F So she did... It's funny, I thought for a second, I was wondering whether you hadn't seen that in '67, if there wasn't a pavilion at the expo where Inuit throat singers would have been invited
R On film, certainly, but not the singers themselves
F Had you heard any throat singing before, or was that like, whoah?
R Well, you'd always hear a little bit of it each time they'd show a documentary on the Inuit, we weren't, it wasn't new it was just that, when I saw them perform on stage, then I understood the, the technique of what it was they were doing, and it, it really interested me as a tool because it's, it's a musical game, it's not a score, and the first one who laughs loses, eh, you get it, you have to make the other laugh
F The first one who laughs, it's like barbichette (*a game for two in which each grabs the other by the chins; they sings the riddle, "je te tiens, tu me tiens, par la barbichette, le premier qui rira aura une tapette" and then stare at each other until one or the other cracks up and thus is promptly slapped)
R Exactly, it's a musical barbichette
F Musical
R And that's, that's it, that's what interested me so much
F And that's your binary mode
R That's my number 2
F Number 2
R Yeah, it's action-reaction
F And you called it DEUX COUPS.
R DEUX COUPS but it meant that each of the two musicians could only play two notes before the other could reply, so all you can exploit is, "Do I make him wait or do I give it to him rightaway?" You understand, it's, and then you create a tension, you create a rhythm, for instance you go, "Pom pom?" and he replies, "Pom pom."
"Pom pom?
Pom pom.
Pom pom?
Pom pom.
Pom pom?
Pom pom.
Pom!"
F HA
R And then normally he'll, either he's stuck, either you've tricked him and he plays, or he's seen you coming and he doesn't, but for the public all you do is you watch and your can easily tell that they're waiting for each other or cheating each other, at one point with Jean Derome we were doing like, fake echoes, so I'd go, "Pom pom, pom pom, pom pom, pom pom, pom pom..." and then he'd go "Yeah, but where does this all end?" HUHU so there's all this strategy and this way of
F HHHHHHH
R ... of playing with the other musician and with the material
F Did that amuse people?
R Of course! 'Cause, we'd explain the rules to the public, so the public doesn't expect a nice melody, it doesn't expect a, a thing, it watches as a game unfolds between two musicians and there he'll find something, the most surprising that will, you know, there's a sort of participation from the public when you know the rules...
