Program of the week
We invite you to check this page regularly as it is frequently updated.
CABINET OF ACOUSTIC CURIOSITIES
Come and discover the fascinating world of acoustics at our unique event in Le Mans. The Cabinet of Acoustic Curiosities, organized by the RAmDAM association and Le Mans Université, aims to open the doors of the Laboratoire d’Acoustique de l’Université du Mans to the general public in a fun way, while arousing the curiosity of young and old alike. Enter an extraordinary world of sound! During this immersive tour, each room in the laboratory will reveal a unique acoustic experience, plunging you into spectacular and counter-intuitive sensations.
January 20th & 21st
9 am to 6 pm
DIPHONIC SINGING WORKSHOP
As part of the Le Mans Sonore festival, this discovery and practice workshop will enable you to work on your breath and the harmonics of your own voice.
This vocal acrobatics may seem virtuosic, but it’s accessible to all if we’re given the keys. Anyone can be introduced to diphonic singing, with no prerequisites whatsoever. Other events on Mongolian music are offered by CPFI: conferences, film screenings…
January 20th
9:30 am to 12:30 pm
SOUND IS A TERRITORY
“Le son est un territoire” (Sound is a Territory) is a sound creation created by a class from Berthelot secondary school, in collaboration with their teaching team and a meeting with Monica Fantini, sound designer for Radio France Internationale’s Écouter le monde program, and with the support of Delphine from Cartables FM. Oscillating between music and languages, physics and geography, the sound postcards bear witness to encounters between pupils surrounded by different languages, whether heard or spoken, taught or not in the school environment, and sounds that contribute to their access to meaning. As part of the CreaSons research project, the entire educational community involved in the project questioned the place of sound as a mediation tool by keeping diaries of their astonishment.
January 20th & 21st
9 am to 6 pm
BZZZ ! THE SOUND OF ELECTRICITY – CÉCILE BABIOLE
Bzzz! The Sound of Electricity is a sound sculpture that puts the sound of electricity into space. Six frequency generators modulate the electric current, generating slightly amplified vibrations. The device invites the spectator to experiment with their friction and combinations as they move from one loudspeaker to the next.
January 20th
9 am to 6 pm
RESERVORIO DE CANCIONES DESATENDIDAS – RUBEN DHERS (Exhibition)
A set of prepared acoustic guitars, cables and motors is assembled to explore the notion of installed pseudo-music. From the installation emerges an acoustic flow created by several guitar tunings and the movement of a network of motors. The specific tunings of the guitars respond to the spatial positioning of the instruments and their dialogue with the architecture.
January 20th
9 am
VIBRATE FOR SCIENCE! A PARTICIPATORY EXPERIMENT IN VIBRATORY PERCEPTION (Conference)
Explore vibro-tactile perception by taking part in a scientific experiment. The aim is to better understand the links between physical characteristics and human perception of vibrations. How do we perceive and interpret vibrations? What are the links between their physical characteristics and the sensations we perceive? These questions are the focus of research at Le Mans University’s Acoustics Laboratory. Researchers invite you to contribute to this work by taking part in a participatory science experiment in which you will be asked to assess your perception of vibratory stimuli applied to your hands. Ages 10 and up. Duration: 20 min.
January 20th to January 28th
10 am to 9 pm
CARTE BLANCHE – ESTELLE SCHORPP & JEAN-BASILE SOSA (Concert)
Estelle Schorpp and Jean-Basile Sosa present two original works of live and spatialized electroacoustic music. This atypical concert offers an extraordinary visual and aural experience in CTTM’s large, semi-anechoic hall. While Estelle Schorpp celebrates the work of composer and sound artist Marianne Armacher through a performance of generative electronic music, Jean-Basile Sosa delivers an ethereal, phantasmagorical version of some of the electronic club music of the 80s…
January 20th
4:30 pm & 8:30 pm
TRANSMISSION (Concert)
TRANSMISSION is a sound performance whose central element is a tampered telephone booth, created at the Music Box Village in New Orleans. Five musicians from various bands (Ez3kiel, ESB, Yann Tiersen, Geysir, Buriers) gather around this booth, which receives musical signals and distorts the sounds through a handset that is part microphone, part percussive instrument. The booth is an element of language, the communication link between electronic music and spoken-word. An industrial voyage, a tamed monster.
January 20th
4 pm
FILM SCREENING: VOYAGE EN DIPHONIE BY JEAN-FRANÇOIS CASTELL
As part of the Le Mans Sonore festival, the CPFI is offering a series of screenings on the music of Mongolia, including Voyage en Diphonie. Voyage en Diphonie retraces several intertwined stories: the foundations of an ethnomusicological approach; a unique tour experienced from the inside with shepherd and professional musicians from Mongolia; scientific experiments; the mystery of diphonic singing and its profound relationship with nature, as well as its transmission; and above all, the human adventure of Johanni Curtet and Nomindari Shagdarsüren shared with these artists in this great musical and heritage project.
January 20th
5 pm
LA PORNOPLANTE (Exhibition)
The sound sculpture La Pornoplante uses the codes of ASMR and audio porn to propose a metamorphosis, that of someone whose sex behaves like a plant. It grows in the sun and falls in the autumn. The spectator is invited to sit on the audio cable bench for 15 minutes. The sound circulates under the listener’s body, exiting from one side of the bench, where each cable corresponds to a loudspeaker in a bra cup, adding up like the cells of a body that combine to create an organ. It’s a question of breaking down the clothes that come off in the narrative of the sound piece, but also of trying to attribute what is said to another part of the body.
