Augustin Viard

Augustin Viard (born 1984) is a French musician who plays the ondes Martenot, an electronic instrument developed in the 1920s.[1][2]

His work includes performances with international symphonic orchestras, chamber music ensembles and solo concerts.[2][3][4] His contributions as a player and composer are regularly aired on Radio France programmes,[5][6][7] and his recordings include collaborations with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Rob Simonsen, Evgueni Galperine[8] and the soundtrack of several award-nominated movies such as Loveless,[5] Earwig, Blonde or Black Flies.

Augustin Viard is listed as one of the rare contemporary ondists[9][10] and owns a collection of authentic instruments made by Maurice Martenot.[11]

Biography

Augustin Viard was born in Provence in 1984.[1][12] He studied the ondes Martenot at the Conservatoire de Boulogne-Billancourt and at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris from which he graduated with a master's degree in 2013.[2]

Stage career

He launched his career as a soloist and chamber musician with Ensemble Vecteur Ondes and Ensemble Volta.[3][4][13][14]

He played the ondes Martenot part of Ecuatorial by Edgard Varèse in Paris with the Ensemble Intercontemporain in 2012, under Susanna Mälkki.[15] In 2015 he performed Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher by Arthur Honegger in Utrecht (Netherlands) with Het Promenade Orkest under Jos Vermunt.[16] He has also given performances of this piece in Osnabrück (Germany) in 2017 with the Osnabrücker Symphonieorchester under Andreas Hotz,[2] in Mexico City in 2018 with the Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM under Sylvain Gasançon,[2] and in Katowice (Poland) in 2019 with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Liebreich.[17] The same year, he performed the piece again with Marion Cotillard in the lead role, with the Orchestre National de Lille, conducted by Alexander Bloch, at the George Enescu Festival in Budapest (Romania).

Film and audio recordings

In 2014, he released his debut album Les nuages de Magellan in collaboration with Ensemble Volta.[14][18] This included all the chamber music pieces for ondes Martenot composed by Tristan Murail.[14] This recording won the Grand Prix du Président de la République de l'Académie Charles Cros 2014, an honour awarded by the French president François Hollande.[19][20]

Since 2016, French public radio station France Culture regularly commissions Viard to compose and perform original pieces for broadcast.[6][7][8][21]

In 2017 he played Ondes Martenot on the award-winning soundtrack of the international film Loveless.[5] This film received the Prix du Jury du Festival de Cannes 2017[22] and the César du meilleur film étranger (best foreign film) 2018.[23] The composers Evgueni and Sacha Galperine won the Best Composer European Film Awards 2017.[24]

In 2018, he composed the original music for the audio cinema film Le brasier Shelley with Warren Ellis,[25] starring Gaspard Ulliel, Warren Ellis and Marianne Faithfull.[25][26] This film was selected for the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma of Montréal competition 2018.[27]

In 2019, he performed all the Ondes Martenot parts on Nick Cave's album Ghosteen.[28] The album achieved number 4 in the main UK charts[29] and reached top 10 positions in 15 European countries.

In 2020, Augustin Viard's ondes Martenot feature on Marianne Faithfull's The Lady of Shallot, in another collaboration with Nick Cave (Piano) and Warren Ellis (synthesiser and loops).[30] The 11 minute long track is part of Faithfull's album She Walks in Beauty, which reached the Billboard 200 when released a few months later, peaking at number 51.[31]

In 2021, Viard composed the original theme for Earwig,[32] a full-length movie directed by Lucile Hadzihalilovic, which won the Special Jury Prize at the San Sebastian international film festival.[33] Viard's score attracted rave international reviews, The Hollywood Reporter noting "a gorgeous minimalistic score",[34] The Irish Times "Augustin Viard’s music (...) spreads brilliantly eerie glitch about the queasy action"[35] and the Daily Telegraph calling the film "blessed by a gorgeous, otherworldly score by Augustin Viard, a specialist in the ondes Martenot."[36]

In 2022, he appears as an ondes Martenot performer on the soundtrack of the highly successful Netflix film Blonde,[37] a fiction based around the life of Marilyn Monroe.[38]

In 2023, academy award winner Nicolas Becker asks Viard to perform ondes Martenot on the soundtrack of the American thriller Black Flies starring Sean Penn.[39] The movie is officially selected for the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.

