Elevate Festival 2020 – Acousmonium

One of the central cooperations of 2020 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) presented new works.

The Acousmonium is the sound diffusion system designed in 1974 by Francois Bayle and used originally by the Groupe de Recherches Musicales at the Maison de Radio France. It consists of about 50 loudspeakers of differing size and shape, and was designed for tape playback. As Bayle wrote in a CD sleeve note in 1993, it was “Another utopia, devoted to pure “listening” … as a penetrable “projection area”, arranged with a view to immersion in sound, to spatialised polyphony, which is articulated and directed.”

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.

Photo Clara Wildberger