Pancrace

Pancrace is an ensemble formed in 2015 by French, British and Austrian musicians — Prune Bécheau, Arden Day, Julien Desailly, Léo Maurel and Jan Vysocky. The group is known for combining improvisation, collective composition and eclectic instrumentation, with a particular focus on the pipe organ. Their latest double LP, Papotier, develops a phenomenological approach that involves experiencing the limits of sound objects. In this project, Pancrace explores the idea of freeing the organ from its dependence on the church and removing it from its sacred immobility. The album was recorded during a residency in Bouxwiller (Alsace), where the ensemble worked with a historical 18th-century Silbermann baroque organ, placing it in dialogue with their custom-built modular MIDI pipe organ, the “Organous”.