In “digital lutherie,” artistic collaborations are inseparable from the technological aspects. This is why Rémi Fox has been involved since the very beginning in the creation of the DYCI2 generative agents developed by Jérôme Nika.
The name of the duo, C’est pour ça [That’s why], is a nod to its early days, when the performances were intended to be didactic rather than purely creative, focused on tests and demonstration. This “digital lutherie” has now reached a stage of maturity sufficient to serve as a basis for a purely musical research, combining “meta-composition” and free improvisation: composing the “musical memories” of improvising agents, the structures underlying their musical discourses, their listening and reaction mechanisms, and allowing the form to be generated by pure interaction. C’est pour ça develops an electronic aesthetic while seeking to preserve the organic character of the summoned “memories” (traditional choirs, spoken voice, saxophone playing modes…).
Biography:
Jérôme Nika is a computer music designer / musician, and a researcher in human-machine musical interaction. He graduated from the French Grandes Écoles Télécom ParisTech and ENSTA ParisTech. In addition, he studied acoustics, signal processing and computer science as applied to music and composition. He specialized in the applications of computer science and signal processing to digital creation and music through a PhD (Young Researcher Prize in Science and Music, 2015; Young Researcher Prize awarded by the French Association of Computer Music, 2016), and then as a researcher at Ircam. His research focuses on the introduction of authoring, composition, and control in human-computer music co-improvisation. This work led to numerous collaborations and musical productions, particularly in improvised music (Steve Lehman, Bernard Lubat, Benoît Delbecq, Rémi Fox) and contemporary music (Pascal Dusapin, Marta Gentilucci). In 2019, he moved from the role of researcher to that of independent computer music designer / musician / researcher, and worked on 3 projects: *Lullaby Experience*, an evolutive project by composer Pascal Dusapin, and two improvised music projects: *Silver Lake Studies*, in duo with Steve, and *C’est Pour ça*, in duo with Rémi Fox. In 2020 he will be in residency at Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains.
Saxophonist, improviser and composer, Rémi Fox is part of this new generation of artist who wishes to make the jazz a resolutely contemporary music. He graduated from the Department Jazz and improvised music from the CNSMD of PARIS where he had the opportunity to build a strong musical experience, along with great musicians (being of his generation or more experienced one). All these encounters gave him the opportunity to take part in a great variety of projects, and develop a rich and open musical universe, while strengthening his own personality. During his studies, he entered the Department of Improvisation Generative of CNSMDP (directed by Vincent Lê Quang and Alexandros Markeas) to discover new ways of playing, and to begin with sound textures experimentation. During those years, he always seeked to confront his music to other forms of Art such as dance, video or Visual arts, leading to enriching collaborations with IRCAM, CNC (National Film and the moving image Centre) or Theatres.
