APRÈS MOI LA PLUIE

Après moi la pluie [Fixed media 9:56] is an ambisonic acousmatic work exploring the sounds of water interacting with the city of Manchester. Recordings include the Manchester Victoria baths (opened 1906) being power-washed & filled, water down drainpipes of iconic Manchester buildings and sounds of rain on a large variety of materials found in the city. Water constitutes a substantial part of Manchester's soundscape playing each object it hits or runs against. As new architecture is built this creates new instruments for the water to act upon, this pieces probes the idea of water/waste as performer to the city. Exploring the spatial aspect of B-format soundfield recordings and mapping rain patterns onto a Hordijk modular synthesizer. The title is derived from the French expression Après moi, le déluge (Louis XV).

Premiered at New Music North West 2017 on a 24ch diffusion system.

Thanks: Geode, MUMS Orchestra.
Photo: Elizabeth Ditmanson

Feel free to contact for ambisonic or multichannel files.

“The idea of Guillaume Dujat’s piece is interesting, but like much work in this area, it does not sound good.
Otherwise he seems to have reasonable qualifications to perform at Balance-Unbalance, so you decide if the
ugly, noisy, unappealing sound is a problem.

DR”

As part of the recordings made in the Manchester Victoria Baths, I recorded a piece by Geode: OCEAN, a site-specific performance event designed for Manchester's extraordinary Victoria Baths in collaboration with performers Gemma Bass & Gary Farr of the Vonnegut Collective. OCEAN was recorded on a Soundfield Ambisonic microphone and rendered in binaural for stereo listening.