AIR NOISE

APPLICATION / SOUND INSTALLATION

This year, as a tribute to Pierre Schaeffer on the 30th anniversary of his death, we have launched "Études de bruit 2025". The aim is to design and create, in collaboration with our Réalisateur en Informatique Musicale, a new sound geography for the parvis, freely inspired by Pierre Schaeffer's Cinq études de bruit. Pierre Schaeffer revolutionized our perception of sound by giving everyday sounds the same importance as traditional musical sounds. His Cinq études de bruit, composed in 1948, opened up a whole new realm of possibilities for sound invention.

2025 - Third creation, Syham Khelifi
"My project sets out to reveal a little-known soundscape of the Parvis Gérard Hourbette, by exploring the invisible electromagnetic frequencies that surround us.
These sounds, generated by digital and electrical infrastructures (relay antennas, Wi-Fi, etc.), shape our daily lives without our being aware of it.
The aim is to capture and make audible these frequencies imperceptible to the human ear, by merging them with the tangible sounds of urban space (traffic, architecture).
Through an interactive installation, I aim to offer a sensory experience that reveals the interaction between man, technology and the environment.
Inspired by Pierre Schaeffer's approach, I seek to question our perception of sound and reinvent our relationship to space, by transforming invisible noises into living, immersive sound matter."

Le bruit de l'air is a sound installation based on a geolocation application, developed by Art Zoyd Studios in collaboration with the MU collective, for the Parvis Gérard Hourbette.
Inaugurated in September 2023 on the occasion of the Journées du Patrimoine, the application is available on Google Play and the Apple Store. It allows you to listen to the work on site, or from another location.
After a first edition dedicated to Gérard Hourbette, this installation aims to bring the Parvis to life to the rhythm of young sound creation, through calls for projects renewed each year. Two versions of Le bruit de l'air have already been released.

production / direction Art Zoyd Studios
with the support of Phénix scène nationale and the City of Valenciennes
development Collectif Mu and Art Zoyd Studios
RIM Oudom Southammavong

Scan the QR code below to download the app and discover the 2023 and 2024 creations, designed for an immersive musical stroll on the Gérard Hourbette square. The pieces can also be listened to from home.

2023, first creation, Jérôme Soudan

Immersive listening to a sound creation based on music by Gérard Hourbette (Art Zoyd)
More than just a mix of Gérard Hourbette's pieces, this assembly of extracts from the composer's works from different periods constitutes a new immersive piece enabling you to wander through the particular sound universe of the mastermind behind the Art Zoyd group. During the 20 years I spent with Gérard, references to the composer and philosopher John Cage were omnipresent. Everything is in everything, every minimalist sound contains every other sound on the planet. This complex universe, born of the singular sound of a violin string and moving towards a world of multiples, is Gérard's own, and I've often referred to it as "macro music". So let's penetrate the music of this major composer again and again, using this immersive experience, moving towards his diverse sonorities, his profound research into endless experimentation, his visions, his samplers, his violin, his humor, and finally let ourselves be guided by his music, which transcends us and fills us with his presence.
Jérôme Soudan, 2023

2024, second creation, Philippe Macnab-Séguin

For the second edition of Le bruit de l'air, I was inspired by the concept of a web of rhythms and melodies that interweave and constantly transform. Walking around the Parvis Gérard Hourbette, you discover different rhythmic layers which, depending on where you are and when you arrive, may or may not synchronize into a clear metrical grid. However, as we approach a central point on the forecourt where all these layers converge, they seem to fall into place, forming a vast, complex yet coherent whole. We have the illusion of a tempo that continually slows down, with rhythms and harmonies that are in a constant state of flux, never settling into stability.
Philippe Macnab-Séguin, 2024

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