We are all lichens Concert | Premiere
2022
“We are all lichens; so we can be scraped off the rocks by the Furies, who still erupt to avenge crimes against the earth.”
—Donna Haraway
Soprano Juliet Fraser and double bassist Florentin Ginot first performed together in a large-scale work by Rebecca Saunders, in November 2019. During this first encounter they began imagining a new duo project which could move beyond the traditional format of a concert by incorporating elements of lighting, staging and electronic improvisation. This project proposes a collision between the sparse and minimal music of the Czech composer Martin Smolka and the powerful, noise-infused sound of the Polish artist Anna Zaradny, on stage beside the duo.
The hour-long show brings together these two distinct soundworlds, allowing acoustic instrumental performance and live electronic improvisation to overlap and interact. Whilst the performance is not staged, it is designed with large spaces in mind — the performers will use different ‘stations’ within the space. The sound will sometimes be localised, sometimes immersive; lighting will further enhance the journey.
Compositions
Martin Smolka is composing a 30-minute cycle for voice and double bass (possibly incorporating a sparse tape part). The cycle will allow for the interspersing of electronic interludes.
Anna Zaradny will devise and perform a total of 30 minutes of live electronics (also incorporating voice and double bass), forming a series of interludes around Smolka’s music and concluding the performance.
Production | HowNow |
Co-production | Acht Brücken - Musik für Köln (Cologne) Milano Musica (Milan) Sound Festival (Aberdeen) |
Soutien | SACEM Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation |
Concept, double bass | Florentin Ginot |
Concept, voice | Juliet Fraser |
Composition, live electronics | Anna Zaradny |
Sound direction | Martin Antiphon |
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"