Dawn at Shimiyacu is a naturalist composition by Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ.

Nabaz’mob, a collaboration between Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ and Antoine SCHMITT, was awarded the Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction Digital Musics 2009.

Graphic design Étienne MINEUR

Photos JJB


Whether or not you're one of the lucky 200,000 who owned a Nabaztag rabbit or attended Nabaz'mob, the opera for 100 smart rabbits, you'll love Animal Opera, the new CD by Jean-Jacques Birgé. His recording this summer in Peru of L'aube à Shimiyacu (Dawn at Shimiyacu) in the Amazon rainforest inspired him to accompany it with two different versions of the opera he imagined with Antoine Schmitt in 2006. Each hutch had its own autonomy, just as each rabbit had its own free will. The fairy-tale, minimalist music of the 100 plastic robots contrasts with the noise or drone music produced by the elytra of strange insects. After a hundred or so albums, most recently his 100th Anniversary (1952-2052) and the 3 volumes of Pique-nique au labo with 48 soloists, this is Birgé's first album without any musicians, even at the controls. Absorbed in nature or entrusting the wi-fi to conduct an orchestra of a hundred mini-synthesizers, the polymath once again rediscovers the magic of his instant compositions.

Also on Bandcamp

Nabaz'mob website