Apéro Labo and Codex are on line


 

Two new albums free to listen or download, recorded live at Studio GRRR by JJB !
Apéro Labo 1 with Mathias LÉVY on violin, Antonin-Tri HOANG on alto sax, clarinet and synthesizer, and JJB, January 14 2024...
Codex with Maëlle DESBROSSES on viola, Fanny METEIER on tuba, and JJB, February 18 2024...
Also on Bandcamp !

Apéro Labo

New formula! Recordings now take place in public at Studio GRRR.
The freedom of independence for the pleasure of the senses... Excellent acoustic conditions, delicious food... The idea is always to privilege the quality of the encounters, counting on the fact that the music will inevitably feel the effects. For this premiere, Jean-Jacques Birgé will be accompanied by two exceptional musicians in every respect: violinist Mathias Lévy and saxophonist/clarinettist Antonin-Tri Hoang.
Birgé has chosen to extend the adventure of my Pique-nique au labo (vol. 1/2, 3) by organizing live concerts/recordings at Studio GRRR. On the one hand, it's a way of escaping the scallop race organized by those in charge of programming both small and large venues. On the other hand, in the face of political decisions that are more manipulative than democratic, and in the face of the formatting imposed by the cultural industry, local work is crucial. Concerts are followed by an aperitif shared between artists and spectators. Antonin has devised an original and highly amusing protocol with the audience to encourage our instant compositions. What's more, benefiting from excellent acoustic conditions, they are recorded live and put online free of charge a few days later in the form of a virtual album. Gauge is obviously limited. 
There will be many concerts during this new year, and you can let us know if you're interested in taking part in one of the next Apéros-Labos by writing to us...

Newsletter November 2023

Fourth newsletter of the year

36th album of the series "Pique-nique au labo"

Fŭtur, a fantastic new album with Bruno Ducret on cello, also on Calabrese lira and guitar, and Olivia Scemama on electric bass ukulele...
Recorded on Novembre 1st 2023 by JJB at Studio GRRR !
Also on Bandcamp !

Birgé à la carte (blanche) on December 1st at Café de Paris

 
Jean-Jacques Birgé - keyboard & strange instruments
Mathias Lévy - violin
Élise Dabrowski - double bass & vocals
Lionel Martin - tenor sax
Gwennaëlle Roulleau - electronics
The audience is invited to draw the theme of each instant composition at random.
Three 40-minute sets. Admission 7 to 10 €, depending on movens.
Edith Piaf made her debut in this former cabaret!
Concert organized by Sport National
Au Café de Paris, 158 rue Oberkampf (M° Ménilmontant)

La preuve by Poudingue (LP)

Experimantal rock - 10 songs by Nicolas Chedmail, Frédéric Mainçon and Jean-Jacques Birgé. Beautiful cover by Étienne Mineur. Guest : Benjamin Sanz. Made for LP, it also exists as a "poor" CD.

La preuve is an après-guard action. Most of the people who inspired it are dead or retired. Old teenagers flog their former loves. They bear witness to a bygone era, but joyously embraced, digested and spat out. Everything was still possible. Or possible at last. Psychedelia opened the doors of perception. Romanticism wasn't relegated to a dull formatting, a cheese without a rind. The group Poudingue, which started out ten years ago, has some delectable leftovers. These are the crumbs from purgatory.


 

The proof (la preuve, in French) is in the pudding (poudingue, in French) is an expression coined by Friedrich Engels meaning that the value, quality or truth of something must be judged on the basis of direct experience or its results. The expression is a modification of an old saying that makes the meaning a little clearer: the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

GRRR 1037 - dist. The Pusher

35th album of the series "Pique-nique au labo"

Listen To The Quiet Flattfisk, a fantastic new album with singer Isabel Sörling, also on electric guitar, and viola player Maëlle Desbrosses, also on double bass...
Recorded on October 8 2023 by JJB at Studio GRRR !
Also on Bandcamp !

Newsletter October 2023

Third newsletter of the year

Rare concert 
by Un Drame Musical Instantané
on October 13 at Le Souffle Continu

Friday October 13 at 6:30pm, I'll be playing a short set with Francis Gorgé (guitar) and Amandine Casadamont (turntables) at Souffle Continu, 22 rue Gerbier in Paris. I'm announcing this in advance because I don't get out much, and it's free!
We'll be presenting the LP reissue of IN FRACTURED SILENCE, released in 1984 on Steven Stapleton's United Dairies label, and released that day on the Souffle Continu label (there's also a CD version, which is a first!).
It's a collective album with three other pieces by Hélène Sage, Sema (Robert Haigh) and Nurse With Wound (yes, the one from the famous list).
I'll be playing the wooden thing you see in the foreground, which I've been working on all summer.
I look forward to seeing you there...

New album free to listen and download

Le songe de la raison, a magical album with Hélène Duret on clarinets and Rafaelle Rinaudo on harp, in homage to Neo Rauch whose five paintings inspired the musicians
Recorded on September 4 2023 by JJB at Studio GRRR !
Also on Bandcamp !

New CD - Volume 3

Pique-nique au labo 3 offers 11 new instant compositions by 20 musicians invited by Jean-Jacques Birgé.
Duets and trios with Sophie Agnel, Uriel Barthélémi, Hélène Breschand, Élise Caron, François Corneloup, Gilles Coronado, Philippe Deschepper, David Fenech, Fidel Fourneyron, Naïssam Jalal, Olivier Lété, Mathias Lévy, Violaine Lochu, Lionel Martin, Fanny Meteier, Basile Naudet, Csaba Palotaï, Tatiana Paris, Gwennaëlle Roulleau, Fabiana Striffler.
GRRR 2036 - dist. Orkhêstra and Les Allumés du Jazz
Also on Bandcamp !

New album free to listen and download

Par terre, another beautiful album with Emmanuelle Legros on trumpet and Matthieu Donarier on tenor sax recorded on July 11 2023 at Studio GRRR !
Also on Bandcamp !

2 nouveaux albums en ligne

Raves, album with Fanny Meteier on tuba and Olivier Lété on bass, recorded May 30 2023 at Studio GRRR ! Article on French Blog...
Also on Bandcamp !

 

Moite, album with performer Violaine Lochu who sings and says texts by Monique Wittig, Christophe Tarkos, Sylvie Kandé, and Tatiana Paris on guitar, recorded on June 8th 2023 at Studio GRRR ! Article on French Blog...
Also on Bandcamp !

The 1st ever recording by Un D.M.I.

Très toxique is the first ever recording of Un Drame Musical Instantané as a trio, three weeks before Trop d’adrénaline nuit, but already a year and a half after Défense de by Birgé Gorgé Shiroc (Nurse With Wound List). On December 21, 1976, it was the first time the three musicians met together in the basement of Studio GRRR. They had no idea what they were going to play, but the session was full of energy.

Jean-Jacques Birgé plays the ARP 2600 synthesizer, the cassettes and many other instruments, as does Bernard Vitet, mainly on percussion, but also on sax and violin, while Francis Gorgé supports the backbone on electric guitar.

Half a century has passed. Birgé creates the cover of Très toxique entirely by hand, using a white pencil and two acid-burnt images he had created in 1969 and printed two years later by the art printer of Picasso, Dubuffet and the Collège de Pataphysique. The 85 numbered and signed copies of this limited edition have only one side of 19 minutes, already a collector! But can anyone tell me what this music sounds like?


Sold by Dizonord (Paris) - dist. The Pusher Distribution

Birgé Agnel Fenech, it's Chou

Chou, new wonderful album with pianist Sophie Agnel and guitarist David Fenech recorded on October 10 2022 at Studio GRRR ! Article on French Blog...
Also on Bandcamp !

Les bons contes font les bons amis,
at last on CD

CD release of Les bons contes font les bons amis marks the end of the reissues of Un Drame Musical Instantané's LPs by the Austrian label Klang Galerie. If GRRR had released the first one, Trop d'adrénaline nuit, on CD, Walter Robotka's label had the following ones to its credit: Rideau ! (out of print), À travail égal salaire égal, L'homme à la caméra and Carnage.
15-piece orchestra. Beautiful cover by Jean Bruller, a.k.a. Vercors.
N.B.: for LP lovers, Rideau !, À travail égal salaire égal, Les bons contes font les bons amis, L'homme à la caméra are still available from GRRR (as well as from Les Allumés du Jazz, Orkhêstra and Souffle Continu) in their original pressing! On the other hand, LPs Trop d'adrénaline nuit and Carnage are sold out.
Article on French Blog...

*** with Fabiana Striffler & Csaba Palotaï

***, new album with German violinist Fabiana Striffler and Hungarian guitarist Csaba Palotaï recorded on June 7 2022 at Studio GRRR ! Article on French Blog...
Also on Bandcamp !

Scénographie with Gwennaëlle Roulleau

Scénographie, a new album with electroacoustician Gwennaëlle Roulleau recorded on May  12 2022 at Studio GRRR ! Article on French Blog...
Also on Bandcamp !

Fictions, beautiful LP with Lionel Martin

Extraordinary LP edition of the album Fictions with saxophonist Lionel Martin on  Ouch! Records, recorded on May 11 2021 at Studio GRRR.
Painting by Ella & Pitr, silkscreen printing workshop by L'Apothicaire. Magnetic cover. Rare exclusive limited edition, numbered 300 ex.
Article on French Blog...
Also on Bandcamp !

Exhibited at the Venice Biennale

The music from the album Duck Soup by Jean-Jacques Birgé, Jean-Brice Godet and Nicholas Christenson accompanies The Theatre of Apparitions, light boxes by the famous photographer Roger Ballen, at the Arsenale in the South African pavilion of the Venice Biennale.

Un Drame Musical Instantané comes back

February 14, 2022 is a great day as it marks the return of UN DRAME MUSICAL INSTANTANÉ, officially disbanded in 2008.
Spending just a few hours they recorded 15 short pieces that they mixed the following day. The order is preserved, first takes, no cuts, just a rebalancing of the tracks.
Dominique Meens' texts are the guiding thread for Birgé and Gorgé. They find in them the images they have always sought wherever they go, setting the scene which in turn gives the poet wings. His text Plumes et poils refers to the one by Michel Tournier that the Drame had chosen to play with the late singer Frank Royon Le Mée. The bestiary has always been a major inspiration for the writer as well as for the two musicians. But where will they nestle!
The Gustave Doré’s engraving on the cover suggests a tragedy, but it is only a fable by Jean de La Fontaine. When you open the digipack, the movement of the photograph reveals another snapshot. Feather or hair? Feathers and hairs (translation of plumes et poils) !

Huge interview in English


With Klemen Breznicar for famous It's Psychedelic Baby! Slovenian Magazine

Carnage "ÉLU" by Citizen Jazz

The narrative talent of Un Drame Musical Instantané (UDMI) no longer needs to be demonstrated. Whether it be in Rideau ! or, more certainly, in L'Homme à la Caméra, the work of the trio Jean-Jacques Birgé, Francis Gorgé and Bernard Vitet is full of stories and musical inventiveness. This is undoubtedly what led the Austrian label Klang Galerie to persistently reissue the albums of this orchestra, which represents a sort of backbone of creative European electronic music from the 70s and 80s. This is obviously what led them to propose a very nice reissue of Carnage, released on LP in 1985 and never reissued since. A dark work, violent in its vociferations and Gorgé's choice of a blunt guitar on a tense track like "Rangé des Voitures" with lyrics written by Birgé himself. One of UDMI's rare forays into song, yet troubled by all sorts of sonic finds. The cinematographic dimension of the orchestra, reinforced here by guests who are very image-oriented (percussionist Youval Micenmacher, or Michèle Buirette, Elsa Birgé's mother, on the accordion).

UDMI has always been about cinema for the ears. Here, it's a question of rebellion, against a backdrop of the destruction of the Amazon, the construction of a motorway, the explosion of dead wood and the strategy of tension that fed the political backdrop of the 1980s. All the seeds of this can be found in the impressive "Une fièvre verte" that opens the album: "And it doesn't matter what this motorway will cost", the tone is set. The whatever-it-takes is projected in a primary forest, among the cries of the trumpet and the electronic crawls that a chaos slaughters. A sonic clearing, literally and figuratively, a live ecological carnage carried by the oboe of Jean Querlier and the bassoon of Youenn Le Berre. Later, in field/counter-field, we meet indigenous populations, a rhythm that tends towards trance... the balance of power is established, as is a rather powerful narrative arc. This carnage is the opposition between those who destroy the forest and those who live off it: it should be remembered that the record was recorded a few years before the assassination of Chico Mendes, a Brazilian trade unionist who fought against the exploiters of the Amazon. It is also this tension that emerges in 'La Bourse et la vie', a long orchestral piece that demonstrates the rigorous writing of UDMI's musicians. There is an epic breath, and not only in Bernard Vitet's diving trumpet (the bell plays in a bowl of water).

