Free Runner is a collaboration with acclaimed French artist and writer Chrystel Egal. The track reimagines my score for Egal’s 2023 short film Free Runner, transforming its ambient tone into a propulsive, dynamic, drum & bass composition.
Egal is a filmmaker, photographer, novelist, and performance artist. The film is part of her ongoing Portrait Fiction series, this one focusing on Parisian parkour champion Simon Nogueira, who jumps daringly among the rooftops of Paris. The track is part of my ongoing Amalgam Sphere album, and features angular Mutantrumpet lines and dynamic live sampling in dialogue with Egal’s spoken French text. Propelled by urgent rhythms and cinematic orchestral percussion, the music echoes the danger and grace of Nogueira’s movement.
Chrystel and I first collaborated in 2002 on Takuskan: The Essence of Life, a multimedia performance at Paris’s prestigious music center Cité de la Musique. The performance fused her live visual art with my real-time Mutantrumpet improvisations. That same year, Egal’s voice appeared on my track “Multiplex” from the album Automotive.
Egal’s Portrait Fiction projects blend documentary realism, visual narrative, and poetic exploration. She has directed numerous short films, including Tribal (1993), No Shit: L’esprit Guerrier (1998), Statement (2023), and Trance (2024)—the latter two with my music. Her work is part of the Maison Européenne de la Photographie collection and she is represented by Agence Lise Arif. Egal is also a published novelist with several works through Actes Sud, including Kovalam Beach (1998) and New York est mon excès (2001).
Built from my original score and featuring pulsating, ambient Mutantrumpet textures alongside unconventional percussive elements performed directly on the instrument, Free Runner surges with layered breakbeats, sub-bass, timpani, and glitch-driven detail. T
Watch the original film: https://youtu.be/tF83Dietot4
