L' Oeil de l 'éléphant

Photographer Guy Le Querrec loves fables. The eye of the elephant is the ultimate moment when the aperture of the camera opens. Every photo made in that instant appeals to the imagination and stimulates the eye. For the last fifty years, Le Querrec's Leica has told us stories of imaginary world legends. Each legend becomes crystallised as an image and becomes ours. Le Querrec, the griot (poet), the storyteller, who projects the world onto an immense white screen. At the foot of the screen, an improvising dream quartet adopts Le Querrec's imaginary, delayed impression of time. In invocatory rhythmic and harmonic patterns, an uninterrupted tension is built up that continuously wrong-foots the listener with a series of surprising transitions. The Texier-Drouet tandem is the driving motor. The wind-players Scalvis and Portal surprise us with their virtuoso tempo variations and subtle nuances. The synergy that arises allows the carefully considered compositions to be performed with a lightness of touch. The music is interspersed with alienating, sometimes imaginary, effects. In the eye of the elephant there's a great deal to be read, regardless of which glasses you might be wearing.