Orchestre national de jazz (de France)

Created by the American composer and saxophonist Steve Lehman and Frédéric Maurin, in close collaboration with Ircam, Ex Machina explores new musical directions by developing real-time interactions between the soloists and the machine within a large jazz ensemble. These two musicians share a number of aesthetic issues and ambitions that have led them to take similar paths in their respective ensembles.

Ex Machina is the result of work with Ircam’s Representations musicales team, directed by Gérard Assayag, and integrates devices created from the DYCI2 environment by Jérôme Nika into the compositional process and into the soloists’ improvisations in real time, the computer becoming, in turn, a generator of electronic orchestrations for the composers and a partner in improvisation for the musicians.

Delegated production: Orchestre National de Jazz. Coproduction: Ircam-Centre Pompidou. With the support of the European Research Council in the framework of the ERC REACH project conducted at Ircam-STMS, the Centre national de la musique and the Sacem.

Steve Lehman - Compositions, alto sax
Frédéric Maurin - Compositions, direction
Fanny Ménégoz - Flute, alto flute, piccolo
Catherine Delaunay - Clarinet, basset horn
Steve Lehman - Alto saxophone
Julien Soro - Tenor & soprano saxophones, clarinet
Fabien Debellefontaine - Baritone saxophone, clarinet, flute
Jonathan Finlayson - Trumpet
Fabien Norbert - Trumpet
Daniel Zimmermann - Trombone
Christiane Bopp - Trombone
Fanny Meteier - Tuba
Chris Dingman - Vibraphone
Stéphan Caracci - Marimba, vibraphone, glockenspiel
Enzo Carniel - Piano
Sarah Murcia - Double bass
Rafaël koerner - Drums