January 20th to 28th
9 am to 6 pm
ELECTRICAL WALKS
An invitation to hear the city in a different way, Electrical Walks open up new perceptions of our everyday reality, by listening to the electromagnetic fields that surround us without our being aware of it. Equipped with custom-made headphones and a map listing the most striking listening points, visitors follow a trail lasting around an hour, which they can follow on their own or in a group, in complete autonomy. This Le Mans edition of the discovery of the unheard-of was conceived by Christina Kubisch in collaboration with DNSEP Sound Design students from TALM-Le Mans.
January 20th to 28th
9 am to 6 pm
JULIE ROUSSE + VINCENT EPPLAY
Julie Rousse will perform her “Archéologie électromagnétique” (Electromagnetic Archaeology), a quadraphonic electroacoustic concert featuring synthesized sounds, various sources, electromagnetic recordings and field recordings. Vincent Epplay will call on instructions from the patch binder bequeathed by composer Bernard Parmegiani, reactivating the cosmic sonorities of the “Portabella” synthesizer.
January 21st
7 pm
BETWEEN THE TRACKS (Concert)
A headphone concert.
Conceived and performed by Denis Monjanel, Jean-Philippe Borgogno and Emmanuel Six. A sonic, musical and poetic switch. To be heard.
Played and embedded in a space, mixed live for a restitution as close as possible to the ears. “In the beginning there was a station…a platform…a departure…a journey or not, the feeling of having been crossed by a memory, a pleasant sensation or not, even a vertigo”.
January 21st
11 am & 3 pm & 6 pm
January 22nd
2:30 pm & 6:30 pm & 8:30 pm
ACOUSTICS AND COMICS
Comics are by nature a silent medium, yet they manage to put sound into words and images. In a playful, illustrated talk, Olivier Robin, professor of acoustics and scriptwriter, and Pierre Frampas, illustrator and comic book artist, will explore the different ways of representing sound in drawings or phylacteries. Olivier Robin will give examples based on existing comic strips, and Pierre Frampas will look back at the illustration work he did for the previous Biennale du son in 2022, for the “À l’image du son” exhibition.
They will also present their most recent works: Tuer Le Peintre (with Étienne Poisson), éditions Moelle Graphik; Château fort en danger (with Fanny Joly and Dominique Joly), published by Casterman.
January 22nd
6:30 pm
MERSENNE (1588-1648), THE SCIENCE OF SOUND IN THE BAROQUE AGE
Mersenne… apart from a little street in Le Mans, what does the name evoke? Born near Le Mans in 1588, Marin Mersenne was a leading figure in the “scientific revolution” of the 17th century. His treatise L’Harmonie universelle laid the mathematical and physical foundations of sound and musical phenomena. This exhibition presents Mersenne’s research and experiments, as well as works from the period, to illustrate the development of a science of sound, combining theology, magic and experimental science.
January 23rd & 24th & 26th
10 am to 6:30 pm
MEULE: IMMERSIVE SOUND CONCERT
3 well-known faces from the Touraine music scene join forces with the curiosity’ of the all-rounders. Those who want to explore and understand the psyche of King Gizzard Gizzard’s psyche, those who vibrate to the rhythmic tension of 70’s German Kraut, those who dust off and modernize.
A modular vessel trots between two facing drums, a kind of massive machine designed for looping conquest and repetitive trance. With its twists and turns, melodious songs and heartfelt cries, Meule knows how to preserve, refine and heighten tension with finesse and release.
It’s an invitation to a collective, animal dance that’s more felt than thought, with only the audience and the listener in control, passengers on this exhilarating space trip!
January 23rd
9 pm
RHIZOME + PETER CUSACK
Like a rhizome, the performances of TALM-Le Mans graduates Romain Allinant and Marta Shilova are live experiments in real-time audio/video manipulation. He produces sound signals via modular synthesizers and his computer. She recovers these streams to create, animate and modulate images in symbiosis with the sound, using TouchDesigner visual programming software. Peter Cusack is a field recordist and musician who has long been fascinated by our sonic environment. He launched the “Favourite Sounds Project” to discover what people find positive in everyday soundscapes, and “Sounds from Dangerous Places”, which uses sound journalism to investigate the sites of major environmental damage.
January 23rd
7 pm
AU DELÀ VU D’ICI (BEYOND AS SEEN FROM HERE)
Conceived as an evolving work, “Au-delà, vu d’ici” (Beyond, seen from here) is the extension of a vast three-year research project, which questions the need for a strong interrelationship between the individual and the collective as a condition for access to a form of elevation. This performative piece is shared in close proximity. Positioned around the artist, the audience can see, hear and perceive the movements, feel the unfolding of the slightest gesture, the slightest sound.
January 23rd
7 pm & 9 pm
January 24th
2:30 pm & 6:30 pm
ANIMATION AND EXHIBITION | MODULO’SON
Modulo’Son is open to pupils from kindergarten to CM2, and to the general public (on Wednesdays):
– An interactive exhibition in which children play an active role in their discoveries. The aim? To become aware of their sound environment and understand the physical and physiological phenomena of acoustics, while tackling preventive aspects.
– The workshops are adapted to the children’s ages and teachers’ requirements, and led by a Maine Sciences mediator.
This allows the class to be divided into two groups, so that experiments can be carried out under ideal conditions. At the same time, the second group visits the exhibition with their teacher.
