s music creates an almost physical experience which, combined with the tension of Ratsifandrihana’s choreography, takes the audience on a 75-minute journey through this world. The performance is suitable for a traditional forward-facing audience, or in the round with the possibility of a promenading audience. I will play the double bass alongside Sten. We create music responding to the acoustics of the space so each evening is unique.
The three dancers, with their transforming, changeable bodies, will produce scenes of pulsating, energetic and syncopated dance which will create a counterpoint to the sonic immersion of Sten’s ‘AudioVirus’ (a mixture of homemade electronics, old tape echo machines, ring modulators, filters, theremins, Buchla synthesiser and samples.) The dance will gradually intensify to an out of body state of rapture and ecstasy.
Tour
3.7.2022 | Scène Nationale d'Orléans |
3.19.2022 | Biennale GRAME - Les Subs, Lyon |
5.15.2022 | Festival Propagations, Marseille |
10.21-22.2022 | Théâtre de la Cité Internationale, Paris |
1.21.2023 | L'Arsenal, Metz |
Production | HowNow |
Co-production | Cité Musicale - l'Arsenal de Metz CCN de Caen CCN de Bourgogne Franche Comté - Viadanse GRAME GMEM La Muse en Circuit Le Lieu Unique |
Support | CMN SACEM Ministry of Foreign Affairs Norway ADAMI |
Artistic direction | Florentin Ginot |
Music composition | Helge Sten |
Choreography | Soa Ratsifandrihana |
Dramaturgy adviser | Michael Bölter |
Stage design | Olivier Defrocourt |
Light design | Marie-Hélène Pinon |
Costume designer | Claire Belloc |
Sound direction | Martin Antiphon |
Light technician | Simon Gautier |
Stage manager | Sylvaine Nicolas |
Performance | Soa Ratsifandrihana, Julie Richalet, Germain Zambi, Florentin Ginot, Helge Sten, Frédéric Stochl |
All projects
Booking : Samuel Johnstone
samuel@un-music.com
+49 151 61467379
For other enquiries, please contact Florentin directly : contact@florentinginot.com
Florentin Ginot is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of his art, not only as a remarkable soloist and a leading interpreter of contemporary music, but also in pioneering collaborations with artists across genres and disciplines.
Praised as “charismatic” (Le Figaro), a “breathtaking virtuoso” (Diapason) and “a name to remember” (Le Monde), the double bassist has established himself both as a soloist and with Ensemble Musikfabrik, of which he has been a member since 2015.
He has established a new repertoire for his instrument through close collaborations with composers such as Georges Aperghis, György Kurtág, Rebecca Saunders and Helmut Lachenmann. He has appeared as a soloist at venues including the Berlin Philharmonie, Kölner Philharmonie, Cité de la Musique in Paris and L’Auditori Barcelona as well as part of the Berliner Festspiele, Festival Présences and Manifeste Festival in Paris, Festival Musica in Strasbourg, Sacrum Profanum in Kraków, Ultima Oslo and La Biennale di Venezia.
Since 2019, Florentin Ginot has instigated a series of collaborations with artists from diverse traditions to look beyond genre boundaries and create hybrid projects between contemporary music, electronic music and world traditions including producer Helge Sten aka Deathprod, composer Stefan Prins, Palestinian songwriter Kamilya Jubran and actress Valérie Dréville.
With his first solo album, Bach - Biber, released in 2022 on NoMadMusic, Florentin Ginot brings his unique genre-busting perspective to classics of baroque repertoire, arranging solos and sonatas by Bach and Biber for double bass and synthesizer. France Musique praised the album as “absolutely stunning”, adding that “his adaptation of Bach’s chaconne for violin leaves us speechless”.
The 2023-24 season includes his solo debut at the Philharmonie de Paris, with a live presentation of his Bach - Biber project, as well as performances at Jazzdor Strasbourg and the Festival St-Denis. He will present the world premiere of a new solo piece by Clara Iannotta in Florence and Cologne, as well as appearing in duo with electric guitarist Yaron Deutsch.
Increasingly active as a multi-instrumentalist and composer, Florentin Ginot will also present his compositional debut Disturbance, combining modular analogue synthesizers with traditional instruments. The full-length work will be developed during a residency at the AIR programme in Krems, Austria and premiered in March 2024 at the Théâtre de la Cité internationale in Paris. From 2023-2025 he will be associate composer at the National Choreographic Centre of Caen.
Florentin Ginot graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, and was a Laureate of the Banque Populaire Foundation and Mécénat Musical Société Générale. In 2020 he was named "Music revelation of the year" by the Arts Journalists Syndicate. He is also the founder of HowNow, a production company developing staged presentations combining contemporary music with dance, theatre and circus.
HowNow is an artistic company, designing shows and scenic concerts, alongside dance, theater and circus. HowNow was founded by Florentin Ginot in 2017.
When posed the question: "What could a Musikfabrik be?", a clever primary school child answered: "That is where they create music that hasn’t been made yet". That basically sums up everything in a nutshell.
“ Florentin is absolutely stunning, and his adaptation of Bach's chaconne for violin leaves us speechless.
What a prodigious musician! ”
—FRANCE MUSIQUE, Corinne Schneider
“ Florentin Ginot is constantly experimenting with the renewal of his solo repertoire. Through Bach and Biber, he reinvents the Baroque classics with art and manner, taking the double bass to new heights. ”
—L’ALSACE, Disque du jour
“ Perhaps the most beautiful CD of the past year, in which Florentin Ginot's sublime double bass gives a surprising new dimension to the masterpieces of Bach and Biber. ”
“ This CD is one of those that intrigues at first, and transforms the improbable into the obvious. We thank Florentin Ginot and his two partners for this unexpected demonstration, with the soles of the wind.”
“ Florentin Ginot, charismatic ”
“ Initiated almost anonymously, his double bass solo (Ombres Portées, world premiere) imposes itself in a chalouped dimension which, from the noisy rattle to the jazzy riff, owes a lot to the impressive commitment of Florentin Ginot (23 years old, a name to remember). ”
"If it were necessary to illustrate the benefits of a close collaboration between a composer and a performer, it is Daniel D'Adamo's Ombres portées which, for this edition of Présences, would be the best example. The young bassist Florentin Ginot is not only a breathtaking virtuoso, but he also plays by heart a dozen minutes of music that he knows in every detail for having contributed to it, and in which he throws himself body and soul - so that he appears on stage in a state of absolute serenity. ”
"Impressive on an instrument whose composer emphasizes the full range of the spectrum, including the fragile and microtonal trebles, Florentin Ginot leads the process with a raging and supple gesture, especially when he tames his low string with its sensual and deep foliage. ”
"The dreamlike sensitive plucked double bass by Florentin Ginot. ”
"A breathtaking interpretation of Berio's Sequenza XIVb"
"Luciano Berio's Sequenza XIVb - which allows us to estimate the full extent of Florentin Ginot's talent"