JOHN CHOWNING
Turenas

(arranged for live performers by LAURENT POTTIER)

Electronic percussion and keyboards:
Mckenzie Camp
Jessie Marino
Chryssie Nanou

Turenas is a masterpiece in the history of computer music. Written in 1972 by John Chowning, it introduced and combined what were then two revolutionary technologies: FM synthesis and sound spatialization. All the piece's sounds were synthesized by a computer using the FM synthesis technique developed and described by the composer himself a few years earlier. It was also a piece in which sounds were spatialized and moved around the audience using the concept of virtual acoustics.

Until now, Turenas existed as a piece of electroacoustic music for 4-channel tape. Through meticulous analysis, Laurent Pottier has recreated at CIEREC (France) all the synthesizers used for the original, and realized a version for four percussionists. He presents today a new version of the piece (US version) where all sounds are synthesized and controlled in real time by the musicians.

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