January 24th
9 am
RADIOTOPIC ROUND TABLE II
Come and learn how to make independent radio! What links do radio and its corollaries (workshops, actions, live and public activations) forge with the geographical, social and cultural territory? What new ways are there of activating radio with the public, integrating an inclusive dimension? These are just some of the questions that will drive this meeting between art schools, third places, collectives and associations.
January 24th
2 pm to 6 pm
BEAUTIFUL UGLY SOUNDS: CÉLESTE GATIER & CATHERINE GUESDE
“Tensions, resistances and body-circuits: listening to electrical noise? a lecture-performance by Catherine Guesde and Céleste Gatier.
What happens when sound is no longer a set of melodies, rhythms and chords to be heard, but a series of oscillations, waves that circulate – a system of chaotic flows? How does one listen when, unable to keep one’s distance from sounds that have become vibrations, one becomes body-ear or body-circuit? While inviting audience participation, this performance-conference will approach noise from the angle of its gestures (DIY construction of DIY instruments, live manipulation of unstable devices), its sometimes wild, sometimes fragile sonorities, and its listening (technical, immersed, resistant).
Catherine Guesde holds a doctorate in philosophy from the Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. She is interested in the aesthetics of popular and experimental music, and is a contributing editor to the journal Volume! She was awarded the young researcher prize of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM, French-speaking branch) for her work on the taste for extreme metal. She is the author of “L’éthique du hardcore” (in Multitudes 51, Spring 2013) and co-authored ‘The Most Beautiful Ugly Sound in the World’: listening to noise with Pauline Nadrigny, published by Musica Falsa. Alongside her research activities, she contributes as a music critic to New Noise magazine and to several musical projects (Cigvë, M[[O]]ON, Shipwreck/Lighthouse, La Neste).
Céleste Gatier studied sound and visual arts at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts de Paris Cergy, and is currently completing a thesis at the Sorbonne on the links between sound and architecture in Japan, focusing on the acoustics of tea pavilions and the archaeology of the corresponding soundscape. His music focuses on the fragility of the sound object and the live realization of an electronic instrument that transforms itself at every moment. Each tiny gesture generates new, unstable and unpredictable noisy phenomena, through cuts, interference and short circuits. Voices are added to the crackling white noise, in a strange dialectic between the coldness of white frequencies and poetic words. Céleste also tackles other other hybrid performative practices, such as sound-performance conferences on economics.
January 24th
6:30 pm to 8pm
A GRAIN OF SAND (Conference)
Under the sign of the Sahara and the sand clouds that are born there and sometimes come to us, this musical and sound journey, between electro-acoustic scores and spoken or sung voices, will invite you to set off on an encounter with the other, the one we call the stranger…
January 24th
7 pm
THE ROOM OF SOUNDS
The Romm of Sounds is a sensory workshop that immerses spectators in a unique experience: the blind discovery of sounds. Comfortably seated in the auditorium of the Louis Aragon multimedia library, participants listen to the melodies emitted by rare “mechanical” musical instruments. The lights come on. An expert unveils the instruments, recounts their secrets and explains their techniques.
January 24th to 26th
2:30 pm to 6 pm
January 27th 10 am to 5 pm
IMMÉDIA – CIE ROUGE
Virginie Clénet invites you on a customized choreographic journey, bringing the body into dialogue with the spaces of the university library, summoning poetry, imagination and readers’ accounts of libraries. She guides the audience through a corporeal, sensory, imaginary and poetic experience, exploring and revisiting this environment and inviting audience participation during the performance (wandering, reading, closing your eyes, resting, writing…).
January 25th
12:15 pm
(S)E(A)SCAPE (Performance)
Immerse yourself in an immersive experience, raising awareness of noise pollution on the seabed. You’re invited to a unique encounter between electro, experimental music and street art, featuring sound creation collective Oreille Indiscrète, street-art collective Reskate Studio, musician Marie Delprat, underwater acoustics researcher Irène Mopin (ENSTA Bretagne) and biophysicist and writer Bill François.
The audience watches the concert through the windows of a giant “aquarium”, with the musician at its center. The walls of the aquarium feature a fresco by street-art artists Reskate Studio (Barcelona). The play of light and the use of photoluminescent paint reveal multiple readings of the same work.
Bill François, author of the best-selling book “L’éloquence de la sardine” (The Eloquence of the Sardine), will accompany and extend the concert. Audiences are also invited to deepen their understanding of the issues surrounding noise pollution in three specially-designed interactive booths.
January 25th
8 pm
POM BOUVIER B +RICCARDO LA FORESTA
à-F-fleur de Pom Bouvier B is an improvisation on an electroacoustic instrument, an almost wild lutherie, born of research and an album produced with the S-I-L-O collective. Riccardo La Foresta is an Italian percussionist and sound artist whose recent research questions the role of the drum kit as a percussion instrument. His performances are hybrid acts between sound art, improvisation and minimalist music.
January 26th
7 pm
LES ANGES MUSICIENS DE LA CATHEDRALE SAINT-JULIEN (Concert)
Conference associated with the concert by Les Anges Musiciens – Hosted by Romain VIALA, Researcher and Head of ITEMM’s Research & Innovation Department in Le Mans.
