Poussières Somatiques 

Music work, 2014

Durational music work for an infinite number of accordion players and a vast and reverberant indoor space  

56 minutes


Poussières Somatiques is a living installation specially composed for vast indoor spaces with a long reverberation such as an underground parking lot, a shopping mall, a cathedral or the like. The living installation is performed by a great number of accordionists who are randomly spread throughout the space. Each player generates extremely high and low, long-sustained tones. These are sometimes interrupted by rhythmic patterns, single accents or air sounds. The sound of a single accordion is no longer identifiable, but yields to an intense overall sonic world. As the sparse musical material spreads across the mass of accordions that are positioned in large distances throughout the space, the resulting sound world almost appears to be in motion. Diffuse rhythms evolve at one end of the space and continue at the other. The audience is free to walk across the piece. The written score is time-based and each player is equipped with a stopwatch in order to follow the score.

This work has been commissioned by the Accordion Suisse Association (ARMA) and was oremiered on May 24, 2014 by 57 children and amateurs at the CRSA Festival, Prilly-Lausanne, Switzerland, in an underground parking lot of a shopping mall. Florine Juvet and Jérémy Schaffner acted as musical directors for the premiere, in collaboration with Marcel Zaes.

The music score is published with AME-Lyss and is available for purchase.