updated 5 June 2023
© Jean-Michel Sordello

Michel Redolfi

French composer and sound artist born 8 December 1951 in Marseille.

Michel Redolfi studied musicology at the University of Aix-Marseille following training in classical music at the Conservatoire de Marseille, where he took violin lessons. During the same period, he became interested in electroacoustic music, specializing in this domain and cofounding the Groupe de Musique Expérimentale de Marseille (GMEM) in 1969 with Marcel Frémiot, Georges Bœuf, Lucien Bertolina, Claude Colon, and Jacques Diennet.

In 1973, he moved to the United States for around fifteen years with his partner, flutist and translator Lanie Goodman. During this stay in America, he continued working in experimental music as a guest composer-researcher at the University of Wisconsin, the California Institute of the Arts, and Dartmouth College, where he worked alongside Jon Appleton, Sidney Alonson, and Cameron Jones on the development of the Synclavier, the first digital synthesizer. GMEM acquired an early model of the Synclavier, which is now kept at the Cité de la Musique museum in Paris.

In 1981, at the University of California San Diego, Redolfi launched his concept of underwater music: music played and listened to underwater. This was a major innovation in rethinking the space in which a concert can be held, as well as in playing technologies, since it involved submerging the audience and creating new underwater, mainly electroacoustic instruments. The first underwater concert was held in San Diego Bay in 1982 with the piece Sonic Waters.

On his return to France, Redolfi succeeded Jean-Étienne Marie as director of the International Center for Musical Creation (CIRM) and of the Musiques Actuelles Nice-Côte d’Azur (MANCA) festival. He took charge of MANCA’s revamp until 1998. It was under his impetus that this festival became the meeting point for alternative music and sound for image.

In 2002, Redolfi founded the multidisciplinary studio Audionaute, specialized in sound design for cultural spaces, multimedia scenography, and musical identity for public transport. Chief among his studio’s works are a series of jingles for trams in Brest and Nice, as well as permanent sound installations at the Nausicaá National Sea Center, Fondation Carmignac, Musée Matisse, and Fondation Maeght.

Redolfi’s creations often challenge the way in which we listen to music, broadening the notion of concert, whether in the air or underwater, through the scenography of a public space. The audience is immersed in sound through an acoustic medium, diffusion through a substance, or a spatialized route in a natural or urban space. Redolfi labels his creations experiential music.

As well as his purely electroacoustic pieces, which were mainly commissioned by the Groupe de recherches musicales (GRM), his repertoire includes many mixed-media works for concert, dance, video art, and radiophonic creation.

His music has been programmed in national and international festivals such as the INA-GRM’s Cycle Acousmatique in Paris, Ars Electronica in Linz, the Venice Biennale, Musica in Strasbourg, Why Note in Dijon, Royal Hall Festival in London, Cal Arts Festival in Los Angeles, Gaudeamus in Amsterdam, and Sydney Festival, among others.

Throughout his career, he has collaborated with composers Pierre Henry, Jon Appleton, Bernard Parmegiani, Terry Riley, Jon Hassell, Jean Claude Risset, Christoph Harbonnier and his group Lightwave, and Luc Ferrari. Redolfi has also worked with actors Michael Lonsdale and Jean-Marc Barr, digital artists Miguel Chevalier and William Latham, plastic artists Sacha Sosno, Lyonel Kouro, and Ben, and painter Hervé Di Rosa.

Prizes and Distinctions

  • Prize from the Fondation Jacques Rougerie – Institut de France, 2020
  • Lion d’Or Music Nomination, Venice Biennale, 2006
  • Ars Electronica Award in 1996 for Interactive Art and in 1994 for Computer Music
  • Faust d’Or, 1994
  • Médaille hommage de la Sacem, 1988
  • Prize from the Fondation Futuriste Russolo-Pratella, 1978
  • Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

© Ircam-Centre Pompidou, 2023

Sources

SIte du compositeur ; site du CIRM-MANCA.

