Swiss sound and visual artist Luca Kasper’s Atelier Métal was awarded third place in the 2023 Musicworks Electronic Music Composition Contest. Hit the PLAY button above to listen.
Currently based in France, in the countryside near Lyon, Kasper found the first inspiration for his winning piece during a stroll through the village where he had been living. He shared some notes with Musicworks about how Atelier Métal took shape.
“With a drumstick and a microphone in hand, I was on the lookout for percussion hits that I could then process in the studio. A big hydraulic machine, a kind of trailer for loading tree trunks, caught my attention. I started recording all kinds of variations on this rusty monster, imagining how rhythms and effects could bring it to life. This imaginary retro-futuristic hybrid was the starting point for Atelier Métal.
“I think of the studio as a laboratory where I bring back samples for analysis. I tried to reproduce certain timbral characteristics of my metal recordings with physical modelling, mostly on the Mutable Instruments modules (in VCV rack). This process gave rise to the composition’s main instrumentation. It felt magical to blur the boundary between acoustic and synthesis; it’s what enabled me to take this chimera into a catchier, more melodic atmosphere. In the gradual evolution of the track towards string arpeggios, I wanted to contrast the cold sounds of steel with the magnificent backdrop of the countryside.
“You will hear a pause from 3:23 to 4:07. The background ambience of this moment is a binaural recording, made in the forest overlooking the site of the famous machine. There’s a sense of grandeur in this recording, a stereo image that guided me towards a variation of scale in the choice of sounds, as if to recreate a fictional landscape from pseudo-scientific experience and tools.”
Luca Kasper’s studies have focused on electronic music and its instruments. After receiving a Bachelor's degree in Media & Interaction Design at the ÉCAL/University of Art and Design in Lausanne, he developed immersive sound installations closely linked to his compositions as part of the HEAD’s Work.Master program, which was completed in 2020. On a professional level, his creations range from video scenography to filming and editing for the theatre, and include stage technology in the fields of contemporary music and performance. He often devises home-made solutions and instruments that straddle the boundary between his digital skills and his manual work. Kasper has developed and pursued numerous collaborations with various cultural players in French-speaking Switzerland, including the Lexico Records and Brainwaves labels, the Les Halles de la Fonderie association in Carouge, the Serge Martin theatre school, the La Parfumerie and Vidy theatres and La Comédie de Genève. More recently, he has put his technical expertise at the service of the Musée Historique de Lausanne and the Compagnie Yan Duyvendak.
