The Empire of Lights

The Empire of Lights for 9 instruments is the opening part of DARK MATTER. Its form is derived from the text of an ancient Egyptian creation myth by «transliterating» it into the rhythmic framework of the music. Its six structural divisions actually comprise three repeated sections whose repetitions become progressively less perceptually related to the «originals». The (silent) text is in the first person of the creator-god Khepera. He describes first the primeval chaos from which he himself emerged, next his creation of the first gods by swallowing and then spitting out his own semen, and finally the generation of the rest of the world and its inhabitants, in particular the creation of the human race from his tears.

Apart from the aforementioned mythical connotations, the starting point of The Empire of Lights was the contemplation of a «moment» in the evolution of the universe (about 300 000 years after the big bang, according to current theories) when it underwent a transformation between opacity and transparency -- having been opaque through a saturation of radiation. This in turn called to my mind the painting by Magritte from which the composition takes its title, where a house in nocturnal darkness stands below a bright sunlit sky.

The music is thus pervaded by binary oppositions: repeat/variation, light/darkness, high/low, inside/outside; and the ensemble is divided into two subgroups which only gradually begin to merge with one another.