For this configuration of Compagnie Impérial, the five musicians in the company come together to form a quintet at the centre of a mixed choir that provides a polyphonic vocal backdrop for their music. Rémy Poulakis, instrumentalist and opera singer, had already brought us face to face with the vocal realm. We wanted to take the voice which is inside all of us, which can move us so deeply with its universality, and merge with it to take our musical contemplation further.
Choirs were the first popular music groups, open to everyone. Throughout time, singing has accompanied key moments in human existence, carrying messages of rebellion, solidarity, remembrance, and peace. Yet every time it is the collective nature of singing that moves us.
Étienne Roche, a composer and arranger who we have been working with for a long time, took on the job of rearranging our compositions for the choir.