French self-taught pianist-free improviser Henri Roger stopped playing the piano for several years due to hearing issues : tinnitus and overload. Luckily, hearing aids enabled him to tolerate sounds better and in 2023 he resumed playing the piano. During this time, Roger avoided group work, focused on solo electronic music in his home studio in Monaco, and expanded his skills in producing abstract video creation, images, and sounds.

Gestes et chemins (Gestures and paths) refers to the movements and paths on the baby grand Pleyel piano keyboard and the rapid mental journeys during his solo improvisations. These improvisations correspond with Roger’s research of serial music, the 12-tone series, and suggest a new vocabulary. Roger says these improvisations are rhythmically free, with successive pulses, speeds, intensities, and varied breaths.

Gestes et chemins is a DIY album. Roger recorded the eight improvisations on his home patio with his iPhone in May 2024, with one take for each improvisation with no edit. He designed the cover. His partner, Muriel Roger, filmed the video clip (see below). This solo album radiates faithfully the spirit of the art of the moment, offering free, contemplative yet intuitive music that gravitates naturally and organically into loose structures, feels untimely and is very personal, but, still, reflects a unique perspective on a challenging musical legacy.

Eyal Hareuveni
https://salt-peanuts.eu/record/henri-roger/

My video series "Ouïr-Voir" which started on October 24, 2021, is now complete. It is available as a YouTube playlist. It contains 1,000 videos. Please enjoy it in "shuffle" mode at a moderate volume.

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There is at any moment an infinity of perceptions within us." - Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

"One sees only what one looks at." - Maurice Merleau-Ponty

"Ouïr-Voir" is a series of short videos (#ContemporaryArt #ContemporaryMusic #ExperimentalVideo) created starting from October 2021.

These videos consist of combinations or interweaving of auditory and visual perceptions in the form of videos lasting less than thirty seconds, created using an iPhone, Photoshop, Protools, and sound processing plugins (GRM, Ircam, UVI).

The iPhone serves as both a camera and a percussion instrument, depending on the surfaces being filmed.

A kitchen strainer, a dishwashing brush, the strings of a piano, or those of an electric guitar will generate synchronized percussion sounds with the movements in the image.

Some images from the PiXXXLS series are integrated into the videos taken with the iPhone.

The video’s soundtrack is then developed by adding other sounds that aim to maintain the strongest possible connection between the image and the percussion.

The Ouïr-Voir series can be viewed on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.

Henri Roger, October 21, 2023.

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Ouïr-Voir playlist Youtube