biography:
Antoine Chessex is a composer and sound artist born in 1980 in Vevey, Switzerland, with a background as a saxophone player and performer. His sonic researches include compositions for ensembles, solo works, transdisciplinary collaborations and sound installations . Chessex´s works are based on the exploration of the physicality of sounds and spaces.
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 appears at numerous international festivals and venues in the U.S.A, Russia, Japan, China and all around Europe.
Recent compositional works include "DUST" for 3 violins and electronics (commissioned by Pro Helvetia), "Resonant Water" a site specific piece for acoustic ensemble, "Metakatharsis" commissioned by the Phoenix Ensemble in Basel (2011), "CHUTE" commissioned by the Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin (2011) as well as numerous electronic music pieces.
Collaborations with musicians like Lasse Marhaug, Zbigniew Karkowski, Maja Ratkje, Chris Corsano, Jerome Noetinger, Ilios, Valerio Tricoli, C. Spencer Yeh, Axel Dörner, Hans Koch, Robin Hayward, Thomas Ankersmit, Lucio Capece, Dave Phillips, Kasper Toeplitz, Burkhard Beins, Monno, Didi Bruckmayr, 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) / the compound (san francisco) / women (los angeles) / elastic arts (chicago) / npai festival (niort) / corsica studios (london)/ 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) / ultima contemporary music festival (oslo) / instants chavires (paris) / overkill festival (london) / lem festival (barcelona) / sensexperiment festival (cordoba) / international film festival (rotterdam) / LUFF festival (lausanne) / DNK (amsterdam) / centre of contemporary arts (warsaw) /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) / 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) / meteo festival (mulhouse)(...)
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". macumbista
"Moving, textural, orchestral, modern... now, if only all modern composing sounded like this"! review of Dust, Vital Weekly/Fdw
"When it comes to the impact of a statement, I’m all for conciseness. This piece by Antoine Chessex, which lasts 29 minutes, is a perfect specimen of how an essential concept can be entirely developed across a short time span if lucidity is there from the beginning". Review of Dust, Touching Extremes/Massimo Ricci
"Chessex crée un décor où l’abstraction sonore cède le pas, petit à petit, à une très étonnante – et excitante – tension aux frontières du dantesque". Chronique de Dust, Le son du grisli
"Monòcromo per tre violini e materiale eletronico, di estrema essenzialità e notevole impatto emotivo". review of Dust, Blow Up
"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
"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.
"Contrast this with Swiss tenor saxophonist Antoine Chessex’ solo tour-de-force in Chapelle Saint-Jean, which took advantage of the building’s spatial conditions. Entering the room while vibrating a high-pitched tone, Chessex never removed the reed from his mouth, as key-pad percussion, altissimo runs and granular pulses revealed drones with vibrating overtones. This non-stop polyphony not only refracted his ideas outwards, but the ancient walls’ permeative character seemed to reflect back onto his composition." Ken Waxman, All About Jazz Magazine, New York
"Ce qu’on aime à Météo, ce sont les contrastes, le bleu profond après l’orage. Hier à midi à la chapelle, le saxophoniste helvétique Antoine Chessex a offert une prestation aussi courte qu’intense, deux fois 15 minutes d’une note tenue en technique de souffle continu, une première entrée en matière dans les abysses du registre grave de son instrument, une seconde qui tricotait dans les aiguës. Une note unique qui en fait éclore beaucoup d’autres, la kyrielle d’harmoniques qui se déploie, conquiert peu à peu l’espace et vous enveloppe dans un cocon sonore bienfaisant. Pour obtenir de telles couleurs, le musicien se déplace et explore toutes les ressources acoustiques du lieu, dialogue avec les statues et les murs de pierre, vient se lover dans une bande son discrète qui restitue le même exercice enregistré en studio. Aucun bidouillage « live » mais le simple jeu des spectres sonores qui se croisent. Superbe". L'Alsace
"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.
"Last week I witnessed an audio illusion. I saw a man with a saxophone, a tenor one, moving around in a small space while playing his saxophone. There was no microphone, yet the sound seemed to come from the speakers. It did probably. The guy who played the saxophone moved around, facing the wall and let the sound bounce around. Who did what or what did what remained a mystery(...)" Frans De Waard, Vital Weekly
"Der Schweizer Antoine Chessex gehört zu den mutigsten und radikalsten Saxofonisten, die es gegenwärtig zu erleben gibt" Berliner Zeitung
"(...)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.
"Chessex joue entre retenu et densité, et nous fait toucher d’un peu plus près les infra-basses. Comment faire autant de sons avec un saxophone? C’est simple en multipliant les boucles, les effets et les matières sonores. La cage thoracique tremble énergiquement. Expérience sonore faite d’espaces traversés, musique souffle, cri, hachure, coupure, totalité. En tout cas, s’il ne faut qu’un mot ou deux, on dira: Sculpture sonore. Entre transe radicale, et performance humaine". live review from the pateras/fox/kohane/chessex tour
