Et tournment les sons dans la garrigue

Luc Ferrari (1929-2005) was a French composer, particularly noted for his electronic music. Ferrari was born in Paris and studied the piano under Alfred Cortot, musical analysis under Olivier Messiaen and composition under Arthur Honegger. His first works were freely atonal. In 1958 he co-founded the Groupe de Recherches Musicales with Pierre Schaeffer and François-Bernard Mâche. He taught in institutions around the world, and worked for film, theatre and radio. By the early 1960, Ferrari had begun work on his 'Hétérozygote,' a piece for magnetic tape which uses ambient environmental sounds to suggest a dramatic narrative. The use of ambient recordings was to become a distinctive part of Ferrari's musical language.

Ferrari's "Presque rien No. 1 (Le Lever du jour au bord de la mer)" (1970) is regarded as a classic of its kind. In it, Ferrari takes a day-long recording of environmental sounds at a Yugoslavian beach and, through editing, makes a piece that lasts just twenty-one minutes. It has been seen as an affirmation of John Cage's idea that music is always going on all around us, and if only we were to stop to listen to it, we would realise this. Ferrari continued to write purely instrumental music as well as his electronic pieces. He also made a number of documentary films on contemporary musicians in rehearsal, including Olivier Messiaen and Cecil Taylor.

Violist and composer Vincent Royer was born in Strasbourg, France. He studied music in Strasbourg and then in Germany with Ulrich Koch and Rainer Moog. He has received wide recognition for his work as a performer of new music, improvised music and classical music. He is a violist in the Guerzenichchorchester in Cologne and has performed with many top ensembles for new music in Germany, France and Belgium. Currently he is a violist with Musique Nouvel in Belgium. He has worked with many important composers, including Gerard Grisey, Pascal Dusapin, Luc Ferrari, Mauricio Kagel, Denys Bouliane, Robert HP Platz, Earle Brown, Andrew Toovey and Horatiu Radelescu. He has performed in numerous festivals of new music, including Darmstadt, Ars Musica in Brussels, Lucero de Paris, Musicia festival in Strasbourg, Witten days for new music, Calgari Festival, Sound Field in Chicago and the Salzburg Festival, among others.

Royer, is among a handful of composers who have mastered the works of the so-called "Spectral composers" such as Gerard Grisey. In his hands, these challenging and complex works give way to new forms of musical expression that are mysterious, powerful and filled with beautiful colors. Key to his understanding of new music is his close work with living composers.