The HANATSUmiroir ensemble, founded by Ayako Okubo and Olivier Maurel, joins forces with composer Elsa Biston for the original project Attentifs, ensemble, a creative and collective process created at La Pop in Paris, in April and May 2023, presented at the Musique Action festival in Vandoeuvre lès-Nancy. Co-commissioned by HANATSUmiroir & Paysages Humains.

The set HANATSUmiroir ensemble, founded in Strasbourg in 2010 by Ayako Okubo and Olivier Maurel , develops a certain conception of contemporary music performance, combining musical creation with scenography, video, dance, visual arts, lighting design, theater and poetry. Since then, HANATSUmiroir has initiated a number of commissions to experiment with new ways of performing and listening to music.

On her side, Elsa BistonElsa Biston, for her part, works in a similar way, constantly questioning the way she makes music and the way it is heard, in an eminently material and philosophical quest. The work of composition is as much about the conditions of creation as it is about the relationship with others.

Accompanied by double bassist Louis Siracusa Schneider and Maxime Kurvers, they have created a new sound experience: Attentifs, ensemble

Attentifs, ensemble is a listening experience and concert setting, which attempts to bring listeners' attention into coherence, in order to experience the strength of a shared perception.
It is a reflection on music as a creator of links, which is lived during a collective experience; which intensifies the relationship with the present, which builds a shared history by inviting us to be demanding, together, of the quality of our attention to the world. Attention is a political and collective issue. It's what connects us to reality, what enables us to build a shared, common reality.
Sound informs us about the state of things and beings. It creates a relationship between two people or groups of people; it is the vector of attention to the world - to the nothings, the little nothings, the details, the complexity, the thickness of a situation.

Sentences are projected onto a screen, offering participants different ways of listening. The writing of the piece is a weaving together of these phrases and the music or actions of the performers.

Attentifs, ensembleAttentifs, ensemble" raises the question of what kind of music would develop and enable us to pay attention to the world, and be aware of sharing a common space. This music cannot be reduced to an object - recordable and transportable, for example. We'll be listening together, with musician and audience observing each other in this collective experience as we try to better perceive what's at stake in attention and listening. It's an invitation to synchronize our listening, through a projection of phrases, suggestions and quotations that suggest different ways of listening.

With : Elsa Biston: electronics, Ayako Okubo: contrabass flute, Olivier Maurel: percussion, Louis Siracusa-Schneider: contrabass, Maxime Kurvers: stage design, Raphaël Siefert, Léa Kreutzer: lighting

Coproductions: Hémisphère son-Paysages Humains, La Pop-Incubateur artistique et citoyen Paris, Centre Culturel André Malraux, Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, GMEM - Centre national de création musicale, Marseille.

The HANATSUmiroir ensemble is the winner of the Prix Régional 2022 pour l'égalité femmes-hommes awarded by the Région Grand-Est.

Photo Elsa Biston© Marion Brunet