Maxime De La Rochefoucauld
I dropped by Red Bird Studios on the far, industrial end of Montreal’s Mile End district recently to see a musical performance by 30 robots. I didn’t quite know what to expect – something like Tweaky from those old Buck Rodgers shows singing in a stiff voice to the accompaniment of a like-minded orchestra of robot chums?
Entering the Red Bird warehouse – comfortably appointed, I might add with deluxe furniture, art installations and a friendly cast of folks serving Orangina and whatnot – I saw a massive array of instruments rigged up to speakers via unusual hammer and spring mechanisms that looked like the work of a mad scientist. Ukeleles, violins, kick drums, cymbals, snares and a host of others all looked like they had been subject to the demented experimentation of a twisted mind.
That mad scientist was Maxime Rioux, also known as Maxime De La Rochefoucauld, a Quebec sound artist, musician and inventor who has developed this system, which he calls Automates Ki. Rioux is able to individually control all 30 instruments via computer that sends super low-frequency impulses to woofer speakers, which in turn cause the springs to vibrate and the hammers to then strike their instruments. Riox has been doing this since 1980 and has refined the system into a seamless and mysteriously beautiful listening and viewing experience.
The music itself was magical, sounding like world music from a culture that never be quite pinpointed. As the robots enchanted eyes and ears, Rioux and a few cohorts dug in with some apparently free improv on trumpet, saxophone and an instrument that looked like a koto. With sound coming from all over the room, it was hard to locate sources until the eyes finally matched up a rhythm with the visual cue of hammer in action. The listener is kept fascinated trying to understand what’s going on where, studying the visual curiousity and beauty of the Rube Goldberg-style contraptions and also taking in the rich music that results.
I was curious to learn more about Rioux and his machines and his new CD on the Montreal label Storyboard Records.
How long have you been doing these robot performances?
I have been working on the Système Ki for 10 years now! I have worked on a system of my own invention that animates the automatons, producing a music centered on percussion. The Système Ki transforms inaudible low-frequency modulations into an acoustic phenomenon.
Why did you start doing this - why work with robots and not other humans or just a computer & synthesizer?
In French the word robots sounds funny to me. A robot is a caricature of a human being, an anthropomorphism. The Automates Ki are the spokespersons for the vibration, they make you listen to inaudible frequencies in a sympathic way. Why am I doing this? For the love of producing sound.
Have you always played live instruments (your saxophone and trumpet, etc) with the Automates Ki or is that a recent addition?
I have always Liked to voodooize the music. The musical language I use is not elaborated as a virtuosity; it is an energy, i think. I play with them without imposing my ego.
Where did you learn to build these things - did you invent this technique?
Since 1980, I have been using the speaker as sculptural material and/or a musical instrument. I was making empty eggs vibrate in a woofer. Also, I literally played the speaker as a percussion instrument. The rimm of the speaker has a note!
I did invent this technique of sound production. At the beginning, with the help of my friend Gerard Leckey, I wanted to make wine glasses vibrate. We realized that low frequencies were the way to go. Later, I put a cymbal and a snare on my kitchen table, hit them with sticks attached to the woofers trigged by a Moog… and phone my friend to see this incredible phenomenon.
What were you doing before you did this?
Sound shows & installations.
Did you train as a musician or a sound artist or......?
No.
Will you continue to work with the Automates Ki, composing new music for them or will the interest in working in this way run its course for you and lead to something else?
Of course, it is a big sound machine, people talk about 5.1 as a revolution for spacialisation for sound…. I am already 20.4!
What software are you using to control the Automates Ki - are they being sequenced from a musical score?
The uniqueness of my system is that you can use any sound software to make the Automates Ki move. All of the 20 and more automatons are independently orchestrated. Also, I can trigger lights or puppets with any sound software!
Is there some degree of improvisation involved in what they sound?
Improvisation is not the right word; the Automates Ki have a flexibility of action.
The principle builders of automatons in the eighteenth century only got as far as perpetuating the image of the robot who forever repeats the same motions. The cyclic gear, clocktype mecanism, and by extension binary information that we still use today in computers.
By contrast, my system emphasizes the flexibility of control and openness to accidents that seduces me. Think of polygravitational rhythms!
Upon hearing the automatons, we may be reminded of another particular musical culture, but this is like a mirage, because the means employed from the start to construct this amalgamation of sounds rests on algorithms that have nothing to do with other musical traditions.
Notwithstanding these theoretical considerations, my interest in developing of the Ki system is not unrelated to the fact that I am myself a percussionist. I am sensitive to the affinities that the organic geometry of the automaton's music maintains with the fabulous rhythmic heritage of humanity.
That's fascinating! I heard a sort of pan-cultural world music aspect to what you were doing and assumed it was fully intentional and sequenced in that way. I had the feeling that the rhythms were not tightly controlled as some of the robots seem to have fairly loose springs? I'm curious as to the degree of chance in what the audience hears.
Common… you heard some really really precise human rhythms, some of the mecanisms are loose because I wanted them to be. I can progam any beat I want.
There is a pliable structure, made of wood and spring, attached to the mobile base of the speaker, which is the firing pin. Similar to an eardrum, it is designed to produce an oscillating movement when a vibration is applied to it. The firing pins are custom-built for each instrument.
Would you be willing to invite other artists to work with this system and compose music or are the automatons solely designed to serve your own musical goals.
Ben Borden, my present collaborator, is one of many instrumentists I have invited through the years to work with the Système Ki. Ben is also the first person that is learning the system from the base up. Sharing my knowledge is something that I am happy to do, since almost nobody knows practically how it works.
Other composers? Why not!, But, well, they would have to pay me to use it! And good luck learning how…
Does the CD successfully translate your vision or do you think people need to come out to the live show to really appreciate and understand what's at work in your music?
I believe you can appreciate the recorded stereo CD of my music, it stands by itself. But of course it is a wonderful experience to see them live. This said, I talked to some people after the show who were telling me that they first look at them working and then… just relax and close their eyes and enjoy the music a great deal.
Do you see yourself doing a DVD in the future to add the visual element of the live shows for the home audience?
Of course, I have tons of footage, but I am not a video person. It must come from an outsider with a budget. Actually, after the show, someone who filmed the performance, came up to me and said he is really interested to do a HD DVD… We'll see. To see them alive online, go to Youtube and type "Maxime Rioux".
Check out Maxime's new CD, Orchestraki on Storyboard Records, and don't miss an opportunity to see this fascinating spectacle live.