If tracks like 'Cabin 13' represent more classical atmospheres in UDMI's discography, with Vitet's magnificent soaring and Gorgé's haunting playing, let us note that Carnage is undoubtedly the trio's recording where the Zappaian paradigm is most prominent. This is all the more remarkable as it is above all an influence of Jean-Jacques Birgé, who himself admits not to have experienced it. It is in "Fièvre Verte" that it is particularly noticeable, with a real feeling of evolving in the corridors of 200 Motels. As for 'Silent Telephone', it seems on several occasions that we're going to hear Suzy Creamcheese whispering "Are You Hung Up?", as in We're Only in it For The Money. In any case, we must thank Klanggalerie for the reissue of Carnage, another fine testimony to UDMI's modernity.

by Franpi Barriaux // January 9th 2022

L'air de rien in Citizen Jazz

Recorded last March, the meeting between the universe of Jean-Jacques Birgé and Élise Caron's promises to be fascinating. Especially if trombonist Fidel Fourneyron is added to the mix to balance the whole, in an approach that is close to the very beautiful Parking by Élise Dabrowski, released at the end of the summer. Thus, "Détruisez Rien / Ce qu'il y a de plus important" offers the trombonist an opportunity to underline with a long lyrical phrasing the sounds of his two companions, he who had until now let himself be invaded and submerged by the strangeness and the inventiveness around. Thus, "Du jardinage, pas d'architecture", where the steady note of the trombone and the slight rustle of the mouthpiece are as if surrounded by fascinating sounds and a spectral, grumbling voice, playing on the phonemes. Élise Caron creates wild climates, in the sense that they cannot be tamed. Birgé, for his part, uses everything from irregular tinkling to fake wind.
Both outstanding storytellers, Birgé and Caron find each other immediately. Each direction, though totally random, is an additional piece that will feed a narrative and a climate. "What would your dearest friend do" is the occasion for an almost ghostly moment, distant sounds on an ether voice, a misty dance between the voice's psalmodies and a trombone that covers it like a cotton sheet: this is what is undoubtedly surprising about this Air de Rien that Jean-Jacques Birgé proposes on his BandCamp, a nocturnal music, populated by spirits. For the night is intranquil with this trio: we hear dogs, crows and other unknown creatures. Yet nothing is hostile; the whole thing is even unusually gentle.
Envisaged as a game based on randomness and the drawing of cards, an exercise that has become commonplace in Jean-Jacques Birgé's practice, L'Air de rien is a beautiful proposition that offers new spaces to these three great musicians. Élise Caron, who takes over one of her host's toy keyboards, plays with the codes throughout the recording. We expect her to be vocal, we imagine her to be turbulent, she melts into the imagination of her partners and plays the flute, even if in the very beautiful "Utilisez une vieille idée", her babbling gives colour to the piece. It seems like nothing ? We have a great time!
 
by Franpi Barriaux // January 9th 2022

Unissued Drame from 1976 on LP

At the beginning of 2022, the German label Psych.KG will publish an unreleased 19-minute track by Un Drame Musical Instantané from 1976, Très toxique, with Jean-Jacques Birgé, Bernard Vitet and Francis Gorgé. This piece is therefore prior to the first record of the Drame! On the other side of the LP, Kommissar Hjuler und Frau will present Es gibt Reis, a 17-minute sound creation recorded this year.

Carnage out of print for 30 years finally on CD (KlangGalerie)

Bernard Vitet (trumpets, vocals, violin, flute, reed), Francis Gorgé (electric guitar, synthesizer, vocals, percussion, flute, brake), Jean-Jacques Birgé (synthesizer, vocals, piano, brass, flute, reeds, percussion) with Youval Micenmacher (percussion), Jean Querlier (oboe, English horn, flute, sax), Youenn Le Berre (flutes, bassoon), Patrice Petitdidier (French horn), Michèle Buirette (accordion), Geneviève Cabannes (double bass) and the Ensemble Instrumental du Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique directed by Yves Prin

Music, words, recording
Un Drame Musical Instantané (Birgé-Vitet-Gorgé)

Carnage on KlangGalerie: New Master 2021 + Bonus
French article on Blog !

New album on GRRR
Only Once with Uriel Barthélémi and Hélène Breschand

Only Once, trio with Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ (keyboards, misc.), Uriel BARTHÉLÉMI (drums, synth) et Hélène BRESCHAND (electric harp, vocals) recorded on June 2021 at Studio GRRR.
Article on French Blog !

3 new albums on GRRR
Fictions with Lionel Martin, To be or net to be with Gilles Coronado and Basile Naudet, Exotica with François Corneloup and Philippe Deschepper

Fictions, after Borgès, duo by Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ (keyboards, etc.) and Lionel MARTIN (tenor sax) recorded on May 11 mai 2021 at Studio GRRR.



To be or net to be
, trio by Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ (keyboards, etc.), Basile NAUDET (soprano & alto sax) and Gilles CORONADO (guitar) recorded on May 24 mai 2021 at Studio GRRR.



Exotica, trio by Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ (keyboards, etc.), François CORNELOUP (baritone sax) and Philippe DESCHEPPER (guitar) recorded on May 27 mai 2021 at Studio GRRR.

6 pages on Un D.M.I. and JJB in the strip book


The strip book Underground, 300 pages, is subtitled "Cursed rockers & high priestesses of sound". The whole thing offers Arnaud Le Gouëfflec's point of view on the music out of the beaten tracks and draws an exceptional graphic adventure by Nicolas Moog.

JJB - podcast on France Musique


On March 27 2021, Françoise Degeorges invited Jean-Jacques Birgé for her radio show Couleurs du Monde on France Musique (Radio France). One hour with interview, sounds and a lot of music.

L'air de rien by Birgé Caron Fourneyron


Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ (keyboards, various), Élise CARON (vocals, flute) and Fidel FOURNEYRON (trombone) have recorded this album on March 11 2021 at Studio GRRR. Dark and magical. It's the 84th album free to listen or download on drame.org !

Tout Abus Sera Puni by Birgé Jalal Lévy


Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ (keyboards, various), Naïssam JALAL (flute, vocals) et Mathias LÉVY (violin, vocals) have recorded this album on March 9th 2021 at Studio GRRR, drawing themes from mc gayffier's graphic book, published in 2020. Lyrical, groovy, radiant, Tout Abus Sera Puni is an act of resistance against the so-called "health" crisis.


Free to listen and download on drame.org !

Article by Étienne Brunet on the film
"Perspectives For the 22nd Century"


After private projections !

MEG 2152, 12th video-clip

Filmed after the music of the CD Perspectives For the 22nd Century composed by Jean-Jacques Birgé and the photographic collections of the Musée d'Ethnographie de Genève, MEG 2152 is a film by Jacques Perconte.

Watch them all on a big screen and listen to them loud!

All articles concerning the CD Perspectives du XXIIe siècle (in French)
Dossier du MEG also in English
The album is on SoundCloud !
The other video-clips of the project sur Vimeo !

Pique-nique au labo, double CD, 28 guests

 

Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ     Pique-Nique au Labo
Double CD GRRR 2031-32 – dist. Orkhêstra
120 minutes of rare improvisations / unissued on CD

It's about playing to meet and not the other way around as usual.
Most of the time the theme of each piece was randomly chosen just before playing.

 

 

Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ – keyboards, electronics, plunderphonics, ambiences, harmonica, flute, Jew’s harps… invites… Samuel BER – drums, percussion / Sophie BERNADO – vocals, bassoon / Amandine CASADAMONT – vinyls / Nicholas CHRISTENSON – double bass / Médéric COLLIGNON – vocals / Pascal CONTET – accordion / Élise DABROWSKI – double bass, vocals / Julien DESPREZ – electric guitar / Linda EDSJÖ – marimba, vibraphone, percussion / Jean-Brice GODET – cassettes, clarinet / Alexandra GRIMAL – tenor sax / Wassim HALAL – percussion / Antonin-Tri HOANG – alto sax, bass clarinet, piano / Karsten HOCHAPFEL – cello / Fanny LASFARGUES – electroacoustic bass / Mathias LEVY – violin / Sylvain LEMÊTRE – percussion / Birgitte LYREGAARD – vocals / Jocelyn MIENNIEL – flutes, MS20 / Edward PERRAUD – drums, electronics / Jonathan PONTIER – keyboards / Hasse POULSEN – guitar / Sylvain RIFFLET– tenor sax / Eve RISSER – vocals, melodica / Vincent SEGAL – cello / Christelle SERY – electric guitar / Ravi SHARDJA – electric mandolin / Jean-François VROD – violin

Instant compositions of all the protagonists, recorded and mixed by Jean-Jacques Birgé, mainly at Studio GRRR, France (2010-2019) / 12-page booklet / Graphics by mc gayffier

Les champs les plus beaux, 11th video-clip

 

Filmed after the music of the CD Perspectives For the 22nd Century composed by Jean-Jacques Birgé and the photographic collections of the Musée d'Ethnographie de Genève, Les champs les plus beaux is a film by Valéry Faidherbe.

Watch them all on a big screen and listen to them loud!

All articles concerning the CD Perspectives du XXIIe siècle (in French)
Dossier du MEG also in English
The album is on SoundCloud !
The other video-clips of the project sur Vimeo !

Renaissance, 10th video-clip !



Filmed after the music of the CD Perspectives For the 22nd Century composed by Jean-Jacques Birgé, Renaissance is directed by the composer and edited by Sonia Cruchon.

Watch them all on a big screen and listen to them loud!

All articles concerning the CD Perspectives du XXIIe siècle (in French)
Dossier du MEG also in English
The album is on SoundCloud !
The other video-clips of the project sur Vimeo !

L'Indésir, 9th video-clip !



Filmed after the music of the CD Perspectives For the 22nd Century composed by Jean-Jacques Birgé, L'Indésir signed by Sonia Cruchon.

Watch them all on a big screen and listen to them loud!

All articles concerning the CD Perspectives du XXIIe siècle (in French)
Dossier du MEG also in English
The album is on SoundCloud !

Ensemble Ratatam + Aksak Tripalium
(2 new videos from JJB's new album)


Filmed after the music of the CD Perspectives For the 22nd Century composed by Jean-Jacques Birgé, the video Ensemble Ratatam is by John Sanborn and Aksak Tripalium by Sonia Cruchon.



Watch them on a big screen and listen to them loud!

New CD
Perspectives for the 22nd Century


Commissioned by the Ethnographic Museum of Geneva (MEG), Jean-Jacques Birgé composed a work based on the MEG's International Archives of Folk Music (IAFM). Perspectives for the 22nd Century includes 31 pieces recorded between 1930 and 1952 and compiled by Constantin Brăiloiu (1893-1958), founder of the IAFM and an authoritative reference in the field of traditional music.

Perspectives for the 22nd Century is written on the basis of an anticipation scenario where the survivors of the disaster of 2152 live on the ruins of the MEG and decide to rebuild themselves from the archives discovered on site. The composition mixes acoustic instruments, some of which belong to the MEG collections, virtual instruments, ambiences and sound archives.

A disturbing echo of current events, Perspectives for the 22nd Century is a sound fiction following the journey of humans who must reinvent themselves. In these times of questioning about the future of the planet and of humanity, Jean-Jacques Birgé wanted to dedicate this work to C.F. Ramuz and Vercors.

This CD is the fifth title to appear in the series of recordings published by the MEG and devoted to contemporary creations composed on the basis of its sound archives.

On SoundCloud:
https://soundcloud.com/user-516340806/sets/perspectives-du-xxiie-siecle-jean-jacques-birge/s-v09OVK76q5X

De vallées en vallées + Larmes de crocodile
(2 new videos from JJB's new album)

Filmed after the music of the CD Perspectives For the 22nd Century composed by Jean-Jacques Birgé, the video De vallées en vallées is by Eric Vernhes and Larmes de crocodile by Nicolas Clauss.



Watch them on a big screen and listen to them loud!

Berceuse ionique (from new JJB's CD)


The first video of Jean-Jacques Birgé's album, Perspectives for the 22nd Century, is online. Sonia Cruchon chose the Ionic Lullaby by playing with the silhouettes of survivors of the disaster. Images of the past inhabit these colored shadows. JJB asked each director to draw inspiration from the archives discovered on the ruins of the Museum d'Ethnologie de Genève, which commissioned the work and produced the CD, to invent their future. We are in 2152. He had thus proceeded with music, based on 31 pieces recorded between 1930 and 1952 from the Constantin Brăiloiu Fund kept at the International Archives of Popular Music (AIMP) of the MEG. Brăiloiu (1893-1958) is a major reference in the field of traditional music. This hörspiel where voices come from far away combines acoustic instruments, some of which belong to the MEG collections, virtual instruments, atmospheres and sound archives. Troubling echo of current events in these times of questions about the future of the planet and of humanity, Perspectives for the 22nd Century was inspired by the reading of a novel by C.F. Ramuz to whom he dedicated the work as well as another writer, Vercors.
The next videos will be by Eric Vernhes, Nicolas Clauss, John Sanborn, Valéry Faidherbe, Sonia Cruchon and Nicolas Le Du.

Idir & Johnny Clegg a capella
on Télérama and Là-bas si j'y suis

On the occasion of the death of the Kabyle singer Idir, Là-bas si j'y suis chooses the film directed by Jean-Jacques Birgé in 1993 (among Vis à Vis series imagined by Patrice Barrat). At the beginning of April Télérama magazine had also chosen the film for containment!
Blog article...

