2024
In May, beginning of my research journal, published through Memoris, the one of the Cinémathèque de Bretagne. One article a month, on general historical subject about sound and amateur cinema, alternately with case-studies.
In June, an article for KunstText.
In October, a chapter on amateurs and sound art.
Between October and January 2025, secondment at Home Movies, in Bologna.
May, 16: with Alan Lozevis, the technician-archivist of the Cinémathèque de Bretagne, workshop on audio restoration, Association des Archivistes Français, Grenoble.
April, 24: talk on ‘The Sound of Amateur Cinema: collections, oral history, experimentation’ at the Institute of Culture, Languages and Societies of the School of Advanced Studies, University of London.
January, 15-16: seminar on tape recorders and magnetic tapes to the archivists of the Diazinteregio network, Gap, Cinémathèque d’Images de Montagnes.
It was very nice, to serve as examples, we took a box full of tapes and films (plus a map of the Annapurna massif), and I randomly selected a tape written “2/3 – 19 cm/s – mono pleine piste”. It happens that it was a recording of Nepalese music, recorded at the beginning of the 1960s, probably in 1962 around the Nilgiri mountain, by the expedition led by Lionel Terray.
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2023
I am thrilled to announce that, from September 2023 and for two years, I will be a Marie Skłodowska-Curie / Bienvenüe fellow. That is fantastic news. I will be based in France between Rennes-2 (Arts : Pratiques et poétiques lab) and the Cinémathèque de Bretagne, to write a manual for the restoration of the sound of amateur films.
December 8: ‘On Amateur Sound Art: A History of Sound Hobbyists and Musique Concrète’ at the New Media, Old Archive symposium, Percy Grainger Museum, Melbourne. The programme will soon be online.
November 20: I have an article published in Organised Sound: ‘On the use of field recordings on radio: a history of the beginnings.’ You can read it here: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/organised-sound/article/abs/on-the-use-of-field-recordings-on-radio-a-history-of-the-beginnings/CDABD08D0426F2DEE5DCB5F712EE381D It is part of an issue about radio and sound art, that will be published in April 2024.
October 14-15: Radio Utopia is reconducted at the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine, Paris, together with my 4 pieces that were selected for the Venice Biennale.
October 12-13: ‘The Expertise of Amateur Sound Hobbyists’, paper at the Expertise of the Musical Amateur conference at Kunst Uni Graz, in Graz.
August 1-5: Venice Biennale. I have 4 pieces selected to be part of Radio Utopia. This event, organised by the is part of the French Pavillon, Ball Theater.
July 3-16: Tonjäger. Thanks to the Fonds Citoyen, we are going to Germany to interview sound hunters and collect recordings from the past. We will meet members of the Ring der Tonband Freunde and of Intertape. This is done through the Institut Breton des Arts Sonores, the cultural organisation devoted to sound art (production, pedagogy, research) that I set up with my partner Lina Zikra (we don’t have a website for the moment, but it will come soon enough). In France, I will present the results during Fluxon, at Kerminy.
June 22-23: ‘Sound Hunters and the Preservation of the Sounds of the Past’, paper at the Sound Modernism conference, King’s College, London.
May 13: Pierre et la mer, chapelle Bonne-Nouvelle, Melgven.
A danced musical tale based on Le roman d’un enfant by Pierre Loti.
I am working with Isadora Bellis (piano), Marina Pirot (dance), and Lina Zikra (voice).
April 23: Milieux 2 is released on my bandcamp. This second occurrence of my phonographic series is dedicated to a wonderful morning spent walking in Riga. Check it out, and thanks for listening.
March 24: My thesis has made its way to the White Rose repository. You can check it here. Now working to turn parts of it into articles.
March 14: I have corrected (hopefully) the last typos of my thesis manuscript, and it should be online on the White Rose eTheses repository in April. Endless thanks to Marta Donati for the proofreading.
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2022
December 7: VIVA TIME. I will have the pleasure to defend my work and discuss with Sabine Clarke (University of York) and Karin Bijsterveld (University of Maastricht).
update: I passed it!
December 6: opening of Juliette Mock’s exhibition On dirait que quelqu’un joue du piano quelque part at the Cellier, Reims. I assisted Juliette on her sound sculpture, for the editing of the piece and its scenography. Alongside the sound sculpture, there are two series of drawings (Le spleen des petites and Le spleen des grands), a series of paintings, and a very delicate video. The sound sculpture matches the drawings, paintings, and video marvellously.
Besides Juliette, there is a very archaeological exhibition of Laurent Le Deunff, and both are curated by Elsa Bezaury under the title Des objets et des hommes.
November 16: mix for Tikka Radio: Entretien avec un jeune auteur.
September 30: PHD THESIS SUBMISSION, AT LAST. Now that it’s done, I intend to post much more details on a dedicated section of my website.
August 11-28: residency at Casa Qenhun, Parabita. Writing new music and improvising under the sun of Salento.
June 1-3: ‘Sound Hunting, Amateur Networks, and Sound Agency.’
Paper at Agents and Actors: Networks in Music History, Sixth Sibelius Academy Symposium on Music History, Helsinki, Helsinki Music Centre.
February 4: live set for Michel et Michel at Radio Primitive. Many thanks to Nicolas Canot, Cyrille Koutcheroff, Michel et Michel, Lune. Expect an intense field recording / drone / harsh noise / short wave radio set.
January 24: Milieux 1, released on my bandcamp. First issue of a series dedicated to field recording. These ones were made in France and Latvia, between 2008 and 2014. Delicate electronics are sometimes blended within them.
January 12: Jah Poney live at Vidéodrome, Marseille. With my Paravision bro Nicolas Jacquot.
