Elżbieta Sikora’s fascinating life and career in music can be seen in a new, short documentary film. Entitled L’Envers des sons [The Other Side of Sounds], the film was recently released on YouTube. Filmed in Sikora’s Paris apartment recently and illustrated with many historical photographs, this avant-garde composer recounts in her own words her early studies in Warsaw, a short visit to Paris in the 1970s and a meeting with Pierre Schaeffer and Francois Bayle, followed by her return to Poland to work with Józef Patkowski at Warsaw’s Studio Eksperymentalne. Back in Paris in 1981 on a grant to work at IRCAM, she was forced to stay in France when martial law was instituted by Gen. Jaruzelski’s military government in Poland that December. Sikora was able to return Poland martial law was rescinded in 1987, but by that time her life and career had been established in Paris, and she describes herself as “a bit torn between her two homelands.”
Although Sikora always favored working with electronic sounds, she nonetheless decided not to explore in-depth computer programming (“it would have taken too much time”) until “the machines became more composer-friendly.” As she sits at her favorite table next to the upright piano in her flat, she admits to “going back to natural sound, little by little” and shared on camera sketches for some of her compositions.
Elżbieta Sikora also reflects on her role in Wrocław’s Musica Electronica Nova Festival and, throughout this 15 min. film, viewers have a chance to hear a retrospective of her opus between the years 1970-2017. Musical excerpts include such works as Voyage II, chamber opera Adriana, Ziemia jałowa, Tête d’Orphée II, Janek Wiśniewski, Derrière son double, Lisboa Tramway 28, Axe Rouge V, Chicago Al Fresco and Gare du Nord.
Directed and interviewed by Nicolas Debade, this film was edited and subtitled in English by Jean-Baptiste Garcia.
[Source: email from the composer]