Radiolarians - Michael Pisaro-Liu [Création 2021]

The work Radiolarians is a command of the Grand Orchestre de Muzzix - a
large ensemble of around 30 musicians - to the american composer Michael Pisaro-Liu. The premiere happened in December 2021.

An uncommon writting process

Radiolarians consists of transcriptions of some of the creatures drawn in Ernst Haeckel’s book, Die Radiolarien from 1862. Fascinated by their forms and mineral skeletons, Michael Pisaro has created scores from 14 of Haeckel’s representations. Each one becomes an independent musical entity made up of various rhythmic and melodic patterns. The choice of pitches, harmonies, melodic patterns and noise elements are determined by the skeleton forms of these 14 organisms.

Michael Pisaro-Liu has imagined these radiolarians as living beings floating in the primordial sea, which is conceived as a key component of the piece. Noise elements symbolize the water throughout the entire work, while the radiolarians appear and disappear, sometimes moving alone, sometimes simultaneously.

In 2021 : an immersive experience with a participative orchestra

Radiolarians was created in December 2021 at Le Vivat, scène conventionnée d’intérêt national pour l’art et la création d’Armentières, as an immersive concert for the audience. People were invited to move between the sections of the orchestra that was split into the space, in a star-shaped layout with seven tentacles. This gave the piece its full meaning and enabled an active listening of the audience, bathed into this aquatic sound environment.
About 20 amateurs musicians of the territory participated before the concert to rehearsals in order to join the orchestra for this premiere.

Michael Pisaro-Liu

Michael Pisaro-Liu is an american composer and guitarist, member of the Wandelweiser Composers Ensemble and founder and director of the experimental Music Workshop at the California Institute of the Arts near Los Angeles. As a famous composer, his work is frequently performed in the U.S. and in Europe, in music festivals and in many smaller venues. He has performed many of his own works and those of close associates: Antoine Beuger, Kunsu Shim, Jürg Frey and Manfred Werder, and works from the experimental tradition, especially John Cage, Christian Wolff, James Tenney and George Brecht.

Around the project

Michael Pisaro-Liu’s album Radiolarians by Le Grand Orchestre de Muzzix was released in 2022 on New World Records, following a recording in July 2019 at La rose des vents in the presence of the composer.
Listen to Michael Pisaro-Liu’s Radiolarians album on Bandcamp.