Article on Musique Machine

Next in Klanggalerie series of reissues from French avant collective Un Drame Musical Instantané here is the band's fifth album 1984’s L'Homme À La Caméra. It finds the collective deepening & expanding both their dissonant modern classic & the more bizarre theatrical leanings, yet still keeping alive their general avant genre-mixing & matching. Also featured on this reissue is a second never released album La Glace A Trois Faces- all bringing this new releases runtime up to seventy-six minutes.
This CD is the third reissue of the band's work from the label, and before this, we had the band 1980’s debut Rideau! & it’s 1982 follow-up À Travail Égal Salaire Égal.  This recent reissue is presented a glossy red, grey & black color schemed mini gatefold- this takes in a list of albums impressive sonic line, full credits, and shape/ collage-based artwork. I’m not sure about the pressing of this, but I’d imagine it’s not huge- so if you enjoyed the other Un Drame Musical Instantané albums, act sooner than later!
The bands centered around Jean-Jacques Birgé, Bernard Vitet, & Francis Gorgé- and for each of the albums, they are joined by twelve other musicians playing a mix of classical & non-classical wind instrumentation, violins/ cellos/ viola, and various percussive based instrumentation. The first album here is the group's 1984 album L'Homme À La Caméra- it takes in eleven pieces in all, with the key members taking on the following tasks- Birgé conductor, synth, tapes, flutes, piano, jew harp & vocals. Vitet- conductor, trumpet, flute & Vocals. And Gorgé- Conductor, guitar, and variable.  Though the album is broken up into eleven tracks- it feels much more of a flowing & developing single-track album- as the fifteen strong project dart all over the place. It would foolish/ madness to try & chart/ review everything here, as it really does shift all over the place- but here’s a little idea of what we get.  We begin with “Ouverture À L'Iris” this opens in the very dissonant and clashing manner with manic sawing string, dramatic crashing-at-times-stumbling percussion, and baying horn work- fairly soon this works it’s self up into a noise crescendo. Next we drop into a pared-back & moody blend of wavering flute harmonics, scuttling percussion, and awkward string twangs & plays which are fairly soon joined by a selection guttural mouth sounds. Before drifting into a blend wailing female harmonizing,brooding horn wonders meet grim string swoon, & what sounds like seagulls, before shifting in its last-minute into thick darts of off-key jazz organ. By the album, midpoint we come to “Consinus” and here we find a collision of what sounds like bright orchestratal comedy music, spiraling bright electronics, weird theatrical chatter & male/ female call receive, and wondering horn. The albums final track "Le Spectacle Est Dans La Salle" attempts to bring together playful jazz flute, brooding male choirs, weird snoring & creaks, and sudden darts of disconnected orchestrate & angular rock stylings. L'Homme À La Caméra is a bizarre, wholly unpredictable, and largely enjoyable music journey.
The second half of the CD is taken up by the eight tracks of unreleased album La Glace A Trois Faces- and once again this is orchestrate based, but jumps all over the place genre-wise- though maybe not as much as the first release. We go from the trad Jazz meets playful Avant jazz of  “Bohème”, onto the clear strumming guitar meets wondering horn & awkward sing-song vocals “L'Invitation Au Voyage”, through to simmering dissonant blend of multi piping/ sawing orchestrate, banging keys, and brooding wind sounds of the final track "Perfect Crimes".
In all this is a great double-headed sonic adventure of a release that is prime perfect for those who enjoy there Avant-grade genre mixed, unpredictable & daring. I very much look forward to the next Un Drame Musical Instantané reissue from Klanggalerie.

Omni-Vermille music is online

Music for the generative 6-screen installation by Anne-Sarah Le Meur created at ZKM (Center for Arts and Media Karlsruhe, Germany) and exhibited from March 11 to April 26 2020. You can see the 4x18m installation from outside the building.

First CD reissue of L'homme à la caméra

Austrian label Klanggalerie goes on reissueing CDs from the LPs by Un Drame Musical Instantané or GRRR unissued records. After Rideau ! and À travail égal salaire égal, L'homme à la caméra is the third album by Un Drame Musical Instantané to be issued for the first time as a CD. New graphic design by Étienne Mineur, new master and an extraordinary 30 minutes bonus of the score of La glace à trois faces by Jean Epstein recorded live with their big band on January 11 1984. But, as for L'homme à la caméra by Dziga Vertov also recorded live with 15 mlusiciens on January 14 1983, the album offers to discover the music by itself, without the images... See French blog !
Price: € 17,-/copy incl. worldwide shipping on the site of Klanggalerie

New album online with
Nicholas Christenson and Jean-Brice Godet


Duck Soup features 12 instantaneous compositions played by trio Jean-Jacques Birgé (keyboards, electronic and acoustic instruments), Jean-Brice Godet (bass clarinet, clarinet, cassettes) and Nicholas Christenson (double bass, baby cello) and recorded on December 18 2019.
One after another the musicians have chosen an artwork by Roger Ballen as the theme for their collective improvisation.
It's the 81th album on GRRR Records which is free to listen or download, just here!

New album online with
Jean-François Vrod and Karsten Hochapfel

Ball of Fire features 16 instantaneous compositions played by trio Jean-Jacques Birgé (keyboards, electronic and acoustic instruments), Jean-François Vrod (violin, vocals, harmonica) et Karsten Hochapfel (cello, guitar, zheng, cosmicbow) and recorded on November 22 2019.
It's the 80th album on GRRR Records which is free to listen or download, just here!

New album online with
Christelle Séry and Jonathan Pontier

WD-40 features 10 instantaneous compositions played by trio Jean-Jacques Birgé (keyboards, electronic and acoustic instruments), Christelle Séry (electric guitar) and Jonathan Pontier (keyboards) and recorded on October 14 2019.
It's the 79th album on GRRR Records which is free to listen or download, just here!

NONSELVES on YouTube, DailyMotion and Vimeo


With NONSELVES composer and performer Jean-Jacques Birgé provides an improvised (in real time) soundtrack for images derived from the interactive work NONSELF, created by John Sanborn.
This collaboration is a wild ride of sonic and social satire, mixing serious and silly with equal force. You can play the original work, which was commissioned by Jeu de Paume, at nonself.me
To give an idea of the live shows, Birgé has recorded a live version for Internet on October 7th 2019, but, as it's improvised, each show is different.

On YouTube, Dailymotion and Vimeo

MELTING RUST on YouTube and Vimeo


MELTING RUST, the audiovisual performance by Anne-Sarah Le Meur and Jean-Jacques Birgé is on YouTube and on Vimeo. It is the captation of the creation at Victoria in Transylvania (Romania) done by Irina Botea and Jon Dean. Every show is different as both of them improvise. This version does not reproduce the emotion of the live show, it's in mono and shot  in the darkness of the theater. It's better to watch/hear it on full screen or during the future shows!
MELTING RUST is the first part of the next show with NONSELVES where Birgé improvises also on videos by John Sanborn (original adaptation of NONSELF commissioned by Jeu de Paume)...

Birgé on videos by John Sanborn

On Friday September 20 2019 at the Blackstar in Paris, Jean-Jacques Birgé improvises on 122 videos by John Sanborn ! So the project Nonself, based on what we are not, becomes  Nonselves in a astonishing dialogue between the media artist and the composer.

Melting Rust in Transylvania
with Anne-Sarah Le Meur

On August 23 2019, Jean-Jacques Birgé will play on moving images by Anne-Sarah Le Meur in Victoria (Romania), invited by Dana Diminescu and Tincuta Heinzel. Other artists will participate to this evening connected to a two years residence about the utopian city founded by the Soviets in 1948 and which will become a terrible dystopia under Nicolae Ceauşescu...

Birgé & Lemêtre at Château Perché

On Saturday 27th of July, from 11p.m. to 1 a.m., Jean-Jacques Birgé (keyboards, electronics, winds) and Sylvain Lemêtre (percussion) will play under The White Dome at the Château de la Balaine, Villeneuve-sur-Allier, for a fantastic experimental / ambient / chill-out set! Read the article of the blog on the precedent day, or rendez-vous at the craziest festival I've ever seen, Château Perché ;-)

New album online with
Hasse Poulsen and Wassim Halal

La révolte des carrés features 13 instantaneous compositions played by trio Jean-Jacques Birgé (keyboards, reed trumpet, percussion, etc.), Hasse Poulsen (guitar, mandoguitar, vocals) and Wassim Halal (daf, bendir, darbouka, tara) and recorded on May 13 2019, anniversary of a demonstration, another Monday, May 13 1968.
It's the 78th album on GRRR Records which is free to listen or download, just here !

Participation to Aux Ronds-Points
des Allumés du Jazz...

With Les travailleurs du disque dans le miroir des allumettes Jean-Jacques Birgé (keyboard), Amandine Casadamont (field recording), Sacha Gattino (whistling), Sylvain Lemêtre (percussion) et Sylvain Rifflet (tenor sax) participate to the LP produced by Les Allumés du Jazz à l'occasion on the 2019 Record Day.
It is a totally original album and a wonderful collective adventure.
You can order it there...

New album online with
Élise Dabrowski and Mathias Lévy

Questions features 12 instantaneous compositions played by trio Jean-Jacques Birgé (keyboards, synthesizers, Tenori-on, flutes, jaw harps, etc.), Élise Dabrowski (double bass, vocals) and Mathias Lévy (violin, sax).
It's the 77th album on GRRR Records which is free to listen or download, just here !

Rendez-vous on Citizen Jazz
Very nice article by Franpi Barriaux on April 29 2019
Jean-Jacques Birgé & Hélène Sage, Rendez-vous, cd KlangGalerie

Revue & Corrigée (March 2019)

Jean-Jacques Birgé & Hélène Sage, Rendez-vous, cd KlangGalerie

J-J Birgé on France Musique


On Tapage Nocturne, radio-show of Bruno Letort edited by Bruno Riou-Maillard.
« Jean-Jacques Birgé est un drôle de trublion de la musique d’aujourd’hui. Défricheur, il l’est depuis ses premiers pas dans le mondes sonores, car pour lui c’est une manière de voir plus loin, de redessiner les cartographies du sonore.
Cultivant les surprises, les décalages, il propose Le centenaire de Jean-Jacques Birgé 1952-2052, un album rétrofuturiste, qui se réapproprie les timbres de chaque décennie, depuis sa naissance en 1952 jusqu’à la date de son centenaire imaginé.
C'était l'occasion pour Tapage nocturne, de revenir sur son itinéraire aux contours multiples.
Extraits diffusés du CD Centenaire pour illustrer l'interview : Les Années 50, Tombeau de Birgé, Les Années 70, Les Années 60, Les Années 2030, Les Années 80, Les Années 2000, Les Années 2010 et Les Années 2020
L'album sur Bandcamp »
Tapage nocturne, February 1 2019

BIRGÉ, HALLUCINOGÈNE in L'HUMA
Les coups de cœur de Fara C.
Birgé, hallucinogène
Touche-à-tout génial, empêcheur de tourner en rond, musicien, écrivain, citoyen actif… Jean-Jacques Birgé ne se laisse enfermer dans nulle étiquette. Son CD le Centenaire de Jean-Jacques Birgé 1952-2052, fort d’un superbe livret de 52 pages (par le graphiste Étienne Mineur), témoigne avec fulgurance de son inventivité hallucinogène. Et facétieuse. Pionnier des synthétiseurs et de l’électro, improvisateur sur le fil, il parvient à réunir, comme dans une même boucle, une humanité immémoriale et le futurisme le plus avant-gardiste. Du beau monde en ce CD : Elsa Birgé, Bernard Vitet, Vincent Segal (ici à la basse électrique, exceptionnellement) et bien d’autres forces vives d’une expression artistique insoumise. À Saint-Ouen, avec David Coignard (installations) et Laurent Stoutzer (guitare, électronique), le claviériste présentera la performance OSO (Ondes sur ombres).
Jean-Jacques Birgé : 26 janvier, Mains d’Œuvres, Saint-Ouen ;
CD le Centenaire de Jean-Jacques Birgé 1952-2052 (GRRR), www.jjbirge.bandcamp.com.
N.B.: pour illustrer son article, Fara C. a choisi la vidéo Y a pas d’hélice hélas, c’est là qu’est l’os ! avec Sophie Bernado (voix, basson), Linda Edsjö (batterie) et ma pomme (trompette à anche, clavier)...

Performance @ Mains d'Œuvres January 26 2019


On January 26, Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ plays for performance OSO (Ondes Sur Ondes) with Laurent STOUTZER (guitar) et David COIGNARD (video installation) at Mains d'œuvres, Saint-Ouen during MOFO Frestival.

Unissued CD RENDEZ-VOUS is out!

On Austrian label Klang Galerie, Rendez-vous, gg283
French group Un Drame Musical Instantané was founded in 1976. They present an original, unclassifiable, inventive music, which drifts from jazz to electronic sounds and contemporary music. Klanggalerie has started an extensive re-issue programme with these unqiue avantgarde pioneers which will bring back their classic albums but also side projects like this one. Rendez-Vous was recorded in 1981 but never released. This is what group founder Birgé has to say about the recording: "I met Hélène Sage when she was doing a performance at Espace Palikao in Paris with choreographer Lulla Card Chourlin. She was singing whilst driving an old Mercedes Benz, trying to run over Lulla, and playing double bass on its roof! I proposed her to record some improvisations at Studio GRRR as I've always done with new musicians and as I'm still doing. The connection was so great, as one can hear on this record 37 years later, that I asked her to join the 15-piece orchestra of Un Drame Musical Instantané which had just been founded. She brought some crazy stuff into the group, playing strange instruments she had invented herself. She is a wonderful flute player, but I asked her to play all kinds of instruments and also to sing, leaving her often free to improvise besides the written score. In the next years we both played as a duo and she became the fourth member of the Drame. When I listen to these pieces today, I'm surprised by the high degree of composition, the quality and variety of our inventions. The mix of acoustic and electronic instruments sounds totally contemporary, plus with the energy of youth and the absolute love for innovative forms."
Price: € 17,-/copy incl. worldwide shipping

Chifoumi (Rock-Paper-Scissors)
with Sylvain Rifflet et Sylvain Lemêtre

On December 20th Jean-Jacques Birgé (keyboard, etc.), Sylvain Rifflet (tenor sax) and Sylvain Lemêtre (percussion) have been recorded the last GRRR album for 2018. To choose what they played they used the old Rock-Paper-Scissors game, known in France as Chifoumi. That day was funny and exciting. Next day, the album was already on line, free to listen and download.

