biography:
Antoine Chessex is a composer and experimental musician born in 1980 in Vevey, Switzerland, with a background as a saxophone player and performer. His sonic researches include compositions for ensembles, solo works and collaborations with other artists. Chessex´s works are based on the exploration of the physicality of sounds and spaces and deal with acoustic as much as with electronic and electroacoustic mediums.
Nowadays, allthough mostly focusing on composition, Chessex still uses the horn. His solo works feature dense layers of sustained pitches reacting with the architecture of the space or massive clouds of amplified sax resulting in intense live actions in total immersion in the sound.
He presents his works worldwide and appeared in numerous international festivals around the globe.
Recent compositional works include "DUST" for 3 violins and electronics (commissioned by Pro Helvetia), "Resonant Water" a site specific piece for acoustic ensemble and "Metakatharsis" for orchestra and electronics commissioned by the Phoenix Ensemble in Basel (to be premiered in 2011).
Collaborations with musicians like Lasse Marhaug, Zbigniew Karkowski, Chris, Corsano, Ilios, Didi Bruckmayr, Thomas Ankersmit, Valerio Tricoli, C. Spencer Yeh, Axel Dörner, Hans Koch, Robin Hayward, Lucio Capece, Dave Phillips, Kasper Toeplitz, Monno, architect Christian Waldvogel and media artist Ulrike Gabriel.
Selected live appearances 2002-2010:
videotage (hong-kong) / urga (tokyo) / namba bears (osaka) / urbanguild (kyoto) / ochiai soup (tokyo) / issue project room (new york) / diapason gallery (new york) / the lab (san francsico) / compound (san francisco) / women (los angeles) / elastic arts (chicago) / npai festival (niort) / tuned city festival (berlin) / club transmediale festival (berlin) / ultra hang festival (budapest) / unsound festival (krakow) / dom (moscow) / kitaesky letchik (moscow) / sound forest festival (riga) / factory club (helsinki) /vaal gallery (tallinn) / instants chavires (paris) / overkill festival (london) / lem festival (barcelona) / sensexperiment festival (cordoba) / international film festival (rotterdam) / LUFF festival (lausanne) / DNK (amsterdam) / cap sembrat festival (barcelona) / sons d´hiver festival (marseilles) / hurrah festival (copenhagen) / pusterviktheater (goteborg) / antzokia (bilbao) / fundacion luis seone (galicia) / swiss institute (roma) / TAG (den haag) / mezzo cielo festival (roma) / corsica studios (london) / sonic protest festival (paris) / ze dos bois (lisbon) / szene (wien) / palace akropolis (prague) / castro (skopje)/ walcheturm (zürich) / living room (belgrade) / an club (athens) / eightball (thesaloniki) / audio art festival (krakow) / ruin festival (wien) / gallery ak28 (stockholm) / kset (zagreb) / (...)
Chessex gave lectures and workshops at the Goldsmiths College, London University, New Music foundation in Oslo, Hochschule für Gestaltung in Offenbach/Frankfurt, University of California in Davis, the Academy of the Arts in Riga and the department of electronic music of the Conservatory in Krakow.
Press quotes:
"The past few years have seen Antoine Chessex taking bold steps into new territory. The young composer and saxophonist has made victorious forays into the field of experimental music, sharing the stage with established figures such as Chris Corsano, Zbigniew Karkowski or Lasse Marhaug. This in addition to the lowercase world of his increasingly physical, Actionist-inspired solo noise sets for amplified saxophone. With his more recent works, such as his tape+sax composition for the Sololala Festival at the Sophiensaele in Berlin, we can see him taking on new directions in the field of contemporary music. His New Music piece DUST, for three violins and live tape manipulation, continues this new trajectory". -dh-
"DUST est une pièce composée par l'artiste suisse Antoine Chessex. Une lente progression mètaphysique, la jonction de violons tendus et d'une poussière revoxienne, se juxtaposant, se recouvrant, se résorbant et s'accompagnant, avant d'exploser en une puissante catharsis finale. Comme une proposition de départ vers l'infini, un avant-après Big Bang imagé, fortement réussi, inquiétant par moment comme l'est le vaste inconnu... la musique d'un vaisseau en partance vers les limites du cosmos peut-être, en tout cas elle peut résonner comme ça à nos simples oreilles terriennes. Une superbe pièce, savamment orchestrée et puissamment réalisée par des interprètes complètement à leur affaire". Fernando Sixto
"Chessex is a key in Europe´s experimental music community" disk/ctm.
