En Noir & Blanc II continued a reflexion about contrast that already spanned the original piano solo version (2010). Thinking about the interaction between the instrument and the electronics, I wanted to move away from obvious relations such as timbral fusion, coincidences of events or an accompaniment function assigned to the electronics part, since these interactions often prevailed in my former mixed compositions.

Therefore the piece largely grows through several meta-compositional concerns : the electronic part is built with embeddings of contextual elements which stand either to quote the singular moment of the performance (the concert) or the piece's "making-off". In the foreground, the public first appears, waiting for the piece to begin. Then excerpts  from Giacomo Platini's Vertigo, Julien Vincenot's Mirrors and Kevin Gironnay's Amphora emerge (initially in between their own live performances since these friend-pieces were also played during the premiere concert, in May 2013 during the FIMU festival of Belfort, France). In the background, you can hear the pianist and the composer talking about the interpretation during a rehearsal, as well as fast figures sampled from Salvatore Sciarrino's Perduto in una citta d'acque, which is to quote one of the inspiring music of the prime En Noir & Blanc. Finally, a reverence to Luciano Berio must be told (since it is not musically declared in the piece) as an uttermost inspiration in the use of hypertextual links in a general way, and more specifically here, in the skill of quoting smoothly.

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The piece was premiered by Véronique Ngo Sach-Hien on May 19-2013, Centre Chorégraphique National, FIMU festival, Belfort (Fr).

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