In the morning never shave the antennas (Jean Cocteau)

Music composer, film director, multimedia author, sound designer, writer, Jean-Jacques Birgé considers music essentially in the audio-visual relationship, or at least in its confrontation with other forms of artistic expression.

Founder of GRRR Records, he was one of the first synthesizers in France as early as 1973, and with Un Drame Musical Instantané the precursor of the return to film-concert in 1976. If his first electronic work dates back to 1965, he composes as well for symphony orchestras as he freely improvises with musicians from the most diverse backgrounds. For his "radio" creations and his multimedia shows, improvisation and preliminary writing merge, his own electroacoustic treatments are integrated with traditional instruments to create evocative musical fictions which he calls “music apropos”

From 1995, he became one of the most well-known sound designers in multimedia and the specialist in interactive musical composition, seeking to deepen the effects of meaning and to develop an ever wider range of emotions. His researches often deal with generativity and interactivity which offer the player to discover each time a new interpretation. His soundscapes for exhibitions-shows (Grande Halle de La Villette, Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, Osaka and Omuta in Japan...) also present spaces in perpetual movement. He recently worked at the Louvre Museum, the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, the Grand Palais, the Pantheon, the Palais de Tokyo, the ZKM...

In addition to about forty LPs and CDs, his website drame.org offers 102 unreleaed albums (185 hours!) free to listen and download.

Main artworks
Film La nuit du phoque, 1974
Record Défense de, with Birgé Gorgé Shiroc, 1975
20 albums (LP & CD) with Un Drame Musical Instantané, 1976-2008
Film Le sniper, 1993
Exhibition/Show Il était une fois la fête foraine, Grande Halle de La Villette, with Raymond Sarti, 1995
CD Établissement d'un ciel d'alternance with Michel Houellebecq, 1996 (published 2006)
Enhanced-CD Carton, with Bernard Vitet, 1997
Enhanced-CD Machiavel, with Antoine Schmitt, 1998
CD-Rom Alphabet, with Frédéric Durieu et Murielle Lefèvre, 1999
Interactive websites: LeCiestBleu with Frédéric Durieu, Somnambules and www.flyingpuppet.com with Nicolas Clauss, 2000-2008
Musical game La pâte à son, with F.Durieu, 2004
Blog www.drame.org/blog, 5400 articles (on Mediapart since 2010), 2005-2023
Opera for 100 smart rabbits Nabaz'mob, with A.Schmitt, 2006-2014
Radio Drame, 98 exclusively online albums, 181 hours of free music, 2010-2023
La corde à linge, novel (ePub), 2011
Leonardo da Vinci's Dream Machine for iPad, with N.Clauss, 2012
USA 1968 deux enfants, novel for iPad, 2014
Boum ! for iPad and Androïd, with Mikaël Cixous, 2015
Exhibition Carambolages at Grand Palais, with Jean-Hubert Martin, 2016
Web-serie Prévert Exquis, 2017
Long Time No Sea, cd by trio El Strøm, 2017
CD The 100th Anniversary, 2018
CD Perspectives for the 22nd Century, 2020
Double CD Pique-nique au labo 2020
Film Perspectives For the 22nd Century, 2021
LP Fictions + CD Plumes et poils, 2022
CD Pique-nique au labo 3, 2023
Live recordings at Studio GRRR Apéro Labo, 2024


Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction Digital Musics, Grand Prix Möbius International, twice Prix SACD Interactive Creation, Prix SCAM Best Internet Site, Prix Centre Pompidou Flash Festival, Prix de la Creation New Medias in Videoformes, Seoul Net Festival Special Jury Award, Prix Ars Electronica Net Vision / Net Excellence Honorary Mention, twice Bologna Ragazzi Digital Award Special Mention, Grand Prix Stratégies, Award of the Best Francophone Project Cross Video Days TV5 Monde, Special Jury Ehon Award, British Academy Award of Film & TV Arts (BAFTA), Locarno Jury Award, Victoires de la Musique Nomination, etc.

Recent live shows with Amandine Casadamont,
Nicolas Chedmail, Antonin-Tri Hoang, Jean-François Vrod, John Sanborn, Francis Gorgé... Music for Roger Ballen's The Theatre of Apparitions at the South-African pavillion of Venice Biennale 2022...

Jean-Jacques Birgé is born in Paris in 1952 where he is still living.

Website created in 1997 / Last update : monday, 18th march 2024 / French Daily Blog / © Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ / jjbirge@drame.org / Credits