The manufacture of early musical instruments is based on iconography or ancient texts, which generally do not provide full details of the instrument’s construction. In particular, certain geometrical elements may not be explicit, and the types of wood used may be unknown. Virtual prototyping makes it possible to anticipate the behavior of objects through numerical simulation based on physical models. In this context, we are applying this approach to test organological hypotheses, to assess for example the impact of changing wood species or geometry on the instrument. These examples will be shown for different instruments as part of a 3D digitization operation of the chapel, where each instrument image will be represented in three dimensions, taking into account the shape of the vault.
Concerts Les Anges Musiciens
The vaults of Le Mans Cathedral’s Chapelle de la Vierge feature a number of musician angels, many of them carrying musical instruments. This exceptional heritage bears witness to the musical culture of their time. To set this celestial concert of the late 14th century to music, this concert-conference presents some of these instruments, some of which have been reconstructed: the mysterious chessboard with strings and keyboard, the double flute, the lute, the guiterne, the rebab and the psaltery. To discover and hear these vanished instruments, the Ars Sonic ensemble offers a program of polyphonic works contemporary with the fresco.
January 26th
6:30 pm
January 27th
11 am
CAMION BAZAR: LIVE IN IMMERSIVE SOUND (Concert)
A Paris-based duo made up of Frenchman Romain Play and Italian Benedetta, Camion Bazar first made a name for themselves as an alternative scene, breathing free air into the party scene with tons of vinyl, handcrafted scenography and free-spirited values. They went on to work in pairs: diggers, djs, producers, party curators, label managers, Rinse residents and now musicians with their new live show.
To their credit this past year 2023: their live A/V “Alteration”, their label club “Enemy Dance”, their militant and organic residency, “Voltage”.
Since February 2023, the “Alteration” live A/V tour has been underway. It’s an ode to admiring and rediscovering nature in altered states of consciousness. It’s a psychedelic concert of electronic music. Halfway between hope and a cry of urgency, on the frontiers of rock, house, techno and punk.
January 26th
11 pm
WE CAN’T BELIEVE OUR EARS! (Performance)
Through excerpts from symphonic pieces, the LAUM team’s vision engages a veritable phenomenology of the sound of a classical orchestra. Here’s a concert like no other, turning the moment of performance into an experience in which acoustics and their laws make the stage a space where surprise and discovery reign supreme, much to the delight of the audience, whose participation is a must.
Performing while at the same time revealing the conventions of the symphony, we are dealing with a Mr. Loyal. A ringleader who doesn’t hesitate to enter the dance to present a whole series of numbers such as: the giant rope, the violin simulator, the artificial cello…
January 26th
8:30 pm
MUSICAL INSTRUMENT DISCOVERY WORKSHOPS (Workshops – Games)
Come and discover the components and mechanics of the piano, understand the resonance of a guitar, touch and feel the vibration of a wind instrument and handle an accordion.
Piano workshop: (1 h / session) – 4 possible slots during the day
– Visit to the workshops,
– Introduction to the professions of piano tuner and repairer,
– Presentation of upright and grand piano mechanics – piano components and mechanics, understanding sound and resonance,
– Practical exercises: try your hand at tuning a piano.
Guitar workshop: (1 h / session) – 4 possible slots during the day
– Visit to the workshops,
– Introduction to the profession of guitar luthier,
– Demonstration of common repair and manufacturing operations – understanding guitar parts and resonance,
– Practical exercises: learn how to assemble a set of strings, plan and adjust fretwork.
Wind Instruments Workshop: (1 h / session) – 4 possible slots during the day
– Visit to the workshops,
– Presentation of the wind instrument repair technician’s trade,
– Display of woodwind and brass instruments, with the chance to try them out and feel their vibration,
– Presentation and demonstration of maintenance operations on brass and woodwind instruments,
– Practical exercises: learn how to set up a woodwind or brass instrument.
Accordion workshop: (1 h / session) – 4 possible slots during the day
– Workshop tour,
– Presentation of the accordion repair technician’s job,
– Presentation and demonstration of maintenance operations on diatonic and chromatic accordions,
– Exhibition of chromatic and diatonic accordions,
– Practical exercises: try your hand at accordions.
January 27th
9am to 5 pm
LES COLLECTINES (Concert)
Les Collectines is a participatory concert combining voice, guitar, clarinet and illustration. After collecting nursery rhymes at the Conservatoire and the media library, artists Fabien Bourrat, May Cottel and Chloé Dematte interpret your childhood memories in their own way. Illustrator Lucie Vandevelde brings a touch of enchantment to the nursery rhymes.
January 27th
9:45 am to 10:30 am & 10:45am to 11:15 am
BIRDS WORKSHOP
This workshop is an invitation to play with one of nature’s wonders. In the hollow of an electroacoustic nest, each participant can pick up a few sound objects to manipulate, or use his or her body and voice to share a musical dialogue. Using compositions inspired by birdsong and imitation games, come and invent free music that flies from ear to ear.
January 27th
3 pm & 5 pm
ELECTRO NIGHT
Superforma & Blue Dog present : Anetha + U.R.Trax + Olympe4000 + Bunzen
January 27th
11 pm
BODY PERCUSSION
Body percussion is a musical genre in its own right, using the body as a musical instrument. Through a playful approach to musical and rhythmic notions, musician Aurélie Sureau invites you to explore the different sound possibilities of your own body, while putting them to good use in the group to form an “orchestra”.
January 28th
11 am & 3 pm
THE DICE AND THE ROSE
Here, a stage and its artists. Here, a hall and its audience. Everyone is in their place, the situation seems clear, unchanging, definitive.
