Pierre-Yves Borgeaud
Encyclopedia
Biography
Born August 25, 1963 in MontheyMonthey
Monthey is the capital of the district of Monthey in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.- History :The castle in the town center was built in 950 on a hill, the first houses of Monthey surrounded it. Monthey is first mentioned in 1215 as Montez At the 13th century, the counts of Savoy owned the...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, Pierre-Yves Borgeaud has a bachelor’s degree in arts at the Lausanne
Lausanne
Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...
University in 1990, with a thesis about the influence of jazz on French writers (Paul Morand
Paul Morand
Paul Morand was a French diplomat, novelist, playwright and poet, considered an early Modernist.He was a graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Studies...
, Boris Vian
Boris Vian
Boris Vian was a French polymath: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer. He is best remembered today for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan were bizarre parodies of criminal fiction, highly controversial at the time of their...
, Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...
and Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Louis-Ferdinand Céline was the pen name of French writer and physician Louis-Ferdinand Destouches . Céline was chosen after his grandmother's first name. He is considered one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century, developing a new style of writing that modernized both French and...
). He has worked as an independent journalist, writing about music and moving images in different media. He also played the drums in jazz and funk bands and worked as a music producer.
In 1996, Pierre-Yves Borgeaud is studying at the New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
and obtains a certificate at the dpt. of Film, Video & Broadcasting. Since 97, he’s working on documentaries and music videos, especially for the ECM label
ECM (record label)
ECM is a record label founded in Munich, Germany, in 1969 by Manfred Eicher. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a wide variety of recordings, and ECM's artists often refuse to acknowledge boundaries between genres...
in Germany. He also participates to a video installation workshop at the Film/Video Arts, New York. In 1998, he becomes one of the Swiss pioneers of VJing, presenting live performances with musicians like Pierre Audétat, Christy Doran
Christy Doran
Christy Doran is a jazz guitarist born in Dublin, Ireland and raised in Lucerne, Switzerland.Doran founded OM with Fredy Studer, Urs Leimgrumber, and Bobby Burri in the 1970s; this ensemble recorded for ECM Records. He and Studer also worked together on a Jimi Hendrix tribute project in the 1990s...
, Nils Petter Molvaer or Don Li (composer/musician)
Don Li (composer/musician)
Don Li is a Swiss composer, musician and music producer of reductive music.-Life and music:...
.
Director, producer, and interdisciplinary artist, Borgeaud founded Momentum Production in 1999. In 2000, he receives the price "Young artist" in video awarded by a council of the arts in Switzerland. In 2003, his first long feature iXieme: diary of a prisoner is awarded with the Golden Leopard in Video at the Locarno International Film Festival
Locarno International Film Festival
The Film Festival Locarno is an international film festival held annually in the city of Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. After Cannes and Venice and together with Karlovy Vary, Locarno is the Film Festival with the longest history...
. In 2004, the short film Interface is nominated for the best Swiss short film. In 2008, his film Return to Goree, with Senegalese superstar Youssou N'Dour
Youssou N'Dour
Youssou N'Dour is a Senegalese singer, percussionist and occasional actor. In 2004, Rolling Stone described him as, in Senegal and much of Africa, "perhaps the most famous singer alive." He helped develop a style of popular music in Senegal, known in the Serer language as mbalax, a type of music...
, is distributed and awarded worldwide. Best Documentary at the 16th Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles.
In 2010/2011, Pierre-Yves Borgeaud is working on a new long feature documentary with Brazilian singer, composer and icon Gilberto Gil
Gilberto Gil
Gilberto Passos Gil Moreira , better known as Gilberto Gil or , is a Brazilian singer, guitarist, and songwriter, known for both his musical innovation and political commitment...
.
Selected filmography
Subjective Cinema. An experimental film shot with some inhabitants of Mireuil in the suburbs of French town La Rochelle, commitionned by the International Film Festival La Rochelle (2009).Return to Goree (Youssou N’Dour). A musical documentary with African singer Youssou N’Dour, Amiri Baraka
Amiri Baraka
Amiri Baraka , formerly known as LeRoi Jones, is an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays, and music criticism...
, Idris Muhammad
Idris Muhammad
Idris Muhammad is a jazz drummer. He changed his name in the 1960s upon his conversion to Islam. He is known for his funky playing style. He has released a number of albums as leader, and has played with a number of jazz legends including Lou Donaldson, Johnny Griffin, Pharoah Sanders and Grover...
and others. A road movie on the paths of jazz and slavery (2007).
