Co-program 2022. Category D “KAC Selection” adopted project.
A percussion/electronic solo with spatial sound and ceramic. (for percussions, ceramic and speakers)
Theme: Quantum physics discoveries is the other break through in contemporary Physic. It explores the smallest parts of the matter and introduces the concept of particle resonance.
Concept :
This movement takes the audience on a trip to explore microscopic matter and its oscillation. It consists of a 3-day exhibition and audio installation presenting a series of ceramics based on String Theory and musical performances: percussion, electronic music, and ceramophone ( the new ceramic instrument created through a collaboration of Kurokawa and Paget).
A special collaboration with Toru Kurokawa
Being passionate for several years about the String Theory which brought to his work a new relationship with shape and dimension, Toru Kurokawa collaborates in this project with Yannick Paget, creating a ceramic instrument specially designed for this movement. The research of the resonance of the ceramic is the starting point of the creation of the Ceramophone. Played with mallets and bow, the Ceramophone brings a new sound and resonance in deep connection with quantum physics.
The Ceramophone, a new instrument
Featured prominently in Consciousness, the Ceramophone is a central element of the symphony and accompanies the tour, making its first appearance in Europe.
The Ceramophone comprises a series of ceramic sculptures by Japanese artist Toru Kurokawa specifically for the symphony’s second movement, Quantum. It is the culmination of extensive research on matter and sound by Paget and Kurokawa. The Ceramophone is divided into three percussion groups:
- – The main body of the instrument: a series of sculptures inspired by visual elements of string theory, played with mallets.
- – The “plates:” large circular slabs resembling cymbals, played with a bow.
- – The “bow trumpets:” sculptures shaped like flattened trumpet bells, also played with a bow. These sculptures have been carefully crafted and selected to produce the range of sounds and resonances required by the piece. Each sculpture produces 1 to 4 distinct notes. A traditional percussion set (including vibraphone, toms, cymbals, etc.) complements the Ceramophone, enriching the performance.
Quantum 2.0 (2025 New Version)
Solo audio-visual performance:
percussion, electronics, Ceramophone, and virtual reality
Composition, percussion, electronics: Yannick Paget. Scientific advisor: Koji Hashimoto
Ceramicist: Toru Kurokawa. Live visuals: Sagar Patel
Reactive Video Creation
Visual artist Sagar Patel creates video compositions based on three-dimensional modeling of Toru Kurokawa’s sculptures
which are responsive to sound modulations. The audience is taken on a journey from immersion in matter, to its disintegration, and its eventual reconfiguration.
VR Integration : a first in a live concert
Yannick Paget blurs the boundaries between the material and immaterial through the simultaneous performance of physical and virtual instruments. This hybridization evokes the quantum concepts of matter and antimatter as the audience witnesses projections of virtual instruments. This technology will be performed for the first time.
Sound Spatialization
Twelve speakers surround the audience, offering an immersive, semi-spherical sound experience. This system creates an acoustic environment within the performance space that takes the audience beyond the actual dimensions of the room. In this new soundscape, duplicated sounds, response effects, and echoes can be spatialized individually anywhere within the space. Like elementary particles, the sounds interact, move, and transform within this sonic version of the quantum world.
