Jérôme Combier

Gris Cendre

Gris Cendre is based on Samuel Beckett's text Lessness, which Ludovic Janvier, with the author's permission, translated as the word 'Sans' (Lessness). No other translation for the word he coined in English was found, besides this simple word implying only lack - Sans.'Lessness' portrays, 'to the point of exhaustion' a place devoid of a single person apart from this 'he', recurring seven times, 'little body heart beating only up' - to curse, do, relive - initiate the inhabitation of this place. 'An empty place awaiting bodies, language, events'... A place that the philosopher ends up calling Noir gris, which means 'the being in its localization void of all events'. 'A black sufficiently gray as to not be in contradiction with light, a black that is the opposite of nothing, an anti-dialectical black'.After reading and rereading this brief text, I realised that the words were in a particular order, that the phrases formed a structure - a perceptible structure - that I was happy to grasp onto as a way of listening to the music. I dared to believe that this thought process would enable me to hear an unusual musical form, which would perhaps be baffling, and foremost, to me. Such is my relationship with this short text.Gris cendre is in line with the work I began with Noir azur - Cette fois - and continued with Noir gris - Impromptu d'Ohio.'Grey sky no cloud no sound no stir earth ash grey sand. Little body same grey as the earth sky ruins only upright. Ash grey all sides earth sky as one all sides endlessness.'Samuel Beckett, Lessness, London, Calder and Boyars 1970