Programme note

Shel(l)ter is a series of four pieces which refers to a very specific space, one of the atomic shelters in Berlin.
The reduplication of the letter "l" condenses in the title the words "shell" and "shelter", which both evoke the attempt to protect the body against any aggression. But "shell" also means a weapon. So the double polarization of this word underlines the absurdity, constant in Humankind, which consists in constructing at the same time objects of destruction and objects that would protect against this destruction.
Placed in brackets, this reduplication of the "l" indicates both a stop and a junction or the transformation of a repeated element, a rupture, a mutation of the structure of a given material or situation, as well as a separation or imprisonment, the self-destructive perverse effect which all protection is also likely to induce when it leads to isolation.

In Shel(lter, we can talk of "nanomusic" (in reference to nanosciences which observe and manipulate objects on the atomic scale), since this mobility and this transformation of the properties of the musical fabric result from microprocesses that act on the sound particles, generate variations of masses, forms and paths, but also resistances and persistences. The atomic thus reminds us that everything is particle, everything is atom, the sound field being considered only as one of the possibilities of the infinite field of matter.

This second piece of the series refers more directly to this strange place that an atomic shelter is.

The sub-title unter... ( ) ...Gitter - which means in German "underneath... ( ) ...metal grate" - evokes, on the one hand, the subterranean aspect of the place which can be related to a cellar or even to a vault, for this descent down the town can give one  the impression to be buried.
On the other hand, the word "Gitter" accounts for the oppressive sensation that a closed space can induce. The opacity of walls, the cut with the outside and the silence would thus give rise to a discomfort or an anguish all the more acute as the duration of the stay would be unknown in the case of an atomic catastrophe.
The protective function would then be of secondary importance and the impossibility to leave the shelter would be experienced as an imprisonment.

In this piece, the harmonic structure relies on four aggregates, four bounds which limit space. Four series of rhythmical processes played by the wood percussions build some kinds of blocks located between at different times of the piece. The musical sequences are hatched. Each time a development of the material is attempted, it is interrupted as if an obstacle were unsurmountable. Short sound situations are alternately stated, but without being able to carry on their trajectory. They return, but their briefness persists because of the powerlessness to clear the way for an opening.

The musical speech is confronted with this inexorable dimension of confinement which generates a long moan. A kind of panic-stricken monologue expresses ever more the difficulty of existing in such an environment, the feeling of absurdity and the proximity of madness which would be the only possible bursting outside the framework.

The electronic sequences punctuate the piece with moments in which the distorted memory of a lost world seems fleetingly to emerge. But the absence of perspective revives in the conclusion the invasive presence of a sound force, static and pulsating, close to these automatic and stiff gestures done by an individual when he has given up all hope.

Clara Maïda, November 2010