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Alessandro Bosetti, Milan-born, Marseille-based sound artist and composer, paints a series of portraits from a collection of conversations recorded in Italy over the course of a Summer. Bosetti chose and collected four voices articulated over three generations, two female and two male. He then disassembled them and put them together in a palimpsest that integrates three elements: a polyphonic writing – collage of thousands of fragments and vocal writing for a portraitist – an electroacoustic writing and an immersive scenic writing. Such palimpsest translated both into a music theatre and hörspiel portraying a family of incorporeal voices, performed by Alessandro Bosetti along with Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, and featuring the costume design by Canedicoda.
The Portraits de voix take now the shape of a physical release, wisely mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi, featuring once again the artwork and design by Canedicoda.
Johanna Vargas – soprano
Truike van der Poel – mezzo soprano
Martin Nagy – tenor
Guillermo Anzorena – baritone
Andreas Fischer – bass
Alessandro Bosetti – portraitist
Recorded in Stuttgart, SWR Studio, October 2021 by Fabian Vossler German portraitist voice recorded in Stuttgart, SWR Studio, October 2021
English and French portraitist voice recorded in Berlin, Deutschlandfunk Kultur Studio, June 2022
Four anonymous voices, recorded in various locations 2019
Mixed by Alessandro Bosetti
Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi
Artwork by Canedicoda
Printed by Legno
Edition of 200 copies
A family of voices lives its sonic life. A tangle of sounds and affections suspended between Renaissance polyphony and family din. Voices have no body, at least here. Each one is mother, father, daughter and sister of one or the other.
The family is in turn dismantled and reunited. Real dramas are unleashed between the voices: bonds, separations, friendships and love…
A cloud of voices, charged like a storm, brings to life all the immersive emotions of an imaginary and magical community.
The portraitist shares this choral narrative with the listener, who finds themself immersed in a very tight crowd, both claustrophobic and nourishing, just like every family.
The family of voices is torn between a rigid division of roles and its proliferating abstract and fragmented phonetic ration.
Here, bodily, physical and political identities count for little: only the voices count, which, as markers of absolute generality, resemble souls to whom an identity has not yet been attributed.
Radio version produced by Deutschlandfunk Kultur
A co-production of GMEM — Centre national de création musicale, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Neue Vocalsolisten, Musik Der Jahrhunderte, Nouveau Théâtre de Montreuil – centre dramatique national, La Soufflerie
Avec l’aide à l’écriture d’une œuvre musicale originale du Ministère de la Culture
Supported by Impuls neue Musik
Lauréat 2020 du Fonds franco-germano-suisse pour la musique contemporaine, partenaire du Goethe-Institut et de l’Institut français
Premiere : Festival Propagations, Marseille. May 15th, 2021
Technical Sponsor: Fondazione Bonotto
Spatialization and programming: Pierre Fleurence
Costume design: Canedicoda
Light-design: Lucie Delorme
Stage manager: Philippe Boinon
All music Alessandro Bosetti © 2020