Cendres

Following the death of a long-time friend - sculptor and ceramist - her ashes were spread in the heart of the wetlands of the Gironde estuary in a lush place where nature is particularly alive and enveloping. She shared her life with Claude Barraud, painter, who guided us in this "secret" place, elected as their place.

Violence of the epitaph: "in the end, we are little" - violence of the scattered ashes.

From this deeply moving experience, Cendres was born, an extremely contrasting work. I have made this journey through nature my own, with the writings of Philippe Jaccottet and Philippe Soupault open at my side, poets who have experienced similar pain. Three states cross the work: 

exuberance, proliferation, contrasts, abundance / development of nature

appeasement, consolation, erasure, disappearance, trace, silence

eternal return, progressive stop and suspension of time

For a long time, I wanted to compose a quintet for piano and strings, a formation for which Schumann, a broken and double man, wrote so well. If it were necessary to pay a tribute to this composer of the intimate, beyond time, Cendres, a sort of lamentation or animist ritual for a disappeared friend, would be it.