A Memory of Almost Nothing: Luc Ferrari’s Listening During Presque Rien No. 1

Abstract

Luc Ferrari’s Presque rien, ou le lever du jour au bord de la mer (Almost nothing, or daybreak at the seashore) represents one of the most significant milestones in the development of field recording as it is understood today. His piece, recorded in 1968 in Vela Luka, is both a composition and an execution of auditory memory making. The work demonstrates the agentive capacity of Ferrari’s listening and sets a framework for future executions of the relational condition between human listening and the audition of the prosthetic ear: the microphone. In 2013, the author visited the same location to reconsider Ferrari’s sonic subjects and to update Ferrari’s exploration by expanding on the French composer’s listening methodologies.