„The wine that one drinks with eyes / the moon pours down at night in waves.“
The first lines in Arnold Schoenberg‘s Pierrot lunaire lead the way: things go upward to the moon, and inward into the soul brimming with emotion. The poems by Albert Giraud, on which Schoenberg‘s melodrama is based, paint fever- ish pictures of the soul. At one time, one spoke of „moon addiction“ or, like Giraud, of „moon drunkenness.“ In the English word „lunatic,“ one finds a link between the satellite and rapturous psychic states. „Pierrot Populaire“ is a search by Ensemble Recherche for traces of the popular roots of Schoenberg‘s Pierrot on the one hand, and at the same time for the motif of the moon in pop culture. From Björk to queer director Bruce LaBruce, Pierrot has been interpreted and reinterpreted. Pop songs like „Moon- light Shadow“ or „Moon River“ refer to the moon as well as popular works of classical music – think of the Moonlight Sonata or „Clair de Lune.“ The melancholy Pierrot himself is a legacy of popular culture: he comes from French and Italian fairground and street theaters and as a clown from the circus. In „Pierrot Populaire,“ we roam nocturnal alleys and enter spiritual blackouts – sometimes pale, sometimes glea- mingly illuminated by the moon. „And a spring tide floods / the silent horizon.“