Akousma | A Concert Augmented by Bone Conduction

On October 9, a packed house was held under the dome of the Society for Arts and Technology for the Augmented Concert presented by Akousma. This pioneering event, which for the first time used bone conduction headphones in a structured manner in an electroacoustic concert context, featured four specially commissioned mixed music works.

After a brief presentation by Andrea Gozzi, director of the research-creation project, several thanks from the collaborators and a calibration of our bone conduction headphones, we are ready for the immersion.

Nicola Giannini, La dialectique de la proximité

Posted behind his synthesizers, Nicola Giannini sculpts a dialogue between vastness and intimacy. The first minutes stretch out in various iterative patterns spatialized around us and through our headphones. A voice finally rises through our cochleas: “But I love the sound of this felt pen that goes towards you, towards me, towards us.” Giannini lingers writing with this said felt pen and we hear these gestures in our headphones. A crossing of an organic sound universe created by synthesis, a dialectic of proximity…

Duo Catalão-Thibault, INTIMITÉ INFINITÉ

Equipped with horns, Dominic Thibault and João Catalão slowly cross the space, moving from the back of the dome to the front. At each sound call, they take a few steps. Once they arrive at their installation, around the bass drum, the horns are used to produce windy whistling sounds, now transmitted directly to our headphones, creating immersion and intimacy. Then, the two artists manipulate various objects in interaction with the drum. They explore granulations, friction, complexity of sound mass and timbral qualities. The exploration of sound circularity is particularly interesting, notably through the gesturalization of a metal chain on the bass drum.

The end returns to the beginning with a slow movement of the artists out of the device. This is punctuated by alternating rattles of rattles that gradually fade away until the sound disappears completely.

Ana Dall’Ara-Majek, Polyhedral Rhythms

With his mysterious PhotoTable (an invented instrument), Dall’Ara-Majek places several vials on a glass table equipped with a light-sensitive electromagnetic device. Each vial, depending on its position, generates a distinct sonic response, modulating the density of the sounds and their rhythmic deployment. The sound material comes from modular synthesis and field recordings, creating imaginary landscapes. Around us, sounds of liquid flow and flux unfold. By methodically moving the vials across the surface with frank and calculated gestures, the artist brings out sonic textures that are sometimes tight or sparse, low or high, dense or light, sometimes tonal, sometimes more complex.

An instrument that immerses us in the transformations of matter.

Kevin Gironnay, Espèces d’espaces

To close the event, Gironnay presents a work with soprano Amy Grainger, who recites and sings excerpts from poems transmitted through bone conduction headphones. For a moment, breaths multiply through the dome, spatializing and transposing, sliding inspirations. The poems speak of space, of our souls, of the living. Grainger quotes Georges Perec: “The problem is not so much knowing how we got here, but simply recognizing that we got here, that we are here: there is not one space, a beautiful space, a beautiful space around us, a beautiful space all around us, there are lots of little bits of space.”

This concludes the evening well. An evening of exploration of space, our presence, and the tangible potential of new technologies.