In 2008, abs(.)hum called upon the guitarist and long time collaborator Anthony Taillard with
whom they planed part one of IMMENSITY OF THE TERRITORY. In which they spent two weeks driving from NYC to New Orleans and back, collecting sounds and pictures. This road trip fed Vol. 1 of Immensity of the Territory: East.
In 2010, the three musicians returned to the USA, crossing California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada. The sounds and images (picture and video) collected during this three-week road trip are the basis of Vol.2 of Immensity of the Territory: southwest.
abs(.)hum or the guitar with engine...
Since 2003, Charles-Henry Beneteau and Christophe Havard, aka abs(.)hum, have been known for the particularity of performing on the same guitar! This guitar, remotely controlled and simultaneously mastered by both musicians utilizing a variety of devices, and output through electronic and digital media, gives new possibilities to the guitar... so much so that finally we are unable even to recognize the guitar!
Their sound, characterized by large drone like soundscapes is evocative of the vast North American landscape; even more so when Christophe Havard adds his phonography and sound art. Press reviews also reference post-rock, blues, electronica, multi-guitar music ensembles, and microtonal music...
"… C’est très beau en installation, cela fonctionne parfaitement sur disque. Il s’agit d’une oeuvre qui n’a rien à devoir aux références du genre souvent surestimé appelé "guitare préparée". Celle-ci est très enveloppée et ne craint pas la distorsion : cette musique que l’on qualifiait il n’y a pas si longtemps d’industrielle, celle des Nantais Beneteau et Havard, a su conserver la fragilité d’un artisanat créatif. Je pense que c’est ici que se définit le post-rock."
DINO – Revue et Corrigée #71 mars 2007 Discography: NO HEROES & abs(.)hum (label TIRAMIZU)
Quelques références scéniques : les Instants Chavirés (Montreuil), Penn Ar Jazz (Brest), Pannonica (Nantes), la Factory (Pau), les festivals Nuit blanche (Paris), Nuit d’hiver (Marseille), Résonances (Saint-Nazaire), SONOR (Nantes), Musiques de rue (Besançon), SONORE (Brest), Tribu (Dijon), Muzzix (Lille), Farniente (Pornichet), Meeting (Tours)…
IMMENSITY OF THE TERRITORY the show
"Immensity of the territory" by abs(.)hum at the festival Farniente from christophe havard on Vimeo.
The abs(.)hum's guitar, always on the center of the stage with the three musicians around her. The collected pictures are showed on the background. Each concert is different because the music uses improvisation and the pictures mixed all the time. The narrative and musical sound creation mixes improvisation and writing process. This music is made with the instruments and the field recording in a surround system. The duration of the show is about 1 hour (about 30 minutes for the school
presentations).
"Immensity of the territory #2 : the Southwest" project by abs(.)hum at the VIP in St-Nazaire, march 2011 from christophe havard on Vimeo.
A propos du spectacle, Michel Henritzi, Juin 2010
"Immensity of Territory" est un dispositif mixant images et musiques, fragments enregistrés lors d'une traversée des Etats-Unis d'Est en Ouest, avant fantasmée à travers des disques et des films made in USA. Road-movie à la façon du "Paris Texas" de Wim Wenders ou du "Stranger Paradise" de Jim Jarmush, images dont les personnages joueraient hors-champ, ou plutôt les personnages s'incarneraient dans les notes fantômes de la bande-son. Images de routes projetées sur l'écran, longues bandes d'asphaltes comme une partition déroulée dans les paysages américains. Sur la route. La musique jouée ici en évoque l'infini déroulement, l'Histoire, ses déserts et ses néons. Ombre portée de la guitare sur l'écran, symbole de toute une Amérique fantasmée, jouée par des mécaniques célibataires (un corps de guitare monstrueux sur lequel le groupe abs(.)hum a greffé des moteurs, capteurs, bootlenecks, aimants ...) y jouant des rudiments blues, folk ou de vieilles b.o de western. On y entend les fantômes de l'Amérique sonique, de John Lee Hooker à Sonic Youth, mélodies mélancoliques disparaissant dans des monochromes de limailles et de feedback(s). Toute l'histoire de la guitare se joue là dans cet "imaginary landscape" rejoué par un corps de guitare et les ombres de Ry Cooder et de Neil Young."
Exposition
At the same time and the same place of the concert, an exhibition of few selected pictures can be presented to the public.
Biographies
Charles-Henry Beneteau
In the 1970s,Charles-Henry Beneteau, self-taught guitarist, began playing finger picking and blues, inspired by the great blues guitarists, like Reverend Gary Davis, Blind Blake, Blind Lemmon Jefferson, etc. Ten years later, he decided to study classical guitar in Conservatoire (Paris) with Roberto Aussel and Sergio Assad. He won second and first price in Berlin and Montélimar international guitar competitions and is laureate of the Menuhin Foundation. He gives a lot of concerts in duet, guitar quartet and chamber music in France, Germany and Ireland. CHH is also theorbist and continuist and is steadily playing with baroque ensembles. Involved in improvisation and musical exploration, he creates, along with Chistophe Havard, abs(.)hum" (2003) – a strange duet for one electric guitar and two musicians, which brings them on the road, meeting adventurous musicians, performing with music and video.
Christophe Havard
Born in 1972, he lives in Saint-Nazaire (France). Saxophone player since he's 16 years old, he played in jazz bands during many years, before moving towards practices of sonic experimentation and the listening of the environment. Since then, he realizes sound installations and electroacoustic pieces. He's invited as artists in residency working on sound environment, he plays in several bands dealing with improvisation, experimentation and sound recording. He creates music for theater, documentary movies, participate to the activities of several non-profit organizationand teaches in workshops.
