With expressive music that explores philosophical questions through sophisticated craftsmanship, Loïc Destremau is one of the most interesting composers of his generation in Denmark.
Instruments that mimic voices. Backing tracks teeming with music from all kinds of contexts. Extended techniques and prepared instruments - these are some of the techniques that can be found in Destremaus' impressive toolbox. High-tech and homemade gadgets go hand in hand.
Loïc Destremau, who grew up bilingually Danish and French in Denmark, often takes philosophical questions as a starting point in his work. When do we perceive language as sound and sound as language? Can a unison be perceived as polyphony when two musicians play the same?
For Destremau, it’s not about finding clear-cut answers to these questions. Rather, he is interested in the paradoxical space where philosophical questions can have multiple answers. ‘There is no musical equivalent for the sentence I am now speaking’, says Leonard Bernstein in No Musical Equivalent (2019). A statement Destremau takes as an invitation to create all kinds of musical equivalents for this particular sentence. The result is a thought-provoking and humorous piece of music that not only illustrates, but inherently performs the duality between the semantic and the sonic. A similar study is Twist and Turn and Twit and Twat (2022).
A hallmark of his aesthetic is the elegant integration of backing tracks and instrumental sounds. His music zips sharply back and forth between electronic and acoustic sounds – or they merge into unique textures, as in COM unTime (2015). Another hallmark is the playful yet precise approach to instrumental preparation, as in Joined Joints (2017).
Destremaus’ music offers complex interpretations of the hypotheses he explores - from the affirmative to the ridiculous. Always with an unerring sense for interesting, previously unheard sounds. With technical precision, he combines diverse instruments into an eclectic aesthetic that opens the listener’s ears and mind.
Loïc Destremau graduated in spring 2024 from the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Copenhagen. He also studied at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus and at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria. Destremau has been commissioned by and worked with a large number of European new music ensembles, such as Athelas Sinfonietta, Oslo Sinfonietta, Aarhus Sinfonietta or ensemble recherche. His works are performed at festivals such as Warsaw Autumn, IMPULS, Musikprotokoll, Nordic Music Days, KLANG Festival, NOW! Festival, OpenDays, Young Nordic Music Festival and Darmstädter Ferienkurse.
– Mathias Monrad Møller
