Les Temps Modernes performs in Beijing

The chamber music ensemble Les Temps Modernes ('Modern Times') was founded in Lyon in 1993. Its members have always shared the common wish to make the twentieth century repertoire better known, and they first made a name for themselves with interpretations of major contemporary works by composers such as Schönberg, Messiaen, Berio, Crumb and Donatoni.

After this initial period, the group decided to explore some of the new music that has resulted from recent advances in technology. This led them to accept a period of residence at the Collectif et Compagnie studio in Annecy. The mix of instrumental and electronic sound, surely one of the most promising areas for the development of new music at the beginning of the twenty-first century, forms one of the mainstays of the group's own creative work. The specificity of Les Temps Modernes can therefore be said to lie in the balance they observe between their work on existing contemporary styles and the elaboration of new ones. Although the co-ordinator of the group is at present Jean-Louis Bergerard, the group have chosen to work together in a spirit of mutual artistic affinity and hence do not have a director as such.

In 2002, the group released a DVD (Universal music) about Tristan Murail that won the famous Grand Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros.