PIERRE BASTIEN
MECANOLOGY
Still composing with a screw driver, Pierre Bastien has developed a new orchestra made of his last sound installations: the paper drum, the paper organ and the paper snakes combine their sounds with the melodies of the turning flutes and the rotary organ. The percussion set is now paired with a mechanical harmonium player through two big teeth wheels from the Meccano box n°10. The audio visual composition opens with a close-up on the automatic record player, which samples an old seven-inch record for a dialogue with Pierre’s trumpet. The video camera will
follow a dozen further mechanical activities for the audience to enjoy every detail of the sonic adventure through the screening in a big scale of the little prototypes. All along the performance Pierre will be, in turn or at the same time, the musician who plays along with the robots, a mechanic who changes parts and gears and speeds, a sound engineer who mixes and adjusts volume levels, and a film maker in charge of a musical cinéma-vérité.