Over five hours, some of the most groundbreaking figures in experimental sound come alive through the Acousmonium – an orchestra of around sixty loudspeakers brought to Amsterdam by partner INA GRM, the Musical Research Group of the French National Audiovisual Institute. Presented in partnership with Hartwig Art Foundation, the programmes feature seminal works by Bernard Parmegiani, alongside compositions by legends like Jim O’Rourke and Mark Fell & Rian Treanor To make the evening even more extraordinary, Jana Winderen, Sarah Davachi, and Sam Dunscombe will perform or personally diffuse their work.
Certainly not to be missed: Jana Winderen, one of the world’s leading field-recording artists, presents her new composition Djúpr, commissioned by INA GRM for PRESENCES électronique 2026. Attuned to the inaudible and the unseen, Winderen is celebrated for her investigations into underwater and ultrasonic worlds. Also featured is 8 Views of a Secret by Jim O’Rourke – the mercurial former member of Sonic Youth – a work shaped by a rhythmic take on the Jean-Claude Risset / Barberpole effect, where structure emerges through subtle cycles of repetition, drift, and adjustment. Alongside this is Sarah Davachi’s Basse Brevis. Co-commissioned by Radio France and INA GRM, Davachi’s work is a delicate study in timbre, scale, and duration, composed specifically for the Acousmonium.
Alongside these diffusions are two live performances: Crashing into Bleaklow, by father-son duo Mark Fell & Rian Treanor, a synthetically sardonic multichannel work that pushes rhythmic and algorithmic form to exhilarating extremes; and Sam Dunscombe’s Self Unsame Again Always New. Dunscombe’s piece involves live spectral processing and ‘mass plasma synthesis’ in which the clarinet multiplies and mutates in real time.
The evening opens with Bernard Parmegiani’s monumental De Natura Sonorum (1975), which unfurls as a vast, sculptural field of vibration – tones stretch, shimmer, collide, and dissolve. Widely regarded as the late composer’s – who passed away in 2013 – most important work, it remains a landmark of musique concrète. This is a rare opportunity to experience this spectacular piece in its full duration.
Please note: this is a seated event.
Timetable (with breaks)
20:00
Bernard Parmegiani, De Natura Sonorum, 1975, 52 min (diffusion by INA GRM)
21:30
Jim O’Rourke, 8 Views of a Secret, 2021, 15 min (diffusion by INA GRM)
Sarah Davachi, Basse Brevis, 2025, 19 min (diffusion by the artist)
Sam Dunscombe, Self Unsame Again Always New, 2023, 22 min (live performance)
23:00
Jana Winderen, Djúpr, 2026, 20 min (diffusion by the artist)
Mark Fell & Rian Treanor, Crashing into Bleaklow, 2024, 40 min (live performance)
The Spatial Sound Concerts are presented by Sonic Acts and Hartwig Art Foundation, and co-organised with the Musical Research Group of the French National Audiovisual Institute (INA GRM). The programmes are also realised by Paradiso and Sonic Acts as part of New Perspectives for Action, a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the European Union. The performances by Jana Winderen and Mark Fell & Rian Treanor are realised by Paradiso and Sonic Acts as part of the same funding scheme. With the friendly support of the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung.
