Vincent Epplay is a French sound artist. Since the early nineties, he develops an unclassifiable artwork exploring the interaction between sound process and visual shapes.
In 1999, he releases Infinite Cd for Unlimited Music, a generative music record in collaboration with software artist Antoine Schmitt, reflecting his interest for a music that exceed the boundaries of time. He starts to develop a peculiar and prospective approach to electronic music, focused on aleatory composition, learnings of musique concrete and a poetic/humorous reappropriation of vintage sound/film material.
He applies this skill to various audiovisual live performances, including the ZAC 99 collective exhibition at the Musee d'Art Moderne in Paris. He collaborates with MTK, an experimental cinema group from Grenoble. As a result, Mody Bleach is an improvised audiovisual performance based on John Huston's film Moby Dick. Live erosion of film associated to computer soundscapes creates a radical immersive experiment. This performance is shown at Archipel Festival in Geneva, followed by a tour in France, Europe and Canada where it receives the First Prize at Mediacity Festival of Windsor.
In 2003-2004, he's invited at Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers, where he develops several sound devices inside and outside the location. The two featured installations, Cabines d'Ecoute #3 and Ebruitement des Rochers Parlants, are forming a concealed sound itinerary that modify the listening habits of the spectator and question the function of sound within a specific environment.
This occurs of a new direction in his work, leading to the creation of autonomous pieces and generative sound devices:After a six months Villa Medicis residency in Berlin, he exhibits Cabines d'Ecoute/Movie at Kunst Werke for the exhibition Art France Berlin. In 2008, he elaborates a kinetic video piece based on vintage 8mm movies,accompanied by electronic drones and the processed voice of a hypnotizer. This installation 10 pouces contre l'Insomnie (Hypnose) takes place at Galerie Duplex, Toulouse. Its soundtrack is released on a 10" vynil called Disque contre l'Insomnie, co-released by the label PPT and the parisian art center Le 104. As hypnotic it can be, this piece can nonetheless be interpretated as a wake up call in a brainwashing society.
In 2009, he's invited to take part to the exhibition Arnaud Maguet & Guest at Villa Arson in Nice, where he records the double LP Musique pour les Plantes des Dieux, an out of line psychedelic rock experiment, with the participation of Pierre la Police, Fred Bigot and Arnaud Maguet. He shows simultaneously L'oblique de phase, a personal exhibition at Le Dojo. Arnaud Maguet & Guest ends up with the live show Reinauguration of the Pleasure Dome at the Temple of Diana in Nice, during the festival Indiscipline.
He has produced several soundtracks for other artists and filmmakers: Nicolas Moulin's Chemtraum AM/PM, Kamikaze for a retrospective exhibition of Robert Malaval, La Guerre après la Guerre, a documentary-fiction by Danielle Arbid, Tanger, le Rêve des Brûleurs, a documentary by Leila Kilani.
He has also collaborated with choregraphers Maria Donata d'Urso (Collection Particulière, Lapsus) and Laure Bonicel (Bad Seeds).
He has produced a dozen of records for various music labels: PPT/Stembogen, AKA, Brocoli, LDDR...
He keeps on archiving anomalous novelty/library/spoken words records and vintage 8mm educational movies.
photo © Vincent Epplay