And yet…
Technology can undoubtedly reduce the traditional distance between these two parties. The device presented here, in the form of simple wooden cubes controlling a computer environment, allows anyone to intervene in a timely, sensitive and controlled manner.
Ariane and Lionel Le Fournis propose a rereading of works from the Ars Nova period. They invite you to manipulate these blocks of wood to participate in the show, through a free reinterpretation of texts by Petrarch, Guillaume de Machaut or Christine de Pisan.
January 28th
3 pm & 6 pm
SINGING TOURS
Combining art, musical heritage and opera, Grégoire Ichou’s singing tours awaken the senses and emotions. The artist creates curious anachronisms and indulges in all manner of fantasies. He takes the group on a surprising stroll, alternating commentary on the paintings with lyrical or popular arias. His voice resonates throughout the Tessé museum, giving visitors a unique experience.
Registration required, subject to availability.
January 28th
2:30 pm & 4:30 pm
DISCOVERING ACOUSTICS WITH AN AUGMENTED PIANO
ITEMM and LAUM invite you to test this piano, the result of research into piano manufacturing. Equipped with sensors and acoustic exciters, it simulates the sound impact of different piano tunings and settings, and allows you to hear changes in the characteristics of materials. This allows us to compare different materials: wood, plexiglass, composites, while observing the characteristics of the sound produced with sensors.
January 20th to 29th
9 am to 5 pm
JEAN-MICHEL JARRE – MASTERCLASS
Jean-Michel Jarre will inaugurate the programming of the sound dome, the only equipment of its kind in the world created exclusively for Le Mans Sonore. This exceptional alliance between the sound dome and Jean-Michel Jarre marks a world first.
On this inaugural evening of the biennial event, Jean-Michel Jarre’s latest creation, “Oxymore”, will be played under the dome. This album was specifically composed and produced in multichannel to fully express the acoustic qualities of the dome, and is the perfect way to reveal the full potential of the sound dome, and the innovative and audacious level of its acoustic treatment in 3D sound. This will be followed by a master class with Jean-Michel Jarre, explaining his unique talent for pushing the boundaries of sound ever further.
January 20th
9 pm
SOUND WALL & SOUND SCULPTURES – PETER VOGEL
Using various electronic components such as generators, transistors, switches, amplifiers, loudspeakers and photocells, Peter Vogel attempts to combine the randomness of observer-dependent reactions with specific systems, to create a complex reactive network of structures and patterns.
January 20th
9 am to 6 pm
MEDIUM, MILIEUX, ÉCOUTES, RÉCITS | COLLOQUE TOUT PUBLIC
Omnipresent in our daily lives, sound connects us to the world at the intersection of living environments and media environments. Between the ecology of organisms and the ecology of media, what relationships does the phenomenon of sound and vibration activate? Through what transmissions and transformations can listening, investigation and sound creation contribute to our understanding of contemporary issues? At the crossroads of art and science, these two days of study will be an opportunity for the general public to discover the work of artists and researchers at the frontiers of anthropology, ethology, bioacoustics, sound design and radiophony.
These days will cross two themes: “Cosmophonies, listening to spaces and organisms” and “Auditory commons, media, mediums and communication”.
Speakers :
Rodolphe Alexis (FR), Nicolas Châline and Ronara Souza Ferreira (FR-BZ),
Peter Cusack (UK), Yannick Dauby (FR-TW), Marianne Decoster-Taivalkoski (FR-FI), DinahBird (FR), David Dunn (USA), Pali Meursault (FR), Matthieu Saladin (FR), Nadine Schütz (CH), Jerôme Sueur (FR), and students from TALM-Le Mans and Villa Arson….
Organized by Rodolphe Alexis and Olivier Houix with the support of TALM-Le Mans as part of the MMER research-action project supported by the French Ministry of Culture.
January 20th & 21st
10 am to 5 pm
TRUCE – ROBIN MEIER WIRATUNGA AND ALI MOMENI
To find a mate of the right species, mosquitoes adjust the sound of the buzzing they produce to synchronize the wingbeats between males and females, enabling copulation in mid-air. Truce uses the natural synchronization behavior of mosquitoes to induce them to sing, inspired by the classical vocal tradition of northern India, the Dhrupad.
January 20th
9 am to 6 pm
POLICEPHALIA – CLÉMENT MACOIN
This immersive installation takes the form of a sound escape game. Guided by an artificial intelligence in search of its origins (policéphalia), you trace the evolution of sound telecommunications from its earliest beginnings to the present day, using an old dial telephone as a time machine.
January 20th
9 am to 6 pm
NOISE CAPTURE PARTY
Are you interested in the issue of noise pollution? We’d like to invite you to take part in a participatory science experiment by measuring the sounds around you using NoiseCapture, a free Android application developed by Gustave Eiffel University and the CNRS.
It’s an opportunity to raise awareness of this issue, which affects everyone, and to take measurements in a simple, fun way, for the benefit of all.
January 20th
10 am
ACOUSTIC PENDULUM – VIRGILE ABELA (Exhibition)
Pendule Acoustique is a generative work correlating acoustics and gravity. Initially motionless, a pendulum swings ever so slightly at man’s height, progressing at the speed of its resonant frequency. From lines to ellipses, it redraws the space that visitors discover as they listen to infinite feedback, modulated by movement.
