‘Fixin’ – Sylvain Darrifourcq

‘FIXIN’ is a performance  / installation with a musician’s body augmented by multiple digitally controlled engines. It questions the relation of the body to automation and the repetition of movement through a minimalist and immersive universe of sound.

Following on from the research with MILESDAVISQUINTET!, Sylvain Darrifourcq built a sort of “meta-drum” with parts (tom-toms, snare drums, cymbals…) prepared and animated by engines scattered around the space (solenoid percussive tools, vibrators and rotary engines).

The challenge is to make the engines communicate with the movement of the musician, continuously going back and forth from the machine to the body; expressing the double paradox of the automation of the human movement and the humanization of the machine (computer assisted programming) while posing the question: “who influences who?”. The sound creation is similar to industrial music: metallic tones, repetitive mechanical actions and rhythmic layering.

In total darkness, the installation slowly reveals itself through a minimalist and epileptic lighting setup, only rarely showing the whole set.

‘FIXIN EXTENDED’, as an extension of ‘FIXIN’, features 3 instrumentalists imitating machine-like and repetitive forms of playing in an ambiguous process of imitation/complementarity with a set of motors controlled in real time. The challenge is to question this interstice between the man as machine and the machine controlled by the man. Who controls whom? To what point can we transform the body into an automaton? Where is the fallibility of the human body? Can an algorithm created by man be infallible?

Percussionist, improviser and composer, Sylvain Darrifourcq (born in 1979) studied classical percussion. He chose the drums late in his career and discovered rock, jazz and improvised music. A well-known figure from a generation of improvisers intrigued by boundaries, he is a musician in high demand. He has collaborated with several French, European and American personalities such as: Joëlle Léandre, Tony Malaby, Michel Portal, Louis Sclavis, Marc Ducret, Andrea Parkins, Aksoh S, Kit Downes, etc. In 2009, he won a “Victoire du Jazz” with the Emile Parisien Quartet. He was the quartet’s drummer for more than 10 years.

His human and musical encounters developed his taste for contemporary forms of creation and led him to create his own festival with the singer and bass player Elise Dabrowski: the DA festival. Fascinated by temporality, space and breaking points in music, he has been creating a very personal language built around the concepts of “multi-speed” and “physiquality”. His research has brought him to collaborate with choreographers, dancers, video-makers and scenographers. In addition to his personal projects, MILESDAVISQUINTET!, IN LOVE WITH and TENDIMITE, he works closely with the composer Guillaume Hermen (LE PANTIN, DANS L’ENTRE with the philharmonic orchestra of Radio France conducted by Pierre André Valade).

→ Read intw in the Zéro-Deux review

Duration : 30-35 minutes

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Sylvain Darrifourcq : percussions, composition, conception
Nicolas Canot : digital conception
Max Lance : object design
Liz Santoro : choreographic advice

Co-production : Hector / Full Rhizome, Nemo / Arcadi / le 104, Théâtre de Vanves, Le Cube, La Muse en Circuit, le Lieu Multiple
Avec le soutien du : Dicream, Adami, Spedidam