François Bayle - L’Expérience Acoustique: III. La Preuve par le sens (1971)

la langue inconnue 10’14 qualité d’un grésillement rythmique qui s’épaissit, qui envahit - panique de l’écoute avril 1971 intervalles bleus 6’53 opposition d’une couleur tenue, et de zones de mouvements - tension de l’écoute juillet 1971 uirapuru 3’49 figure dans un jeu de couleurs qui vibrent juillet 1971 Realised between 1966-1972 using the best technology available at the time, this 2 hour opus “investigates the true nature of the listening process itself“ according to the GRM’s Christian Zanési & François Bonnet. It’s an investigation of acoustic sound at its purest levels and borders on psychedelic in effect. Chopping material from the world around him, manipulating it and juxtaposing against other, unlikely sources with illusive sleight-of-hand and haptic textural sensitivity, Bayle organises a complex parallel universe of fractured occurrence, meshing linear and non-linear structures and myriad sonorities within immersive, intricate ecologies. There’s a considered logic to every frequential relationship, yet there’s also an abstract looseness and room for unpredictable, playful and shocking sounds which makes up each piece, whether in his surreal cut-ups of pop and rock songs against jarring dissonant blurts of electronics or intersecting pastoral scenes with (what could be) phosphorescing feathered creatures and sharp, alien shards of electronics. Conventional melody and harmony is jettisoned in favour of unnaturally arranged dissonance from natural sounds and the effect is utterly spellbinding and actually much closer to “real-life“, to the end you almost forget you’re listening to a recording and feel more like you’re at the centre of some incredible situation unfolding in 4D all around you. No doubt Francois Bayle is putting into practise here the lessons he learned at the influential Darmstadt summer courses with Oliver Messiaen and Karlheinz Stockhausen between 1958-1962, and with the full might of Paris’ pioneering GRM studio at his disposal from 1966 - he was appointed its head by Pierre Schaeffer that year - you also get the sense that he’s absolutely relishing and making the most of the highly advanced facilities at his disposal. This is unprecedented music, which still sounds remarkable today. A massive recommendation. Video realized with Audacity, vokoscreen, Sonic Visualizer and Kdenlive on a Debian 10 Buster KDE Linux System.