January 20th
9 am
AUDIO TOUR
Through the steps of artist, sound landscaper and educator Gilles Malatray, a group of listening walkers is invited to (re)discover the city, by ear, to the rhythm of their footsteps. It’s a sensitive, educational experience, an aesthetic approach and a reflection on sound ecology. It’s an immersion in sonic ambiences, like the music of places, often unheard of because it’s so rarely heard.
January 20th
5 pm
OCTAVE COURTIN + QUEL ENFER!
Octave Courtin’s Atmos is a project on the borderline between the plastic and musical realms, sculptural objects and instruments whose activation is based on physical phenomena such as gravity and elasticity. Magnetic music from Quel enfer! (Tyfen Guilloux & Luci Schneider) is a project that explores the interaction and dialogue between an electric stringed instrument made by wild lutherie and a Revox B77, through question-and-answer games, accumulations or feedbacks between their two devices.
January 20th
7 pm
CABINET OF ACOUSTIC CURIOSITIES
Come and discover the fascinating world of acoustics at our unique event in Le Mans. The Cabinet of Acoustic Curiosities, organized by the RAmDAM association and Le Mans Université, aims to open the doors of the Laboratoire d’Acoustique de l’Université du Mans to the general public in a fun way, while arousing the curiosity of young and old alike. Enter an extraordinary world of sound! During this immersive tour, each room in the laboratory will reveal a unique acoustic experience, plunging you into spectacular and counter-intuitive sensations.
Reservations required, opening soon.
Not accessible to PRM (stairs)
January 20th & 21th
9 am to 5 pm
SOUND JOURNEY TO ANCIENT EGYPT (Exhibition)
In the basement of the Musée de Tessé lies an incredible curiosity: the life-size reconstruction of the Egyptian tombs of Nefertari. It’s in the “Salle des Offrandes”, brimming with mystery, that sound designer Pierrick Pedron transports us to the land of the pharaohs with his ingenious sound system. A musical voyage that plunges young and old into the heart of Ancient Egypt, 3000 years in the past.
January 20th & 22th to 28th
10 am to 6pm
LE VÉLOCOUSMONIUM – LUCIS BORTOT
Participatory installation for 8 bikes and 16 feet. Embark imminently for the Vélocousmonium! Straddle a bike and play with the architecture, the acoustics and the other cyclists. A collective and participatory work, the sound composition is an octophony, with each bike playing a voice. Get your pedals ready, we’re waiting for you! Fabulous design assistance: Louis Bortot.
January 20th to 28th
2 pm to 6 pm
SERIOUS GAME | PROFESSOR SAMSON’S CRAZY EXPERIMENTS
Professor Samson and his assistant Eva Carme are trying to develop a formidable anacoustic weapon to reduce the Earth to silence.
Come and help Constantin Tamarre, the last member of the team and unwilling guinea pig, foil the plot! Hurry, before the melody fades away… Ages 10 and up.
January 20th
10 am
MMER CONFERENCE (Festival)
Every day, sound connects us to the world at the intersection of living and media environments. Between the ecology of organisms and the ecology of the media, what relationships does the phenomenon of sound and vibration activate? Two themes will be explored: “Cosmophonies, listening to spaces and organisms” and “Auditory commons, media, mediums and communication”.
January 20th
10 am
INSTABILITIES (Concert)
“Instabilités” is a performance project by musician Benjamin Le Baron and visual artist Tristan Ménez. This sensory experience takes the form of a hybrid, hypnotic concert: the music is transcribed visually by moving fluids, but also by vibrations which, exceptionally for the biennial, will be transmitted to the audience via immersive sound chairs from the SÔMA startup.
January 20th
2 pm & 4:30 pm & 7:30 pm
IMMERSONS – QUINTET OPHONIUS (Concert)
How do your ear and brain perceive sound? How do you locate a sound source in space? How can you hear with just one ear?
To answer these questions, the OPHONIUS quintet invites you into a three-dimensional sound space in a show combining music, experiments, illustrations and perceptual phenomena. Enter the world of sound perception and discover how the human ear perceives sound.
For over ten years, OPHONIUS has specialized in the dissemination of scientific culture through its “scientific concerts”. Over 150 concerts have been performed in schools and concert halls in France and abroad, earning OPHONIUS the Diderot Prize for Cultural Initiative.
January 21st
2:30 pm & 5 pm
“LE MONDE EST ROND”, CIE ATELIER HORS CHAMP
As part of Le Mans Sonore, the city of Le Mans’ Cultural Development Department presents Le Monde est rond (The World is Round) by the Atelier Hors Champ Company. A sound reinvention of Gertrude Stein’s text (1939), mixing French and English words and songs, a cubist collage of music, ritornellos and voices. “Le monde est rond” is a long nursery rhyme-poem-song and legend that tells of the world as seen through the eyes of a little girl: Rose. Rose and her dog Amour, and Willie and his wild lion, are the main figures in what could be understood as an initiation tale that opens, like all fairy tales, with “Once upon a time…” and ends, like all fairy tales, with the happy union of the little girl and the little boy.
January 22nd
6:30 pm
MORIN KHUUR WORKSHOP
Susann Chuchollek, a luthier with Klangberg (an organization that creates projects on world lutherie), invites you to learn how to make an emblematic Mongolian instrument: the Morin Khuur. This Mongolian fiddle, with a carved horse’s head at the end of the neck, is used to accompany diphonic singing and storytelling.
