Nicole Lizée
Nicole Lizée
Juxtapossession
(2019)
for amplified string quartet, Ouija boards, Tarot cards, compressed air, parchment paper, pop rocks candy, pop snaps, vocals, electronics and video
Juxtapossession is a multi-media work that examines elements of the arcane and mysterious. The 1960s and ’70s saw a culmination in an obsession with the occult. Bands would hide “subliminal messages” in songs by recording lyrics backward. Blockbuster movies like “The Exorcist” shocked audiences with unforgettable scenes like the infamous head turning around. This feature of backwards-ness in the movie and in the recordings provides a multi-layer springboard for Nicole’s Lizée’s Juxtapossesion. In this piece, Nicole explores small moments in scenes over and over again, looping and playing audio in reverse.
Lizée has long been fascinated with looking back by reviving obsolete instruments and old footage, harnessing imperfections for expressive purposes. She makes this explicit by using physical objects that are often associated as symbols of the occult as musical instruments. In this work, the players will perform using amplified Ouija Boards, pop rocks in their mouth, and will use other non-standard instruments like air spray cans, stomping, parchment paper, and pop snaps.
The video scenes used are a juxtaposition of call-in show on a Christian television network, a scene from “The Exorcist” and original footage shot by the composer that contain visible representations of “hidden messages.” As the work progresses, the music and the scenes will revisit brief moments, creating a fabric of juxtaposed elements that yield a unique artistic experience.
Nicole’s music is like traveling through time. She finds a small gesture or sound in a brief scene and then revisits that moment again and again, slowly morphing it and contrasting it with other morphed sounds. It’s as if she treats a movie scene or recording like a prism that she twists and turns in the light to bring out interesting and perhaps unnoticed features.