Review of Versailles Electro online edition 2019-2022, Castle of Versailles, France
The Palace of Versailles holds Nocturnes Electro, for this musical experience inviting you to roam around groves and fountains exceptionally working to the rhythm of a French DJ’s playlist, with a firework show to close the night. From evening to midnight, the official residence of the Kings of France changes scenery and turns into a giant dance floor, the majestic electro music offers a even more extravagant evening.
These Electro Nocturnes are a unique and unprecedented opportunity to stroll, from 8:30 p.m. to 11:45 p.m., among the groves and exceptionally watery fountains and beautifully lit to the sound of the best French DJs of the moment. The baroque fades away for one night to give way to electro music that will accompany you from aisle to aisle.
Headlining this unique evening in the exceptional setting of the French gardens of the most visited castle in the world, at the foot of the Hall of Mirrors. Electro music will pace the now famous and wonderful Night Fountains Show. This event is the occasion to roam around the groves and water fountains of the gardens of the Palace of Versailles to electro music.
On the occasion of an exceptional date of the Fountains Night Show, the Gardens of the Palace of Versailles are adorned with a thousand lights and invite you to travel through time to an electro soundtrack. Fountains, gardens and walks are equipped with light effects that sway to the rhythm of the music in the dark.
Dress up as in the time of Louis XIV or not, wiggle hips to the rhythm of favorite DJs. To top this never-before-seen musical walk, a final firework show – designed by Groupe F – will light up the sky from the Grand Canal. Here is a fabulous musical experience electro fans do not want to miss. The concept showing another way to enjoy this priceless gem of the Île-de-France heritage.
The most famous château in France has been organising for three editions of Electro music since 2019. Versailles continues to inspire musicians who draw on the richness of the castle’s “sounds” to compose their melodies, and help visitor discover the sound heritage of Versailles. Electro composers are inspired by the tinkling of chandeliers, the clanking of clocks, the creaking of parquet floors and the flow of water in fountains to create music “made in Versailles”.
Thylacine – Versailles
The Château de Versailles proves that it is part of modern times as well as the past. The original experience created by the French artist Thylacine, who has submerged himself in the sound universe of Versailles in order to create an uncommon and exclusive track, the clockwork mechanisms, harpsichords, locks, creaking of the parquet floor… so many sounds tracked to compose “Versailles”.
William Rezé, alias Thylacine, recorded his first album in 2015, aboard the Trans-Siberian which connects Moscow to Vladivostock. For his second album, he immerses himself in the desert and lunar landscapes of South America. His many travels allow Thylacine to escape and dive into the heart of his pieces. The electronic music composer collects the sound atmosphere of each place and thus invites us to travel with him.
Curious and attentive, Thylacine is constantly on the lookout for new sounds. The musician reveals the sonic potential of the places he discovers. He transcribes the atmosphere of these spaces, producing sounds hitherto forgotten or unknown. His works highlight places that are just waiting to be heard.
A bell rings. A chime rings, and the mechanism of a clock starts. A crystal chandelier tinkles in a breeze. Further on, the floor squeaks while a key clicks into a lock. There, an antique harpsichord releases notes of music from another time. To immerse oneself in the sound world of the Castle of Versailles is the promise of a formidable journey through time and space, in the footsteps of the kings of France. However, the current team at Versailles wanted to approach this sound heritage in a modern way.
The team at the Château de Versailles invited Thylacine to immerse himself for a few days in the heart of the landmark to create an authentic piece of music based on this exceptional sound heritage. Thylacine became familiar with the sounds of the castle. The watchmaker of Versailles took him around to understand treasures: at Versailles, there is a pendulum in almost every room.
The artist discovered the castle through its many halls and passageways. The young composer was allowed to wander at random among the rooms to seek inspiration in the mazes of corridors, and to appropriate the sounds and the instruments of Versailles.
Entitled “Versailles,” this a whole new way to discover the Castle of Versailles, through the now-intimate perspective that William Rezé has on the monument. His works proves that one of the most famous castles in the world still has many secrets to tell.
The variety of sounds emitted at every moment by the Palace of Versailles constitutes a world in its own right. A veritable collection, just like those of paintings or works of art, this sound heritage has been recorded and identified for ten years by the teams at the Palace of Versailles. Chosen for the sensitivity and particular care he attaches to transcribing the identity of a place through sound, Thylacine immersed himself in the Palace of Versailles, during three recording and discovery sessions – day and night. night – to create a new material.
Clinking of chandeliers, creaking of parquet floors, yawning of doors, creaking of locks, mechanism of pendulums and clocks, Thylacine went in search of the sound DNA of the Château. He particularly used old musical instruments, not only for their musical qualities but also for the sounds produced by the touch of their “material envelope”. He was able to explore the creative potential of these original sounds and their evocative power. The clock mechanism, in particular, is enough to fuel the imagination of time travel.
