Le Havre

Large ensemble improvisation has a history and already many historical references such as Globe Unity Orchestra, King Übü Örchestrü, The Celestrial Communication Orchestra, London Improvisers Orchestra… or more recent ones like Splitter Orchester, Insub Meta Orchestra, GGRIL, ONCEIM… How to combine energy, individuality, unexpectedness… with 26 people? How to develop different improvisation strategies without falling into the obvious drone? How can you simply improvise freely with 26 people?
Le UN (new version) was initiated by David Chiesa in 2019. Le UN acts as an improvisation society: each member is involved in the artistic realisation as much as in the social, non-hierarchical organisation of the ensemble. The individual and their practice – and not its dilution in the collective – are at the centre of this orchestral experimentation. Importantly, each individual preserves their singularity within a protean mass without obstructing the collective space
This LP (+ CD) was recorded during a three-day residency at Le Volcan, Scène Nationale du Havre, in April 2021. This recording is a manifestation of a collective practice of free improvisation beyond genres, a music full of effervescence and turbulence, where the acoustic and electric sources attempt the wager of spontaneous collective fabrication without any direction, irradiated by strong flickering light, with a flight of incongruous actions!