Salon d'écoute - Listening Lounge
Festival Archipel, Geneva in march from 2002 to 2007

AMEG loudspeaker orchestra

stage design: Yvonne Harder & Stephanie Guibentif

pictures: Marion Inocenzzi

The listening lounge was set up by AMEG in the Théâtre Pitoëff (on the first floor of the Maison Communale). It is a room where music is spatialized. It uses a system unique in Switzerland : a speaker orchestra called acousmonium, which comprises a 32-track mixing board and a group of around 40 loudspeakers. Conceived as an instrument in its own right, it is made up of rather conventional devices but also of customized parts. The system is adaptable and varies according to each room's architectural and acoustic specificities. The size of the instrument can vary. It can be used for mixed musical forms and for stereo and multi-track pieces. Because of its quality and versatility it can be applied both to interpretation and musical experimentation.
Make an attempt to inhabit space, forget the speakers and let sound take shape.

Every day, we give a close associate/relative or an Archipel figure carte blanche: the International Confederation of Electroacoustic Music (CIME), Cave 12 -a Geneva venue who has been putting on utterly challenging and fascinating experimental and improvised music acts for years-, Dimitri Coppe, a composer committed to the acousmatic music project and Thierry Simonot, the Lounge technical designer and coordinator. Each of them shall invite us to share pieces of their choice.

Part of the music played in the Salon d'Ecoute will echo one of the festival's main focuses, i.e. radio art (or Hörspiel). Jean Nicole from Espace 2, Laurent Sellier (La Muse en Circuit) and Andrea Liberovici (Teatro del Suono) were asked to select ten works within the Swiss, French and Italian radio art repertoires. Most of them shall be played during the festival. The listening lounge shall also be part of the system set up by Jacques Demierre for Heterotopia -a Hörspiel that shall be created on the last day of the festival.

Time slots will also be set aside for the public. Thierry Simonot will be at the disposal of anyone eager to discover electroacoustic spatialization or simply willing to share their favourite pieces with others. Registrations to be made on the blackboard at the reception.