Ictus . Georges-Elie Octors

The composer Luc Brewaeys is fifty and we intend to celebrate it, together with Ictus! The basis for his new composition is 'Jocasta', a new work for mezzo, ensemble and electronic sounds that Ictus created in 2003. Brewaeys strips away the lyrical vocal score and makes room for two soloists on flute and horn ... as if Oedipus could thereby escaped his destiny! And what is a birthday party without super guests? Brewaeys has invited his spiritual father and his older intellectual brother: Jonathan Harvey and Tristan Murail. What they have in common is the inevitable but also sublime catastrophe and the almost unreal transcendence. This paradox is conveyed by Brewaeys in a precarious balancing act between melodic linearity, a fusion of acoustic and electronic sounds and the pursuit of tonal unity based on the relationship between overtones. 'Double concerto' opens with a double cadence for flute and horn and moves into electronic and dense ensemble parts. Brewaeys composed this for Ictus somewhere between Vilvoorde and Montreal…