La Marmite Infernale is an orchestra devoted to musical creation. For forty years, the vessel has remained the same — a little battered, perhaps, but still indispensable. What has changed over the decades is not so much the recipe (a blend of lyricism and improvisation) as the ingredients: its members.
This crossing of centuries, and the back-and-forth between eras, makes this orchestra a kind of continuum — one that leaves us wondering whether it follows the course of history. Or could it simply be a series of unruly comings and goings? Should we hear a musical chronology, or rather a delicate, free-spirited sonic thread winding stubbornly from ear to ear?
ARFI’s emblematic large ensemble continues to push the boundaries of musical experimentation, this time bringing together literary, theatrical, and choreographic figures around an original, expressionist, and lyrical repertoire.
“We want to tell ourselves through the other who encounters us. The mise en abyme of an orchestral sound may lead to another word, another orchestra, another person — not just you, not just me, but the back-and-forth between us.”
On stage, the audience discovers an orchestra with an unusual, subtle, and moving repertoire. A special place is given to voices and texts, which weave their way through and break through — in a play of hide-and-seek and mirrors with the instruments’ timbral palette. The ear drifts through adventures and surprises, navigating between sandy, oceanic, and rocky dreams, merry-go-rounds, and childish refrains. At times smiling, surprised, or uneasy, it lets emotions surface. The strings are in all their states, the winds disguise themselves as insects, the instruments thunder, scatter, and reunite in haunting melodies.
Each text carries a world — sometimes bursting forth with intensity. La Marmite Infernale’s insatiable literary appetite absorbs radio chronicles, cooking recipes, and polyphonic poems in verse and prose. In a cathartic crescendo, the orchestra and the words become one and plunge together into sound.
La Marmite Infernale
On stage:
- Jean-Paul Autin (saxophone, sopranino)
- Olivier Bost (trombone)
- Colin Delzant (cello)
- Christophe Gauvert (double bass)
- Clément Gibert (bass clarinet)
- Félix Gibert (sousaphone)
- Damien Grange (voice, vocals)
- Pauline Laurendeau (voice)
- Thibaut Martin (drums)
- Emmanuelle Saby (clarinet)
- Alfred Spirli (percussion, sound objects)
- Laura Tejeda Martin (voice, vocals)
- Elisa Trebouville (voice, banjo)
Guest artists for the creation and album recording:
- Asmaa Aloui (percussionist, writer)
- Isabelle Cavoit (dancer, choreographer)
- Diane Delzant (violinist, visual artist)
- Elsa Foucaud (actress)
- Nicole Mersey Ortega (actress, performer, stage director)
- Anaïs Vives (dance)
