Thierry Zaboitzeff

Thierry Zaboitzeff - Interview

Why a Mass?
For the last several years, my work on the voice, song and their diverse possibilities (acoustic, amplified, sampled, electronically modified, theatricalised) has inevitably led me to envisage a musical project on a grand scale, allying the techniques cited above. As a composer, i have become progressively interested in what others have achieved in the past. From a purely personal point of view, i have found the classic contemporary approaches totally tedious, too conceptual, too formal, and i quickly lost interest in this modernity. I believe that my secret goal has been to write music - orchestral, vocal, theatrical - which is also devoid of intrigue and drama. Instead, placing on stage opera singers surfing on techno samples and therein mixing the most extroverted forms of my last three years work. I will research the moments of high pomp, the solemn, the ceremonious and the majestic, but in the form of gameplay. A little like laughing at myself.

I BECAME, DESPITE MYSELF, A FAN OF THE RELIGIOUS MUSICAL AND ICONOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATION...

I became, despite myself, a fan of the religious musical and iconographic representation

When i was a child my maternal grandfather, who was a musician, tailor and church organist, took me by the hand to catholic services of all kinds (high mass, marriages, funerals, vespers, etc.). I was surely, at this age, impressed by the ritual, the splendour and the trance of these ceremonies which i did not even comprehend. The religious and ornamental images of the church reinforced this uncontrolled attraction. I became, despite myself, a fan of the religious musical and iconographic representation, without necessarily adhering to the religious precepts. I can affirm that my desire to write, for the stage, a techno-pop mass is a game, a musical bet, and a powerful desire, and under no circumstances shall i be blasphemous or pro-catholic.

I want, perhaps, with this project, to search within the depths of myself and find the origins of my attraction to the ceremonial and the icon.

Thierry Zaboitzeff, composer co-founder of the group art zoyd

This Missa Furiosa will be sung in latin. The singers will be, at the same time, chorus and soloist, in the same way as the instrumentalists and electronic manipulators. I would like to permit myself the possibility of modifying the structure of the mass if the musical and scenic dramaturgy so demands.
This does not represent for me a staged concert but a truly grand spectacle, where the musical partition, the musicians, the singers, the electronic images, should find their interactivity.
The further i advance with the composition of this new opus, the further i distance myself from the catholic mass in strict terms, because already several songs/chants of islamic and buddhist colour easily take their place within this project. In fact the ritual, the multitude, and the representation often imposing, of the great religious movements fascinate me. It appears equally interesting to underline that the text of the catholic mass is anchored deeply within the memory of each of us - european culture obliging. Interestingly, i sometimes surprise people who, upon hearing this projects demo tapes, would sing the texts with no difficulty. Amusing, no?

Thierry Zaboitzeff, a sculptor of sound space, perfectionist and highly imaginative.

Under no circumstances, with this spectacle, do i wish to deliberate over the foundations of one religion or another, and, i repeat once more, that it is the ceremony, the representations, the multitude, the communion, the images, the ecstasy, the high pomp, cult objects, the trance and the music which motivate me, as much as the great musical cultural movements of the 60's and 70's and that we have also witnessed during the last decade - that of techno: a veritable crucible of music and ideas. It is out of the question, for me, to re-salvage these cultural elements (pop, techno, etc.), But having crossed through these eras, i have naturally absorbed and used these forms.

Thierry Zaboitzeff