La Nueva

For this piece, written especially for the Percussions de Strasbourg, I drew on my personal memories of La Nueva, an early 20th-century printing works in Andalusia, which belonged to my grandfather, whom I never knew. La Nueva reveals the richness of the printing press as a source of sound. The mechanics of printing open up a wealth of possibilities in terms of timbre and dynamics. The sheet, the ink, the different types of machine such as the lynotype, the monotype or the keyboards bring a rich play of musical textures.                 I’m also interested in the historical aspect of printing, which enabled the first globalization and profoundly transformed the society of the time.                                                            La Nueva is part of a creative cycle, completed by the installation Rivière d’encre, for machines, video and electronics premiered at La Sorbonne in November 2018.