Le Centenaire sous la plume de Jean Rochard

Wonderful text by Jean Rochard on natomusic

The 100th Anniversary in The Wire

Article in THE WIRE (Nov. 2018, #417, p.69, Modern Composition by Julian Cowley) :
Parisian Jean-Jacques Birgé has been making records, directing films and running the label Grrr since the mid-1970s. Now, with this exuberant hour-long project, he peers ahead to 2052 and celebrates the centenary of his own birth. A coda, marking his eventual death, has been composed by Sacha Gattino who salutes the playful ness of his friend's creative life, audible in their shared love of toy instruments and everyday sounding objects. A chiming music box, recorded during Birgé's childhood, provides a point of departure for his delirious romp through time. Skilfully crafted montage captures the flavour of each decade. Chanson xith lilting accordion, searing electric guitar or synths and orchestral pomp provide temporal markers, but within each frame a host of sounds are layered and scrambled. Birgé's kaleidoscopic imagination has produced a widly entertaining electroacoustic chronicle, oozing joie de vivre, naturally.

Face B @ La Maison Rouge on Oct. 27

Reservations are opened on the site of La Maison Rouge. You may assist to the return of Face B by Daniela Franco, Saturday October 27. Vincent Segal (cello), Antonin-Tri Hoang (alto sax, bass clarinet) and Jean-Jacques Birgé (keyboard, Tenori-on, Lyra-8) will improvise on images by the Mexican artist. Daniela Franco designs "covers of rare records which have disappeared". Have they ever existed? She also uses pictures following musical and graphic themes which every one will interpret his/her own way.
Face B | Performative Archive at La Maison Rouge-Fondation Antoine de Galbert, 10 bd de la Bastille, 75012 Paris, Saturday October 27 at 4 p.m. and 5.30 p.m., reservation if there is still some place : reservation@lamaisonrouge.org

100th Anniversary of JJB in Libération

Jacques Denis wrote a new article on JJB's new album in Libération!

Birgé is Citizen Jazz

Cover, interview, articles, music, video on his 100th Anniversary, Jean-Jacques Birgé in on Citizen Jazz!

Jean-Jacques Birgé's 100 Anniversary on Télérama

First article on Télérama by Louis-Julien Nicolaou. Youth!
Distribution : Orkhêstra International / Les Allumés du Jazz / Bandcamp

Hoang & Birgé on synthesizers
August 24, Montreuil

In August the composer, clarinetist-saxophonist, Antonin-Tri Hoang is in residence at L'Office, Montreuil. He takes the opportunity to organize impromptu events such as a concert for synthesizers to which he invited me for an improvised duo on Friday 24 at 6 p.m. He will play a modular system. I'll come with a Russian Lyra-8, a Japanese Tenori-on and the only copy of the JJB64 that Eric Vernhes had invented for me on the occasion of my birthday. The concert takes place in the middle of a beautiful installation of the visual artist Marie-Christine Gayffier.
Tout/Rien à L'Office, 1 rue Kléber, Croix de Chavaux, Montreuil (Metro line 9 - out 4), everyday from 3 to 8 p.m.

Harpon @ Château Perché on August 11th

Amandine Casadamont (vinyls) et Jean-Jacques Birgé (keyboard, synthesizers, Tenori-on, etc.) will play 1001 Nights from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. on the night of the 11th to the 12th at Château Perché, a very original festival which takes place every year in a different castle. This time it's at the Château d'Avrilly, 03460 Trévol, France, with 200 artists and 5000 people... By the way, HARPON's site is now online!

The 100th Anniversary of Jean-Jacques Birgé

« This album commemorates the 100th anniversary of Jean-Jacques Birgé, a multi-disciplinary 
artist whose musical work marked his time.

In 2018 he turns to his past by composing one piece per 
decade, reflecting both his career and the times he went trough. As a tribute to his father who loved science fiction, he also imagines the decades to come, composing three 
anticipation pieces. This vectorial evocation resembles a shadow theatre whose appearances merge with reality. To conclude the album, the composer Sacha Gattino wrote a Tombeau in honor of his friend.

»

With Michèle Buirette, Elsa Birgé, Nicolas Chedmail, Hervé Legeay, Vincent Segal, Cyril Atef, Bernard Vitet, Didier Petit, Pascale Labbé, Philippe Deschepper, Yves Robert, Éric Échampard, Sacha Gattino, Birgitte Lyregaard, Amandine Casadamont, Antonin-Tri Hoang... And a beautiful 52 pages booklet by Étienne Mineur !
Out on Sept. 7 2018 (receive it already writing us)

Recent articles on Un D.M.I.
About first CD issueing of Rideau! (1980) :
AllMusic - Citizen Jazz - Vital Weekly - Revue&Corrigée - Musique Machine
and À Travail Égal Salaire Égal (1981-82) :
AllMusic - Le Glob nato - Le son du grisli - Vital Weekly - Musique Machine
Both on Austrian record label KlangGalerie (2017-2018)

À travail égal salaire égal
at last issued on CD

Austrian record label Klang Galerie goes on reissueing LPs' by Un Drame Musical Instantané in CD. After Rideau ! (1980), it is now À travail égal salaire égal (1981) which has been remasterized and is issued as a beautiful digipack with an extra track, a unissued version of La preuve par le Grand Huit recorded the year after! It's the first album of Un D.M.I. with the 16-piece orchestra, as you'll find there the orchestral version of Crimes Parfaits (for tape, string septet and radio orchestras) and La preuve par le Grand Huit the day it has been created. You'll also find On tourne, a piece of field recording, and Pour quoi la nuit, already reissued on Machiavel.

Paradis, new album by Harpon

Paradis is the third album of Harpon. It has been recorded and mixed on December 28 2017. It's online, free to listen or download! A way to send our best wishes for 2018 to you all...
Amandine Casadamont uses 3 vynil decks as Jean-Jacques Birgé plays a keyboard connected to his computer plus a few acoustic instruments.

Nabaz'mob, the album

Audio extracts of Nabaz'mob, the opera for 100 connected rabbits by Antoine Schmitt and Jean-Jacques Birgé... You could watch and hear it. Now you can listen to the music beside the show!

Remix of Controlled Bleeding by JJB

Jean-Jacques Birgé is back to rock with Driving Through Darkness Lights Off (listen !). He plays all instruments, except bass and drums he has transformed, on this remix you will find on double-CD Carving Songs by Contolled Bleeding (Artoffact Records). More infos on French Blog !
Birgé also participates to TROD, piece of Controlled Bleeding which opens the album.

Nouvel album : L'isthme des ismes


Avec Jean-Jacques Birgé (échantillonneur), Antonin-Tri Hoang (anches, piano) et Samuel Ber (percussion), enregistré au Studio 107 pour Tapage Nocturne.

Tapage nocturne (podcast) avec J-J.Birgé

Listen to a podcast on Jean-Jacques Birgé recorded for Tapage Nocturne on France Musique on November 2 2017.


With him (keyboard...) in Studio 107 of Radio France Antonin-Tri Hoang (reeds, piano) and Samuel Ber (percussion). Radio show and interview by Bruno Letort. Playlist.

Lectures, exhibition...

- On October 13, Jean-Jacques Birgé will show creative applications Boum! and USA 1968 deux enfants at Demain 3 (Books and Digital), Festival Maintenant in Rennes.
- On October 17, opening of the exhibition Special effects, Steel the Scene! at Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, Paris, for which he has composed original music and sound design with Sacha Gattino.
- On October 20 at FGO Barbara, conference 100 years of electronic music with Eva Peel, Alain Ho, Samy El Zobo, Kat Quint, Ygal Ohayon and Ben Osborne.
- On October 25, he is invited by Lucas de Geyter at Cirque Électrique (Paris) to read Bureau de tabac by F. Pessoa to celebrate Retour vers le Futur - Octobre 1917 with Guillaume Fafiotte, Jean-Marc Hérouin, Jacques Pieiller and Rise, People Rise!

El Strøm ELECTED Citizen Jazz

Franpi Barriaux writes a beautiful article on Long Time No Sea on Citizen Jazz... So cool!

El Strøm on Top 10 by Nicolaou (Les Inrocks)

Louis-Julien Nicolaou (Les Inrocks) cites CD Long Time No Sea by trio EL STRØM on his Top 10 of the first six months (June 15 2017).

DDD publishes 4 remix of L'homme à la caméra

1895, 1929, 1973, 1984, 1999, 2014, 2017,
so many landmarks to give birth to this beautiful object!
The French label DDD publishes 4 remix of the album L'homme à la caméra by Un Drame Musical Instantané on a  transparent LP sold together with the original LP (pressed in 1984). New Yorker Jorge VELEZ aka Professor Genius, Australian Dro Carey aka Tuff SHERM, Polish Eltron JOHN and famous Thurston MOORE participated in this crazy project.
Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) had been recording 7/11 en 1999, but it remained unissued until now. More recently Xavier Ehretsmann ordered the three other remix.
In October 2014, English magazine WIRE had published Eltron John's piece on CD Below The Radar Special Edition: The Dream, compilation of experimental and electronic music put together by the Kraków Unsound Festival.
The transparency of the REMIX LP shows the original cover by UN D.M.I. where one can see a picture of the film by Dziga VERTOV and the 15 members of Un D.M.I.'s ochestra at Théâtre Déjazet on January 14th 1984. There's only a round sticker with the name of the four remixers. Coline Malivel artwork is inspired by a dia from the light-show L'Œuf Hyaloïde cofounded by Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ, extract from the Light-Book printed by Imprimerie Union in 1973.

Boum!, Digital EHON Award

Our interactive application Boum ! receives Special Jury Prize at 5th Digital Ehon Awards.
French article with special animation film ent to Tokyo !

Bernado Birgé Edsjö, new album online

DÉFIS DE PRONONCIATION, 71st album exclusively online, 10 pieces free to listen and download... With Sophie Bernado (vocals, bassoon), Linda Edsjö (vocals, vibraphone, drums), Jean-Jacques Birgé (keyboard, Tenori-on, etc.). Recorded at Le Triton on May 12 2017, mixed on the 18th by JJB. The themes of the two last pieces were suggested by people in the audience. Five videos from the show on YouTube, filmed by Françoise Romand and edited by JJB.

3 reactions about CD by EL STRØM

Robert Wyatt : "Terrific CD"
Jean Rochard in natomusic
Louis-Julien Nicolaou in Les Inrocks

May 12 2017 - concert

Défauts de prononciation with Sophie BERNADO (bassoon, vocals), Linda EDSJÖ (vibraphone, percussion, vocals), Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ (keyboards, machines, etc.), Le Triton, 11bis rue du coq français, 93260 Les Lilas www.letriton.com

Le CD d'El Strøm est enfin là

Birgitte Lyregaard - vocals
Sacha Gattino - sampler, percussion, zither, harmonicas, jaw-harps
Jean-Jacques Birgé - Theremin, Tenori-on, Mascarade Machine, keyboards, reeds, harmonicas, jaw harps
Sound Castles / Contretemps / Frygt / Mécaniques cantiques / Radio Sandwich / Dark Waters / This Paris / Lover Man / Long Time No Sea
Long Time No Sea is the first new CD by Jean-Jacques Birgé since 1998 (Un Drame Musical Instantané's Machiavel). For the last 10 years GRRR has published 70 unissued albums on drame.org, but all exclusively online, virtual objects free to listen or download!
To present these 77 minutes, Étienne Mineur has designed a fantastic cover and libretto playing with videoprojectors and reflective materials. He has integrated drawings by Grandville from 1844 and even another one from 1774, all belonging to Sacha Gattino's own collection. By the way it's also Sacha's first CD.
Website of EL STRØM

Birgé - March 16 - London

→ Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ, solo concert Thursday night London 7 p.m.
(Free Entry but you must register for a ticket)
French Touch - An exhibition of French electronic music
Red Gallery/Kamio Bar, 1-3 Rivington St, London EC2A 3DT
from March 16 to April 9 2017.
The night begins with an extremely rare UK live performance in the Kamio Bar by French electronic pioneer Jean-Jacques Birgé and an exclusive showing of film Paris/ Berlin: 20 Years of Underground Techno directed by Amélie Ravalec.
Panel Discussion: Olivier Degorce (Photographer), Edouard Hartigan (Photographer), Stephane Jourdain (Photographer), Jean-Jacques Birgé (musician and composer), Sammy El Zobo (Director, Chateau Peché Festival, France), Professor Martin James (Solent University), David McKenna (French Music Export Office), host Ben Osborne (Noise of Art), also in attendance Johann Bouché-Pillon (Photographer and artist) and Etienne Castelle (Director, Chateau Peché Festival, France)...

