MAD MAX / KATANA OF CHOICE

Aleksander Wnuk – SOLO RECITAL

Audio-visual percussion show based on multiple virtual-film characters, connecting corporal aspects of post-instrumental stage performance, film, para-theater, light and smoke engineering with drumming and modern percussive acting.

Aleksander Wnuk, percussion / performance
Pierre Jodlowski, multimedia / scenography / light and smoke design

Nicole Lizée Katana of Choice

for extended drum-kit, electronics and video (2014/16) [19′]

Katana of Choice is a visual novella based on a simulated duel; its soundtrack, a part of which is a recording of a percussion ensemble, and narrative are supplied electronically. The inspiration for Nicole Lizée’s composition comes from martial arts, wuxia movies, and film noir. Analogue synthesizers, a handgun, a particularly tuned acoustic guitar, tapping of feet, clapping of hands, the sound of writing and call-and-response vocalizations become percussion instruments that spur on associations and augment the piece’s visuality, much like Ennio Morricone’s music. Spatialization and stereophonics draw one into the world of this composition and contribute to the intermedial experience. The pace is breakneck, the action moves from scene to scene with unexpected turns of rhythm and character. These extreme dynamics are juxtaposed with suspense. Katana of Choice places the listener in the discomfort zone. The technical discipline it imposes is oppressive to the performer. (AW)

Pierre Jodlowski Mad Max

for 1 percussionist, electronics and scenography (2017) [24′]

MAD MAX. The show is based upon the famous character, crazy and completely out of control biker straight out of the Hollywood Studios. In the first part, he is staged on his all-powerful bike (which is here virtual, by recourse of sensors) and plunges the audience in his megalomania. The second part reveals a seducing Mad Max (trying his luck with a bass drum…). Finally, last part is characterized by an unlikely dialogue between a virtuoso musician and an other legend of the cinema : Darth Vader. The uninterrupted breathing of this character creates a background for an ultra-quick vibraphone solo, final race of this musical fable. (PJ)