Le Son du Béton is the result of the collaboration between Léa Moullet (concept and violin), David Nguyen (video) and Joan Jordi Oliver (soundtrack). Inspired by the work of the visionary swiss architect Le Corbusier, this short movie explores the landscape of a fabric of concrete, its visual potential and all its sounds, from the violent loudness of the machinery to the most hidden and delicate voices of the different materials found in the space. Images of the workers, bringing their physical strength and craft into their multiple tasks and operating all kind of tools and machines, are set in contrast with scenes where the violinist explores the very same space, emptied and silenced, letting herself take inspiration out of the corners and dialoguing with the acoustic and emotional resonances of the space around her.
The documentation work for the piece consisted in the extraction of several images and sounds separately, forming a collection of visual and sound materials to be freely recombined by the artists. What is being seen and what is being heard does not correspond: the different sounds have been processed, altered to several degrees and recomposed together as a sort of collage. The addition of the violin sounds, subtly mixed together with the ones from the different tools, contribute to the creation of a completely new soundscape, very much resembling the actual sound of a fabric but carefully and artificially reimagined as a musical space. The cloud of noises become harmony, the hammers smashing the concrete synchronize into rhythmical ostinati. The percussive sounds of the machines and the rhythm of men’s daily work find a translation in the violin gestures, creating a bridge in between these apparently different worlds, and exploring the beauty of the fabric as an aesthetic space while revaluing the daily life of the workers.
Joan Jordi Oliver | Musician 