Birgé on MixMag

The magazine MixMag publishes 15 pictures among which Jean-Jacques Birgé in 1975 witgh his ARP 2600 about the exhibition VOYAGE DANS LE PAYSAGE ÉLECTRONIQUE FRANÇAIS at Red Gallery/Kamio Bar, London EC2A 3DT from March 16 to April 9. The exhibition visits Jack In A Box festival (July) and Château Perché festival (August 4 to 6) before Paris and elsewhere later this year, and then the US in 2018. "Jean-Jacques Birgé, pictured here in concert in 1975, started making electronic music in 1965 when he was 13 years old. On the avant-garde experimental wing of electronic music, his music deconstructs jazz, rock, classical and many other genres."
LONDON SOLO CONCERT, March 16 2017

Rideau ! at last on CD

Rideau! is available on CD on Klang Galerie, an Austrian labl. It was Un Drame Musical Instantané's second album, originally released in 1980 on the group's own GRRR label. Since its creation in 1976, featuring Jean-Jacques Birgé, Bernard Vitet and Francis Gorgé, the group has decided to promote collective musical creation, co-signing their albums, which they consider as artworks in themselves, or their live shows which they try to renew every time they play. Un Drame borrowed their sources from rock (synthetizer player Birgé and guitarist Gorgé, both authors of the album, Défense de); jazz (trumpeter Vitet who founded the first free jazz band in France, together with François Tusques, as well as Michel Portal who played with many American and European jazzmen); classical modern music; as well as movies or world news; they were the first in France to give a new impetus to live music on silent films. Birgé and Gorgé also recorded a duo album that was mentioned on the infamous Nurse With Wound list, Défense de. On Rideau!, you will hear their wild mix of styles, a very original, unclassifiable, inventive music, which drifts from jazz to electronic music and contemporary music. Remastered in 2016 and with a lot of bonus tracks (75 minutes instead of 40), amongst them the track that appeared on United Dairies' compilation album In Fractured Silence for the first time in its full length! Track list: 1. M'enfin 2. Rideau! 3. La critique 4. Pas besoin d'espérer pour entreprendre ni de réussir pour persévérer 5. Tunnel sous la Manche 6. La peur du vide 7. Légitime défense 8. Le directeur paiera pour ses crimes
ALL ON FRENCH BLOG...

Birgé's new writings

Besides drame.org and Mediapart, Jean-Jacques Birgé writes articles for other publications as La Revue du Cube (Le sens de la vie), Citizen Jazz which celebrates its 15th Anniversary on Internet but for real this time (Cent soleils), le Cahier de l'Herne on/with Michel Houellebecq (Établissement d'un ciel d'alternance), as the most recent...

Birgé, new member of Controlled Bleeding ?

Jean-Jacques Birgé should become a member of New York group Controlled Bleeding led by Paul Lemos for their next album... Read (in French) : Mon remix de Controlled Bleeding accélère sur le Blog !

Podcast webSYNradio still available

Jean-Jacques Birgé proposes a playlist from 1975 to 1999 (incl. a 2016 bonus), 18 unissued pieces on Internet, even on drame.org !
http://synradio.fr/jean-jacques-birge-sur-websynradio/

Swing Passions, new CD
by Michèle Buirette


Michèle Buirette wrote original texts inspired by melodies by Gus Viseur, Jo Privat, Tony Murena, Django Reinhardt, Sonny Rollins... It's a refreshing adaptation of the famous jazzmusette. Michèle sings and plays accordion, with Hervé Legeay and Max Robin on guitars, Moïra Montier-Dauriac on double-bass, Elisabeth Keledjian on drums, Linda Edsjö on percussion, Lucien Alfonso on violin, Antonin-Tri Hoang on clarinet and sax alto...
Swing Passions, issue on September 23 2016.

Harpon live in Arles

August 1 2016... Three unissued pieces at 30th anniversary of Phonurgia Nova: Hypnotik, Insomnie, Rewind... Amandine Casadamont (decks) and Jean-Jacques Birgé (keyboard, electronics and acoustics)...

Harpon live at Silencio Club, new album
free to listen and download...

Jean-Jacques Birgé plays crazy uptodate machines as well as the oldest instruments of the world while Amandine Casadamont is 100% vinyl... We need so much to keep on dreaming. Recorded in Paris on June 30 at the club designed by David Lynch, HARPON's new album is online...

Avant Toute, new LP by Birgé-Gorgé

For those aware of it, Jean-Jacques Birgé and Francis Gorgé’s lone LP Défense De  (1975) is legendary. An uncategorizable gem from the French avant-garde, laying somewhere between Prog, Free-Jazz, and the efforts of Groupe de Recherches Musicales. It’s a sonic head fuck, and easily one of the most challenging records of the era. Few people know that prior to its sessions, the pair had entered the studio once before. We now find the result before us. I’m a big fan of Souffle Continu. For many years the record shop has been one of my first stops when I arrive in Paris. More recently they have expanded their efforts with a record label profiling wonderful and neglected gems from the French avant-garde. I discuss a few here, for those who want to explore their fantastic efforts further. Avant Toute falls elegantly into the tradition that the label has been dedicating itself to – strange, difficult, and exciting works that often failed to land a receptive audience the first time around. For those aware of Défense De, the territory charted within Avant Toute will be reasonably familiar, falling somewhere between the references I mentioned above. Though I have a strong affection for the earlier release, I find myself enjoying the pair’s efforts more in this realization. This may be because it skirts further into more explicitly avant-garde territory, and feels harder to pin down. It’s impossible to place within any era. If I knew nothing about it and was asked when it was recorded, I couldn’t tell if you it was from the 80’s, 90’s, 2000’s, or yesterday. The one thing I wouldn’t venture is the 70’s. It stands outside of time. At moments sounding like an obscure modular synth gem from GRM, at others  flirting with pure noise and considered cacophony. It’s unlike anything I can call to mind (with the obvious exception of Défense De). I never like describing a record in detail, especially when you can listen to it yourself. Who wants to spoil a surprise? In this case, I’m not sure that I can. This is not a record for the faint of heart. It might even hurt a seasoned fan of avant-garde music. For those willing to put in the work, it’s a record full of rewards, furthering Souffle Continu’s already astounding body of work. You can listen below or pick it up from the shop if you’re in Paris, or order it directly from them, or Soundohm if you are in Europe, from Forced Exposure if you’re in the States, or from your local record shop. Get it before it goes, and climb on for a wild ride. (Bradford Bailey)
French BLOG + All pieces from AVAN TOUTE on SoundCloud + live concert at Souffle Continu by Jean-Jacques Birgé and Francis Gorgé on June 9

Podcast France Culture by Birgé-Casadamont

Interview and live unissued track called 47 mars. The podcast of radio show Supersonic by Thomas Baumgartner with Amandine Casadamont and Jean-Jacques Birgé recorded on April 16 2016 is on air on France Culture.
Article on French Blog

Duet with Amandine Casadamont online

Fantastic meeting with sound artist Amandine Casadamont. Recorded on the morning of March 28 2016, on line the same day in the evening, these improvisations with Jean-Jacques Birgé are at once an hörspiel and a musical drama. Free to listen and download as usual on drame.org, Harpon will please anyone who loves cinema for the ears.
Article on French Blog

P.S.: Saturday April 16 at 11 p.m. Amandine and Jean-Jacques will play at Thomas Baumgartner's Supersonic radio show on France Culture...

BIRGÉ with BUMCELLO is on line

One hour and a half of the concert Entrechats recorded at Le Triton, Les Lilas, is free to listen or download on drame.org !
On January 29 2016 Jean-Jacques Birgé invited Cyril Atef (drums, vocals) et Vincent Segal (cello)...

Application Boum ! at Bologna and CTR

Appication Boum !, published by Les inéditeurs for iOS et Android, has received Bologna Ragazzi Digital Award Special Mention 2016. Mikael Cixous wrote the story and drew all illustrations while Jean-Jacques Birgé has composed sound and music.
Boum ! gets also the Editor's Choice Award de Children's Technology Review...

Grand Palais, Palais de Tokyo, Cité des Sciences...

You may meet Jean-Jacques Birgé in Paris museums this semester.
Sacha Gattino and him signed the sound design of the exhibition Darwin L'original at La Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie (until July 31 2016).
Birgé composes the musical visit of the exhibition Carambolages imagined by Jean Hubert Martin (Les Magiciens de la Terre, Africa Remix, Dali, Le Théâtre du Monde, Le Maroc contemporain...) at Le Grand Palais. Visitors with a smartphone (iOS or Android) and headphones can follow the 27 stations in sound and music!
(March 2 - July 4 2016)
Michel Houellebecq asked also Birgé to participate to his exhibition Rester vivant at Le Palais de Tokyo (June 23 - September 12 2016).

BIRGÉ invites BUMCELLO

Entrechats on January 29 2016, Le Triton, Les Lilas
Birgé invites Cyril Atef (percussion) and Vincent Segal (cello)
P.S.: recording to be published in March!

NEW ALBUM: BIRGÉ-CONTET-HOANG

Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard 2 recorded live at Le Triton, Les Lilas, on November 12 2015 - Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ invited Pascal CONTET (accordion) et Antonin-Tri HOANG (alto sax, clarinet, bass clarinet)

ARLEQUIN IS ONLINE and FREE

New album recorded on October 19 2015 at Studio GRRR
with Sophie BERNADO (bassoon, vocals), Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ (keyboard, misc.) and Linda EDSJÖ (vibraphone, percussion)

BIRGÉ GORGÉ from 1974 to 1976

Preparing an LP on Le Souffle Continu, Jean-Jacques Birgé has put 5 new unissued hours online of his duo with Francis Gorgé, pre-Drame period which gave "Défense de" : Around Défense de
SOUND DESIGN AND MUSIC

The game for iOS and Androïd La Famille Fantôme is available (Les Éditions Volumiques).
Jean-Jacques Birgé actually works with Sacha Gattino on the exhibition Darwin for La Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie in Paris. He finishes alone Le Monde de Yo-Ho, still with Les Volumiques. He has just finished working on DundgeonMini, another iPad app, and he works with SuriCog on an experimental installation for Le Louvre Museum. He also finishes working on the sound of the métro du Grand Paris with Ruedi Baur Intégral... Other projects are running, which make September specially exciting!
RENCONTRES D'ARLES
On July 8 Jean-Jacques Birgé will play on photographies of the Prix Découverte in the Théâtre Antique.
3 NEW ALBUMS + 1 CONCERT
    

USA le complot and La peur du vide are 2 Hörspiels by Un Drame Musical Instantané for France Musique, June 1983.

    

Écarlate is a hörspiel inspired by Jean Gaudin's ballet Un Drame Musical Instantané had composed the score. It has been on air on France Culture in 1989.
Archives recently revealed a radio show by Jean-Loup Graton on France Musique with  interview by Jean-Jacques Birgé, Bernard Vitet and Francis Gorgé, extracts of Chambre noire Un Drame Musical Instantané's 15 piece orchestra, and a full recording of the score of Dziga Vertov's Man With a Camera, on October 5 1983 at Le Maillon, Festival Musica, Strasbourg.

RESURRECTION OF UDMI IN VIDÉO

11 pieces from the concert at Théâtre Berthelot, Montreuil during La semaine du Bizarre. With Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ, Francis GORGÉ, Hélène SAGE, Antonin-Tri HOANG, Hélène BASS, Francisco COSSAVELLA.
YouTube channel or separately : 1 Trop d'adénaline nuit / 2 Rideau ! / 3 À travail égal salaire égal / 4 L'Invitation au voyage / 5 L'homme à la caméra / 6 Carnage / 7 Le roi de Thulé / 8 Qui vive ? / 9 Carton / 10 Urgent Meeting / 11 Opération Blow Up

BIRGÉ HOANG FANTAZIO filmed at La Java

Tribute to Jacques Thollot on texts by Henri Michaux and Fantazio, filmed at La Java on January 4 2015 by Françoise Romand, edited by JJB
with Jean-Jacques Birgé (keyboard), Antonin-Tri Hoang (alto sax), Fantazio (vocals, double bass)
La vie dans les plis - Les Meidosems
HOMMAGE À JEAN MORIÈRES (1951-2014)

On Saturday 24 2015 at 3 p.m. Jean-Jacques Birgé participates to the concert together with Olivier Benoit, Agnès Binet, Florestan Boutin, François Cotinaud, Sylvain Kassap, Jérôme Lefebvre, Bruno Meillier, Mathilde Morières…
Conservatoire Léo Delibes, 59 rue Marthe, 92110 Clichy (entrée libre)
Réservations : hommage.jm@gmail.com
2015, already a new album
BIRGÉ COLLIGNON DESPREZ
Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard

Improvisations recorded live at Le Triton, Les Lilas,
on November 28 2014
by Médéric Collignon (vocals, cornet, electronics), Julien Desprez (guitar) and Jean-Jacques Birgé (keyboard, Tenori-on, reed trumpet, etc.).
You may also find a link to the video of each piece. For this project they are even better than the audio version:
1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10
BIRGÉ EDSJÖ LYREGAARD
Concert filmed by Radio France

With Birgitte Lyregaard (vocals), Linda Edsjö (vibraphone, marimba, percussion) et Jean-Jacques Birgé (keyboard, electronics, reed trumpet...).
Recorded live on November 10 2014 at Studio 106, Radio France for radio show "À l'improviste" by Anne Montaron
First show of the series "Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard" : Servez-vous d'une couleur inacceptable (5'00) / Coupez une connexion vitale (4'30) / Acceptez un conseil (4'30), Résistez au changement ouvertement (4'00) / Plus sensuel (6'30) / Faites une liste exhaustive de tout ce que vous aimeriez réaliser et faites la dernière (3'30) / À quoi pensez-vous réellement là maintenant, intégrez (4'00), N'ayez pas peur des clichés (3'30) / Oubliez tout ce qui a été joué précédemment (4'30)...
Bonus : extract of the other concert at L'Atelier du Plateau!
UN DRAME MUSICAL INSTANTANÉ
Birgé, Gorgé, Sage, Hoang, Bass, Perraud Resurrection on December 12 in Montreuil

