Music concrete

buck65

Was turned on to this "music" by lyric FM. Got Adventures in Sound - a compilation of P Schaeffer, P Henry and K Stockhausen. Some really interesting stuff on there and a good primer I think.
What are others experience with this kind of sound? Any standout releases that I should have and also what exactly is the difference between this and electroacoustic music? Is it the use of instrumentation?
Basically can anyone recommend me some bizarre stuff :pac:

cornbb

Posting this from my phone so I won't go into too much detail. The basic definition of Musique Concrete is that it consists of found/natural sounds, whereas electroacoustic and other forms of music might contain other elements and heavy manipulation. Musique concrete became possible after the invention of magnetic tape and directly led to other forms of music that use recorded sounds such as turntablism, which in turn heavily nfluenced hip hop.

You're off to a good start with the likes of Schaeffer. You might look up the Futurists. I'm not sure If Stockhausen was a proponent of musique concrete, as a matter of fact he was a leading pioneer of electronischemusik (sp?) which was in direct competition with musique concrete.

I'll see if I can dig out a few more links for you when I'm back at my computer

CeluiDuDehors

Anything from Pierre Henry is awesome, especially "Voile d'Orphee", "Le voyage", "Fragments pour Artaud" and "Apocalypse de Jean". Pierre Schaeffer is less far interesting in my opinion, all his work is based on studies on sounds from different nature, unlike Pierre Henry who is a real composer. If you like those works, you can also listen to Francois Bayle, Michel Chion, David Tudor, Henri Pousseur or Bernard Parmegiani whose are the best followers of this genre. This genre was created at the GRM in Paris (Groupe de Recherche Musicale==> Musical Research Group), check out anything that was produced in those studios, there's an amazing body of work waiting to be rediscovered.

And yes Stockhausen is strictly electronic and doesn't fit at all in the musique concrete genre, but he worked for the GRM at the beginning, Iannis Xenakis as well.

VegetativeState

I'm not sure if he falls under the category of musique concrète or just general electroacoustic stuff but Roger Doyle's work is always worth checking out, especially Babel. It's a fairly epic soundscape with some really nice moments.
And yeah, Parmegiani has some really nice pieces. Sounds to me like a fairly heavy influence on the likes of Authecre and Aphex Twin.

CeluiDuDehors

You're right, i've actually read somewhere that Parmegiani was one of the main influence for Autechre. Highly recommended works are "La creation du monde", "Enfer/Purgatoire" (with Francois Bayle) and "De natura sonorum", great works of art!

John

There's a fantastic 12CD Parmegiani box set out on INA/GRM that covers all his classic works with the GRM. It's only forty quid or so, great value and highly recommended.

Luc Ferrari is another one to check out, he split off from the GRM group due to theoretical differences. His music has a lot more humour to it than the likes of Schaeffer or Henry, some great albums of his have been reissued lately (including a 10CD box from INA/GRM but I haven't got my copy yet).

CeluiDuDehors

Shame on me I forgot to mention Luc Ferrari! Definitely one of the most prominent figures of musique concrete, I've seen him live a few months before he passed away and it was a really great concert! I was living very close from his music workshop when I was still livin' in Paris, he was a very humble and simple man in daily life, he really is missed in the french experimental soundscape...:(

I didn't know about these boxes, I'm goin' to check that out! Thanx John!

John

CeluiDuDehors wrote: »

he really is missed in the world experimental soundscape...:(

Fixed that for you

CeluiDuDehors

Hehe you're right! By the way is there any significant musician evolving in the musique concrete/experimental electronics in Ireland?

John

Roger Doyle (mentioned earlier) would be my stock response but aside from him there hasn't been anyone else I'd consider boundary pushing.

CeluiDuDehors

Ok cool, I will try to listen to that, sounds interesting! To continue the list of people in musique concrete or related to the GRM we can mention as well; Max Matthews, Francis Dhomont, Jacques Lejeune, Ivo Malec, John Chowning, Claude Risset and Gilles Racot.

John

Wow, I don't recognise a single name from that list. Thanks for leading me on a new hunt