You’ll learn the techniques of gluing with clamps, making mortise and tenon joints, and using a plane, reamer or chisel. The woods used will be ash, sipo, mahogany and ash and birch plywood. Strings are nylon. You can personalize your instrument’s decorations with pyrography or engraving.
Duration: 5 days
January 23rd
9 am to 5:30 pm
“OCTOBRE”, NATHAN LEPROUST, RÉMI PALIS AND LÉA MKL
As part of the Le Mans Sonore festival, the city of Le Mans’ Cultural Action Development Department presents a concert entitled Octobre by Nathan Leproust, Rémi Palis and Léa MKL. Designed concert. For all ages 7 and up (1h30).
Octobre is a show drawn live by Léa MKL and set to music by Nathan Leproust and Rémi Palis, two musicians from the French independent scene. We follow the peregrinations of Octobre, a mysterious and endearing character desperately seeking to complete a melody that won’t leave his side. Through this original story, the three artists form a triforce of sweetness. An intimate, collective bubble where visual and sonic bricolages offer a deceptively naive aesthetic that envelops us with all its power.
January 23rd
6:30 pm
DUB RE-EVOLUTION
Guitarist with KALY LIVE DUB, one of the most original groups on the French electro-dub scene, and founding member of the DUB ADDICT collective, artist PILAH covers a rich and varied musical spectrum, mixing influences without complex. With a predilection for “stepper”, that energetic dub tree, PILAH composes tracks that are both rootsy and radical, irresistibly driven by the desire to blend the spirit of reggae and dub’s origins with the firepower of today’s bass music productions.
The DUB Re-Evolution project is a specific creation by PILAH for Le Mans Sonore, drawing on all the spatialization features of the NESS software. It offers a new listening experience in immersive sound, paving the way for a new evolution in DUB music.
By reservation only. Reservations opening soon.
January 23rd
7:30 pm & 9 pm
MAT&FLOW CONGRESS
This scientific congress offers 2 days of training and 1.5 days of conferences for students and professionals from academic research and industry, focusing on acoustic treatment in the presence of airflow.
Acoustic treatment remains one of the most effective ways of reducing noise emissions in many applications, including aircraft engines, ventilation systems and automotive systems. In all these applications, acoustic treatment is influenced by airflow. It is still difficult to predict the acoustic effects of a coating in the presence of high noise levels and flows. The MAT & FLOW event combines a training course and a research workshop on the interactions between acoustic materials and flows.
January 22nd
1 pm
January 23rd & 24th & 25th
9 am
AES INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ACOUSTICS AND SOUND ENGINEERING
This congress on acoustics and sound reinforcement is aimed at professionals from research and industry. It features a series of conferences, tours and workshops, focusing on electroacoustic systems, hearing safety, noise pollution and the future of sound reinforcement.
January 23rd to 26th
9 am to 6pm
WHEN INNOVATION MEETS HERITAGE (Conference)
At Le Mans Innovation, discover the innovations of Sarthe-based startups dedicated to tourism and heritage. Round tables, pitches and company stands will punctuate this day open to tourism and heritage professionals. It’s the ideal opportunity to exchange ideas with experts, consider future collaborations and forge new partnerships.
January 24th
9 am to 4pm
FROM ONE FLUTE TO ANOTHER (Concert)
D’une flûte à l’autre is a poetic concert presented by the students of the flute classes at the Le Mans Conservatoire. Let yourself be transported into the enchanting world of these budding artists at Le Mans Sonore.
January 24th
5 pm to 6pm
FLAVIEN BERGER + DANSE MUSIQUE RHÔNE-ALPES
Flavien Berger has always been interested in tinkering with machines to produce sounds. In this respect, it’s hard to define his style: he goes beyond, skilfully mixing frantic passages and long synthesizer tracks. In 2024, Flavien Berger continues his tour across France, offering breathtaking live performances at his concerts where he mixes traditional instruments with electronic machines. His aim is to transport his audiences on a captivating sonic journey, inviting everyone to rediscover the beauty of nature in the heart of the urban jungle.
January 24th
8:30 pm
ANABELLE PLAYE + ERYCK ABECASSIS (Concert)
“I entered the corridor… soon I’d forget why I’d come.” This solo by Anabelle Playe embraces different musical genres: ambient, experimental, electronic and noise. Between writing and improvisation, Elettrika by Eryck Abecassis is a brutal-planing music, a layered architecture of soft noises and sonic concussions.
January 24th
7 pm
LE MANS SONORE RADIO
Le Mans Sonore Radio, a partnership between Radio Alpa and Radio-On, returns with two live broadcasts from the Fonderie. Come to hear the latest news from the biennial event, hosted by students from TALM-Le Mans and Le Mans Université. Chronicles and live broadcasts on radio-on.org, p-node.org. Free of charge on application to TALM-Le Mans. Rebroadcast on radio Alpa 107.3 FM, Thursday 25 and Monday 29, from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm.
January 24th & 27
8 pm to 10 pm
LE MANS SONORE COMPETITION: AWARDS CEREMONY
Awards ceremony for the Le Mans Sonore competition: Sound design awards Objects and Services; Life and Society; Radio France Prize). Acoustics awards (Student awards; Young researcher awards).
January 25th
5 pm
YOSI HORIKAWA (Concert)
Japanese musician, sound designer and producer Yosi Horikawa uses whatever he can find to create rhythms. Kitchen utensils or random bird whistles are added to his bric-a-brac sound concoctions to create music that pushes listeners to their limits, ultimately absorbing them in eclectic, maximalist joy.
