James O'Callaghan - IMMATERIAL HOW - Proxima Centauri - HANATSUmiroir - Ensemble Paramirabo

IMMATERIAL HOW (2021)
composed by James O'Callaghan
performed by
Proxima Centauri
Marie-Bernadette Charrier - Saxophones
Sylvain Millepied - Flutes
Benoit Poly - Percussion
Hilomi Sakaguchi - Piano
Christophe Havel -Electronics

HANATSUmiroir
Ayako Okubo - Flute
Olivier Maurel - Percussion
Camille Havel - Viola
Raphaël Siefert - Lighting

Ensemble Paramirabo
Jeffrey Stonehouse - Flutes
Victor Alibert - Clarinets
David Therrien-Brongo - Percussion
Daniel Áñez - Piano
Hubert Brizard - Violin
Viviana Gosselin - Cello

Geneviève Liboiron - Voiceover narration

Recorded 5 November 2021, Salle de concert,
Conservatoire de musique de Montréal:
Le Conserve Média - Recording
Frédéric LeBel - Audio Technician
Jean-François Blouin - Hall Technician
James O'Callaghan - Mixing

Concert and recording co-produced by Groupe Le Vivier.

Programme note:

IMMATERIAL HOW is about idealism. A multimedia work in three movements, the piece is scored for 13 instruments, electronics, and video.

Part 1, an audioguide for heterotrophs, frames the biological condition of requiring nutrition from external sources as the subject of an imaginary retrofuturistic outdoor museum (filmed primarily in Montréal’s Parc Frédéric-Back, a former landfill now used to extract biogas). Heterotrophy is a conceptual seed for the piece that is used as a metaphor to examine the tension between individual and collective needs, and the desire for an idealized balance between them. IMMATERIAL HOW responds to the cultural-philosophical frame of German Idealism, and the way it deeply interweaves with the history of Classical Music. The movement’s closing material references Ludwig van Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, whose setting of Friedrich Schiller’s poem Ode to Joy is often associated with global human unity (not least in its adoption as the official anthem of the European Union).

Part 2, Ein Hungerkünstler (a hunger artist) is named both after Franz Kafka’s short story of the same name and Lee Bul’s sculpture in homage to the former work. This movement examines the relationship between the cultural valorization of suffering and human ideation. It charts a path through Christian and Classical Greek imagery, radical 60s-70s performance artworks including Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece, Chris Burden’s Shoot, Carolee Schneemann’s Meat Joy, Marina Abramović’s Rhythm 0, and the toxic dehumanization of Idols in celebrity culture, with reference to the FreeBritney movement surrounding the highly publicized life of Britney Spears. Ein Hungerkünstler also responds to the idea of Dualism, or the ‘mind/body’ split — and the relationship between this idea and body dysmorphia, self-destruction, and the creation of idealized virtual selves.The work draws inspiration from and makes reference to a vast collection of artworks, including Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s The Fall of the Rebel Angels, Britney Spears’ Toxic, Andy Warhol’s Eating a Hamburger, John Waters’ Female Trouble, SOPHIE’s Immaterial, and Sunloverz’ Shine On (Heiko and Maiko’s Gute Laune remix), Geinoh Yamashirogumi’s score to AKIRA, Michaelangelo’s David, and the Venus de Milo. Many of the images in the work are processed with Google’s Deep Dream tool.

Part 3, the germ of compassion is the heart of benevolence, is titled after a quote from the philosopher Mencius. The quote continues: “the heart of shame, of dutifulness; the heart of courtesy and modesty, of observance of the rites; the heart of right and wrong, of wisdom. One has these four germs just as they have four limbs. For one possessing these four germs to deny their own potentialities is for them to cripple themselves.” This movement, featuring footage of plant-care (performed by Gabriella Garcia) attempts to recenter after the widening of tensions in second movement. A return to the real from the ideal, the piece attempts to find calm and balance in flow and care, in accepting the material now.

IMMATERIAL HOW was commissioned by Proxima Centauri, Hanatsu Miroir, and Ensemble Paramirabo, with assistance from the Artistic Office of the New Aquitaine Region (OARA) and the Society of Authors, Composers, and Publishers of Music (SACEM).