FREE ENTRANCE ON RESERVATION
01 41 72 10 35 or resa.berthelot@montreuil.fr

with

Jean-Jacques Birgé - keyboards, electronics
Francis Gorgé - guitars, electronics
Hélène Sage - flutes, vocals, idiophones
Antonin-Tri Hoang - alto sax, bass clarinet
Hélène Bass - cello
Edward Perraud - drums, electronics
Complete Program of Week of the Bizarre
Théâtre Municipal Berthelot - 6 rue Marcellin Berthelot 93100 Montreuil
Métro : Croix de Chavaux

New album :
Duo with Danish singer Birgitte Lyregaard


Totally improvised songs
Live recorded by Jean-Jacques Birgé at Studio GRRR
on Nov. 13 2014
Free to listen and download
The DIGDEEP oracle on iPad

Digdeep helps you to see more clearly by looking inside yourself. It gives you ideas for solutions, paths to choose from and answers to your questions. But you’ll only find what you put in… So take your time, concentrate on consulting the oracle, shut yourself away if needed. Be present and open to yourself.
You can archive your oracles and take notes. And if the answer you get can enlighten others, share it and send it by mail. Don’t hesitate to share your experiences on the Facebook page of the Inéditeurs, or on the AppStore (1,79 €).
BIRGE-COLLIGNON-DESPREZ
Le Triton, November 28th

A roll of the dice will never abolish chance.
Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ - keyboards, electronics
Médéric COLLIGNON - trumpet, vocals
Julien DESPREZ - guitar
BIRGE-EDSJÖ-LYREGAARD at l'Atelier du Plateau, November 15

Entrée libre dans la limite des places disponibles ou sur réservation.
Invitation à retirer 1/2 heure avant l'enregistrement, porte B de la Maison de Radio France.  - See more at: http://maisondelaradio.fr/evenement/emission-en-public/limproviste/duo-et-trio-dimpros#sthash.5QxTbEYQ.dpuf
Birgitte LYREGAARD (vocals), Linda EDSJÖ (vibraphone, marimba, percussion), Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ (keyboard,electronics, etc.) will perform on same principles as last Monday at Radio France, but pieces will be tootally different... Last time to listen to Birgitte Lyregaard before she goes back to Copenhaguen !
Event FaceBook

L'Atelier du Plateau, 5 rue du Plateau, 75019 Paris - 33 1 42 41 28 22
http://www.atelierduplateau.org/agenda/voir/1102
Photo © Sonia Cruchon
TABLEAU DE BORD
Jean-Jacques Birgé et Edward Perraud participate to La Saab-o-phonie Party organized by Phonurgia Nova for 27th Festival Les Instants Vidéo in Marseille, La Friche Belle de Mai, Cartonnerie, Nov. 8 to 11… Get in the car!
BIRGE-EDSJÖ-LYREGAARD at Radio France

November 10 2014 at 7 p.m. Gate B Studio 106
December 13 at 11.30 p.m. on France Musique
for À l'improviste by Anne Montaron.
Program :
Duo Joëlle Léandre (double bass) and Jean-Pierre Drouet (percussion)
Trio Birgitte Lyregaard (vocals), Linda Edsjö (vibraphone, marimba, percussion), Jean-Jacques Birgé (keyboard, electronics, reed trumpet)
P.S.: on November 15 at l'Atelier du Plateau, same same but different! The trio will play on the same principles, but totally different pieces...
New album: FREED @ LA JAVA

57th album free to listen or download, Freed @La Java is a live recording at La Java (Paris) during a Freed nightproduced by Xavier Ehretmann (DDD - La Source) with Birgé, solo and duo with British musicien Bass Clef.
Birgé & Bass Clef live at La Java

Première Freed de la saison ! Les artistes techno du moment rencontrent les meilleurs improvisateurs de la capitale…
Pour ce Jeudi 9 octobre à Minuit, le label DDD (La Source) invite le londonien BASS CLEF (PAN / Punch Drunk - UK). Après avoir touché les cercles expérimentaux d'outre-Manche, il s'est illustré avec l’album Reeling Skullways, meilleur album de l'année 2012 selon le site Juno.
Face à lui : JEAN-JACQUES BIRGÉ (GRRR / UNITED DAIRIES / DDD - FR), moteur du groupe Un Drame Musical Instantané (bientôt des remix sur le label DDD).
THE HUSTLER (DDD / La Source / Rinse France) terminera la soirée par un DJ set.
▸minuit à l'aube
BIRGÉ - AUTUMN CONCERTS
October 9 at Midnight - TECHNO with Bass Clef
La Source at La Java
November 15 + 28 UN COUP DE DÉS JAMAIS N'ABOLIRA LE HASARD
on 15th at l'Atelier du Plateau
with Birgitte Lyreggard and Linda Edsjö
on 28th at Le Triton
with Médéric Collignon and Julien Desprez
December 12 - UN DRAME MUSICAL INSTANTANÉ
come back with Francis Gorgé, 
Hélène Sage plus Antonin-Tri Hoang, 
Edward Perraud...
Studio Berthelot, Montreuil
RENCONTRES DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE D'ARLES
- Soirées 8 au 12 juillet
Jean-Jacques Birgé is musical director for the Evenings Soirées at the Théâtre Antique.
With Vincent Courtois on the 8th at the Théâtre municipal with photographer Michael Ackerman and Christian Caujolle, and on the 9th at the Théâtre Antique Edward Perraud for the Prix Découverte and Michèle Buirette for Jours de guerre by Jean-Noël Jeanneney on archives of journal Excelsior. Dominique Besson composed music for Prix Pictet. Birgé is also in charge of music for Prix EPA and closing evening.
- July 7 to end of August
Sound creation for 16 loudspeakers by Jean-Jacques Birgé at the church of Frères-Prêcheurs for the exhibition of Monuments aux Morts with Raymond Depardon and Léon Gimpel.
BIRGÉ + PERCONTE
May 24 2014 (6 to 8 p.m.) Galerie Charlot, 47 rue Charlot, Paris
LIVE SHOW with  Jacques Perconte
6 NEW ALBUMS:
2 RECENT + 4 OUT OF THE PAST

Game Bling
2014 / Remarques faites (ou subies) la tête en bas 2014 / Birgé Hôtel 1998 / Les archives de la planète 1986-90 / Brut de répondeur 1977-1989 / Improvisations 1981

BIRGÉ-RISSER-MIENNIEL
GAME BLING


15 fantastic improvisations by Jean-Jacques Birgé with Ève Risser (prepared piano) and Jocelyn Mienniel (flute, synthesizer), inspired by game Oblique Strategies conceived by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt.
Recorded by JJB on March 6 2014.

REMARQUES FAITES (OU SUBIES) LA TÊTE EN BAS


Jean-Jacques Birgé
plays music with writer Pierre Senges telling his parabolic flight on Airbus Zéro-G. Recorded live on March 23 2014 at Observatoire de l'Espace du CNES (Centre National d'Études Spatiales), Paris, Festival Sidération - Online YouTube

BIRGÉ-MONVOISIN-VITET-ARGUËLLES
VROD-LABARRIÈRE-SIRACUSA-HOUELLEBECQ
BIRGÉ HÔTEL


Birgé Hôtel includes 2 concerts recorded at Instants Chavirés, Montreuil, on March 12 1998 with Alain Monvosin, Jean-Jacques Birgé, Bernard Vitet, Philippe Deschepper, Steve Arguëlles, and on March 13 with Jean-Jacques Birgé, Jean-François Vrod, Hélène Labarrière, Gérard Siracusa, Bernard Vitet, Michel Houellebecq.

BIRGÉ
LES ARCHIVES DE LA PLANÈTE


Music composed by Jean-Jacques Birgé  for film archives directed by Jocelyne Leclercq for Cinémathèque Albert Kahn for which Jean-Jacques Birgé worked from 1984 to 2004, here Paris 09-31 (avec Michèle Buirette) and Japanese trilogy Bunraku, Shōwa Tennō, Deux fêtes au pays des Kami.

BIRGÉ
BRUT DE RÉPONDEUR


In 1977 answering machines were quite new in France. The whole thing is a kind of strong dramatic cut-up. For a few seconds, sometimes a few minutes, the necessity to go straight to the essential provoques short documentaries which produce the effect of fiction. Some are enigmatic, some crual, there might be an exclusive concert given for only one person... Being alone in front of a machine is like being in front a psychoanalysis! The Sofa Machine. Some will recognize some voices: Colette Magny, Lucilla Galeazzi, Tamia, André Dussollier, Franck Royon Le Mée, Bernard Parmegiani, Steve Stapleton, Laurent Bayle, Claude Tchamitchian,  Jouk Minor, Marie-Jo Lafontaine, Dominique Cabrera, Bernard Eisenschitz, Jean-André Fieschi, Henry Colomer, Kent Carter, François Tusques, Henri Texier, Lindsay Cooper, Hélène Sage, etc.

BIRGÉ-SAGE
IMPROVISATIONS

10 improvisations from 1981, first musical meetings Birgé with Hélène Sage. The last piece is a trio with Francis Gorgé...

We've also added several files to existing albums such as Electra with Michèle Buirette and Laurent Jouin, multimedia show La Saga des Millar, CD-Rom Sethi et la couronne d'Égypte (index 33 à 39), two songs (index 17-18), etc.
 
3 VERY SHORT MOVIES

Jean-Jacques Birgé has composed the music of the 3 last short movies Françoise Romand has shot in the desert of Atacama in Chile : Atacama, Picos and Salar.

DREAMS & NIGHTMARES @ LA JAVA on April 14
with Birgé, Grimal, Hoang, Lasfargues, Perraud

Jean-Jacques Birgé asked every musician to tell one or two dreams they made. The orchestra will then play theses fantasies or dramas which reveal a lot about our art and our lives. They will also ask the audience to tell their own dreams and they will improvise these stories!
with
Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ - keyboard, Tenori-on, reed trumpet
Alexandra GRIMAL - soprano & ténor sax
Antonin-Tri HOANG - alto sax & bass clarinet
Fanny LASFARGUES - electroacoustic bass
Edward PERRAUD - drums & electronics
Concert organized by Futura & Marge at La Java, 105 rue du Faubourg-du-Temple 75010 Paris, 01 42 02 20 52 (Mo Belleville & Goncourt, Bus 46 & 75, Noctilien Belleville, Vélib 116 boulevard de Belleville & 2 rue du Buisson-Saint-Louis) - 10 € & 7 €
 
USA 1968 DEUX ENFANTS

Second novel by Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ is now available on iTunes! Published by LES INÉDITEURS exclusively for iPad.
USA 1968 deux enfants is a 240 pages novel with interactive cover, 12short movies , 75 minutes of music and sound, a lot of pictures, interactive map, etc.
Two children travel through the US in 1968 as a 15 y.o. - along with his 13 y.o. sister!
 
LAISSÉS POUR COMPTE

A new album by Un Drame Musical Instantané recorded live November 13 1981 with a 16-piece orchestra, its Première at Studio Berthelot, Montreuil ! All these pieces have never been played since (guess why!), except La Lettre in 1982.
 
JEU VIDEO L'EXPO
Jean-Jacques Birgé and Sacha Gattino have done the sound design of the exhibition Jeu Vidéo L'EXPO which takes place from October 22 to April 2014 at La Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, Paris.
NEW PIECES ON RADIO DRAME
- Overprinting, back and forth work from 2004 between Paris and Tel-Aviv, with Un Drame Musical Instantané Trio (here Bernard VITET, Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ, Didier PETIT) and an Israelian trio (Vyacheslav GANELIN, Gershon WAYSERFIRER, Meidad ZAHARIA)...
- 10 improvisations, first musical meetings between Birgé and Hélène SAGE at Studio GRRR, Paris, in 1981.
- La saga des Millar, 2013 edit from elements of a music composed by Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ in 1986 for immersive show Economia directed by Michel Séméniako, at La Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, Paris (last index of this album).
- A few unissued tracks from LP L'homme à la caméra (1984)... Last index on album Ciné-Concerts.
NABAZ'MOB
The opera for 100 smart rabbits was in Orléans on Thursday November 28 during Orléanoïde!
DÉFENSE DE
Birgé Gorgé Shiroc - Reissue LP (+DVD) Défense de

(on Favni Gena in Barcelona, Wah Wah Records)
Article by Gary May on Improjazz #200 (nov/dec 2013)
REVUE DU CUBE #5
November 19, Jean-Jacques Birgé on live radio at Le Cube à Issy-les-Moulineaux with Vincent Ricordeau and Diana Filippova...
EVENING "LA SOURCE" @ LA JAVA
October 23 2013
Duo Jean-Jacques Birgé (F) and Jorge Velez aka Professor Genius (USA)
+ DJs Ron Morelli (USA) from label L.I.E.S.
and Tuff Sherm aka Dro Carey (Australia) from label TTT
Organized by Xavier Ehretsmann
from label DDD...
http://www.residentadvisor.net/event.aspx?528373
https://www.facebook.com/events/317207158421389/
A tribute to BERNARD VITET who died on July 3 2013
Text by Jean-Jacques Birgé
Texts by Francis Gorgé and Dominique Meens (assez-vu)
Text by Jean Rochard (nato)
Article by Francis Marmande (Le Monde)
A Tribute-Concert will take place on September 16 at La Java (Paris) with Norbert Aboudarham, Françoise Achard, Gilbert Artman, Hélène Bass, Jac Berrocal, Elsa Birgé, Jean-Jacques Birgé, Étienne Brunet, Michèle Buirette, Geneviève Cabannes, Jean-Louis Chautemps, Denis Colin, Benoît Delbecq, Dominique Fonfrède, Jean-Brice Godet, Francis Gorgé, Antonin-Tri Hoang, Isabel Juanpera, Sylvain Kassap, Eugénie Kuffler, Hervé Legeay, Noel McGhie, Dominique Meens, Jouk Minor, Claude Parle, Didier Petit, Michel Portal, Max Robin, Hélène Sage, Luc Saint-James, Christophe Salinier, Vincent Segal, Gérard Siracusa, François Tusques... (Free entrance)
The evening by Francis Marmande (Le Monde)
and by Philippe Carles sur le Blog de Jazz Magazine
76 MUSICIANS ON SUNDAY
... September 22 from midday to midnight : 76 musicians participate to the opening of the second room at Le Triton, Les Lilas. Birgé will play with cellist Vincent Segal and sax-clarinet Antonin-Tri Hoang...
RENCONTRES DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE - ARLES 2013

Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ is musical director of The Evenings of The Rencontres de la Photographie.
He has invited Hélène BRESCHAND to play harp with Hiroshi SUGIMOTO (July 2), drummer Edward PERRAUD for TRANSITION where six French and six South African photographers will compare their recent work on South Africa (July 3) and Sacha GATTINO who will play live the music he has composed for Prix Découverte (July 4).
Birgé has composed 52 minutes of Music for buses, played during the journey to Salin de Giraud for the Night of the Year. He has also chosen music for Prix Pictet (Simon NORFOLK), Prix HCB (Patrick FAIGENBAUM), Prix EPA (European Publishers Award), Thomas DEVAUX's presentation, Guy BOURDIN's exhibition...
DÉPAYSAGES CÔTÉ COURT

On June 9 ending Focus Jacques Perconte at Festival Côté Court, Ciné 104, Pantin, Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ (keyboard, electronic and acoustic instruments), Vincent SEGAL (cello, kass-kass) et Antonin-Tri HOANG (alto sax alto, bass clarinet) improvise Dépaysages on Jacques PERCONTE's film which the videast transforms in real time. The music is on line (free to listen or download).
The mixage is slightly unbalanced, due to a blind tape done by the musicians themselves!
Site Internet of the show
EXHIBITION in SEOUL, KOREA
23 films directed by Pierre Oscar Lévy for which Jean-Jacques Birgé was artistic director and music composer are exhibited in Seoul from June 12 juin to September 22 2013 at Hangaram Museum, Seoul Arts Center under the title A secret museum, a digital odysseus in painting...
15 PREMIERE RECORDINGS AND UNPUBLISHED WORKS by the Greatest Composers from Bach to Bartók

A nice way to celebrate the 100th hour of our random radio, Radio Drame ! This unbeleavable treasure features  scores by Scarlatti, Bach, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Rachmaninov, Fauré, Debussy, Satie, Ravel, Roussel, Scriabine, Bartók. In  1996, Bernard Vitet and myself spend a few months to workon a project Orson Welles would have loved. Several major companies are interested, but their law services block it every time, so the record played by 12 years old prodigy Brigitte Vée will never be issued.
ANATOMY

7th GRRR album since the beginning of 2013, Anatomy marks the meeting of Jean-Jacques Birgé and virtuosis drummer Edward Perraud. After Dreams and nightmares, their live trio with young Antonin-Tri Hoang, Perraud suggests to Birgé to record a studio session. On April 4th, just before playing, they choose a theme which offers evident parts: Head, Neck, Hair, Breast, Navel, Sex, Legs, Ankles, Nose Mouth and Brain. The day after, Birgé will mix, and Perraud will send the cover with one of his picture.
Perraud melts electronics in his percussion set. Birgé comes back to keyboard always searching to be more acoustic. The sound of the duo is one of an orchestra. Perfect tuning. Inside or outside the music, with or without words, both musicians did connect. The miracle of the art of sharing.
ANIMÉ

Animé is the 6th album published by GRRR since the beginning of the year. Jean-Jacques Birgé (keyboard), Antonin-Tri Hoang (reeds) et Fanny Lasfargues (bass) play 9 instantaneous compositions where glitch and slurp dare to be in C !
French article on Blog
ÁRVORE DA VIDA

Jacques Perconte's film which for Jean-Jacques Birgé has composed music and sound is online on Vimeo (9'57) !
French article on Blog
VIDEO ARCHIVES

A lot have been digitalized and are now on YouTube:
- films Man with a Camera by Dziga Vertov and L'argent by Marcel L'Herbier, the first one with Un Drame Musical Instantané's 15 piece orchestra in 1983 (1h06'), second one by the trio in 1988 (3h14 !), two masterpieces and among the most interesting musical scores by Un D.M.I...
- show J'accuse with Richard Bohringer as Émile Zola, singer Dominique Fonfrède, the trio Birgé-Vitet-Gorgé and a 70 piece brass orcehstra, in 1989 - only 57' ;-)
- show Zappeurs-Pompiers 2 with choreographer Lulla Chourlin, clown Guy Pannequin (Macloma) and the Drame trio in 1989 (1h16')...
- concert Sarajevo Suite with Claude Piéplu, Un D.M.I., Balanescu String Quartet, Henri Texier Azur Quintet (N.Akchoté, S.Texier, Bojan Z, T.Rabeson), Lindsay Cooper Quintet (Phil Minton, T.Bloch, D.Brodrick, G.Siracusa), Pierre Charial in 1994 (2h16). Two extracts available: Sniper Allée composed by Birgé and Vitet for Balanescu Quartet and Je suis une île au cœur du monde with Piéplu, Vitet and Texier...
- the making of musical bows by Johnny Clegg filmed by Birgé, in Johnnesburg, 1993 (16')...
Finally, films by or with Jean-Jacques Birgé, ainsi que les films with Un Drame Musical Instantané are now listed and linked on 2 new albums !
4 NEW ALBUMS

4 new albums (free download and radio) on this site, all recorded in 2013...
Récréation with Alexandra Grimal on tenor sax is the second volume of her collaboration with Jean-Jacques Birgé after Transformation she played on soprano... Rêves et cauchemars is the first concert of this trio at Le Triton,magical meeting of Birgé and Antonin-Tri Hoang with drummer Edward Perraud... Dépaysages is a performance where the orchestra plays live with images by video artist Jacques Perconte. Exceptionnally Birgé plays here solo during IRL Performances... The most recent album has been recorded at Seconde Nature on February 12 : Pozzallo is the premiere of Birgé and Sylvain Kassap playing on interactive images by Nicolas Clauss...
Article on Blog (Solo dépaysage and Pozzallo)
Article on Blog (Récréation)
Article on Blog (Rêves et cauchemars)
INTERVIEW

Interview of Jean-Jacques Birgé by Marion Mbemba after his lecture about the relation sound/imageat  Campus de la Fonderie de l'Image, Bagnolet, invitation by David Abouna on February 5 2013.
POZZALLO

On February 12, BIRGÉ and Sylvain KASSAP (clarinets) joined Nicolas CLAUSS (interactive images) for Festival Seconde Nature in Aix-en-Provence.
DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES

Dreams and nightmares at Le Triton (Les Lilas) on January 31 2013 with Jean-Jacques BiRGÉ (keyboard, electronics), Antonin-Tri HOANG (alto sax, bass clarinet), Edward PERRAUD (drums)...
French article on Blog
Article Improjazz #193 by Gary May
BIRGÉ - HOANG - SEGAL

New album by BIRGÉ - HOANG -SEGAL Trio (free mp3 to listen and download)...
dans tous les sens du terme has been recorded at Studio GRRR on Dec. 23 2012.
Coool mood on this Sunday afternoon. Vincent SEGAL (cello) and Antonin-Tri HOANG (alto sax, bass clarinet) join Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ to improvise varaitions on the theme reprise suggested by Les Allumés du Jazz.
French article on Blog
Interactive artwork LEONARDO DA VINCI'S DREAM MACHINE for iPad2 et iPad3 is FREE on AppStore.

Created by Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ and Nicolas CLAUSS, it has been realized with Collectif Surletoit and produeced by Cité des sciences et de l'industrie. There's an English site for it!
December 2012
- on the 4th, Birgé presents Leonardo da Vinci's Dream Machine, artwork for iPad cosigned with Nicolas CLAUSS, at Divan du Monde, Paris, for *di/zaïn #3 : Ecriture(s).
- on the 5th, Clauss and Birgé present this application for iPad at Soirée Siggraph, Cité des sciences et de l'industrie, during Rencontres Start Up et Recherche.
- on the 15th, Birgé and Jacques PERCONTE present a new version of live show Dépaysages for I.R.L. Performances at Centre Mercœur, Paris.
DÉPAYSAGES 
November 18 at Rencontres Inouïes de Montreuil, quartet with Jacques PERCONTE who will be working on his film in real time!
Antonin-Tri HOANG
 (ONJ) - alto sax, bass clarinet
Vincent SEGAL (Bumcello) - cello
Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ (Un d.m.i.) - keyboard, electronics, acoustic instruments



Next show at Côté Court (Pantin) June 9
BIRGÉ and VITET have composed the music of Portée, a short film by Françoise Romand used to present Debout les docs ! 20 ans d'Addoc !, October 26-27-28 2012 at movie theater La Clef, 3 days of documentaries.
A video clip directed by Sonia CRUCHON on a music by El Strøm, Mes grelots, from album Fresh 'n Chips, "dedicated to the women who taught us how to walk".
With Danish singer Birgitte LYREGAARD, polyinstrumentist Sacha GATTINO (harmonicas, métalophone, keyboard/sampler) and Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ (reed trumpet, synthesizer, sleigh bells, jaw harps, harmonica). Images : Jean Cruchon, Florence Mourey and Sonia Cruchon who also did the editing.


Next concerts : BIRGÉ-HOANG-SEGAL on October 19 2012 a s a trio at Pannonica in Nantes / on November 18 at Rencontres Inouïes, Montreuil, on films by Jacques PERCONTE he will modify in real time (Dépaysages) !



Antonin-Tri Hoang - alto sax, bass clarinet
Vincent Segal - cello
Jean-Jacques Birgé - acoustic & electronic instruments
Nicolas CLAUSS et Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ are working on a new artwork called Leonardo da Vinci's Dream Machine on commission by La Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie (La Villette) for iPad. The crew features also Sonia Cruchon and Nicolas Buquet. On his side Sacha Gattino is the sound designer of Leornardo da Vinci, drawings, machines (Oct. 23 2012 to Aug. 18 2013) which to the digital application is related.

Copenhagen Jazz Festival (Denmark), July 14, at the Studenterhuset : Jean-Jacques Birgé (iPad, jaw harps) has been invited to joind the trio formed by Christian Frank (guitar), Claus Kaarsgaard (double bass), Carsten Landors (drums).
Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ is the musical director of the Evenings of the Rencontres d'Arles de la Photographie (July 3-7 2012). He has composed the music of Prix Pictet (added here as mp3 on album Applied Music), musically illustrated EPA Award and photos by Jean-Christophe BECHET. He will be on stage at the Théâtre Antique with Ève RISSER (prepared piano) on Postcards from America (Magnum), with Antonin-Tri HOANG (alto sax, bass clarinet) on Discovery Award, with Linda EDSJÖ (marimba, vibraphone) during  Elliott ERWITT's evening...
Birgé has recently performed with Vincent Segal, Antonin-Tri Hoang, Jacques Rebotier, Ève Risser, Claudia Triozzi, Sandrine Maisonneuve and 100 rabbits!
Article by Gary May about this site in ImproJazz (#185, May 2012)
BIRGÉ-HOANG-RISSER "Résistance"
On YouTube, a new video with Antonin-Tri Hoang (alto sax), Ève Risser (prepared piano, deck) and Jean-Jacques Birgé (reed trumpet, sanza, Tenori-on, jaw-harp, balloon, trumpet...) filmed by Françoise Romand at Le Triton on April 18 2012 during premiere of Le Grand Réinventaire
with Clémentine Autain as MC!
Editing by JJB. 

Trio EL STRØM gets their own site elstrom.fr
    5 songs live at Le Triton
    in video on YouTube !

   Contretemps  

   Mécaniques cantiques
   Radio Sandwich
   Frygt
   Dark Waters




Fluctuat nec mergitur

New album with Birgitte LyregaardSacha GattinoJean-Jacques Birgé

BIRGÉ - GRIMAL "Transformation"
Transformation by Birge-Grimal
  
  New album!
  improvisations 
  by Jean-Jacques Birgé
  with Alexandra Grimal
  on soprano sax,
  recorded on 4/14/2012


  French Blog 


THE SWEDENBORG ROOM
NEW AUDIO VERSION online since February 14 2012
Plus a video extract of the creation!
on January 26 2012 at Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Strasbourg (student night, during exhibition "Europe and the spirit world or fascination with the occult, 1750-1950")
with Birgitte Lyregaard (vocals, percussion), Linda Edsjö (vibraphone, marimba, percussion, vocals), Jean-Jacques Birgé (Theremin, Tenori-on, Mascarade Machine, flutes and reed tumpet)
2 posts (in French) : L'antichambre de Swedenborg - Le long couloir blanc
Rehearsal recording
MEHR LICHT !
Famous solo album by Bernard Vitet is now avaiable online, after aving been out of print for 30 years. The 4 original pieces from 1979 plus 2 more recent unissued pieces and a recording of Vitet's maternal grandfather.
    BIRGÉ-SEGAL
Two new pieces recorded on January 15 2012
June 9/10 2012 at La Gaîté Lyrique
NABAZ'MOB, the 100 rabbits opera is back during Festival Parizone@Dream
It's the first time our rabbits are playing in a cage. Free entrance. Way out we don't know.




