Meredith Monk, une voix mystique

Interviews with Jean-Louis Tallon

Published on January 20, 2022
Le mot et le reste, Marseille, France

This new book, written in French, is a collection of interviews conducted by author Jean-Louis Tallon with Meredith Monk between 2014 and 2020. Reviewing the main stages of Monk’s biographical journey, it elucidates over the course of the discussions how this “magician of the voice” has created a singular musical universe that feels more relevant than ever. As a composer, singer, director/choreographer and filmmaker, Monk discovered early on that the voice would be the primary vector of a total art form incorporating multiple modes of perception. From her visionary interdisciplinary approach, pieces such as Dolmen Music, ATLAS, impermanence and Cellular Songs emerge, conjuring landscapes and characters that are unique yet universal, luminous and powerful.

With a foreword and afterword by the author, numerous photographs, and an extensive bibliography.

Born in 1973 in Lyon, France, Jean-Louis Tallon is author of the novel Composition de l’atmosphère Composition de l’atmosphère (Le Grand Souffle, 2007). Over the last 20 years he has conducted numerous interviews with writers and artists, several of which have been the subject of publications such as Un écho lacunaire, with Pierre Bergounioux (Fata Morgana, 2014), Philippe Hersant, portrait d’un compositeur (Cécile Defaut, 2015) and Gavin Bryars, en paroles, en musiques (Le mot et le reste, 2020)