Edgar Varèse : Ionisation, 1929
George Antheil: Ballet Mécanique, 1924
Beat Furrer : Enigma
Arthur Lavandier : Fureurs Héroïques
Maurillio Cacciatore : Tamonontamo
Roque Rivas | Carlos Franklin : Mutations of Matter
Pattar, Eva Reiter, Schubert, Mc Callum : THIS IS NOT A POPSONG, pour ensemble

etc. etc.

MECHANICAL BALLETS _ Baudelaire saw it coming, while artists affiliated with Futurism and the Esprit Nouveau made it happen: the lyrical landscape moved from the Countryside to the City during the early part of the 20th century. Members of the avant-garde movement at the turn of the century no longer held their nose due to the stench of the “sprawling cities” but, conversely, took great delight in the craving for a new kind of intoxication: an overwhelming desire for shimmering lights, chance meetings, speed and noise.

The new heroes of the age were the Machine and the Crowd. With the radiant and roaring Motor Car at the forefront of this movement, machines were hailed for turning the spotlight on new sounds, new rhythms, a whole kinetic chain was now required to produce music. As for the crowds, "fired up by work, pleasure or revolt", as the Futurist poet Marinetti described them, they were the unconscious agents of a rediscovered magic. The painter Umberto Boccioni, drawing a single line through the entire classical art tradition, invented this paradoxical expression: “Futurist primitivism”, the alleged interaction between antiquated forces and the modern Crowd.

We are familiar with the miserable fate of the fascist Marinetti, a hostage to his exaltation of virility. Whether or not we agree with Marc Dachy's description of the Italian Futurist movement as being a ludicrous avant-garde trend, the engine-like and noisy dream that was conjured up would linger on for quite a while. Against the background of a five-part marathon concert, Ictus and the Cris de Paris choir will recreate the intoxicatingly evocative Futurist music of the city as a machine and the city as a crowd. The 1920s, very much in the limelight, (and George Antheil's famous Mechanical Ballet) will intersect with more contemporary works, while music and video will be pitted against the cinema and gourmet delights – not forgetting one or two Cris de Paris straight out of the 16th century... Percussion, factory sirens, aircraft propellers, mass choirs, phonetic poems, post-rock groups and sound machines will once again be sounding out the contemporary refrain of the early days of the 20th century: for those willing to let things slide by, the city _is_ the embodiment of Fantasy.