Pierre Bastien

Pierre Bastien entered the world in Paris during 1953 as a mechanical composer. At the University of Sorbonne he pursued studies in French alongside 18th century literature, yet his longstanding interest in experimental music, above all John Cage’s output, remained constant. After completing his degree he began creating scores for ballet and string quartet. In 1986, while working on music for choreographer Dominique Bagouet’s ballet Tartine, he constructed an initial music-generating device using a turntable engine, a cymbal and a Meccano erector set. Later endeavors built on this foundation and led to the finished Meccano Orchestra, a work featuring nine traditional instruments—including a Moroccan rebab, a Yugoslavian mandolin, a Senegalese kora and a Javanese angklung—activated by robotic mechanisms assembled from motors and toys, with Bastien himself adding live improvisation on trumpet or violin.