the TransCultural Symphony Orchestra
Music beyond the cultural borders
THE INCREDIBLE STORY OF A UNIQUE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
LE BOXON ENSEMBLE
When Le Centre De La Bombe moved from Paris to the South west of France, it discovered many young musicians with a huge desire to know everything about new music. The French music schools are poor in teaching new and contemporary music. In this context, Mathius Shadow-Sky wanted to create an eclectic big orchestra named l'O.E.U.F. (egg) for l' Orchestre Eclectique Unique de Forgues (Forgues was the village where was located Le Centre De La Bombe in South of France) with all kinds of musical instruments (from folk, classical, rock, jazz, electronic music, etc.) to perform composers' scores representing an unexpected approach in actual music: the MU-LA (the Musical Unexpected-Ludic Audacities). Then, with Le Centre De La Bombe's team, they tried to find a conductor to begin the engagement of young musicians. This project stopped at that time because no conductor wanted to conduct anything but classical music. The time passed, and more and more artists spent time at Le Centre De La Bombe, and the O.E.U.F. project was forgotten. In Autumn 1996 Mathius Shadow-Sky was invited by Maritza Mascarenhas (Brazilian pianist and producer) to go to Brazil. It generated a great enthusiasm among all the friends of Le Centre De La Bombe. To celebrate this event, Fabien Duscombs (drummer), Yannick Puybarret (saxophone player and composer) and Pascal Pourré (guitar player) decided - in a Toulouse's café at 2 am - to gather all friends' and musicians and to invite Shadow-Sky to conduct the ensemble. For Shadow-Sky it was the most important gift that he had ever received. Pascalina Pica and Don worked to call every body who wanted to join this event. Friends from Spain, England and Germany came especially for the event. The next step was to find a place for the orchestra to perform near a place to party after the concert (for Brazil!) Denis Aragon, the mayor of the village of Forgues, proposed to lend the little church near Le Centre De La Bombe. Together they decided to make no advertisement, just to make music for pleasure with friends: "make it just for fun" was the slogan! At this time the orchestra was giving its name: LE BOXON ENSEMBLE which means approximately "making fun together." Mathius Shadow-Sky suggested to everybody to make a rehearsal in the afternoon and the concert at seven. At the same time they asked the food maker Marie Calbet of Rieumes (another village near Forgues) to prepare the food for fifty friends, and it was Sunday, the day off! At this time nobody knew what music they would play. Shadow-Sky prepared a quick diagram-score for one-hour of playing and showed which gestures of conducting would correspond to desired sound. When they opened the door of the church, many people were waiting for the concert! How did they know about that performance? Shadow-Sky decided to record the concert with the high quality equipment of Le Centre De La Bombe. Well, the Symphony NO 1 began! It was marvelous! How, so many musicians from different music genre could perform so synchronous with the conductor and stick together! Shadow-Sky told me after that he never followed the diagram-score and he had improvised the conducting from the beginning to the end of the symphony! It was two hours of pure friendship music enjoyment. The recording was produced on CD and given to the musicians of the orchestra to listen. Every musician who performed with LE BOXON ENSEMBLE was so surprised to listen to the result because while they were performing nobody heard the entirety of the music, as they were seated in different places in the orchestra. Everybody was so pleased that they decided to release the record and make other concerts always in a fun situation. The next one could be in a swimming pool! Followed, of course, by a party after the concert!
SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA MUSIC OF A UNIQUE FRIENDSHIP
A P P R O A C H
Each performance of the TransCultural Symphony Orchestra, le boxon ensemble creates a new Symphony.
"Sym" means in Latin "friends" and "phone" means "sound" and "phone" can be "phun" or "fun". The TransCultural Symphony Orchestra has an incredible sound of friendship in symphonic music. The TransCultural Symphony Orchestra is open to everybody, musician or non-musician from different world of music genre (classical, rock, electronic, world, jazz, techno, hip hop, contemporary, etc.) with her/his passion, with her/his own particular personal technique to perform her/his instruments or voice. This situation creates a particular friendly melting-pot symphonic music. This is the way of the TransCultural Symphony Orchestra: an open music that cannot stay in a classified genre. The orchestra refuses to put the musicians in a serious disposal and refuses this aspect of music. The TransCultural Symphony Orchestra's is a great feeling of freedom and emotion for everyone. Together with all musicians and the audience it's a continuous enjoyment music exploration out of concert established rules. For each Symphony Shadow-Sky creates an instantaneous composition and conducting with particular gestures for each new idea. It is an unexpected dream realized.
Shadow-Sky made understandable the anagram l'O.E.U.F., there are ten different TransCultural Symphony Orchestras depending of the situation:=>
1. l'Orchestre des Electeurs Usés par les Factures,
2. l'Orchestre des Ethiopiens des Usines de Forgues,
3. l'Orchestre des Escrocs qui Urinent sur la France,
4. l'Orchestre Erotique Uniquement pour les Femmes,
5. l'Orchestre des Erectionistes qui s'Unissent par la Force,
6. l'Orchestre Explosif Utilisé pour les Fêtards,
7. l'Orchestre Enervé des Utopistes qui se Fachent,
8. l'Orchestre qui s'Enfile des Univers Formidables,
9. l'Orchestre qui Extermine les Ulcères Féconds,
10. l'Orchestre des Extraterrestres des Univers Futurs,