NIGHTSONGS
For over a 100 years, the steel industry has been part of the visual and auditory scenery of the town of Esch-sur-Alzette and of the Luxembourg and Lorraine mining basin in general. Noise and nuisance for some, soundtrack of a part of life and childhood for others, the chant of machines, the whistles and lamentations of cranes and the roars of other metallic equipment in use, fills the space with its sound presence : at times melancholic, at times threatening, yet always subtle. The Nightsongs project takes this contemporary nocturnal soundscape as the starting point and raw material for a series of electronic compositions dedicated to the subject of night and the region's steel history. By using field-recording and electronic production techniques, the recorded sounds of the steel industry become the constituent parts of musical and sound works inviting the listener to a temporal journey that explores the different facets and activities of the night and their link to the territory of Esch. The different compositions will be released in the form of a nocturnal mixtape geo-localized by mobile application in Belval, an immersive sound installation at the Bridderhaus (Esch/Alzette) and a live concert at the Kulturfabrik (Esch/Alzette).
Conceived in relation to various themes such as night work, sleep, night as a space of freedom and using the sound banks containing some 200 recordings of ambiences, samples and sound sources coming from industrial sites in operation (ArcelorMittal Belval) and at rest (FerroForum in Esch/Schifflange), the tracks are the result of solo compositions by Ryvage, collaborations (Ryvage with artists like Them Lights, Pol Belardi and Pascal Schumacher) and musical commissions (Aufgang, Jerome Klein & Claire Parsons, Sun Glitters, Hinako Omori, Toh Imago...).
The three parts of the project
1. The geo-localized nocturnal mixtape launched in April 9, 2022
The first part of Nightsongs will take the form of a geo-localized mixtape that can be experienced by the listener wandering around the Belval site during the night since April 2022. Through the free GOH app (Les Ensembles 2.2), musical compositions and texts from the project are released according to the listener's location. The result is a changing sound creation allowing for an individualized sound experience depending on the chosen itinerary.
2. The concert on September 24, 2022
A musical performance is planned on September 24, 2022 at the Kulturfabrik in Esch-sur-Alzette. This will be the occasion to gather some of the composers and electronic producers involved in the composition process to allow the public to relive the musical compositions in a "live" context.
3. The sound installation from October 1, 2022
An immersive sound installation using the technology of spatialized audio broadcasting (technical setup by Mad Trix), will be presented at the Bridderhaus in Esch-sur-Alzette from October 1, 2022.
The Nightsongs Project Team
- Concept and texts: Samuel Reinard
- Composers and electronic producers: Samuel Reinard (Ryvage), Aymeric Westrich (Aufgang), Pol Belardi, Eric Bintz (Cehashi), Victor Ferreira (Sun Glitters), Jerome Klein & Claire Parsons, Mudaze, Hinako Omori, Pascal Schumacher, Twin XXA, Them Lights (Sacha Hanlet), Toh Imago
- Production managers: Jill Christophe, Claire Wagener
- Production and communication assistant: Sara Goerres
- Development consulting: Victor Conradsson
A production of Independent Little Lies - ILL in collaboration with Kulturfabrik Esch-sur-Alzette, Konschthal/Bridderhaus, Les Ensembles 2.2, Madtrix, NAC, FerroForum and Portable Peninsula asbl. In the framework of the European Capital of Culture Esch2022, with the support of the Ministry of Culture, the Fondation Indépendance, the SACEM, the City of Esch-sur-Alzette and frEsch asbl.
