The Franco-American composer is bringing together orchestras and electronics, and wonders if AI will take us into a musical future…

Photo: Daphné Giquel

When Uèle Lamore arrived at Boston’s Berklee College of Music in 2013, she was looking for something a little… different. Bored with rock, jazz and pop, she decided that it was time to experiment. She wanted to hang out with weirdos and push music to its absolute limit. And she found everything she wanted on perhaps the most ‘traditional’ of the celebrated music school’s many courses.

“Out of nowhere, I enrolled on a three-and-ahalf-year course in classical composition,” says Lamore. “I was a pretty good guitarist, but I was not what you would call a genius musician, so maybe I was making a big mistake. Was I really smart enough for this course? There were 5000 new students in my year and only 10 of them signed up for classical composition. Ten of the biggest nerds in the world… the sad kids who have no friends. I was sitting in a room full of strange characters. We were like the Hufflepuffs in Harry Potter [that is to say, the most nerdy of the school houses in the popular children’s magical epic series – Ed]. And you know what?” she adds. “I found my ideal home! It was fantastic! So refreshing and so welcoming. Yes, the theory side of things was a challenge, but the rest of the time we were making every kind of noise you can imagine. If I smash this glass, what kind of music will it create in my mind? Can I make an instrument out of this noise on my iPhone?

“When I signed up for that course, I wanted to learn about classical composition because that was a big hole in my knowledge. But I came away with something completely different… a secular idea of classical music. What happens if I introduce samplers and synthesisers? Computers and drum machines? What happens if I take the force of an orchestra and bring in all these other ideas and instruments.

“This was my dream. This was what I’d been looking for!”

The 27-year-old Franco-American calls herself a composer, arranger and conductor – all those well-worn classical labels – but a listen to this year’s soon to be released debut album for the !K7 label reveals abstract, electronicallydriven moods that have more in common with Scanner, Matthew Herbert or peak-era Warp Records. A mix of field recordings, angry strings, 808s, thrashing guitars, odd time signatures and beautiful melodies, the songs are at once demanding and yet utterly beguiling. And all inspired by the work of Puccini. (The album is called The Magnificent Day Of Giacomo P.)