Nox (Night) is a work inspired by night and the gradual vanishing of matter. The text is drawn from Ecclesiastes, retaining its Latin version as the sonorities of that language are particularly well-suited to vocal writing.
Live computer is a composing technique that offers the possibility of using a computer to capture the sound of voices in real time and transform them without any time-lapse. The electronics are used to create vast sound-universes allowing an interactive relationship between the performers and the sounds broadcast into space. Nox attempts to solicit different vocal techniques to confront the use of electronics, according to various compositional axes. A new virtuosity is enabled between the singers and computers by the recording, treatment and propagation of the live sound. The most recent transformational techniques for sounds are explored here: super-amplification, anticipated time, spectral fixation, granulation, and spectral translation. These various electroacoustic processes are organized alongside the practices of singing and composing. Nox is therefore an innovative journey of research and creation, thanks to a new form of musical virtuosity.
The four pieces that make up Nox were composed between 2003 and 2014. For the release of this recording in 2015, a “second writing” was undertaken, with new versions being revisited and completed. This is why the pieces bear the Roman numeral “II”. The four parts have been brought together on a single CD so that they may be experienced as a whole.