Family Music. A musical and biographical documentary with Austrian brothers Christian et Wolfgang Muthspiel
Wolfgang Muthspiel
Wolfgang Muthspiel is an Austrian guitarist and composer most associated with jazz and brother of the trombonist and pianist Christian Muthspiel....
. Coproduction Swiss TV SF DRS (2004).
iXième : diary of a prisoner. A video diary of a home prisoner. Written with Stéphane Blok. Golden Leopard, Video Competition, Locarno International Film Festival (2003).
Interface: cartography 3. Short feature film with the dance company Philippe Saire, Lausanne. Nominated for Swiss Film Prize in 2004 (2003).
Stimmhorn: In Land. A musical film as a composition with duo Stimmhorn (Balthasar Streiff, alphorns, and Christian Zehnder, overtone singing). Produced by SF-DRS, dpt. Music & dance. (2001).
Music Hotel. Some musicians associated to the ECM label
ECM (record label)
ECM is a record label founded in Munich, Germany, in 1969 by Manfred Eicher. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a wide variety of recordings, and ECM's artists often refuse to acknowledge boundaries between genres...
are working together during a very special festival in Germany. With Manfred Eicher
Manfred Eicher
Manfred Eicher is a German record producer and the founder of ECM Records and its subsidiaries.Eicher studied music at the Academy of Music in Berlin. He is a record producer and a double-bass player. In 1969 he founded a record label in Munich called ECM - Edition of Contemporary Music...
, Tomasz Stanko
Tomasz Stanko
Tomasz Stańko is a Polish trumpeter, composer and improviser. Often recording for ECM, Stańko is strongly associated with free jazz and the avant-garde....
, John Surman
John Surman
John Douglas Surman is an English jazz saxophone, bass clarinet and synthesizer player, and composer of free jazz and modal jazz, often using themes from folk music as a basis...
, Dino Saluzzi
Dino Saluzzi
Timoteo "Dino" Saluzzi is an Argentine musician.The son of popular carpero composer and instrumentalist Cayetano Saluzzi, Dino played the bandoneón since his childhood...
(1998).
Swiss Jam: swiss musicians in New York. The cross portraits of composers Peter Scherer, Daniel Schnyder, Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay is a Swiss-American visual artist and composer.Marclay's work explores connections between sound, noise, photography, video, and film...
and Alex Bugnon
Alex Bugnon
Alex Bugnon is a jazz pianist and composer from Montreux, Switzerland.Bugnon studied at the Paris Conservatory and the Mozart Academy in Salzburg. At age nineteen, he moved to the U.S...
. Coproduction with Télévision Suisse Romande. (1999).
Miles post mortem. A short documentary about producer Bill Laswell
Bill Laswell
Bill Laswell is an American bassist, producer and record label owner....
(re)mixing the original tapes of Miles Davis. Broadcast on the European channel Arte (1998).
Nils Petter Molvaer: Song of Sand. Music video for ECM Records. Broadcast on MTV, Viva, M6, and other channels. (1997).
Video performances and other works
The white space of Mumbai. Music and video performance with Don Li, Sujay Bobade, Norbert Pfammater and Wofgang Zwiauer (2010).Le Module. An art installation presenting the images of the beginning of human life (2009).
Premier Cri, dernier Souffle. A stage performance for music and live video with duo Stimmhorn, Christian Zehnder and Balthasar Streiff. Presented in main theaters in Switzerland since march 2006.
New Ballet for Xala. Conception et direction of a multi-angle DVD including a documentary with dancer and musician Ania Losinger (Xala) and Don Li (composition). Tonus-music / Musikvertrieb (2005).
Time Experience. Music & video performance premiered at the Willisau Jazz Festival. With Don Li (composition, clarinets), Ania Losinger (Xala) a.o. (2003).
The Longest Journey. Music & video installation with Don Li (composition, clarinets), Ania Losinger (Xala), Björn Meyer (bass) and Jojo Mayer (drums). Premiere at the Swiss Peaks festival in New York, March 2003. Installation presented at the Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne, Feb. to May 2004.
One, Three, One. Live and prepared video images for a concert performance with Leonzio Cherubini (drums, composition), Jacques Demierre (piano), Urs Leimgruber (saxophones) and Katharina Vogel (danser) (2000).
My Body Electric. Video and music concert/performance with Pierre Audétat (keyboards, sampler) and Nils Petter Molvaer (trumpet). Premiere at the Jazz Festival Cully 2000 (2000).
Eye in the City. Live video and music performance with guitarist Christy Doran. Première at the Jazz Festival Lausanne / Onze Plus. (1999).