VUZA CANONS — SCORES FOR LIGHT AND PERCUSSION

SÉBASTIEN ROUX & CATARINA MIRANDA // FEAT. ENSEMBLE 0 & DRUMMING GP 

The light and rhythm staging of Vuza's rhythmic canons is at the heart of a fascinating piece for percussion, performed by the musicians of the French Ensemble 0 and the Porto based Drumming - Grupo de Percussão.

Serralves Foundation joins forces with La Soufflerie (Rezé, France) for the creation of a piece co-signed by French composer Sébastien Roux and the Portuguese artist Catarina Miranda. Vuza Canons owes its name to a rhythmic canon system studied by the Romanian mathematician Dan Tudor Vuza. These canons consist in rare and incredibly complex forms, said to be ‘perfect’ in the way they can generate the absence of empty spaces and superimposition. Besides being virtually impossible to recreate with analogue means, they engender paradoxical perceptual experiences namely within the relations between polyphony and monody.  The piece follows on Sébastien Roux previous works with these mathematical structures, sitting within his broader studies of the perception of forms through works at the frontiers of music and sound art. He ventures on approaching such abstract structures gathering a group of virtuoso percussionists, playing stone and metal instruments built for this purpose. From the onset, the piece was conceived as a synesthetic and scenic experience, resorting, namely, to the use of light and color. Catarina Miranda, whose dance and scenography research has focused on relations between hypnagogic states and fiction, is the artist invited to create the visual dimension of Vuza Canons.      

SHOWS
9th October 2022 — Serralves Museum Porto Pt
11th October 2022 — La Soufflerie, Rezè Fr

TEAM
Artistic Direction: Sebastien Roux, Catarina Miranda
Music Composition: Sebastien Roux
Performers / Ensemble 0: Stéphane Garin, Jeanne Larrouturou / Drumming GP: Miquel Bernat, Rui Rodrigues
Instruments Construction: Alexandre Mallet, Stéphane Garin, Sébastien Roux
Sound and Music Assistant: Jérôme Tuncer
Light Design/ Scenography/ Costumes: Catarina Miranda
Light technical assistance: Renato Marinho / Francisco Campos
Light Reggie: Francisco Campos
Production: Ensemble 0
Co-production: La Soufflerie, Serralves Museum, The Windmill, Set 0, DRAC New Aquitaine
Support: New Aquitaine National Stage
Photos: Alexandre Mallet