“I am committed to the idea of the score as text, as the written representation of musical structures. Yet there is the fact that the work in progress imposes itself upon us, that a ‘text’ compels us to write certain things: a thread appears that must be pulled, but it is no longer I who pulls the thread; it is already the fabric that compels me to do so. So, since I stopped anticipating with plans, I no longer work on form within an imposed framework. Form reveals itself; it is a labyrinth of ceaseless choices, not always binary, as Arnold Ehrenzweig believed, but there are always ramifications, and a kind of logic takes hold despite ourselves. At the start, there’s the match: lighting it—placing the first sound is very complicated—but then there’s an acceleration with the combustion, and that allows you to move forward for a while.” [1]

“I have always been fascinated by the Preludes of Chopin and Debussy, which, in my view, form a sort of diptych—or a mirror and an anti-mirror. In terms of form, figures, character, and duration, they raise questions that point back to the source of my conception of musical invention. Just as in ancient ceramics, the struggle between clay and glaze leads to a contradictory expression, to a shaken memory of Greek and Etruscan ruins where the two materials merge and separate, the pigments becoming lava that brings forth the shadow of what they are meant to hide, I wanted to explore an instrumental reflection in my Preludes, starting from the underlying allusions of a hybridized Chopin combined with echoes of the dynamics found in Debussy’s notebooks. The work I had envisioned was to consist of a series of fragments whose outlines, drawn from Chopin’s Preludes, Op. 28, would be projected into a foreign instrumental universe, an ensemble that would allow for an altered and heterogeneous sound. Far from being commentaries, the destiny of my nineteen preludes is to be interwoven in an irregular and asymmetrical manner with Chopin’s Preludes.”

Ramon Lazkano

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Musicians of the Cairn Ensemble:
Cédric Jullion (flutes),
Ayumi Mori (clarinets),
Caroline Cren (piano),
Christelle Séry (guitar),
Fanny Vicens (accordion),
Pauline Klaus (violin),
Cécile Brossard (viola),
Alexa Ciciretti (cello)
Conductor: Guillaume Bourgogne

Piano solo: Maroussia Gentet

 Sound engineer (recording, editing, and mastering): Martin Antiphon

Ramon Lazkano’s *Preludes* were recorded at Studio ONDIF in August 2022
Frédéric Chopin’s*Preludes* were recorded at Studio Stephen Paulello on an SP Opus 102 piano in January 2023

Artistic Director, Chopin’s Preludes: Matvey Zheleznyakov
Artistic Director, Ramon Lazkano’s Preludes: Ramon Lazkano
Publisher: Maison ONA

[1] Interview with Martin Kaltenecker, November 2, 2016 – Ensemble Intercontemporain website: https://www.ensembleintercontemporain.com/fr/2016/11/laboratoire-de-formes-entretien-avec-ramon-lazkano/