January 25th
5:30 pm & 7:30pm
January 26th
6:30 pm & 8 pm
January 27th
2:30 pm & 4:30 pm
BEAUTIFUL UGLY SOUNDS : SISTER IODINE
A maverick and pioneering force on the French noise scene, the trio has developed a unique formula at the crossroads of genres, where with their lacerated guitars and drums, the band seeks a kind of terminal confusion between rock and chaos.
“The trio’s free rock is increasingly acidic and violent; nowhere else is its darkness and brutality so abrupt and concentrated.” (Libération)
“In the age of the Internet, the band has achieved a feat: that of producing music free of history, ramifications and common denominators, but also free of influences: there is no metal, no noise, no chapel to cling to, except their own, as radical and free as it is generous and open to anyone.” (Noisey)
January 25th
7 pm to 8 pm
THE PARAKEETS AND ME (Play)
Play about animal sound communication.
Written and performed by Antonio Fischetti
Directed by Gérald Dumont
A man reflects on his lifelong communication difficulties, comparing them with the sounds of other animals.
January 25th
8:30 pm
BEAUTIFUL UGLY SOUNDS : “AFTER HARSH NOISE” EVIL MOISTURE + VOMIR
Evil Moisture:
In 1991, Andy Bolus, a British-born artist living in France, created the sound of Evil Moisture by modifying the electronic circuits of children’s toys, synthesizers, effect pedals and other household objects, and using these sources as the main material for sound cut-ups on magnetic tape. A leading exponent of the DIY noise scene, Evil Moisture has performed over a hundred times in Europe, Japan and North America, and has released numerous opuses in all formats on numerous labels worldwide. Andy Bolus is also a painter, draughtsman and video artist, and his work is regularly featured in exhibitions and publications in France and abroad.
Vomir :
Romain Perrot (roro to his friends), a radical, nihilistic autodidact of the French harsh noise scene, is a master of the art of creating Harsh Noise Walls, hyper-powerful walls of noisy sound made from the bare minimum.His work consists of completely immersing the audience in a wall of white noise: a sound composed of all audible frequencies, each frequency having the same energy.
Under the project name “VOMIR”, Romain Perrot uses walls of white noise to convey a sense of confinement and isolation through sound.
Throughout his performances, Romain leaves his machines running and stands motionless with his back to the audience, wearing a plastic bag over his head.
January 25th
11 pm
“ACOUSTIC NAP”, BASTIEN LALLEMANT
As part of Le Mans Sonore, Le Mans’ Department of Cultural Development and Action and the Le Mans Municipal Archives present Sieste Acoustique by Bastien Lallemant. Sound nap. For all ages 6 and up (1h).
The public is invited to stretch out and listen to a concert. Musicians play in the center of the room, stringing together music, stories and fictions, with no applause to break the spell.
January 26th
6:30 pm
Rebuilding permit
As part of Le Mans Sonore, Superforma presents “Permis de Reconstruire”.
School sessions at 10am & 3pm. Open to the general public at 6pm.
“Pipe: an element of circular cross-section designed for the flow, transport of energy and propagation of sound waves. In the belly of the big machine, pipes are everywhere! In the middle, two individuals enslaved by this implacable mechanic do their utmost to accomplish their daily tasks, until the day the machine goes haywire… An opportunity for the workers to regain their humanity?
January 26th
10 am & 3pm : schools only
January 26th
6pm : for all
JEFF MILLS PRESENTS TOMORROW COMES THE HARVEST + MY END IS MY BEGINNING (Concert)
JEFF MILLS presents TOMORROW COMES THE HARVEST. Accompanied by a keyboardist and a tabla pro, the singer of funk and soul-tinged techno music, who knows so well how to hysterize crowds, will mix rhythms and sounds in a proliferation of improvised movements conducive to trance as much as transcendence…
Fabrizio Rat, Isabel Sörling and Linda Oláh
Isabel Sörling, Linda Oláh and Fabrizio Rat come together in a new group with a fresh sound. They explore the acoustic possibilities of the two Scandinavian voices of Isabel Sörling and Linda Oláh, with their multiple influences, and the electronics of Fabrizio Rat’s modular synthesizer. Their music leads to ecstasy and hypnosis, as time moves on to nowhere, captured in a spiral, in a present that could last forever.
January 26th
8:30 pm
SONIC FAIR
Between a popular festival and a low-tech digital fair, come and experience sound games with your family! Young and old alike become actors in collective sound improvisations, and take part in a wide range of sensory experiences. A collective creation combining street arts, live performance, sound and digital arts.
January 27th
11 am to 6 pm
ARNAUD RIVIÈRE + TATIANA PARIS
A self-taught musician, Arnaud Rivière practices free improvisation with a noisy tendency, both solo and in groups. Somewhere between a performance and a concert, his live shows are noted for their energy, intensity and physical involvement, rare in electronic music.
GIBBON by Tatiana Paris is a guitar solo accompanied by a radio-cassette. A kind of duo, then. For the most part, it’s a case of poking around in the strings with wooden or metal objects gleaned here and there.
January 27th
7 pm
SOUND IMMERSIONS (Workshop)
Based on an original recorded composition, musician Thierry Balasse invites you to work live on resonant metal and crystal bowls. Some sounds will be perceived by your ears, others, in lower frequencies, directly by your skin. A form of sound massage with no pretensions other than to transport you into a little-known sensory world.
January 28th
3 pm
