Le Corbusier, Iannis Xenakis, Edgard Varèse - Poème électronique ( 1958 )

Most of the time this movie is avaiable on Youtube at 25p framerate and mono. Here is a remaster at 24p and stereo. This art piece was meant to be played in the Philips pavilion of the Bruxelles exhibition of 1958. The pavilion was deseigned by Iannis Xenakis. People went inside the pavilion, the floor was shaped like a cow stomach and there was three domes resulting of parabolic and hyperbolic walls built in concrete. People waited two minutes, listening to a piece of musique concrète by Xenakis called «Interlude sonore». This was a shortened version of “Concret PH“. Concret was probably a reference to musique concrète or to concrete material; while PH may signify Philips or parabolic-hyperbolic. On this Youtube video you can listen to the long version, alongside with two texts that were projected during the interval. Then there was eight seconds of silence and the main part of the show started. A movie made by Le Corbusier was projected, twice at the same time on two walls face to face. This movie depicts vague general themes about humankind. This is the movie you will watch in this video, but only one time and in full screen. There was another movie called «tri-trous» by Le Corbusier that was projected at the same time. There were three synchronous still pictures that completed the first film and placed around the main frame. This film is not depicted here. Four syncrhonous 35mm film projectors were used for the performance. Le Corbusier commissionned Edgard Varèse to compose a music for the film. Both Xenakis and Varèse musics were recorded on 3 tracks tape machines. There was spatialisation after the sound was dispatched through 11 routes and 450 loudspeakers. The loudspeakers were placed into the concrete walls and covered in abestos. The sounds echoed and reverbered on the walls of the structure. This effect can not be heard in this video, there are only the stereo mixdowns. Varèse mixed his music with the help of Philips assistants in the Netherlands. It consists of prerecorded sounds on tape, that were mixed, speed up or slowed down and spatailised. Early electronic instruments, such as generators were used. The main work of Le Corbusier was to project light and colour effects on the walls inside the pavilion alongside of the film and music performance. Those effects are not presented in this video. After the end of the exhibition the pavilion was dynamited. Only the film and the music remains. The film is presented here in SD, from an obscure VHS rip found on the internet. Nor Philips or the EYE film institue appears to have released an official VHS or DVD of the film, it have yet to be done. In 2005 some efforts were made to reconstruct the whole performance in virtual reality. Unfortunatly the website about this closed down. On this video you will get to experience “Concret PH“ by Xenakis, in full lenght, followed by 8 seconds of silence and then «Poème électronique» by Le Corbusier and Varèse, in 24p and stereo.