In parallel to these activities, he's a teacher in two music schools. Within the duet abs(.)hum, he uses an hybrid instrument : a prepared guitar which is controlled in distance, using electronic devices, producing drones, loops and distortions. Among the collective projects like Poyepolomi, Phono3graphie or Surface libre, he uses recorded sounds according to the locations and the kind of event in order to create narrative and/or abstracts universes. With SONE or in his own sound installations, he uses the particular properties of various materials for designing new listening systems. His compositional practice includes heterogeneous sound sources such as industrial and natural environment, objects, instruments, voices, extract from film soundtracks. He's also interested in introducing experimental music in rural context in France, and he initiated several projects about this topic.
Anthony Taillard
Anthony Taillard plays on prepared guitars and bass since 1992. He is (or has been) member of : HALFZOUHAIR SCHAG, FORMANEX, MAN, SURFACE LIBRE, SUBUTEX SOCIAL CLUB, P.I.L.S. and abs(.)hum « Immensity of The territory ». Practicing free improvisation, he played with Sylvain Chauveau, Phil Durrant, Taku Sugimoto, Keith Rowe, Noël Akchoté, Olivier Benoit, Jean Chevalier, Cédric Routier, Pascal Battus, etc. Also involved in interpretation of experimental music (mostly Cornelius Cardew and John Cage), he worked with AMM, Kasper T. Toeplitz, Jérome Joy, Brandon Labelle, Laurent Dailleau, and develop his own compositions in solo and in collaboration with the painter Cyrille Borgnet. Solo or with these projects, he works music for performance, sound and video installations, films, theater, poetry, readings.
Christophe Havard site
Charles-Henry Benetetau home page on the Volume/collectif webside
- References:
- 2012
- -festival Reevox (GMEM) à Marseille (projet Immensity of the territory)
- -festival Locus Sonus (Lieu Unique) à Nantes projet (Immensity of the territory)
- -festival Câble à Nantes projet (Immensity of the territory)
- -cinéma Ciné Jade à Saint-Brévin (projet Immensity of the territory)
- 2011
- -le VIP à Saint-Nazaire (projet Immensity of the territory)
- -festival SONORE à Brest (projet Immensity of the territory)
- -la Maison des Arts à Saint-Herblain (projet Immensity of the territory)
- -cinéma Ciné Presqu'île à Guérande (projet Immensity of the territory)
- -résidence d'enregistrement à Césaré (centre de création musicale) à Reims (projet Immensity of the territory)
- -festival Elektricity (Césaré/la Cartonnerie) à Reims (projet Immensity of the territory)
- 2010
- -le VIP à Saint-Nazaire (projet Immensity of the territory)
- -festival Musique Action in Vandoeuvre les Nancy(project Immensity of the territory)
- -workshop and creation of the second part of the project "Immensity of the territory" at the Pannonica in Nantes
- -a trip in the southwest of America to prepare the second part of Immensity of the territory
- 2009
- -Athenor in Nantes
- -cinema the Cinematographe in Nantes, for the festival Sonor (projet Immensity of the territory)
- 2008
- -festival Meeting in Tours, organised by the Petit Faucheux (projet Immensity of the territory)
- -festival Musiques de rue in Besançon (projet Immensity of the territory)
- -OMR in St-Sébastien, organised by the Pannonica (projet Immensity of the territory)
- -Festival "Farniente" in Pornichet,(projet Immensity of the territory)
- -15 days in the USA with the guitarist Anthony Taillard to prepared the project "Immensity of the Territory"
- -Festival Muzzix organised by the CRIME Lille (Fr)
- 2007
- -"la Carenne" - Brest (Fr.)
- -"DogPig Art Café" - in Kao-Hsiung (Taiwan) projection of a Shejingren's movie with the music of abs(.)hum: "the pith of the aphrodisiac tree"
- 2006
- -Concert and sound installation 'cUncert-x with the association VOLUME/COLLECTIF at "Athénor (ST-Nazaire Fr.)
- -"Les instants chavirés - Montreuil (Fr.)
- -"Tribu Festival" - Dijon (Fr.)
- -"chez l'un l'une l'autre" - Rezé (Fr.)
- -Festival "musiques de rue" - Besançon (Fr.)
- 2005
- -blockhaus DY.10 in nantes (Fr.) (+ anthony taillard)
- -Parc la Garenne Lemot - clisson (association acousma) (Fr.)
- -the CD "no heroes" edited by the label tiramizu (sept 2005)
- -les abattoirs de Billère - pau (Fr.) (association la factory)
- -art center passerelle - brest (Fr.)(association penn ar jazz)
- 2004:
- -Pannonica - nantes (Fr.)
- -théâtre athénor - st-nazaire (Fr.)
- -festival résonances - st-nazaire (Fr.) (+ aimé dontigny, éric dorion, hughes germain)
- -festival nuit d'hiver organised by the GRIM - marseille (Fr.)(+ anthony taillard)
- -festival nuit blanche - paris (Fr.) (+ shejingren - wan-shuen tsai/yannick dauby)
- -10 days of record in the théâtre athénor - st-nazaire (Fr.)
- 2003:
- -"semaine musicale" st-brévin les pins (Fr.)
- -Guérande (+ Hughes Germain)(Fr.)
- -2 nights in the HUB - nantes (+ guests: Carine Lequyer, John Morin, Anthony Taillard, Basile Feriot, ...) (Fr.)
- -Instants Chavirés (montreuil) (Fr.)
- -the first Cd audio + video (label tiramizu)