JUNE 7 REVUE DE PRESSE with Jacques REBOTIER et Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ at Le Triton (Les Lilas)
MAY 26 DODECADANSE with Claudia TRIOZZI, Sandrine MAINSONNEUVE, Vincent SEGAL and Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ at Le Triton
LA CORDE À LINGE
First novel by Jean-Jacques Birgé published by publie.net, is sold 3,49€ as multiformats (streaming, PDF, Mobipocket, ePub). Introduction by François Bon.
Best (with 80 minutes de son et mosaïque d'images) on iPad.
Article on JJB's French Blog.
P.S. : sounds are also working when read on Internet (streaming) under Safari or Chrome.
MUSIC FOR FILMS
- Birgé and Segal have composed the music score of La caméra change de main, new short movie by Françoise Romand, shown as a loop at La Condition Publique, Roubaix, during exhibition Un visage, des visages where one can admire Nicolas Clauss' new installation, Terres arbitraires (January 20-March 11 2012).
- B.O., new album (free download) with Jean-Jacques Birgé (orchestra, Tenori-on, jaw harp, roar), Antonin-Tri Hoang (alto sax, clarinet, bass clarinet, piano) and Vincent Segal (cello), recorded on July 1/2 2011 at Studio GRRR.
Soundtrack for documentary "Un monde dans tous ses états" by Hubert Védrine directed by Pierre Oscar Lévy, on Arte TV on February 21 2012.
- Recently added, music for Pierre Morize's film, 1+1 une histoire naturelle du sexe, composed in September 2000 by Jean-Jacques Birgé with Yves Robert (trombone), Philippe Deschepper (guitar) and Éric Échampard (percussion).
Article (in French) : 1+1=O
SOUND DESIGN
Interviews (in French) with J-J.Birgé on sound design
Audio on Designers Interactifs (2009) and video on Code-source (2009), Cross-médias.fr (2008), Canal i-médias (2007) and Multi-ecran.com (2011).
Birgé and Sacha Gattino are working together on the sound of the first games/toys from Éditions Volumiques. Birgé is also working for Readiymate.
FRANCE CULTURE
Jean-Jacques Birgé on France Culture about toy-piano Michelsonne with Pascal Ayerbe et Patrice Elegoet (radio program on 11/11/11 at 11 p.m.).
Also participates to radio program Sur les docks on film director Françoise Romand, still on line.
    ARCHIVES
New archives (1972-1976) on line on unissued albums by Birgé-Gorgé Before Défense de and a few old electronic pieces (1968-1972) on Birgé's Intimacy.
NABAZ'MOB
The opera for 100 smart rabbits, composed by Jean-Jacques Birgé and Antoine Schmitt, was in Beauvais (France) from October 5 to 22. Beautiful pictures in MCD Special Edition #6 Internet of Things.
Nabaz'mob in Trondheim
OLD DATES
• Birgé (Mascarade Machine, Tenori-on, Kaossilator...) has played with Antonin-Tri Hoang (alto sax & bass clarinet) and other guests at record shop Le Souffle Continu (Paris). He also recorded a film score with Vincent Segal and Antonin-Tri Hoang.
• With Wolf Ka he has presented a short version (10 instruments) of their Symphonic Poem for 100 bicycles!
• Jean-Jacques Birgé was again musical director of the Soirées des Rencontres d'Arles de la Photographie (Théâtre Antique). With the same crew (Olivier Koechlin, Valéry Faidherbe, François Girard), he had already played that role from 2002 to 2005. Donkey Monkey played with agencies VII and Tendance Floue, cellist Erik Friedlander with photographer Mitch Epstein...
RADIO DRAME
70 new archive tapes will soon be digitilized and added to Radio Drame! Already a few concerts with silent movies (The Mysterious X by Christensen, La Passion du Christ by Zecca, The Strike by Eisenstein, several versions of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari by Wiene...) and radio programs...

Fantomas Fantômas, a new album from 1984:
9 concerts (10 hours) on silent movies by Louis Feuillade, recorded at Théâtre Déjazet with Jean-Jacques Birgé, Francis Gorgé, Jean Querlier, Magali Viallefond, Hélène Sage, Michèle Buirette, Bruno Girard, Marie-Noëlle Sabatelli, Patrice Petitdidier, Gérard Siracusa, Youval Micenmacher...
EL STRØM
New remasterised files on line since 04/25/2011.
Fresh 'n Chips, second album of El Strøm, a new trio featuring Danish singer Birgitte Lyregaard and polyinstumentists Sacha Gattino and Jean-Jacques Birgé, recorded on March 21 and 22 2011, is already available!
Sound Castle, first album recorded one month earlier, was online the right day it has been dreamed of and recorded!
Two hours of music, totally unissued, free, downlable, on this site.

Trio Birge-Gattino-Lyregaard

Birgé and Sacha Gattino have together composed a musical score for a film directed by Etienne Mineur for Chanel, and for Françoise Romand's last movie, Gais Gay Games (DVD available).
BIRGÉ-SEGAL
On his  blog, Peter Gabor offers a film of Saturday night concert, duet by Jean-Jacques Birgé and Vincent Segal at Le Triton, together with an audio-recording of the evening and 24 beautiful B&W pictures...
As the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on a dissecting table!
Vincent Segal - cello, crossbow, brake
Jean-Jacques Birgé - MascaradeMachine, Tenori-on, reed trumpet, flutes, etc.

Birge Segal Triton photo Gabor
REVELATIONS
Révélations, une odyssée numérique dans la peinture
at Petit Palais, Paris, for which Jean-Jacques Birgé composed the music and was artistic director on 23 films, together with Pierre Oscar Lévy who directed them (he also wrote the scripts of the 39 films of the whole collection, under Luis Belhaouari's scientific direction) received the Grand Prix Stratégies 2010, Prix des Étudiants et Prix Produit Grand Public!
Listen to 3 improvisations by Jean-Jacques Birgé and Danish singer Birgitte Lyregaard recorded on December 10 2010 at Studio GRRR...
SIX NEW UNISSUED ALBUMS
Somnambules at Le Triton, Birgé et Clauss with Pascale Labbé and Didier Petit in 2006, then with Étienne Brunet and Éric Échampard en 2007
Birgé with Donkey Monkey en 2008 !
At the Circus, circus music by Birgé and Vitet, 1994-2002
Radio shows (interviews, muical extracts, unissued pieces...), 1979-2010
Dino Buzzati (Le K and Jeune fille qui tombe, tombe... with Michael Lonsdale in a 1985 version, five years before the one with Richard Bohringer which had been nominated at Victoires de la Musique, and Le K in a live version with Daniel Laloux at Festival de Victoriaville, Québec), 1985-1991
La Tramontane, duo Jean-Jacques Birgé / Hélène Sage, Catalonia, 1982, followed by a mobile concert in Paris on June 21, 1st Music Fest!
A new version of drame.org is finally on line after its creation in 1997!
Radio Drame lets you listen to the sound universe of Jean-Jacques Birgé, Un Drame Musical Instantané and all artists on label GRRR. The Home Page offers to lesten randomly to 60 hours of unissued archives. On each album you can listen to an ordered tracklist, or track by track, and even download some 300 pieces!
The daily Blog remains in French, but the news, bios, press, etc. are also in English.
One can also order the real albums (LP, CD) !


Nabaz'mob
(site feat. videos, pictures, links...), the opera for 100 smart rabbits created with Antoine SCHMITT in May 2006 at Centre Pompidou, Paris, is shown in Lille from November 30 to December 16 2010 (Euratechnologies).

Pierre Oscar LÉVY directed 23 films among 40 of collection RÉVÉLATIONS for SAMSUNG, from masterpieces by most famous painters. I was their artistic director and composed music and sound scores, Dominique PLAYOUST was the producer, Sonia CRUCHON the assistant, Luis BELHAOUARI the historical adviser, SNARX-FX took care of all post-production (digitilization, Flame, 3D, etc.). For the exhibition RÉVÉLATIONS, une odyssée numérique dans la peinture at Petit Palais in Paris from Sept. 18 to Oct. 17, only 6 among our films are shown with their sound (Van Gogh, Giorgione, Holbein, Rembrandt, Monet, Ingres). Vincent SEGAL composed for The Grande Odalisque, I cosigned Coucher de soleil à Lavacourt with Bernard VITET and took care of the rest. 16 other films we made will be exceptionally shown without their sound at Petit Palais, while you will have access to original versions, all with sound and music, only on new large TV Samsung. We shot 2 films (Böcklin et Chardin) in 3D. 17 other pictures have been treated in atotally diffrent manner by another crew.
Free download of Machiavel, interactive video scratch created by Jean-Jacques Birgé and Antoine Schmitt in 1998!
New movie filmed December 11, 2009 on the top floor of the new offices of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
EVENING "DÉVISSÉE" @ LA JAVA
October 23
Duo Jean-Jacques Birgé (F) and Jorge Velez aka Professor Genius (US)
+ DJs Ron Morelli (GB) from label L.I.E.S. and Tuff Sherm (GB) from label TTT
Organized by Xavier Ehretsmann from label DDD...

Avant Toute, nouvel album vinyle de Birgé-Gorgé

En découvrant le pressage vinyle de notre "nouvel" album je retrouve une émotion sensorielle que j'avais perdue depuis l'avènement du CD, l'impression irréelle que nous sommes là en train de jouer, reproduction intacte de ces instants de 1974, un courant électrique circulant dans tout le corps, un frisson, ou plutôt un "free son", liberté incroyable de l'époque, l'imagination au pouvoir loin de tout revival, même si le obi, la bande de papier gris foncé qui ceinture le disque, évoque la rencontre improbable des Silver Apples et Sonny Sharrock et que ses premiers auditeurs s'emballent en citant Can, Kraftwerk ou Sun Ra...
(Tout sur le BLOG + concert au Souffle Continu de Jean-Jacques Birgé et Francis Gorgé le 9 juin à 18h30)

Harpon live at Silencio Club, new album
free to listen and download...

Jean-Jacques Birgé plays crazy uptodate machines as well as the oldest instruments of the world while Amandine Casadamont is 100% vinyl... We need so much to keep on dreaming. Recorded in Paris on June 30 at the club designed by David Lynch, HARPON's new album is online...

Harpon live at Rewind Phonurgia, Arles

August 1 2016, three unissued pieces for the 30th birthday of Phonurgia Nova: Hypnotik, Insomnie, Rewind... With Amandine Cadamont (decks) and Jean-Jacques Birgé (keyboard, electronics and acoustics)

Harpon live in Arles

Three unissued pieces for the 30th anniversary of Phonurgia Nova: Hypnotik, Insomnie, Rewind... Amandine Casadamont (decks) et Jean-Jacques Birgé (keyboard, electronics and acoustics)...

El Strøm at last on CD

Birgitte Lyregaard - vocals
Sacha Gattino - sampler, percussion, zither, harmonicas, jaw-harps
Jean-Jacques Birgé - Theremin, Tenori-on, Mascarade Machine, keyboards, reeds, harmonicas, jaw harps
Sound Castles / Contretemps / Frygt / Mécaniques cantiques / Radio Sandwich / Dark Waters / This Paris / Lover Man / Long Time No Sea
Long Time No Sea is the first new CD by Jean-Jacques Birgé since 1998 (Un Drame Musical Instantané's Machiavel). For the last 10 years GRRR has published 70 unissued albums on drame.org, but all exclusively online, virtual objects free to listen or download!
To present these 77 minutes, Étienne Mineur has designed a fantastic cover and libretto playing with videoprojectors and reflective materials. He has integrated drawings by Grandville from 1844 and even another one from 1774, all belonging to Sacha Gattino's own collection. By the way it's also Sacha's first CD.
Website of EL STRØM

Recent articles on Un D.M.I.
Recent articles on first CD issuing of Rideau! (1980) :
AllMusic - Citizen Jazz - Vital Weekly - Revue&Corrigée - Musique Machine
and of À travail égal salaire égal (1981-82) :
AllMusic / Le Glob nato / Le son du grisli / Vital Weekly / Musique Machine

L'Indésir, 9th video-clip !

https://vimeo.com/440486423

<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/440486423" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Filmed after the music of the CD Perspectives For the 22nd Century composed by Jean-Jacques Birgé, L'Indésir signed by Sonia Cruchon.

Watch them all on a big screen and listen to them loud!

The 1st ever recording by Un D.M.I.

Très toxique is the first ever recording of Un Drame Musical Instantané as a trio, three weeks before Trop d’adrénaline nuit, but already a year and a half after Défense de by Birgé Gorgé Shiroc (Nurse With Wound List). On December 21, 1976, it was the first time the three musicians met together in the basement of Studio GRRR. They had no idea what they were going to play, but the session was full of energy.
Jean-Jacques Birgé plays the ARP 2600 synthesizer, the cassettes and many other instruments, as does Bernard Vitet, mainly on percussion, but also on sax and violin, while Francis Gorgé supports the backbone on electric guitar.
Half a century has passed. Birgé creates the cover of Très toxique entirely by hand, using a white pencil and two acid-burnt images he had created in 1969 and printed two years later by the art printer of Picasso, Dubuffet and the Collège de Pataphysique. The 85 numbered and signed copies of this limited edition have only one side of 19 minutes, already a collector! But can anyone tell me what this music sounds like?
Sold by Dizonord (Paris) - dist. The Pusher Distribution

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