Max Neuhaus Opus1
With the invitation of City Sonic, Gilles Malatray (director of the referential blog, ‘Desartssonnants, landscaper, and sound artist) is giving a lecture about the virtuoso North American musician-percussionist, Max Neuhaus (1939-2009), who was a major pioneer of sound art. In the tradition of John Cage, whose work he greatly admired, Neuhaus tapped into new domains, which gave rise to many unusual approaches and creations that were never before heard.
With his works ‘Listen’ (iniated in 1966), Neuhaus is father of Soundwalks (listening-promenades), via audio devices where the the artist sweeps a wide field of sound creation. The listener is immersed in a swimming pool, with a sound design scheme of sirens of emergency vehicles, sketches, device partitions, and installations in public space. Max Neuhaus has developed an important theoretical reflection, an innovative research, based on numerous experiments, including sound movements in space, and psychoacoustic effects influencing the postures of listening.
Parcours Audio Sensible (PAS) (Max Neuhaus Opus2)
In the spirit of Listen, (early urban audio works of Max Neuhaus) and of this New Yorker’s Soundwalks and pioneering sound art, that takes along listeners out-thewalls to discover the musics of the city, Gilles Malatray
(“walker listening” and audio activist) proposes a special ‘STEP’ – Sensitive Audio Course, to discover Charleroi between two ears. Intimate spaces in surprising places, the walkers guided by Gilles Malatray (and his unusual instruments of listening) rediscover, the open large ears, in the city, to decipher it as such a partition of alive music, to experience it as a concert in 360°, and a sound installation of open sky.
Gilles Malatray
Gilles Malatray has launched Desartsonnants, an amazingly amateur site (in the noble sense of the word), a very complete blog that is also a breeding ground for all lovers of his other, for more than 10 years already. Wandering curious, he likes to walk in town, in the forest … especially as a “listening walker”, when he likes to quote Michel Chion. His initial creations are landscape and music (saxophone). He resumed his studies with a Degree in literature and a Masters in “Management of cultural and artistic projects” at the University of Lyon. Over the years, Gilles Malatray has built one of the largest and most interesting sources of information on sound art. Even in the english language, it is difficult to find something that comes close to it. Although the main site always presents itself as a simple blog, it has been little by little optimized for research and user experience. In recent years, a Facebook page, Twitter, and a presence on other social networks have also been created … which facilitate the sharing and follow-up of new publications.