The site wrote the score
The Roche de Sauterre is a promontory in the Combrailles, above the woods. No rows of chairs, no stage, no lights: the wind, the birds, and a cliff that sends the sound back several seconds later, becoming a kind of shared instrument.
For several months, the musicians of the Union Musicale en Combrailles worked on the three pieces of the Nature Sonore repertoire, then adapted them to this particular site, its distances and its winged inhabitants. On 23 May, the audience climbed up to listen, and then played with them.
One day, two events
5 pm
Roche de Sauterre, Manzat
Nature Sonore en Combrailles
Outdoor participatory concert with the musicians of the Union Musicale en Combrailles. Three pieces, about an hour, wandering freely around the site.
8.30 pm
Cinéma La Viouze, Les Ancizes-Comps
Concert Décalé & Inventif
Voice, electronics, body percussion and participatory music, with Valérie Philippin (singer, author, composer), Grégoire Lorieux on electronics and the instrumentalists of the Union Musicale en Combrailles.
The 5 pm programme
Three pieces, about an hour. Sound came from everywhere: the best seat was wherever you stood.
Les Grands Oiseaux (Grand Concert d'Oiseaux)
for small orchestra scattered across the landscape
The musicians spread out over the site, settling like birds choosing a perch. Some slip away behind the rocks, others stay in view: you hear them even from their hiding places. Twice, the landscape contracts into a dense block of sound, and the musicians move on.
Music to listen to while wandering, eyes wide open.
Être oiseau
musical game for instrumentalists and a percussionist audience
When birds sing, as they do here at the Roche de Sauterre, each has its territory and marks its place in space. The game leader hands the audience a small instrument (triangle, claves, gong). Like a bird, each person explores their territory, listens to the others and answers them. Meanwhile, the instrumentalists play the song of the black wheatear, a small bird that has vanished from our countryside: a tribute to all the birds we miss.
Music to share, with the children.
Trame Verte
for vocalists, instrumentalists and audience
A music that mimics green corridors, the invisible paths left open for animals to move through. Sounds and voices come and go, and leave a fragile, fleeting trace across the site.
Listen, wander as in a forest without looking for where the sound comes from, and add your own voice to the weave.
The welcome note, handed out on site
Welcome, and thank you for climbing all the way up here. No rows of chairs, no stage, no lights. Just the landscape of the Roche Sauterre, the wind, the birds. You are in the right place.
What you are about to experience is different from a usual concert. It is more of a listening experience, outdoors, where landscape and music answer each other. The birds singing around you are as much part of the piece as the musicians. Children can run. You can move around too, sit in the grass, walk slowly. You will even be invited to take part.
Simply: keep your ears wide open.
Images and sounds
Partners and supporters
- Production
- Société Lyrique de Combronde · Union Musicale en Combrailles
- Co-production
- Grame, national centre for musical creation (Lyon)
- Programming
- Zone XP festival, exploratory music
- Territory
- Communauté de communes Combrailles Sioule & Morge · Cinéma La Viouze · Puy-de-Dôme departmental council
- Nature
- Conservatoire d'Espaces Naturels Auvergne · LPO Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
- Support
- Transports Meunier · La Ferme des Lozamies