Notable performances

Year Piece Orchestra Conductor Country
1 2012 « Ecuatorial » by Edgard Varèse Ensemble Intercontemporain Susanna Mälkki France
2 2015 « Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher » by Arthur Honegger Het Promenade Orkest Jos Vermunt Netherlands
3 2017 « Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher » by Arthur Honegger Osnabrücker Symphonieorchester Andreas Hotz Germany
4 2018 « Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher » by Arthur Honegger La Orquesta Fiarmónica de la UNAM Sylvain Gasançon Mexico
5 2019 « Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher » by Arthur Honegger Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Alexander Liebreich Poland
6 2019 « Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher » by Arthur Honegger

Title role : Marion Cotillard

Orchestre National de Lille Alexandre Bloch Romania
7 2023 "Turangalila Symphonie" by Olivier Messiaen Utah Symphony Orchestra Thierry Fischer USA

[2][15][16][17][40]

Main recordings

2014

CD release, Ensemble Volta « Les nuages de Magellan », Tristan Murail chamber music pieces for ondes Martenot, Recommended Records[14][18]

2016

Broadcast, « Les mains d’Orlac » by Céline Ters and Ludovic Chavarot, France Culture, Radio France[6]

2017

Audio film, « Vent Clair » by Corentin Pichon and Céline Ters, France Culture, Radio France[8]

CD release, « Loveless » Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Music by Evgueni and Sacha Galperine, Varèse Sarabande[5]

2018

CD release, « Aïtone », French rock band album, Modulor[41][42][43]

Audio film, « Le brasier Shelley » by Céline Ters and Ludovic Chavarot, France Culture, Radio France[44]

Audio film, « Dans la tête d'Ingmar Bergman » by Florence Colombani and Céline Ters, France Culture, Radio France[7]

Film, « Cuba, un aller et un retour » by Frédéric Compain, Arte TV[45]

2019

CD release, "Rêveries" by Rob Simonsen, Sony Masterworks.

CD and Vinyl release, "Ghosteen" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Bad Seed Ltd.[1]

2020

CD and Vinyl release, "She Walks in Beauty" by Marianne Faithfull (with Warren Ellis), BMG.

2021

Movie soundtrack, Earwig, directed by Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Wild Bunch international

Audio film, "La Japonaise", by Céline Ters and Patrick Boudet, France Culture, Radio France.[2]

2022

CD and Vinyl release, Blonde, film soundtrack Lakeshore Records and Invada Records

2023

Movie soundtrack (performer), Black Flies, directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire, music by Nicolas Becker & Quentin Sirjac, Open Road Films

