Entry 2: Jean-Claude Rizet – Sud (A)

Wow, this piece is like an auditory safari of a remote tropical rainforest island complete with glass caverns, cyborg insects, radioactive frogs and birds from the fourth dimension. Seriously though, this piece is very atmospheric and does seem to create its own environment. The first leg of the piece sets the stage quite well with predominantly familiar sounds that are mostly pure and untampered with. Then as we adventure further inland so to speak, the sounds begin to evolve into more distorted robotic sounds that are less recognizable. With the exception of the section starting at minute three, all of the sounds seem to be dirived from field recordings of sounds in natural environments, which brings a distinct character to the piece and creates a continuity within it as well. The subtlety with which Rizet alters some of these sounds (mainly the animal calls) is quite thought provoking at times as I found myself admiring the natural shape of sounds while knowing that aspects of their timbre were not natural at all. Upon my first listening I thought this piece was rather flat and static, but with subsequent listenings I came to recognize more of a direction and progression of the sounds and began to appreciate the contrast of the section at minute three. I was also occupied with the lack low range sound during my initial listening, but I realize this is more of an observation than a criticism as Rizet was creating an atmospheric texture which intetionally has very little bass in order to contruct a seemingly natural sound world. The section starting at minute three is in contrast to the natural sound world of the sections surrounding it with its dense textures and glassy swelling sounds. The transitions into and out of this section really caught my attention as the section begins somewhat abruptly as to highlight the constrast, but the transition out is very smooth and gradual as it flows right into the world of “outside” sounds. I say outside sounds because this middle section seems to occur in a closed space, or at least in relation to the other sections, which adds to the contrast and formal balance of this section. The safari continues and brings us back into the jungle, which is to say this work is in a kind of ABA form. I find it very interesting that a work of such modern approach and content is in contained within such a classical form, but I don’t find it strange or uncommon, and I think it functions very well as it is one of my favorite elements of the piece. The direction, form and balance of this work are very impressive along with the sound ideas themselfs. It may have taken me a listen to warm up to it, but I enjoyed the safari nonetheless.