The Drift BetweenAlexandre Babel (CH)

piece for drums and multichannel pre-recorded drums, 2023

Walking through the streets of Berlin one morning, I noticed a bright red light in the distance. After a closer look, I realized that I knew very little about long-distance perspective in this city. So, I became interested in training the eye to look for objects in the distance. By doing so, it occurred to me that when the eye observes distant objects and becomes aware of a wide environment, the perception of closer objects begins to change. I kept doing it and started moving the eye from one object to another, exploring the depths. The relationships between the multitude of objects observed became dynamic, creating their own temporality and undergoing transformations. One evening, this little game of perception took place in a rather dark neighborhood, where distant lights stood out against nearby elements. The links between the different points became fluid and rhythmic. (Alexandre Babel)

The Drift Between is a work for drums and pre-recorded drum sounds, exclusively musical, with no visual elements. But it is nourished by this experience of observation. What happens to a sound between its initial state and its movement from one plane to another? Does our perception allow us to isolate an object from its context, or to become aware of the overall landscape?

In this work, Alexandre Babel draws on a visual experience in the urban environment of Berlin to extract a teeming universe in which the pointillism of sound actions forms a complex yet fluid landscape. It's a work that has multiple points of focus and catches the listener on multiple levels. Yet there is never anything clinical about this piece; on the contrary, great poetry and sensitivity flow from this sonic tableau that unfolds in an inspired way over time. (François J. Bonnet)

Commissioned by INA GRM as part of New Perspectives for Action, a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the European Union.

Alexandre Babel (CH)

Alexandre Babel (CH) is a Swiss composer, percussionist and curator based in Berlin. He is involved in various contemporary contexts encompassing modern classical music, performance art and interdisciplinary works. He was the artistic director of the contemporary percussion ensemble Eklekto from 2013 to 2022, and the principal percussionist of the Ensemble KNM Berlin from 2009 to 2019. Babel is also a co-founder of the performance collective Radial. He has worked with artists such as Ensemble Musikfabrik, Sudden Infant, Anthony Pateras, Caspar Brötzmann, Carol Robinson, Felicia Atkinson, Steven O’Malley, Kali Malone, Tristan Perich, Ryoji Ikeda. In 2020 the monographic Festival Les Amplitudes in La Chaux-de-Fonds focused on Babel’s compositions and curatorial work. He worked as a curator for Latifa Echakhch’s exhibition The Concert at the Swiss Pavilion of the Venice Art Biennale in 2022. Babel is a laureate of the Swiss Music Prize 2021.

alexandrebabel.com