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What's Synesthesia ?
[Synesthesia]
A neurological condition in which two or more bodily senses are coupled in the brain instead of being dissociated.
For example, some people perceive letters or/and numbers with colours. True neurological synesthesia is involuntary, permanent and concerns about 4% of the population. More information with Wikipedia
Loïc, tell us about your synesthesia:
My synesthesia associates pictures and sounds; wich means that when I’m looking at something, for each colour, for each shape or/and for each motion type, I hear a different sound. It may be just the sound of an instrument, a tune or a rhythm. And the more complex or detailed the picture is , the more sounds I hear.
If I’m looking at a landscape, for example, because there are many different colours, shapes and moves, I hear a complete music, like a symphony with all instruments.
"I thought everybody got that."
When have you noticed this phenomenon for the first time?
Very recently actually. I live with it since I was born, but, I thought that it was normal and that everybody had it. But, when I talked with engiends about it and when I did some researches for my lectures, I found that it was, in fact, a very specific condition that touched only few people.
But, you've also discovered that you could reverse the process:
The process reverses itself. I don’t have to do anything for that. Coming back on the example of the landscape, the sight of a landscape creates a piece of music in my brain. But, if I composed that piece of music and play it, then, the synesthesia is reversed and people can see precisely the landscape I was watching initially.
This is magical for me because I can share what I feel. While listenening to those themes, the others can experience "synesthesia" to.
Is it why your music is so “visual “?
Probably.
So, Screen music was perfect for you, the association of picture and music?
It couldn’t be better.
How does synesthesia work in your job?
Usually, it starts while reading the script. When you read a book, you inevitably see pictures, you visualize the scenes, you “see” the backgrounds, the characters, the costumes, the actions… Well, when I read a script, those visualizations are turned into sounds and music. I, actually, hear each theme that is included in each scene, in each costume, character or action.
"The soundtrack is already in the script,
I don't create anything."
So, you are saying that the themes are already in the script:
Yes, I am. I don’t have the pretension of creating music. My task is to “compose” music, I mean extracting the themes out of the scenes and making those themes audible. Very often, I’m watching a sequence with the director and, instead of asking me “What do you think?”, they ask me “What do you hear?”
Are there times you don’t hear anything?
Never, there is always something to see, so, there is always something to hear for me. Synesthesia is not something that you can switch off. It's permanent. If someone is cooking a cake next to you, you can't help smelling it. But, sometimes, what I hear can be really messy or sounds like a big cacophony.
And what do you do then?
We talk about it with the director. I ask him if it was exactly his goal. If it was, I respect that and I score a chaotic and unsorted theme, maybe a bit more musical than what I actually hear. If it wasn’t the director’s goal, I try to correct it by creating a smoother theme in order to attenuate the dissonances of the engames.
Would you have an anecdote about your synesthesia?
I discover new things nearly every day. Recently, I've found a way of attenuating a colour by using its opposite.
What do you mean?
Imagine a scene in which the main 2 colours would be red and dark green. They respectively correspond for me to a bandoneon in its low range and a double bass played with a bow. By using their opposite colours, we can influence the spectator’s visual perception. For example, the opposite colour of red is Cyan, what sounds, in my brain, like a high piccolo. So, if I use a piccolo instead of a bandoneon, the spectator’s eye won’t be sensitive to the red of the engame anymore, as if the colour red has disappeared.