Anne Castex

Un tour volé au sablier des Vanités

“A Stolen Turn of the Hourglass of Vanities”

When Zubin Kanga told me about his Cyborg Soloists project, I immediately began reflecting on the figure of the augmented human, and more broadly on transhumanism. This fantasy of a body extended by the machine — able to push its limits, or even escape death — brought to mind a simple image: the hourglass.

The hourglass measures time, but it also contains several conceptions of it at once: a time that flows irreversibly, a time that starts again with each reversal — and perhaps even a frozen time. I like to believe there is a moment, a gesture, that could suspend the hourglass mid-fall — and with it, time itself.

These three relationships to time — linear, cyclical, and static — run through the piece. Another guiding thread is that of density — the density of sand versus the solitude of the grain. This tension between mass and isolation shapes the musical writing: in the play of resonances throughout the piece, in the relay of notes, and in the omnipresent electronic reverb.

The pianist’s hand, connected to the electronics, becomes a hand reaching toward this metaphorical hourglass — an attempt to hold back time, or to stop it altogether.