References

  1. ^ a b "Augustin VIARD". 23 August 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Juana de Arco en la hoguera" (PDF) (in Spanish). p. 9. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  3. ^ a b "Le Bel itinéraire de Roger Tessier". France Musique. 14 May 2017.
  4. ^ a b France, Centre (August 24, 2015). "La Spouze a reçu de très bonnes ondes". lepopulaire.fr.
  5. ^ a b c d "Loveless [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] - Evgueni Galperine, Sacha Galperine | Credits". AllMusic.
  6. ^ a b c "Les mains d'Orlac ou quand la chair prend âme". France Culture. 26 May 2016.
  7. ^ a b c "Atelier de Création Radiophonique : Dans la tête d'Ingmar Bergman". France Culture. 30 December 2018.
  8. ^ a b c "Vent clair, d'Andrei Tarkovski - Dimanche 17 septembre 2017 - 18h00 Maison de la radio - Studio 105". maisondelaradio.fr.
  9. ^ Laurendeau, Jean (2017). Maurice Martenot, luthier de l'électronique (Editions Beauchesne ed.). p. 379. ISBN 9782701022376.
  10. ^ "Télécharger Maurice Martenot, luthier de l'électronique - Jean Laurendeau pdf - guivipurbu". sites.google.com.
  11. ^ "Repertoire | Augustin Viard - Ondes Martenot".
  12. ^ "Augustin Viard (ondes Martenot)". OwenWhite Management. September 3, 2018.
  13. ^ "Hommage à Messiaen à la Maison de la Culture du Japon - Fédération des enseignements artistiques Martenot". federation-martenot.fr.
  14. ^ a b c d "Tristan Murail, Les Nuages de Magellan - MFA". musiquefrancaise.net.
  15. ^ a b "Edgard Varèse - Ecuatorial - Ensemble intercontemporain". December 20, 2012 – via YouTube.
  16. ^ a b "Jeanne d'Arc au Bûcher, Honegger". TivoliVredenburg.
  17. ^ a b "From Paris to Poland with an Ondes Martenot". OwenWhite Management. May 16, 2019.
  18. ^ a b "Les Nuages de Magellan: Works by Tristan Murail - L'Ensemble Volta | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic.
  19. ^ Grand prix du disque
  20. ^ "Le palmarès des grands prix de l'académie Charles Cros / Actualités / Irma : centre d'information et de ressources pour les musiques actuelles". IRMA : Centre d'information et de ressources pour les musiques actuelles. 21 November 2014.
  21. ^ "Atelier de Création Radiophonique : Vent clair, film fantôme d'Andreï Tarkovski". France Culture. December 2016.
  22. ^ "NELYUBOV". Festival de Cannes 2019.
  23. ^ "Palmarès des César - Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma". academie-cinema.org. Archived from the original on 2019-01-22. Retrieved 2019-07-13.
  24. ^ "30th European Film Awards: The Winners". European Film Awards. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  25. ^ a b "Cinésonore : "Le Brasier Shelley", un film sans image en son immersif au mk2 Bibliothèque à Paris / France Culture". France Culture. 12 June 2019.
  26. ^ "Le Brasier Shelley - Vendredi 15 juin 2018 - 20h30 Maison de la radio - Studio 105". maisondelaradio.fr.
  27. ^ "LE BRASIER SHELLEY". Festival du nouveau cinéma.
  28. ^ "Augustin Viard performs on Nick Cave's new album". OwenWhite Management. 2019-10-16. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
  29. ^ "The Script "so humbled" to score their fifth UK Number 1 album". officialcharts.com. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
  30. ^ "SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY (WITH WARREN ELLIS)-FAITHFULL,MARIANNE | notems". notems.com. Retrieved 2021-09-30.
  31. ^ "Marianne Faithfull". Billboard. Retrieved 2021-09-30.
  32. ^ Earwig (2021) - IMDb, retrieved 2021-09-30
  33. ^ "San Sebastian Film Festival". sansebastianfestival. Retrieved 2021-09-30.
  34. ^ Mintzer, Jordan (2021-09-11). "'Earwig': Film Review | TIFF 2021". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2023-05-12.
  35. ^ "Earwig: A weird and wonderful film that approaches transendence". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
  36. ^ Robey, Tim (2022-06-09). "Earwig: beetles about elegantly but incoherently". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2023-05-12.
  37. ^ Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - Blonde (Soundtrack From The Netflix Film) (in French), 24 February 2023, retrieved 2023-05-11
  38. ^ Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - Blonde (Soundtrack From The Netflix Film) (in French), 24 February 2023, retrieved 2023-05-12
  39. ^ "Nicolas Becker on Instagram on Black Flies Cannes Film Festival selection".
  40. ^ Clark, Elaine (2023-05-19). "Theremin? No thanks. The sound connoisseurs are all into the ondes Martenot". KUER. Retrieved 2023-05-20.
  41. ^ "Aïtone – Modulor Records".
  42. ^ Mejas, Max (February 26, 2018). "Aïtone, premier rendez-vous avec une pop mélancolique".
  43. ^ Curieuses, Les Oreilles (February 22, 2018). "Aïtone - Aïtone".
  44. ^ "Le Brasier Shelley - Dimanche 16 septembre 2018 - 18h00 Maison de la radio - Studio 105". maisondelaradio.fr.
  45. ^ "Cuba, un aller et un retour – Zadig Productions".