FORMS, String quartet

FORMS – String Quartet is a live multimedia performance for string quartet, electronic music, and panoramic visuals, based on the concept of “graphic sonification.” The musicians perform a series of graphic scores that simultaneously construct the visual scenography, offering the audience a chance to anticipate the “music to come.” These scores, along with the spectrograms that form the electronic accompaniment, were pre-created using generative graphic algorithms.

Conceived by Playmodes, an audiovisual research studio that designs and builds its own custom tools and technologies, the performance will be developed for this occasion in collaboration with regional musicians—namely the Adastra Quartet from Strasbourg.

ADASTRA QUARTET

Formed in 2013 in Strasbourg, the Adastra Quartet embraces a wide-open approach to music, freely engaging in projects that take them beyond the classical world into realms like jazz, theater, and contemporary art. Balancing modernity and eclecticism, and driven by a strong, distinctive sensitivity, the Adastra Quartet performs major works from the classical repertoire while actively pursuing creation and transmission.

“Ad Astra Per Aspera” – “To the stars through difficulties.”
To the stars, through adversity... What better way to capture the demanding nature of string quartet playing—one that brings immense artistic fulfillment, yet always strives for the unattainable?

Selected for the “Tremplin pour Jeunes Quatuors” at the Philharmonie de Paris during the 2016 String Quartet Biennale, the Adastra Quartet is a regular guest at international festivals. In 2017, it was awarded the Audience Prize and the Young Audience Prize at the Moments Musicaux du Tarn, and in 2018, it became a laureate of the Fond’action Alsace.