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2021
December 30: my article about Giacinto Scelsi and John Cage has been published as a chapter within a volume directed by Pierre-Albert Castanet and Lenka Stransky: Mouvement. Cinétisme et modèles dynamiques dans la musique et les arts visuels (Movement. Kinetic and Dynamic Models in Music and Visual Arts). I speak about the influence of Zen in Scelsi and Cage music, and about immobility as the ultimate movement.
December 4: Lichen-ADN has been released on Paravision.
November 3: Opening of the Paravision festival that celebrates the first year of the label. Lichen-ADN will be premiered for Tikka radio.
October 21-23: First session of digging the Peter Handford collection at the National Railway Museum in York. Handford is a pioneering sound recordist who has recorded the end of the steam age in Britain and abroad. He also known for being among the first to record synchronous sound on location for cinema (notably on Summertime). He later won an Oscar for best sound mixing with Out of Africa.
October 14: I have the pleasure to be invited by Carolyn Birdsall for a talk at the TRACE seminar. TRACE is for Tracking Radio Archival Collection in Europe (1930-1960), and I will speak about the Jean Thévenot collection (a major source for the history of field recording and amateurs’ sound practices).
October 1-8: Residency at Kerminy, to compose the music of the next show of the Mycellium dance company.
September 1: Crème de nuit. My bimonthly Paravision mix for Tikka radio. Alvin Lucier in dialogue with Echo Roots, Ghostmane, and Arkhon Infaustus.
August 21: Lichen ADN, live at Kerminy.
August 16-19: Residency at Kerminy, to work on a future release for Paravision based on lichens and DNA.
July 18: Piece for the Unquiet Earth, organised by the World Listening Project for the World Listening Day.
May / July: I’ll be doing a placement at the Concarneau Marine Station of the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle. I’ll work within the BOREA team, with biologists Tony Robinet and Cédric Hubas, to sonify the electrical activity and genetical data of lichens. This is an exploratory project and as we don’t exactly know what will be the outcome, we are quite excited to start. This is part of a larger project on symbiosis processes within lichens that the BOREA team have.
July, 4: outdoor performance in the Combe aux Fées, Dijon. Soundwalk with musicians, a philosopher, and gardeners. We are writing the project at the moment, more details to follow. It will be done with MagnaVox and Why Note.
June, 15: ‘The Technology and Culture of Amateur Sound Recording in France and Britain, 1950-1980.’ Paper at the Bielefeld-Lund-York History conference.
June, 2: Fire, Magic, Venom. Paravision mix for Tikka Radio. You can listen to it here.
May, 26-28: ‘Sound Hunting, Amateur Networks, and Sound Agency.’
Paper at Agents and Actors: Networks in Music History, Sixth Sibelius Academy Symposium on Music History, Helsinki, Helsinki Music Centre. Postponed to 2022 due to Covid-19 🙁
April, 7: I’ve done a Paravision mix for Tikka Radio. You can expect an unedited piece of Pierre Henry, obscure tracks from Åke Hodell, some Danton Eeprom techno, reconstituted dinosaur sounds, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and tracks from the great Mike Harris through his Scorn project. Plus plenty of other things.
We now have a monthly Paravision residence on Tikka radio, so expect more in the future.
February: Publication of ‘Field Recording, Technology, and Creative Listening.’
A chapter within the proceedings of the 4th International Congress on Ambiances: Ambiances, Alloaesthesia: Senses, Inventions, Worlds. You can access an online version of the two volumes of proceedings here.
February: Kairos, new piece for double bass. Commissioned by Ars Nova, with Tanguy Menez, double bass. The piece was recorded on the 21th. and will be released on Ars Nova’s Youtube channel on the 15th of April.
// During the year: several releases with Paravision Music are scheduled, and most surely there will be one on the sound of lichens. Mix for Tikka Radio also, every other month (my bro Nicolas Jacquot taking care of the other months).//
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2020
December, 14-18: Sound Instruments, Sonic Cultures: An Interdisciplinary Conference, Bradford, National Science and Media Museum.
I was a lead member of the organising committee.
December, 2-4: ‘Field Recording, Technology, and Creative Listening.’
Paper at the 4th International Congress on Ambiances: Ambiances, Alloaesthesia: Senses, Inventions, Worlds, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara.
Conference has moved online.
November 24 – December 22: Nous nous trouvâmes à l’entrée du village de Bethmérie.
Les Nuits d’Orient, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon.
Sound exhibition with Samuel Offredi.
Cancelled to the new lockdown, but broadcasted in 5 episodes by our friends at Radio Dijon Campus. Tune in during the festival and listen to ‘Field dans ta chambre’, each Tuesday at noon CET.
November, 18: Jah Poney, Vaches et Chevaux, audiovisual live set.
Vidéodrome, Marseille.
Many thanks to Nicolas Jacquot for inviting us in his carte blanche.
Cancelled due to the new lockdown 🙁
November, 10: Radio and the Sound of Modernism conference.
Lead member of the organising committee.
October, 16-25: Skywards.
Budapest Art Week, Bercsény utca 10, Budapest.
Exhibition with Rita Görözdi, Lilla Görözdi, Nicolas Jacquot, Rémi Luc, Axelle Terrier, and Boglárka Sipos.
Curated by Sonja Pintér and Rita Görözdi.
Cancelled due to the pandemic 🙁
October: ‘Hunting Sounds: The Development of Sound Recording Hobbyist Culture in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s.’
Article in the sixth issue of Unlikely – Journal of Creative Arts. Special issue on Translating Ambiance by guest editor Jordan Lacey.
September 28 – October 2: residency with the Jah Poney.
Césaré CNCM, Reims.