“Presque Rien No. 4, ‘La remontée du village’” (”Almost Nothing No. 4, ‘The Ascent to the Village’") was completed in 1998 and here receives its American premiere. It is a tape work with a ground bass ambient style. Throughout the length of the piece one hears a recording of Ferrari and his longtime collaborator and wife, Brunhild Meyer-Ferrari, walking in the Italian town of Ventemillia, just across the French border near Monte Carlo. They slowly ascend a steep hill into the town, recording all the way whatever they encounter. Overlaid on this pedestrian activity is a panoply of digital signal processing of individual moments and overlays of other unrelated sounds which form the musical construct of the piece. |
