Commission: GRAME/French Ministry of Culture
Premiere: 04/05/2016, Orchestre National de Lyon
Orchestra: 3.3.3.3. / 4.3.3.1 / 1 Timp., 4 Perc., Pf., 2 Arpe / Strings (16.14.12.10.8) / Electronics
Video: Boris Labbé
A version for large ensemble and electronics is also available:
Ensemble: 2.2.3.2. / 2.2.2.1 / 3 Perc., Pf., Arpa / 3 Vln., 2 Vla., 2 Cl., Cb. / Electronics
Premiered by Ensemble Intercontemporain, Cité de la musique, 26/01/2018
An electroacoustical version of Any Road, in digital edition, can be bought on Sedition.
“– so long as I get SOMEWHERE,” Alice added as an explanation.
(Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)
Cast – Two loudspearkers, as two gamers playing a ping-pong made of words and sounds; the orchestra, trying to prevent this
Theme – the visual and acoustic paradigm of the PONG arcade videogame
Genre – travel diary, divertissement
Duration – about 10 minutes
Plot – In random order: someone looking from the window of a train; an endless fall; the passage from contour to image; the passage from animation to film. Somehow, a game. And isn’t game (and especially videogame) an exploration of space an time, with no knowledge of where one is going? If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.