Yann Robin

Triades

Triades is a work in concertante form for solo double bass, an ensemble of twenty-one musicians and live electronics. This piece belongs to a larger cycle for double bass begun in 2013 with Nicolas Crosse, double bassist and soloist with the Ensemble Intercontemporain.

The poetic universe of this project was taken directly from Solaris, Stanislas Lem's science fiction novel written in 1961. Solaris is a planet, that orbits around two suns, with a surface entirely covered by an ocean of protoplasmic matter, presenting an absolute enigma for the scientists who have been studying it for almost a century. The ocean creates gigantic formations on its surface that scholars have given names based on their shapes and distinctive features: Longus, Mimoids, Agilus, Vertebrides, Symetriades, Asymetriades... Triades follows in the continuity of these monstrous creatures endowed with phenomenal activity and prodigious dynamics surpassing anything imaginable by the human spirit.

Every gesture made by the soloist, every timbre resulting from the heightened energy coming from the double bass, is related to a characteristic type of transformation. Digital software reacts to the soloist's physical actions on the instrument in real time. After electronic transformation, the sound is amplified through a large network of loudspeakers and subwoofers positioned in dome-form to surround the audience. This setting literally plunges the audience into a realistic experience of submersion.

Triades is dedicated to both Nicolas Crosse and Robin Meier, without whom this sonic universe would never have been so amply developed.