The Acousmonium

"The acoustic images projected by loudspeakers shake up the way we approach the issue of the contact point between the music and the audience. This new situation forces us to take a position on new issues, and introduces us to new reactions. This diversely poetic music gathers around a common denominator: the listening system." François Bayle

The issue of how to present works of musique concrète—and then electroacoustic music—in concert was a challenge that inspired considerable reflection in the 1950s.

These questions around musical stage design reached a decisive turning point at the GRM when François Bayle proposed developing an orchestra of loudspeakers.
 

And so the Acousmonium emerged at an inaugural evening at the Espace Pierre Cardin in Paris on February 12, 1974, after a trial run one month earlier at Saint Séverin Church.

The term "Acousmonium" is derived from the word "acousmatic" and is used to refer to the approach of musique concrète with its concept of acousmatic music.

The word "acousmatic" describes any noise or sound we hear without seeing where it comes from. The core idea of the Acousmonium lies in the use of the specific qualities of loudspeakers and their setup.

Indeed, François Bayle decided to diversify the types of speakers in terms of "sound color," "range," "acoustic dispersion," and to musically exploit the particular qualities of each one.

 Loudspeakers are considered as sound projectors, which are specialized by register and associated with a position in the background or foreground. They are then distributed across the set depending on their power and the quality with which they reproduce the audio spectrum.

The key idea behind such a system is to unleash the music at the scale of the concert hall itself. The listener sits facing a powerful orchestra in the form of loudspeakers.

For the listening experience to be complete, a musician will "perform" the music at the control desk (the console)...

... meaning that they will choose the best strategy for playing the piece by following the sound developments employed in the work: we therefore speak of sound spatialization, or in other words, projecting sounds into space.

The Acousmonium is also suitable for live performances with musicians present on the stage, for concerts that combine the gestures of acousmatic performance with those of playing instruments.

Following the evolution of the esthetic of the music played at GRM concerts, the Acousmonium was developed further to reproduce the GRM's most recent music production more successfully.

Since its creation, the equipment has therefore evolved to allow for modernization of the system and improvement of its capabilities to reproduce sound, yet without abandoning its original spirit.