Fragments noirs: Contemporary music recorded deep underground

December 19, 2017 — Uncategorized

“Fragments noirs” is a musical work by Sudbury-based composer Robert Lemay that was recorded two kilometres underground in the Cryopit, a large experiment cavern at SNOLAB.

Composed of nine short musical commentaries, Fragments Noirs is part of a larger collaborative project titled “2000 metres Underground” between Lemay and poet Thierry Dimanche, both faculty at Laurentian University. The composer and poet made an initial visit to SNOLAB in July of 2016 and created the writing and musical scores to offer a metaphorical interpretation of their visit to the SNOLAB research facility. They returned in March of this year with saxophone duo Stereoscope; Olivia Shortt, of North Bay, and Jacob Armstrong, of Ottawa. “The work was recorded without editing to give listeners the sense of experiencing the music as if they were in the SNOLAB,” Lemay notes.

They are planning a performance of the “2000 metres Underground” project in Sudbury for March of 2018. The “Fragments noirs” recording is for sale through iTunes, other digital downloading services and from streaming platforms such as Spotify. The digital CD is distributed internationally by NAXOS.