Pascal Lenoir (1949–2016) was one of the earliest and most active critics of postmodernism, realizing the potential of the new technology in the field of made-in-China music, which he called "a kind of manufactured music, integrated into the architecture of the State". This music is characterized by a strong sense of rhythm and a delicate balance between power and resistance. It is modernist in the sense that it rejects the postmodernist aesthetics of the 20th century, but also traditionalist in its veneration of traditional music.
His music is sometimes called "natural music", and it certainly has the feeling of being made by the natural forces of the environment. However, Lenoir was aware of the cultural inventions of his own day, and his understanding of these was always wider than that. He understood the new musical technologies as the result of the cultural revolution and as a product of it.
The "sound of the new" is the theme of this music, but also a source of inspiration for the listeners, especially when the brass ensemble of Lillehammer has arrived at the same conclusions in a music that is not only modernist in its poise and tension, but also quite flexible and inventive in its handling of space.
This music is not just about the sounds, but also the spaces they take up. The brass ensemble in particular have a lot to say about the musical quality of this piece. They are represented by violinist Hugo Van Leeuwen, who works with the most interesting combination of musicians and instruments, and the cellists by Buthele Wiese and Bernard Labrie. The music has a rather fine spatial texture, which is echoed in the dialogue and the interaction between the instruments and their uses.
The score was written by Lenoir himself, and the fine improvisations he had to make are evident in the music. They could be described as "Pianist pantomime", which he had to do many times, and the use of a hand-made organ is also very evident in the music.
The sound is a rather sharp and loquacious organ in the first movement, which sounds like a recording and then like a game of piano on a string, with the cello occasionally playing a short sound, and then the thunderous roar of the organ gradually fades out. This is followed by a rather loose but very interesting section that is characterized by a very fine delicacy of sound. The brass are again playing, but it is not in a sustained way that is typical of the instrument, but in a gentle approach; it is like a dipping of the tongue into a glass. The key offering is still in the key of C, and it has plenty of room to manoeuvre. The percussion is very fine and the sounds come from a relatively short range. The cello is given more freedom to manoeuvre, and there is an excellent sense of "liveliness" in the sound.
The second movement is more abstract and there is also a bit of a sense of liveliness in the sounds. The trumpet is in a rather restrained role, and the cello is also a bit more active. It all works well, and the music is not too different from the first. It is a little more complex in terms of the sonar and the sound and the sonar is a bit more active, but still not too different. The cello sounds a bit more like a violin, but not too different in terms of textures.