A composer, film director, multimedia artist, sound designer, and writer, Jean-Jacques Birgé founded the GRRR record label in 1975, the band Un Drame Musical Instantané (with Francis Gorgé and Bernard Vitet) in 1976, and has been maintaining a daily blog-focused on solidarity and activism-for 22 years.
Although his first electronic work dates back to 1965, he composes for symphony orchestras just as often as he improvises freely with musicians from a wide variety of backgrounds. In his “radio” compositions and multimedia performances (live channel-surfing on a big screen, fireworks, choreography…), improvisation and pre-composition blend together, and original electroacoustic treatments are integrated with traditional instruments to create evocative musical narratives that he calls “musique à propos.”
A specialist in the relationship between sound and image, he was one of the first synthesizer players and pioneers of the home studio in France as early as 1973, and with Un d.m.i., he pioneered the revival of the cinema-concert in 1976 (26 in his repertoire). His albums demonstrate his use of samplers as early as 1980 and computer-assisted music (CAM) as early as 1985.
After his studies at Idhec (Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinématographiques), Jean-Jacques Birgé conceives a passion for images and sounds, and particularly for their potential to produce sense and create emotions.
He composes for movies (I.Barrère, D.Belloir, D.Cabrera, P.Desgraupes, P.Morize, F.Reichenbach, F.Romand, J.Rouxel, R.Sangla, M.Trillat, la Cinémathèque Albert Kahn...), dance (J.Gaudin, K.Saporta...), photography (musical director of the Evenings at Rencontres d'Arles), theater, radio, and records about 40 LPs and CDs, plus 105 online albums (1650 pieces, 200 hours) free to listen or download on drame.org ! On stage, he plays live on silent movies (26 since 1976) as well as improvising and producing multimedia shows. For Le K with Richard Bohringer he was nominated at the 9ièmes Victoires de la Musique. His CD Etablissement d'un ciel d'alternance is a duo with writer Michel Houellebecq.
As a moviemaker, 20 years after La nuit du phoque (issued on DVD with the reissue of the cult-record Défense de), he directed Vis à vis : Idir et Johnny Clegg a capella. He received a BAFTA (British Academy Award) and the Jury Award in Locarno 1994 collectively for Sarajevo: a street under siege, and his short The Sniper was shown in more than 1000 theaters. And in 2020, the CD Perspectives for the 22nd Century was adapted into a film in collaboration with video artists Nicolas Clauss, Sonia Cruchon, Valéry Faidherbe, Jacques Perconte, John Sanborn, and Eric Vernhes.
Starting in 1995, he became one of the most sought-after sound designers in the multimedia field (CD-ROM Alphabet, smart rabbit Nabaztag) and a specialist in interactive music composition.
He creates sound for websites (BDDP-TBWA, Laurent-Perrier, Ville de Lyon, Compagnie Générale des Eaux, Rencontres Numer, Determinism, Else, Virtools, Adidas, Les Ptits Repères, Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, Musée de l'Immigration...), and CD-Roms (At the Circus with Seurat, Fenêtre sur l'Art, Europrix 98, AZ and Firmenich both Dauphin d'or at Communica, Le DVD-Rom du Louvre, Le Grand Jeu, Sethi et la couronne d'Egypte, Mr Men series, 9 Cahiers Passeport, 4 Salto & Zelia, Domicile d'Ange Heureux...).
He asserts himself as a multimedia author with Carton (Enhanced-CD where an original game refers to each song), Machiavel (interactive video scratch of 111 loops, with Antoine Schmitt), and Alphabet (external link), created with Frédéric Durieu and Murielle Lefèvre from Kveta Pacovska's book for children (Grand Prix Möbius International 2000, Prix Multimédia de la SACD 2000, Coup de coeur Trophées SVM Mac, Prix de la meilleure adpatation au Festival de Bologne en Italie, La Mention Spéciale au Salon du Livre de Jeunesse à Montreuil, First Prize CineKid en Hollande, GigaMaus en Allemagne, First Prize Package MMCA au Japon, et aux USA : Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award 2002, Parents' Choice Silver Honor 2001, Discovery.com Award of Excellence 2001, Software Magic Award Parenting Magazine 2001, Children's Software Review All Star Award 2001, Choosing Children's Software Best Pick 2001, Best Software Pick Edutaining Kids.com 2001).
With this CD-Rom he inaugurates a new direction of work based generativity and interactivity which let the player to discover each time a new interpretation (on-line et off-line). He regularly collaborates to creation sites lecielestbleu.org (with F.Durieu) and flyingpuppet.com (with N.Clauss).
For LeCielEstBleu he gets the Prix SCAM 2002 of the Best Internet Site meilleur site and the NarrowCast Content Award 2002 ... For Ulchiro on Flyingpuppet.com he gets the Prix du Centre Pompidou FlashFestival 2002...
Somnambules, together with Nicolas Clauss and Didier Silhol, got the Special Prize of Jury Senef 2003 (Seoul Net Festival), Prix de la Création Nouveaux Médias 2004 (Vidéoformes), 1st Prix France Telecom R&D Oone (Art Rock Festival), Prix SACD de la Création Interactive 2004, Prix ARS Electronica Net Vision / Net Excellence Honorary Mention 2004 (Austria) and is nominated among the 5 strangest sites at Yahoo! Best of 10 Years.
He designed the sound of Nabaztag, the smart rabbit, as well as Mir:ror and Dal:dal (Violet). The opera Nabaz'mob (external link) , featuring 100 communicating rabbits and starring Antoine Schmitt, is an international success.
