Who is Philippe Langlois?
Philippe Langlois is a Doctor of Musicology, a permanent researcher at MINT — Musicologie, Informatique et Nouvelles Technologies (musicology, computing, and new technologies) — part of the Observatoire Musical Français (French musical observatory) at the Sorbonne. He also teaches the history and theory of sound at the l’Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts Tours-Angers-Le Mans.
From 2002 to 2011 he coordinated the Radiophonic Workshop at France Culture Radio with Frank Smith, with whom he co-directs the collection ZagZig (published by Dis Voir). He is the author of Les Cloches d’Atlantis, musique électroacoustique et cinéma, archéologie et histoire d’un art sonore, published by MF editions in June 2012. He constructs sonic environments and composes soundtracks for films, installations, exhibitions, lectures, and radio productions.
Feel free to check out his work on the site Les cloches d’Atlantis
Les Cloches d’Atlantis.
Now let’s continue our journey into the inner workings, the little secrets of filmmaking. Not everything in the cinema is magical, but certain meetings are. Sometimes collaborating with great artists sublimates, transports, reveals you… That was undoubtedly the case when Manuela Morgaine met Philippe Langlois.
Manuela Morgaine and Philippe Langlois maintained a written correspondence throughout the composition of the film’s music.
Extracts (1) : 11/10/11
Dear Philippe,
I wanted to tell you that your music revealed the very essence of my film to me. I thank you a thousand times for everything you’ve given me, it’s like a precious stone. ATOMS is a real love story, seen from its chemical, telluric, and metaphysical angles. For this, your atomic explosion is like a streak of mercury which follows the film’s entire length. As for the handling of Haydn, it is a musical gamble that I think paid off. I can’t wait to show you the film. We’ll put the finishing touches on it tomorrow morning, and carry on editing CALL ME DJ BAAL, which is a crazy thing to edit, due to the 8 takes with two cameras… We synchronized everything and we go back and forth between cameras using your music as a guide. We’ve done 4 minutes in two days and aim to have everything finished by Friday.
But since I’ll be working with two other editors starting on Monday morning, I want to finish this grand finale with Gordana. It’ll be crazy. It’s also because we pass from one viewpoint to another in the same shot that the music reveals itself. You’ll see, I think that DJ Baal will also be very happy. This will be LIGHTNING’s final scene, with the credits rolling over the very last images. And your music in a single burst. I can’t believe that I’ll have finished everything… after eight years.
I want to tell you again that it fills me with joy to have met you on the path of my life and my films.
(…)
To follow the correspondence and to better understand the work accomplished and the energy required, you can read and download this document (in French):
Philippe Langlois composed the music for the trailer and the closing credits, which you can find below:
Discover the title credits for Atoms here.
Credits for Pathos Mathos click here.
Excerpts Haydn / Reich click here
If you’d like to hear other excerpts, log onto the page Chapters audio and music.