"Antoine Chessex muss als einer der vielseitigsten Musiker der jungen Generation gelten. Die Vielfalt seiner musikalischen Ausflüge scheint grenzenlos. (...) Chessex versucht ästhetisch beschränkten Schulen prinzipiell fernzubleiben". D.Eichmann. Beitrage zur Neue Musik, Germany.
"Chessex is a sax player who frees the instrument from its well-tempered traditional references by driving it into sounding limit experience – without losing control over instrument or sound" avantgarde fest 2007
"Noone plays the saxophone as abysmal as Chessex, when transforming his instrument into a black distorted foghorn by the use of circular breathing, amps and distortion pedals" CTM, Berlin
"The tenor sax came out a couple of minutes into the set, though, and sixteen flavours of fury were suddenly unleashed on the crowd. (...) by the end of the set, there was a wild man on stage, tearing holes in the fabric of reality with his horn and daring anybody present to do more than simply gape in awe. Absolutely the finest noise performance I've ever been lucky enough to witness". Finsquandrago, review of a live gig in Japan.
"(...)Eine halbe Stunde dauert dieser Moment, der einem das Herz stillstehen lassen will, bis Chessex am Rand der Erschöpfungs-Ohnmacht auf der Bühne zu schwanken beginnt und dabei beinah die Verstärker umreißt. Wie eine elektrische Wolke knistert die Kraft und die Erregung lange noch in der heißen Luft. Wäre dies das letzte Konzert, das wir erleben durften, es wäre ein würdiges Ende". Jens Balzer, Berliner Zeitung.
"Le bel écrin de cuivre n’est là que pour générer des tremblements telluriques, terriblement impressionnants qui seront ensuite travaillés, grâce aux nombreux artifices à sa disposition.(...)Intense expérience sonore compacte, raz de marée irrésistible où se mêlent éruptions volcaniques des profondeurs, naufrage de bâtiments de guerre rouillés, tonnerre et chants de sirènes apeurées. S’engageant entièrement dans sa performance, Chessex impressionne. L’assistance affronte debout cette vague surpuissante ou plus souvent, assise ou allongée, décide de se laisser submerger. Probablement moins improvisée qu’elle ne semble, la mise en place de cette sculpture sonore irrémédiable donne des frissons de plaisir et de peur. Expérience inédite, à mille lieues de tout ce qu’on peut imaginer, c’est une demi-heure hors de tout qui nous est offerte (...) Encore plus que les autres musiques, ici, c’est en direct que l’on goûte l’éphémère déluge. Et c’est sans doute derrière cette sensation ultime que court la faune présente ce soir." chronique NPAI festival.
"(...)The endeavor was repaid by a dazzling, if literally “minimal” result: the whole concept is in fact based on a single note, held by Chessex through the celebrated technique of circular breathing (listen attentively and you can hear him persistently sneezing as he plays moving around the place). The music was subdivided in five sections yet the central pitch remains practically the same, either precisely produced and kept resounding or slightly undulating, often brought to clash with its own reverberation to origin that slight conflict of adjacent frequencies that lovers of Phill Niblock or Alvin Lucier know so well. Only for a few instants of the fourth chapter, Chessex - I couldn’t say how willingly - transposes the tone one octave higher, but it doesn’t last. The concluding act lets us get the impression of the instrument’s sound slowly deteriorating, a handful of feeble multiphonics perceptible in the decaying airy mass at the end of the track. Despite the label’s recommendation of listening by headphones, the effect via the speakers is especially beautiful. 33 minutes of your life for these nerve-reinforcing quivers are definitely well spent". Massimo Ricci, Touchning Extremes, review of the acoustic solo release on naivsuper label.
