Variations. Electric Rescue & Gaspar Claus : loosely inspired by the Johann Sebastian Bach universe.

Paris, France : Qwest TV, 2016.

1 online resource (28 minutes)

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Title from title screen (viewed December 12, 2022).

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A grandiose overture on the famous notes of the Toccata. Gaspar Claus' cello acts like an organ under his effects pedals, and Electric Rescue's machines enter the scene to give the strings a beautiful electric setting. The duo tackles the masterpiece of Johann Sebastian Bach, a monument that they will deconstruct, rearrange, and shake up without restraint for half an hour. With great blows of distortions, electronic layers and techno inflections, the two accomplices revisit Bach in an unexpected and highly enjoyable way. Gaspar Claus, who started playing the cello at the age of 5, masters his instrument and knows his classics, even if he has oriented his career towards other musical horizons. Here he takes a perverse pleasure in "trashing," to use his own word, the work of the master who has written so much for his instrument. Accustomed to electro-acoustic encounters, this is the first time that he has collaborated with Electric Rescue, a pillar of rave and French techno, as part of the Variations collection. This series brings together, at each concert, an electronic music producer and an instrumentalist who are challenged to reinterpret the work of an emblematic composer, and in the ranking of emblematic composers Bach certainly holds a choice place! It is therefore a daring but frankly successful challenge for Gaspar Claus and Electric Rescue, who offer a new reading by the German composer, resolutely modern and very elegant, ending with a devilish version of the Prelude of the Cello Suite No. 1 in G major as a finishing touch. A magisterial and emotional bow. Etienne Geremia.

Images / Online / Video & Film

January 31, 2023

Gaspar Claus, cello ; Electric Rescue, electronics.