Michael Levinas

Les Réciproques

In all his projections - sonorous or metaphorical, spatial or dramatic - the voice accompanies Michaël Lévinas, starting in his early works. Les Réciproques, reduced to its twelve mixed voices without any instruments, (1986) pursues this song of 'breathing gestures, - human or superhuman, - that Arsis and Thésis inaugurated in 1971. Alternately natural or hybridized (or 'dirtied') by pebbles, chips, bubbles or whistles, the voice in Réciproques is an echo of the horn in Appels. Besides, the sonorous spectrum (of which every detail can be heard: pitch, breathing time, colours, registers or various sound emission modes) offers regions of reciprocity, confusion and disappearance within which the voices drop their identity (the basses are often placed above the tenors and mezzos), so as better to streak the sonorous space. Harmonic progressions, a responsory style and an ardent breathing rhythm make this piece irresistibly enchanting.