Interview with Adrien Trybucki: Janus Palimpsest

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By Jérémie Szpirglas

The Janus Program, launched in 2021 by IRCAM and the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles to break down barriers between musical repertoires for the benefit of young artists, comes to an end in summer 2025. It concludes with the world premiere of Encre simulacre, a new piece by Adrien Trybucki. The composer shares with us his experience as part of the program, which included a research project, master classes, several commissions (for the Pages and the Chantres of the CMBV), as well as interpretation workshops, concerts, and recordings…

First of all, I would say I enjoyed the freedom we were given to imagine unique projects – in terms of the instrumental set, the role of the electronics or the connection with the text. Having such a broad framework allowed for a great diversity in the approaches adopted by the different composers – Ariadna Alsina Tarrés, Jug Markovič, Justina Repečkaitė and myself –, which I find really fascinating.

I was also really happy to work with a choir school as qualified as the Pages and Chantres of the CMBV. Lastly, regarding the electronics part, which we recorded at IRCAM, it gave me the opportunity to continue the work on voice and electronics I had started when I was part of the Cursus back in 2019.

Photo: From left to right, Jug Markovič, Ariadna Alsina Tarrés, Clément Buonomo, Adrien Trybucki, Fabien Armengaud and Justina Repečkaitė © CMBV, photo : Morgane Vie

Thanks to my academic background in music history, I have an essentially theoretical, but not practical, knowledge of ancient music. I think it has more or less the same influence on my work as other repertoires do – all periods and areas considered – that is to say, constant and at the same time very distant. I regularly borrow some of its formal elements but also some tones, something that is done almost automatically when writing for instruments that have remained the same for centuries. 

In the past, I already focused on writing for ancient instruments when composing Fragments d’opale for recorder and percussions, a project reminiscent of the sanjo – a Korean musical form that features European instruments from the Renaissance era – which I worked on as part of my studies at the CNSMD of Lyon, in collaboration with the Ancient Music department and the Ethnomusicology course. As part of another project, when writing my piece for organ Jeux magnétiques, I tinkered with the organ’s timber and tried mixing up different manners of playing, in order to create a kind of synthesizer: a sort of hybridization that can be found in Encre simulacre as well, but in “reverse”, in the sense that this time, it is the electronics that has been hybridized with organ sounds.

Several aspects of the piece, such as it being written for a double choir, as well the prevalent use of countertenor voices, which we often associate with the Baroque repertoire, obviously played a major role. But I also worked extensively on hybridizing instrumental tones with electronic music, to produce a sort of “continuous meta-bass” that surrounds the voices.

The main difficulty when undertaking this kind of project is to find a harmony between your writing and the corresponding repertoire, which is far from an easy task. Before even tackling the compositional work, I had very intense conversations with the Pages and the Chantres, as well as with the CMBV’s teams and other artists, to gather tones, ideas, and colors, so that I could create the “sound range” of the piece. The writing part, which allowed me to regain more freedom, only came afterwards. 

Having a strong inkling for rhythmical writing, one of the main challenges for me was to achieve a rhythmic complexity while maintaining a score and writing in keeping with Baroque music repertoires. That is one of the reasons that led me to write for a double chorus, as both choruses were not always following the same tempo.

There’s not a single instrument on stage! Still, the electronics part – once you take away the voices – is essentially made up of sounds from ancient instruments, that have either been recorded in studio or produced by sound synthesis. The organ part is present throughout the piece and is accompanied by several samples of viola that were recorded during sessions with Lucile Boulanger, as well as samples of ancient harp. The electronics part is very different from what I usually write for mixed works that involve instruments, where the instrumental tones are supported by many synthesized sounds. In this piece, the electronics are supporting the vocal part, but are also completing, or expanding on, the two choruses.

Photo: Adrien Trybucki lors du lancement du projet Janus au Château de Versailles © CMBV, photo : Morgane Vie

When writing the electronics part with computer music designers Quentin Nivromont and João Svidzinski, we, of course, worked with a simulation of the reconstructed acoustics of the Chapelle royale. The piece ending up having a significant instrumental aspect, it rather naturally fitted into this specific acoustic environment. 

Considering its Oulipian characteristics, Jacques Roubaud’s text already features many repetitions. Most of the text is sung by four soloists – two sopranos and two countertenors, who are divided between the two choruses –, the voices sometimes blending together at slightly different paces. In a way, the text wraps around and resonates with itself, which establishes the link with the acoustics of the Chapelle royale.  

The electronics part also contains several other solo parts, such as minor choruses spatialized within the church, as well as toneless voices, almost translucent, and which resonates with the notion of disappearance – of a memory, a voice, a space – that is found at the core of the poetics of Encre simulacre. The idea of the palimpsest is also reflected in the sonic processes we applied to pre-recorded solo voices: filtering effects interact with organ sounds played using partial registration, marked by a strong breathy quality.

Concert Janus à l'Espace de projection, 2024 © CMBV, photo Morgane Vie

First, we worked on achieving polyrhythms, which are inherent to writing for a double chorus. Then, we used synthesis tools to extend the sound of the instruments, and create for instance very long viola sounds – as if the bow were infinite – or glissandi. The goal was to create a sort of hybrid that would integrate both the electronics and the sounds from the instruments. 

Finally, we conducted more traditional work involving tutti sounds that were sung softly, in order to create very long chords, or very slow vocal glissandi – which gave the impression of a third chorus, invisible and almost surreal.

I have indeed written the text for the three pieces you have mentioned, in which I played around with formal constraints and word re/de/composition. This manner of playing with words can also be found in the work of an Oulipian such as Jacques Roubaud, of who I am a fan. I therefore was drawn to his poems very naturally, which allowed me to try a new form, more narrative than in my previous works.