The clip reveals behind the scenes of Thylacine’s recording sessions at the Palace of Versailles, it illustrates sound through images and shows how the composer understood the richness of the sound heritage of the place. The organ of the Royal Chapel, the mechanisms of the clocks, the bells on the roofs, we follow step by step the immersion of the artist and his transcription of the sound identity of Versailles.
In 2020, Thylacine was invited to return once again and hosted the online version of the Versailles Electronic Music Festival in the deserted Versailles Gardens.
Saycet – Messa Solaris
In 2021, the Palace of Versailles has invited the electronic music composer Saycet to compose a piece inspired by the Palace’s unique sound universe, instruments and acoustics. For seven days and seven nights, the Palace of Versailles welcomes Saycet and his sound and video team for a unique project. “Messa Solaris”, a title and a video which will soon be available, an extraordinary result of this unique collaboration.
Saycet’s career may seem unusual, but it has been running very smoothly, with a focus on the fulfilment of his career as a musician, composer and producer. In the past 15 years, Saycet has composed relentlessly: three albums to date and a fourth one coming out in the Autumn of 2021, original soundtracks for feature films, series and plays, as well as for exhibition trailers. This singular evolution has turned Saycet into a staple composer on the French electronic music scene.
To compose his “Messa Solaris”, Saycet immersed himself in the universe of the Palace for seven days. His inspiration came directly from the setting, and, accompanied by the organist Alexandra Bartfeld and the vocal ensemble Les Métaboles, he was able to capture the acoustics of the different rooms of the Palace, each one carrying its own sonority: the Royal Chapel, the Gabriel Staircase, the Gallery of Battles or the Hall of Mirrors. The track “Messa Solaris” has electronic sonorities and is an ode to the Palace of Versailles. The organ of the Chapel represents the key melody line and is set at the heart of the composition. The track’s accompanying clip was shot entirely by night at the Palace of Versailles.
With “Messa Solaris”, Saycet’s music blends with the power of the places of the Palace of Versailles as if to offer them a reflection, a celebration of their nocturnal aesthetic. By bringing into resonance the unique acoustics of the Château and his own artistic composition, Saycet finds the meeting point between the instruments and the infinitely musical echo of his images.
From the Royal Chapel to the Gabriel Staircase, from the Galerie des Batailles to the Galerie des Glaces, the succession of perspectives and dreamlike details takes place with the metronome of clocks, which mark the measure of time as well as that of music. With the organ of the Chapel in a melodic queen line, strikingly modern, this Sun Mass thus becomes an ode to the Palace of Versailles,
Versailles is the cradle of innovative creations, always godfather of the arts. And when a silence, in the piece, shows these plaster faces, these secular silhouettes of the Galerie de Pierre, it is the spirit of the place which is there, embodied, and which seems in the following time to inhabit the choristers.
Metabolas – their appearance of statues already belonging to a form of eternity. It is this extraordinary experience that invite to relive at the Château de Versailles, before the outing, by meeting the artistic team and the production team.
Fakear – Palace of Time
In 2022, the Palace of Versailles is inviting a French electronic music composer to create a piece inspired by its sound heritage. This winter, Fakear is offering a universe as exotic as it is poetic.
Fakear (Théo Le Vigoureux) grew up surrounded by musical parents who nourished him with the symphonies of Maurice Ravel as much as the songs of Ismaël Lô and Cheb Mami. He has since performed all over the world, from the United States to Australia and New Zealand, via Europe. Fakear has acquired international fame, placing him at the forefront of a whole generation, at the origin of exotic electronic music inviting you to travel using samples from all over the world.
Discover the meeting between the electronic music composer Fakear and the Palace of Versailles. Invited to spend several days in complete immersion in the sonic atmosphere of the castle, the musician creates “Palace of Time”, an original title inspired by the clockwork mechanisms of the palace. The clip shot in the gardens, the hall of mirrors and the gallery of battles beautifully illustrates the dialogue between the artist and the places.
Gushing waters, clockwork mechanisms, tinkling chandeliers, baroque melodies, creaking locks… the Palace of Versailles and its gardens conceal a rich sound heritage constituting a universe in its own right. Fakear copied many clocks of the Palace of Versailles, eternal guardians of the place and symbol of this strange time sometimes elastic of this time. In a stealthy way, the sounds of footsteps on the floor and the sounds produced by the doors of the Castle give rhythm to Palace of time.
Fakear occupies the Palace of Versailles for a day and a night. The video starts in the intimacy of the gardens. The pace picks up quickly in the groves and gets more sustained with fast FPV drone shots spinning and evoking time accelerating. Until dusk when night falls all of a sudden. We then go from the garden to the interior of the mythic castle. In the same way that Fakear has led the viewer into the little-known recesses of the garden, he then reveals a unique castle at night, monumental and redesigned by lights. Far from the warmth of the chandeliers and the immobility of the centuries, the spectacle of animated LED lights and the mysterious drone, brings the castle to life, between original colors and brand new monochrome tones.