Art of Metal

As a counterpoint to the exhibition devoted to metal music at the Philharmonie de Paris, the Ensemble Intercontemporain explores what metal music inspires today's composers, who don't necessarily play it but listen to it with interest and even passion. For example, young Bastien David's frenzied (and augmented) Riff clearly turns its sights on Metal, even if it's for an instrument little associated with this musical genre: the cello, accompanied on this occasion by drums. In Art of Metal III, the third part of a cycle by Yann Robin around the metal contrabass clarinet (invented and played by Alain Billard), "Metal" is both the material from which the instrument is made (and even its mouthpiece) and the source of inspiration for his saturated playing, multiplied by Ircam electronics and the instrumental ensemble. Finally, like the true death metal fan that she is, Icelandic composer and double bassist Bára Gísladóttir imagines a micro-organism of molten metal, a raw creature in constant evolution.