Sophie Delafontaine

Accord Ouvert presents six acousmatic works that Sophie Delafontaine composed between 2013 and 2018, most of them in her studio in Brussels, two on commission from Musiques & Recherches. Several start from texts, others from places and memories of her Swiss roots, and all reflect her habit of recovering and recycling material from her music for dance and theatre.

Ondiésop (2015) sets the opening of Hesiod’s Theogony in the French translation of Matteo Capponi, read by Lucie Rausis. Tout ça à cause de Junon (2013) retells Echo’s metamorphosis from Ovid, in a version by the ancient theatre group of the Université de Neuchâtel. Dormir, aujourd’hui (2018), on a text by Laurent Plumhans about the white-throated sparrow, which does not sleep while migrating, is in the composer’s words a short manifesto for working less and sleeping more.

Respire marche pars va-t-en (2013), titled after a line by Blaise Cendrars, holds her impressions of leaving Switzerland and won 2nd prize at the 6th Destellos competition. Ressort spiral (2014-16) enters her grandfather’s world of watchmaking, with help from the Cartier manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds; it shared the public award at the 2016 Métamorphoses competition and was the set piece for the 2017 Espace du son performance competition. Creux-du-Van (2014) recreates the wind and water of a huge rock amphitheatre in the Jura.

Born in Lausanne in 1988, Delafontaine came to acousmatic music through dance. She moved to Belgium at 20 and studied at Arts2 in Mons with Annette Vande Gorne, Philippe Mion and Ingrid Drese, finishing her master’s in 2014. She specializes in the live spatialized performance of acousmatic music and has taught it at Arts2 since 2016.

CD in OGpak, empreintes DIGITALes IMED 19156, 2019.