BÉRANGÈRE MAXIMIN

Bérangère Maximin is adviser forthe selection of works for Elektramusic CDs. She takes part of the Vol. 01 Cd with her piece « Tant que les heures passent ».
Tant que les heures passent
duration 12’00
Elektramusic Electroacoustic Music
Volume 01 CD – track 02
(“As long as the Hours Go by”)
(adapted from V. Maïakovski’s poetic work)
What I actually discovered when I read Vladimir Maïakovski’s poetic work was far from what I had imagined and from what I had remembered of political comments that preceded my readings. This blurred combination of exultation, eccentricity and frenzy, in a shape that really speaks to me, definitely satisfied my interest in constrasts. However what I mostly remember is my meeting with a really tormented man, one of those tormented people you become attached to and who make you like them and admire them with a very special and deep feeling. That was my first meeting with that kind of person, more complex than the overused image of the accursed artist, cold at first, aggressive, provocative, stiff that did not actually repel me. I did not turn away from the vision of those rough and wild images through which ill-being and suffering find an expression : suffering of a man in a society that he transmuted himself into a bloodthirsty beast or else into a heap of shapeless fat. Indeed he uses this very same ardour, or on the brink of madness, this force of expression, this kind of direct writing to express his attachment to mankind and some signs of vulnerability and hope are therefore also revealed. He needs to dress up permanently, to imagine thousands of situations in which he produces himself, he stands up, both extravagant and wild, in front of a large crowd or else a crowd reduced to dry caricatures. This need reveals, in Maïakoski’s poetry, a boundless love for the human Being and for what he is able to discover about his own self. I dedicate this music to that remarkable force, this sensitive being with a dazzling beauty.

Bio
Bérangère Maximin was born in Lyon but lived her chilhood in her native « country », the Island of Reunion. After musical and literature studies, she decided to enter in the acousmatic composition class of Denis Dufour in the Conservatory of Perpignan (South of France). She has received the golden medal of composition in 1999.
In November 2000, she obtained a scholardship from SACEM to make a residence in studios of the Electroacustic Music Group of Cuenca (Spain). From January to April 2002, she received a grant from the French Cultural Center in Ukraine for a project of installation, built in collaboration with her husband plastician Anton Yakutovych, and exhibited at the House of artists of Kiev.
In 2004 and 2005, she has written musics for dance performances of the American choreographer Jocelyne
Danchick (Breath cycle 20’00 2004, Tranplant 30’00 2005). She has also made a soundwork on Encre Noire, a Danchick (Breath cycle 20’00 2004, Tranplant 30’00 2005). She has also made a soundwork on Encre Noire, a video from Michaël Roulier (France 23’00 2005). The Ina-GRM invites her to present an acousmatic creation during the next Radio France musical season : Multiphonies 2005/2006.
Bérangère Maximin has been living in Paris since 2002. She creates her musics in her personal studio, the Home Sweet Home Studio. Her creations are regularly broadcast and played in festivals, concerts or electronic clubs : Glaz’art club (Paris), Peniche Opera (Paris), Regard du Cygne (Paris), international festivals Futura (France), Aujourd’hui Musiques (France), Musicacoustica (Beijing China), Fringe festival (Dublin, Ireland), musical festivals Musiques Vives (France), Le bruit de la neige (France), sound poetry festival Brûlures des langues (Paris), Universities of Fullerton and Berkeley (USA)…Bérangère Maximin-Yakutovych assists composer Denis Dufour, director of Motus (concert productions and musical label), and Futura (International Acousmatic art Festival, Crest, France).
She obtained the honorary mention at the Russolo-Pratella Foundation International Competition of Varese in Italy in 1998 with Rituel des poupées cassées; and ar the EAR International Competition (Hungry) on 2003 with Les choses supendues.
Main musical works : Rituel des poupées cassées (Opus 2), Salem pepsy joke (Opus 3), Biotrope (Opus 5), Trix sistra (Opus 7), Matteo (Opus 9), Les choses suspendues/las cosas colgadas (Opus 12), Boudmo (Opus 15), Il a failli faire beau (Opus 16), Précis d’errance (Opus 18), Mécanique des ombres (Opus 21).