One of the central cooperations this year is with IEM, the Institute for Electronic Music in Graz, and the renowned Parisian institution INA GRM. The legendary Acousmonium, designed by Bayle, will be specially set up for in the György Ligeti Hall of Graz’s Mumuth.

With works by BJ Nilsen, François Bonnet, Jan Jelinek, John Chantler, KTL (Peter Rehberg + Stephen O’Malley), Lucy Railton, Okkyung Lee and utrumque – most of them commissioned via Re-Imagine Europe-, and acousmatic pieces by Luc Ferrari, Jean-Claude Risset and Michèle Bokanowski interpreted by GRM team members. In addition,  students of the IEM COMPUTER MUSIC PROGRAM (Benedikt Alphart and Peter Stiegler) will present new works.

GRM, the Groupe de Recherches Musicales, was founded in 1958 by Pierre Schaeffer, the founder of Musique Concréte, as a research institution. There, one could experiment for the first time with electro-acoustic sounds and tape recordings. In the 1970s, the composer François Bayle, a member of the GRM, created the Acousmonium, an orchestra of up to 80 loudspeakers. Each of them can be controlled separately. In specially developed compositions, it was now possible to precisely model the sound and distribute and diffuse it throughout the room.

Since its invention 45 years ago, the Acousmonium has always been evolved and adapted to the newest aesthetic and technological paradigms. Its presence at Elevate is a rare opportunity to experience it.