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Annabelle Playe composes with electronic instruments. Her music oscillates between electroacoustic, experimental, drone and noise. Her work is based on timbre and the physicality of sound, with a particular attention to musical structure.
I feel like I create worlds out of musical experience and the search for a sound. The composition welcomes the listener; it is like offering them a constructed space that can become unbalanced, moving. From this space that we can take them to unknown places that are not yet revealed to them.
First of all, for the authors’ rights! They allow recognition, a defense of our work.
In the digital age, it’s very complicated to follow our rights because our music is essentially broadcast on the internet. Many things escape us. We are not necessarily paid for all the streams. Back in the day, the value of music was in records and other physical media. During the lockdowns, we switched to this form of distribution and the producers pay less as a result. This dimension of authors’ rights very important.
Also, Sacem’s cultural action is essential for musical creation, especially in the artistic genre in which I create, which is more cryptic. My music takes a long time to get into. You’ve got to appropriate new tools. This study of the form, as well as on the content, requires a lot of time. When one passes on more substantial forms in connection with dance or the theatre, cultural action has an inestimable value. We musicians are often limited to performances in the form of concerts. theatres and national stages are afraid of these aesthetics. It is difficult to find co-productions with these stages for hybrid forms in which music is the central dramaturgical axis, and on this point, Sacem’s support is very important for us.
We developed a very strong connection starting in 2019. It began with the DGCA-Sacem programme. Sacem committed itself to the Ministry of Culture for this programme, which associates a composer with a multidisciplinary stage for two years. The artist can advise the management on the artists and concerts programmed. The other missions are of course the dissemination of the artist’s works. We also do cultural mediation to raise awareness. We organise meetings between the public and the composers. There is also a creative component. For my part, it was implemented in 2019 and 2020. Composers of creative music need support because there is none in the cultural industry. It’s important that this programme promotes these types of music. It is a very concrete move on part of Sacem. This programme carried me in my work and consolidated my relationship with the Scènes Croisées de Lozère (Scène conventionnée – theatre, music, dance, circus shows in the Lozère department). I was delighted that there was already an appetite for this music in Lozere and the department was even more open to it. The director made another request and is with another composer with whom he’s collaborating this year. Sacem maintains a continuous presence in Lozere. So the first programme gave birth to a second one. The Sacem also supported us a lot with its digital component in 2019 and 2020.
In 2021, thanks to Sacem, we were in residence in different places, in Lozère, in Millau in Aveyron or at the Générateur in Gentilly, in the paris region. Theatres welcomed us to do research, create as a team and then rehearse.
On the one hand, it has maintained its support and has also allowed us to respond to songwriting commissions. We received residency support in 2021. I’m delighted that this has continued and I hope it will continue again!
Support, listening and innovation, because in my music there is, thanks to Sacem, a search for innovation through aid to digital projects and research.
– Crédit photo : Quentin Chevrier –
