Announcing RSF Collaboration with Circle for the Liberation of Sound and Image

depicted above:Gerard Pape

RSF is working with CLSI to develop new music venues for new music in Paris, including Reid Hall (Columbia University in Paris) and the Théâtre Ile Saint Louis Paul Rey.

Matthew Greenbaum, a NYC native, moved from Brooklyn to Paris in 2024(?), an exemplar of the inevitable brain drain we see when things deteriorate in the US. In Paris he met Parisian-American composer/psychologist Gérard Pape, who, for a time, was the director of Les Ateliers UPIC (now CCMIX). Pape & Greenbaum began imagining a way for music to thrive in Paris, hoping to open up Paris to a broader range of new music after the stranglehold of Boulez and IRCAM. Greenbaum compares the hegemony of Boulez to that of Lully.

The Circle for the Liberation of Sound and Image (CLSI) is a Paris-based ensemble created in 2007–2008 by Gérard Pape. Designed for the interpretation of graphical scores with real-time electronic devices, the group also acts as a laptop orchestra and has been directed by both Pape and Paul Méfano, performing at festivals like the Stockhausen festival.

CLSI
Gerard Pape, Artistic Director
Jean-Jacques Leca, President

Interpreters working with CLSI:

–NeoQuartet (Gdansk), with annual festival in Gdansk called “Neo-Arte”.

–baritone Nicholas Isherwood, who created Luzifer for the entire Licht cycle of Stockhausen. Also worked with Elliot Carter, Xenakis, Scelsi and many other famous composers. kIsherwood’s ensemble is Vox Nova Italia

–cellist Charles Curtiss lives in Paris, worked closely with La Monte Young, Alvin Lucier and Eliane Radigue

We will invite US musicians and ensembles to be involved, including Cygnus, Momenta.

Key details regarding the CLSI and Gérard Pape:

• Purpose: The ensemble is dedicated to the real-time interpretation of graphical scores using electronic, computer-based, and laptop-based instrumentation.
• Founder/Director: Gérard Pape created and directed the CLSI to perform, including with other notable musicians and composers.
• Performances: The group, often referred to as the CLSI Ensemble or CLSI Laptop Orchestra, has performed at the Stockhausen festival in Kürten (2008, 2012) and at venues like the Fondazione Morra.
• Activities: The ensemble has recorded with artists such as saxophonist Yoshk’o Seffer.
• Members/Affiliates: Members have included artists like Stefan Titeje, Jean-Baptiste Favory and Olga Krashenko and Matthew Greenbaum.