Starting in 2011, he turned his attention to tablets such as the iPad (La machine à rêves de Leonardo da Vinci, DigDeep, collection Zéphyr, Le monde de Yo-Ho, et Boum ! , which earned a second Special Mention at the Bologna Ragazzi Digital Award)... In 2017, TV5Monde aired the web series *Prévert Exquis* (Winner of the Best Francophone Project Award at Cross Video Days TV5 Monde, Special Jury Prize at the Digital Ehon Awards)...
He creates the soundscapes for exhibitions-shows (Il était une fois la fête foraine at la Grande Halle de La Villette, The Extraordinary Museum in Japan, The Laying of the Hands in Rotterdam, Passerelle, Le Siècle Métro, Jours de Cirque in Monaco, L'argent au PASS in Belgium, Pavillon Français at the Aïchi Universal Exhibition, Monuments aux morts in Arles et at the Panthéon, GamePlay et Darwin at la Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, Carambolages (external link) at Grand Palais, Rester Vivant at Palais de Tokyo, Anne-Sarah Le Meur at ZKM, Roger Ballen at Veneziala Biennale...) and urban soundscapes (study of the métro for Grand Paris). In 2010 the exhibition Révélations, une odyssée numérique dans la peinture at Petit Palais à Paris gets the Grand Prix Stratégies 2010, Prix des Étudiants, Prix Produit Grand Public. Reprise in 2013 at Hangaram Museum, Seoul Art Center. The iPad and Android feature a fantastic new territory to explore (Leonardo da Vinci's Dream Machine, DigDeep, Boum !, Zephyr Collection, World of Yo-Ho, etc.).
In 2017 TV5Monde publishes the web-serie Prévert Exquis (Award of the Best Francophone Project Cross Video Days TV5 Monde, Prix spécial du Jury Digital Ehon Awards) and GRRR publishes CD Long Time No Sea by trio El Strøm...
In 2018 the 100th Anniversary album is quite a surprise, followed by another one in 2020, Perspectives for the 22nd Century! From 2020 to 2024 : 68 musicians participate to the 4 volumes of Pique-nique au labo (external link).
In 2022 it is the reformation of Un Drame Musical Instantané with the CD Plumes et poils, the LP Fictions of the duo with Lionel Martin, several previously unreleased archives of Birgé (1972!), of the duo with Gorgé (1974) and of the Drame (1976 to 2025), the reissue of In Fractured Silence, as well as numerous albums featuring the best improvisers of the younger generation.
In 2024, Animal Opera is a very different CD, without any human musician!
Starting on that date, he began organizing concerts at Studio GRRR.
In 2025, Denis Lavant joins Birgé and Lionel Martin for double CD Les déments (Grand Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros).
Besides his daily blog (more than 6000 articles), Birgé writes in many magazines and teaches the relation between sound and pictures. His novels La corde à linge and USA 1968 deux enfants (external link) include images & sounds plus movies & interactivity!
Musically difficult to categorize, he belongs to the lineage of encyclopedic composers, such as Charles Ives, İlhan Mimaroğlu, Frank Zappa, René Lussier, François Sarhan, Jonathan Pontier, André Abujamra, Jim O’Rourke, John Zorn, and Steven Stapleton—all of whom are unconventional and often self-taught. A maximalist, his musical language draws more from cinematic syntax than from the rules of harmony and counterpoint!
His website, drame.org, offers 171 albums (203 hours!) available for free streaming and download.
Main artworks
Film La nuit du phoque, 1974
Record Défense de, with Birgé Gorgé Shiroc, 1975
22 albums (LP & CD) with Un Drame Musical Instantané, 1976-2008 & 2022-2025
Film Le sniper, 1993
Exhibition/Show Il était une fois la fête foraine, Grande Halle de La Villette, with Raymond Sarti, 1995
CD Établissement d'un ciel d'alternance with Michel Houellebecq, 1996 (published 2006)
Enhanced-CD Carton, with Bernard Vitet, 1997
Enhanced-CD Machiavel (external link), with Antoine Schmitt, 1998
CD-Rom Alphabet, with Frédéric Durieu et Murielle Lefèvre, 1999
Interactive websites: LeCiestBleu with Frédéric Durieu, Somnambules and www.flyingpuppet.com with Nicolas Clauss, 2000-2008
Musical game La pâte à son, with F.Durieu, 2004
Blog www.drame.org/blog, 5800 articles (on Mediapart since 2010), 2005-2025
Opera for 100 smart rabbits Nabaz'mob (external link), with A.Schmitt, 2006-2014
Radio Drame, 105 exclusively online albums, 194 hours of free music, 2010-2025
La corde à linge (external link), novel (ePub), 2011
Leonardo da Vinci's Dream Machine (external link) for iPad, with N.Clauss, 2012
USA 1968 deux enfants (external link), novel for iPad, 2014
Boum ! (external link) for iPad and Androïd, with Mikaël Cixous, 2015
Exhibition Carambolages (external link) at Grand Palais, with Jean-Hubert Martin, 2016
Web-serie Prévert Exquis (external link), 2017
Long Time No Sea, cd by trio El Strøm, 2017
CD The 100th Anniversary (external link), 2018
CD Perspectives for the 22nd Century, 2020
4 CD Pique-nique au labo (external link) 2020-2025
Film Perspectives For the 22nd Century, 2021
LP Fictions + CD Plumes et poil (external link)s, 2022
Live recordings at Studio GRRR Apéro Labo, 2024
CD Animal Opera, 2024
CD Les déments, 2025