De La Tourette
The Convent Sainte Marie de la Tourette in Éveux (France) was designed by architects Le Corbusier and Iannis Xenakis during the fifties, and considered as one of the more important buildings of the late Modernist style. The Priory is made of rough reinforced concrete and possesses very few curved shapes that creates a very singular echo/reverb.
During the summer of 2013, Romain de Ferron (Insiden, Balladur) lived and worked there as a guide, lucky enough to play everyday on the distinctive church’s organ. He improvised during hours & days, exploring the resonance of the building and the limit of the instrument which the tuning depended on the number of notes played simultaneously.
This tape presents 4 takes in almost 70 minutes of un-edited improvisations; where you can hear visitors talking and walking between the tracks, full of drones and repeated melodic patterns, all drowned in a deep introspective echo.