le piano de betton

A sonic postcard sent from the mediathèque Theodore Monod in Betton, Brittany
“In the heart of this newly constructed media library lies a mechanical piano. I approached this objet as if it was an extinct animal, it was out of tune and hadn’t been touched in years. I started to tap it’s wooden casing, then I took the outer structure off  and started to play with the strings, the percussive elements, the rolling mechanism, the inner workings of this sonic dinosaur.

By playing with this keyboardless piano, and not playing the piano I made up a palette of sounds. It reminded me of a distant relative to the jukebox, there is even a slot to put your money.  So using various objects I found to hand I scratched, stroked and tapped and modified the sound of the strings, somewhat like a prepared piano.  I really enjoyed translating this place through the piano. In someways it shouldn’t really be there, but this forgotten instrument left to the Mayor of the town by a now deceased inhabitant is the human link to the media library and the town of Betton. “



                            Jean-Philippe Renoult. February 2011