in concert
a project by Alösha Zelensky and Bastien Pouillès
The cathedral of sound inside a train car.
RER B is a concert project that delves into the soundscape and narratives of the eponymous train line, which traverses Paris, transporting a million travellers and their stories daily from north to south and back.
The machinery is a strange thing. For more than a hundred years now it has been both considered as a tool of dehumanisation and human salvation, of suffering and relief. But it has always been a source of fascination for artists in general and musicians, because of the relentless rhythms it introduced into our lives. And unusual sounds that it produces. For instance, if you listen closely to a train running along RER B line, you will find that it has a low organ-like sound. The train breathes in major and in minor, silents down and goes into a crescendo. While the commuters caught deep in their thoughts rock gently from side to side. It's a cathedral on the move.
The machinery is a strange thing. For more than a hundred years now it has been both considered as a tool of dehumanisation and human salvation, of suffering and relief. But it has always been a source of fascination for artists in general and musicians, because of the relentless rhythms it introduced into our lives. And unusual sounds that it produces. For instance, if you listen closely to a train running along RER B line, you will find that it has a low organ-like sound. The train breathes in major and in minor, silents down and goes into a crescendo. While the commuters caught deep in their thoughts rock gently from side to side. It's a cathedral on the move.
The project consists of live music, visual art and dance. It takes the world of sound and multitude of lives that pass through the train cars of RER B each minute to recreate it in a spiritual live performance.
The 'breathing' instruments – accordion, woodwinds, brass, organ (real or electronic) – and an electric guitar are the heart of the project's soundscape. The score will be designed in a way so that a wide range of instruments could be included. This means that from concert to concert the sound can slightly change. Be alive, be unexpected.
