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by the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM).
hyptique.net, Paris, France, Year.
ISBN 2914342004

Reviewed by Rahma Khazamr, France. E-mail: rama@club-internet.fr


The history of electroacoustic music is closely bound up with that of the Groupe de Recherches Musicales. The GRM has always been the most fervent supporter of that once radical and controversial genre that did away with musical instruments and the score. Since its inception in 1958, the Paris-based organization has developed and promoted the form, creating innovative software, developing new compositional techniques and releasing recordings of key works. Its new CD-ROM, "La musique Electroacoustique" retraces the music's history, as well as the different trends and techniques. Drawing on the GRM's extensive resources, it constitutes an essential and authoritative introduction to the genre.

"La musique Electroacoustique" makes skilful use of the CD-ROM's musical and story-telling potential in order to convey the sense of discovery that attended the birth and development of electroacoustic music . Interviews with the composers and a lavish selection of photographs bring to life the history of the genre from its beginnings in 1948 up until the present day : a click of the mouse summons up a black and white photograph of Stockhausen taken in December 1965 during the filming of "Mikrophonie", or the voice of Pierre Henry telling the story of the first public presentation of "Symphonie pour un homme seul" in 1950, an event which he describes as "the birth of a movement and an avant-garde". Extracts from key works, such as Varese's "Poeme Electronique" or Henry's "Variations pour une porte et un soupir" , abound. Brief texts outline the various phases in the music's development, transporting the user from "The revolution of 48 and the fifties" to the home studios of the nineties. The different techniques, such as "abstract sounds" or "instruments and singing" are illustrated by extracts from works by Francois Bayle, Daniel Teruggi or Bernard Parmegiani, while definitions of terms such as "4X" and "ring modulation" are expressed through musical examples and didactic notes. The CD-ROM even mentions techno, which is based on the same principles as musique concrète. Yet despite its encyclopedic scope, it fails to cover the work of a number of emerging composers who do not subscribe to the GRM's rigorous approach. For under its aegis, electroacoustic music has taken an academic turn over the years, shunning outside influences and conforming to compositional rules.

The two other sections of the CD-ROM focus on the music itself. The section entitled "Listening" is intended to enhance the listener's perception of electroacoustic music. Aimed at the more knowledgeable user, it supplies detailed musicological analyses of six works, ranging from Parmegiani's "De natura sonorum : Ondes croises" to Bayle's "La langue inconnue". Here, sonograms and graphic displays make for a fascinating interactive listening experience, which is rounded off by in--depth, if occasionally obtuse, commentaries. The third section is equally innovative : using GRM Tools algorithms, it allows the user to read and record AIFF or WAVE soundfiles - which may be supplied by the user or taken from a library of fifty sounds provided with the software - and process them in real time. Like the rest of the CD-ROM, this easy to use interface eschews unnecessary frills. You won't find dazzling splashes of colour or bizarre animations on this disc, like those on Laurie Anderson's "Puppet Motel" or IRCAM's recent "Prisma", but just an unpretentious and engrossing testimony to the richness of electroacoustic music.