The harmonica is clamped in place, the banjo in his hands. A ticking mechanical metronome on the floor between the musician’s shoes beats time. While the audience is still reflecting on the repetitive banjo blues harp chordal suggestions just heard, French musician Thomas Bonvalet alias L’Ocelle Mare takes his solo somewhere completely different. In his fascinating, shrewd improvisational excursion he now makes use of retuned forks, a concertina, a ukulele and dried poppies. But he also throws his body into the fray, clapping, stomping and breathing. A L’Ocelle Mare solo – who is described as being as eccentric as he is inventive and ingeniously crazy – can be many things: Soundcrafting, of intense rhythm, sensuous, funny. But one thing’s for sure, it’s an experience.
In cooperation with SHAPE – Sound, Heterogeneous Art and Performance in Europe
Supported by the “Creative Europe” programme of the European Union
L’Ocelle Mare is SHAPE Artist 2016.