Les invisibles is a composition built upon vocal and instrumental sounds that shape a sonic landscape in relation to the text. Rather than illustrating or "setting" the text in a traditional manner, I treat speech as a sound source, with textual comprehensibility remaining secondary.
The work incorporates recordings of twenty-five short melodic gestures and five extended sequences, along with a layered four-part vocal polyphony based on the text Es wird später by Karl Lubomirski. These recordings, performed in the studio by Donatienne Michel-Dansac (soprano), Catherine Bowie (flute), Antoine Ladrette (cello), and Jean Geoffroy (percussion), undergo extensive processing. Through granular synthesis and precise control over key sound parameters—such as grain size, transposition, delay, speed, and spatial positioning—the recorded material is transformed into dense, textured layers.
The piece's formal structure is governed by the number five: it consists of five main sections, each further divided into five subsections. Similarly, its harmonic framework is constructed from five chords, each comprising five notes.