What is the best thing that I love about my work?
Being a music composer and improviser, what I love most about my job is having moments where I work alone in my inner world and others where I meet wonderful, passionate people who teach me a lot and not only music stuff.
What is my idea of happiness?
For me happiness is being in the mountains surrounded by the people I love and also engaging in activities that are consistent with who I am and make me feel proud.
What is my greatest fear?
Feeling helpless about discriminatory societies that prevent certain minorities from doing what they love, and policies that destroy the environment.
What is the trait that I most deplore in myself?
Maybe my lack of self confidence. I also can be very shy and I get frustrated that I don’t always succeed in saying what I want/think.
Which living persons in my profession do i most admire?
I love Micachu as an artist who navigates between the musical genres.
I really admire Gwen Rouger who is the artistic co-director of the Soundinitiative Ensemble whom I worked with. She always follows through on her artistic endeavors and has all these wonderful ideas to offer new sound experiences to her audience.
I also really admire my sister Jeanne Gorisse who is a doublebassist, a cultural mediator, a co-founder of the music label Syrinx and a really caring person who always has a thousands of projects at the same time that she handles with so much intelligence.
I wanted to cite women only but I’ll make an exception for Jean-Yves Bernhard, my composition teacher and mentor. I owe him so much and he is such a great person and a wonderful composer.
What is my greatest extravagance?
I accept and embrace random events in my work as well as in my personal life. Sometimes it makes me end up in crazy situations where I don’t know why I’m here at all but I am always learning a lot. In my work, it allows me to see wider than what my own mind would’ve. I rely a lot on accidents to develop musical ideas.
On what occasion would I lie?
I would only lie if the truth is hurtful and does not help or benefit people whatsoever (which is a pretty rare situation in my opinion).
What is the thing that I dislike the most in my work?
I am in constant fear that my work is too fade, too neutral, too smooth and has no spark in it.
When and where was I the happiest, in my work?
When I worked with the Soundinitiative Ensemble. It was my first residency as a composer with an ensemble. They were all so open to what I wanted, they were so nice and caring with me but they also had really good ideas and feedback. This experience made me grow but most importantly it made me feel like I was right where I was supposed to be.
If I could, what would I change about myself?
I would stop the fear of failure and be more confident in myself. I would just dare to do crazy things, dare to go and share my work with everybody and embrace the critics without sinking into a mindset where I feel like I am not good enough.
What is my greatest achievement in work?
I love to see the creation spark in the eye of the people to whom I teach sound creation. When I see that someone just understood and felt how much sense creation can give to ones life and to our world, It makes me feel like I did something great and I take so much pride in it.
Where would I most like to live?
My dream is to live in the coutryside, more precisely in the Alps, in a big farm house that I would have built myself and in which I could invite artists from very various horizons to create for a couple weeks or so. I would grow my own vegetables and brew my own beer to host them all.
What is my most treasured possession?
My external hard drive because all my works are in it, so are all my personal photos and videos. It contains all I did from the very beginning of my career and from so many different stages of my life that I like to remember.
What is my most marked characteristic?
People always say I seem so determined and soft at the same time. I don’t really realize that but I feel I should trust them because I don’t really know myself.
What is my most inspirational location, in my city?
I live in between Karlsruhe and Paris so I will answer for Karlsruhe because I guess there are a lot of answers for Paris. In Karlsruhe, die Botanischer Garten is a very lovely place where there are lots of flowers in the spring and summer and a lot of squirrels in the autumn and winter. I love it!
What is my favorite place to eat and drink, in my city?
Same here, I will answer for Karlsruhe. My favorite place to eat and drink is Stövchen because it is a very cute Deutsche place. There is a nice Biergarten but the inside is also very schön and they have all those German specialties so here you go!
What books influenced my life and how?
La Horde du Contrevent by Alain Damasio is a fantasy book about the way things are always a cycle in life. The writing process of this book is truly what striked me the most I think. Alain Damasio uses form to tell the story as well as content. It’s something I always seek to create in my work.
All the Julia Wertz comics resonated so much with different aspects of my life.
And finally Girl in a band by Kim Gordon that I read recently made me realize that I don’t need to be flawless on the technical part of my work but I must have something to say.
You Only Die Once. What music would I listen on my last day?
That is such a difficult question. Maybe I’ll say the St Matthew Passion from Bach because my mom told me she listened to it when she was pregnant with me and that she played it to calm me when I was a baby and I’ve always loved this piece. I guess it would be a good closure.
Who is my hero or heroine in fiction?
I am having a hard time answering this question. I think all my heroes and heroines are real life ones.
Who are my heroes and heroines in real life?
Here it is! I feel like my mother and my sister would be a great start even though I know it sounds silly. I really do admire them a lot and I hope they know why. But I would also cite Micachu, Julia Wertz, Kim Gordon, Lena Dunham, Eliane Radigue, SOPHIE, Pauline Oliveros, Anne Montaron, and the list could go on and on!
Which movie would i recommend to see once in a lifetime?
It’s not a movie but a TV series : Twin Peaks.
What role play stories in my life and work?
For me, the story in a musical piece is the binder of all the elements one wants to use in its work. I think a story is not necessarily what is commonly understood by history, but rather a way of giving meaning and therefore direction to a piece.
What do the words ‘You are the storyteller of your own life’ mean to me?
Dare and don’t fear to fail. Just try everything you want to try.
Who is my greatest fan, sponsor, partner in crime?
My boyfriend Thibault. He always supported me and always had great expectations for my career, more than I do myself. He taught me patience, positiveness, attention to detail, how to stop being paralyzed by how others see me, and he comes from the Alps so I could not resist.
Which people or companies would I like to work with ?
I would absolutely love to work again with Gwen Rouger, I think she still has so much to teach me!
I would love to work with Anne Montaron, who I admire so much for all the work and the fighting that she is doing to continue giving a spot to experimental music on public radios. I would love to learn the ropes of her job and benefit from her knowledge.
Improvising with Félicie Bazelaire would be such an honor as she is a friend that I admire and who helped me a lot in my career.
I would obviously like to work (again) with my mentor Jean-Yves Bernhard as well.
Working with the Ryoanji Epicentre company would be such an honor. I really admire all their work.
And finally, Micachu because I admire her so much!
What project am I looking forward to work on?
I am so looking forward to continue working with the Ensemble Intercontemporain. I began a two-year residency with them last year and can’t wait to see the results of these two years of work on stage.
Where can you see me or my work?
On my website : https://gorissealine.wixsite.com/gorissealine
On my Soundcloud : https://soundcloud.com/alinegorisse
What do the words “Passion Never Retires” mean to me?
For me it means that your will to say things through your art will always come back even if it is in different shapes. You don’t need to have a specific passion that will stay all your life the same way but it is more like a little fire inside your body that makes you create all kinds of things that can take a shape you would not have expected.
Which creative professionals should Peter invite to tell their story?
Jeanne Gorisse-Maerten, Gwen Rouger, Félicie Bazelaire, Juliette Sédès, Triinu Tammsalu, Anthéa Guiost, Winnie Huang, Shao-Wei Chou, Elif Bleda, Xin Shu.
How can you contact me?
The Heroine's Journey 