LISTEN VIDEO INSTALLATION
2022
LISTEN is a video project that put the focus on the listening experience in four abandoned and lost locations, in the historical industry area of Cologne. Four episodes are presented, with works commissioned to Stefan Prins, Martin Smolka, Anna Zaradny, Francisco Alvarado as well as a previous work by Rebecca Saunders. The eye of the camera follows the path of an unique listener through the sound space: her or his movements, his or her relationship with the musicians : so many-sided elements that come to guide the listening of the music. As hybrid object, the audiovisual works will be presented through an installation at the Zentralbibliothek during the festival Acht Brücken in Cologne.
Production | HowNow |
Support | Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung French Ministry for Culture DRAC-IDF SACEM. |
Film direction | Janet Sinica |
Sound recording & mastering | Julius Gass |
Stage manager | Martin Schmitz |
All projects
Booking France : Cleo Michiels
cleo@lequipage-prod.com
+33 6 35 48 43 25
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"