LUC FERRARI
Konstantin Simonovitch
Presque Rien No. 1 (Lever du Jour au Bord de la Mer)
Societé II (et si le Piano était un Corps de Femme)
Avantgarde
Luc Ferrari
Gérard Frémy
Ensemble Instrumental de Musique Contemporaine de Paris
Konstantin Simonovitch
Product Information
Luc Ferrari’s Presque Rien No. 1 (1967–70) and Société II (1967) stand among the most radical works of the twentieth-century avant-garde.
With Presque Rien No. 1 (Daybreak at the Seaside), Ferrari pioneered the use of untreated environmental recordings as complete musical material – capturing the sounds of a Croatian fishing village at dawn to create what he called a “soundscape.” Stripped of manipulation or conventional composition, it marked a decisive shift toward sonic minimalism and ecological listening, influencing generations of experimental artists.
In stark contrast, Société II (And if the piano were a woman’s body), scored for piano, percussion, and ensemble, embodies Ferrari’s politically charged, theatrical side. Written amid the social upheavals of the late 1960s, it stages a feminist allegory in which performers vie for dominance, blending structure, improvisation, and satire.
By pairing these two works – one purely environmental, the other instrumental – on a single album, Ferrari collapsed the boundaries between electronic and acoustic music, redefining what composition could be and establishing a model of expressive multiplicity that continues to shape experimental sound today.
The vinyl was mastered and cut from the original analogue 2-track master tapes by Rainer Maillard and Sidney Claire Meyer at Emil Berliner Studios and features original artwork and a newly designed, beautifully crafted collector’s sleeve. It is released as a limited and numbered edition on 1 May and is now available for pre-order.
Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
