Contacts
agathe.bioules [at] ens-paris-saclay.fr (Agathe Bioules)

ENS Paris-Saclay innovates with composition and sound art workshops

ENS Paris-Saclay has added an artistic dimension to its degree programme with two composition and sound art workshops open to all Normaliens, whether musicians or not.

Two distinguished partners, the Philharmonie de Paris and Muse en Circuit, a national centre for composition and sound art, have joined forces with ENS Paris-Saclay so that students can begin to explore various aspects and repertoires of contemporary music and sound composition.

Sound Creation Devices and Improvisation, workshop run with Muse en Circuit, national centre for composition and sound art

The improvisation workshop focuses on experimental sound creation using a simple electronic music system that the participants help put together. Improvising as a group, participants will work towards creating a piece for a public performance.

Trainer Arnaud Rivière is a self-taught musician whose practice centres on free improvisation with noise music influences. He mainly uses a basic electroacoustic system built from simple components (customized mixing board, microphones, sensors, etc.). Rivière is also the organizer and programmer of Sonic Protest, a festival dedicated to “extreme” music with roots in jazz, industrial, punk or electronic music.

“By making creative use of simple electronic technologies, the idea is to question the very nature of sound, to observe and manipulate it. The workshop is designed as a space for experimental production centred on a rudimentary electronic instrument, an environment we will build collectively to try out new things and take advantage of them.
We’ll use the systems we create to play and experiment in real-time, giving pride of place to error, chance and accidents. In complement to the practical aspect, we will introduce and discuss works of contemporary artists related to the topics we cover..

The workshop will culminate in a concert at ENS Paris-Saclay.

Electronic Music—New Tools, workshop run with the Philharmonie de Paris

This workshop is structured around the concert “Grand soir numérique” to be held on 26 January at the Philharmonie de Paris.
The concert brings together diverse artists, composers and audiovisual performers, illustrating the meeting point between contemporary art music and electronic music.

The workshop is organized as follows:

  • before the concert, a session with composer Wilfried Wendling, who will present the artists and works,
  • a creative studio session,
  • the concert,
  • a second creative studio session.
     

The studio sessions will be supervised by composers and technicians from the Philharmonie de Paris.