Paul Beaudoin - Warth

In today’s episode we’re having a chat with Paul Beaudoin on how he approached his work on the first segment of the river.This part of the river Lech is as close as possible to the idea of an alpine paradise: ice-cold waters running through bright green meadows and dark pines, and people wearing dirndl and lederhosen walking through the quiet, sleepy towns. But the silence was deceptive. October, when we visited, felt like a moment of repose between the busy summer season and the even busier winter season. The chairlift operating in Warth was a reminder of that, with its incessant drone and metallic clang.This is how Paul described his project:At the source of the Lech River near Warth, water and machinery sound together.This piece grows from a field recording made close to the river, where flowing water blends with the steady drone and metallic clanking of a nearby ski chairlift. Rather than treating this as noise, it becomes the core of the music. The orchestra and percussion amplify its energy, unfolding wide harmonic fields and sharp rhythmic gestures.River, infrastructure, and time unfold within one shared sound world.In the podcast episode he’ll take us through how he envisioned this segment of river as a part of the whole, in fact the part that gets the rest of it started.It was an interesting conversation where we talk about lots of things, what you won’t find there is a description of the gear used. Here’s his brilliant response (which I’m going to recycle as soon anyone asks me about the gear I use):As for gear, well, it reminds me of a photographer who has dinner with a socialite. She compliments him on his photos and asks what kind of camera he uses. After the dinner, he compliments the socialite by saying, “Very nice dinner, what kind of stove do you use?” That’s how I feel about gear.Thanks for reading Art Music Science! Subscribe to receive new posts and podcasts.Flow is a project by Martina Cecchetto, curated by Riccardo Fumagalli, with the scientific contribution of Florian Betz.In collaboration with Cities & Memory, University of Padua (Italy), University of Würzburg (Germany). Get full access to Art Music Science at artmusicscience.substack.com/subscribe