Symo Reyn A Time Between Birth And Chaos

Is it a celebration? A reappropriation? A revolution? Symo Reyn has perfectly mastered the qanun, a 78-string zither invented by the Persian philosopher and musician Al Farabi circa 872. A virtuoso, Symo Reyn reinvents this instrument in his work, even revolutionizing it. And how can the sound produced by the only polyphonic instrument in oriental music, the qanun, be approached anew? A new language needs to be conceived for it. its vocabulary needs to be enriched. This process also requires the instrument itself to be transformed: a special sensor manufactured by Symo Reyn himself is attached to the bridge at four points (bass, midrange, treble). It captures the sound waves and converts them into magnetic signals that run through electric wires. A dozen or so pedals control the whole device. This qanun is modified, transfigured. Both on his own and multiplied, Symo Reyn experiments, invents new sound combinations to create a subtle musical tapestry, a tense ow of calm, refined, distended notes. There is a lot of tension in this music that draws from several sources (Henry Purcell, Michael Nyman, Steve Reich, Nils Frahm, Brian Eno, Björk) to be able to tread its own path. It’s quite organic, giving structure to its chaos. Beautiful in its gesture, with rhythmic precision and melodic richness, Symo Reyn’s music is precisely composed and spontaneous, deep and luminous, dense and clear, intense and intimate, delicate and mysterious, unique and familiar. A Time Between Birth and Chaos is as much a statement on the qanun as a purely poetic act. it is a space for possibilities, a place for reinvention. In the aftermath of the founding chaos, now comes the time of metamorphosis, rebirth.Franck Médioni