Le piano flou
Jocelyn Robert
Le piano flou arose out of a series of musical experiments for Disklavier and pianist aimed at putting into sound the act of playing itself, with all its tremors, silences, fumblings, and doubts.
In it, error served up the raw material for improvised music that was neither quite human nor entirely machine. Thus, all the pieces in Le piano flou are made of errors. Special Disklavier software tracked the hesitations and inaccuracies of piano technique, then amplified them into the finished compositions on this recording. (After Jocelyn Robert and Fabrice Montal.)
Le piano flou was broadcast on June 17, 2000, on Dutch Radio Vrolijke Noet (107.1 FM) and elsewhere.
Jocelyn Robert is a multidisciplinary artist from Quebec. He works in music, audio art, computer art, performance, installation, video and writing. His visual and video work has been shown internationally and his sound works have been published on more than 30 cds. His texts can be found in books at Le Quartanier (Montréal), Ohm Éditions (Québec), Errant Bodies Press (Los Angeles), Semiotext(e) (New York), and in a number of art catalogues. Many texts have been written on his art, and two solo catalogues have been published, one by Galerie de l’UQAM and one by Centre Vox. He is involved in art activism at different levels. Amongst other undertakings, he founded that audio and electronic arts centre Avatar and took part in the foundation of the Meduse cooperative. He taught at Mills College (Oakland, California), at Université du Québec à Montréal and at École d’arts visuels et médiatiques de l’Université Laval, where he is director since 2012.
