Outre Mémoire
Thierry Pécou piano
Anne Cartel flute
Carjez Gerretsen clarinet
David Louwerse cello
In this great work often compared to the Messiaen’s Quatuor du Fin du Temps, Thierry Pécou leads us into an overwhelming musical experience that invokes a state of meditative contemplation.
Founded in 2009 by Martiniquan-French composer and pianist Thierry Pécou, Ensemble Variances seeks to link contemporary music to the humanitarian and environmental concerns of our time. Outre Mémoire (Outside Memory) is a 70 minute, 12 movement work scored for solo piano, flute, clarinet and cello that commemorates the impact of the transatlantic slave trade.
By playing around the audience, the quartet creates a meditative, spiritually reflective piece that travels aurally from the African continent to the South American subcontinent and Martinique in the Caribbean.
Through this work, we are invited to face the truths that the multitude of different colours of people in our cities and the racial inequalities and voicing of anger that arise today are the direct consequence of the slave trade and colonisation.