  • Solo (excluding voice)
    • elec Instant blanc for flutes and tape (1973), 20 mn
    • elec Carnaval for flute and tape (1985), 22 mn
    • elec Portrait de Jean-Paul Celea avec contrebasse for double bass and digital audio support (1991), 18 mn
    • elec Appel d'Air II for flutes and digital audio support (1993), 27 mn
    • elec Jungle II for percussion and digital audio support (1993), 1 h 10 mn
    • elec Virtual Lagoon underwater music for underwater device, percussion and digital audio support (1997), 55 mn
    • La Citta Liquida underwater music for percussion 'Thevenium' and digital audio support, underwater device (2006), 50 mn
    • elec Shift for trumpet, live electronics and digital audio support (2006), 1 h 10 mn
    • elec La Baie des sirènes underwater music for percussion 'Thevenium' and digital audio support, underwater devices (2008), 45 mn
    • elec Dans le rêve des baleines underwater music for subclavier, underwater devices and narrator (2019), 1 h 5 mn
  • Chamber music
    • elec Swinging on a Vine for clarinet, saxophone, percussion, synthesizer and tape (1974), 25 mn
    • elec La Galaxie du caïman for guitars, percussion, digital audio and 3D projections (1990), 1 h 10 mn
    • elec Millénium for digital percussion "Corps Sonores de la Villette" (1995), 16 mn
  • Vocal music and instrument(s)
    • elec stage Crysallis underwater opera for soprano, percussion, underwater instruments and digital audio support (1992), 1 h 5 mn
    • elec Mata-Pau Mara and the bird, multimedia performance for narrator, percussion, synthesizer and digital audio support (1992), 1 h 30 mn
    • elec Mare Sonans underwater music for narrator, choir, keyboards, submerged percussion and digital audio support, aerial and submerged devices (1999), 1 h 20 mn
    • elec L'Ombre de la méduse for ondes Martenot, glass harmonica, voice and digital audio support (2002), 22 mn
    • elec Rumeurs d'étoiles multimedia performance for narrator, keyboards, digital audio support and video projections (2007), 60 mn
  • A cappella vocal music
    • elec Hardscore for tape and voice (1977), 10 mn 45 s
    • elec stage La Nouvelle Atlantide for narrator, mixed choir and synthetic sounds (1987-1988), 1 h 30 mn, Inédit [program note]
    • elec Mata-Pau II voyage dans le Rondonia, multimedia show for voice and digital audio support (1993), 1 h 10 mn
  • Electronic music / fixed media / mechanical musical instruments
    • elec Jeux for tape (1971), 6 mn
    • elec Manifeste for tape (1971), 12 mn
    • elec À la clarté des Veilleuses sound design for tape (1972), 20 mn
    • elec Compendium Georges B ballet music for tape (1975), 20 mn
    • elec Comix ballet music for tape (1976), 20 mn
    • elec Nuit Solaire for multitrack tape (1976), 9 mn 30 s
    • elec Whoops! music for homo-parleurs system and tape (1976), 20 mn
    • elec Naissance et agonie de ma lampe de chevet for tape (1979), 13 mn 40 s
    • elec Pacific Tubular Waves for multitrack tape (1979), 25 mn
    • elec Immersion for tape (1980), 25 mn
    • elec Fluide et sonique underwater music for tape, underwater device (1981), 47 mn
    • elec Sonic Waters underwater music for live synclavier, tape, underwater devices (1982), 50 mn
    • elec L’Écume de la nuit aerial and underwater installation for Synclavier synthesizer, underwater devices and tapes (1984), 8 h
    • elec Too Much Sky for tape (1984, 1986), 9 mn
    • elec Walkdog 37 episodes of a dog's life, soundscapes for tape (1985), 2 h 9 mn
    • elec Desert Tracks for digital audio support (1987), 35 mn
    • elec Effractions sound installation for digital audio support (1987), 9 mn 30 s
    • elec Volare choreographic music for digital audio support (1987), 28 mn
    • elec Talos & Koine choreographic music for digital audio support (1988), 40 mn
    • elec Jazz, d'après Matisse for digital audio support and photographic projections (1989), 40 mn
    • elec Les Eaux cardinales sound installation for multi-track digital audio support (1990), 30 mn
    • elec Appel d'Air for digital audio support (1991), 28 mn 35 s
    • elec Jungle for digital audio support, book-and-record set and multimedia compact disc (1991), 1 h 12 mn
    • elec Nausicaá permanent sound installation for digital audio support (1991), 1 h 14 mn
    • elec Biogenesis for digital audio support (1994), 8 mn
    • elec In Corpus underwater music for live electronics, underwater devices and digital audio support (1994), 1 h 5 mn
    • elec Songes drôlatiques multimedia performance for digital audio and image projection (1994), 15 mn 45 s
    • elec Liquid Cities aerial and underwater sound installation for interactive digital audio support, underwater device and video projection (1996), 60 mn
    • elec Zoophonia installation for multi-track digital audio support (1996), 1 h 55 mn
    • elec Liquid Cities-Zuiderbad aerial and underwater sound installation for digital audio support, underwater device (1997)
    • elec L’Or des abysses music for documentary film (1997), 53 mn
    • elec Dry-Wet choreographic and underwater music for digital audio support, aerial and underwater devices (1998), 1 h 10 mn
    • elec Grand Nausicaá permanent sound installation for multi-track digital audio support and compact disc (1998), 1 h 14 mn
    • elec Les Volcans sous la mer music for documentary film (1998), 52 mn
    • elec Sons-frissons for digital audio support (1998), 20 mn
    • elec Riviera Roulette for digital audio support (1999), 45 mn
    • elec Gravité zéro underwater music for digital audio support, underwater and aerial multi-track device (2000), 52 mn
    • elec Marineland music and sound design for digital audio support (2000), 1 h 10 mn
    • elec Sirènes music for documentary film (2000), 26 mn
    • elec stage Vox in Vitro black opera for multi-track digital audio support and acoustic devices (2000), 47 mn
    • elec Carnets du Kerala sound installation for digital audio support and wind device (2001), 44 mn
    • elec Underwater Music (1978-2002), 1 h 40 mn, Cezame
    • elec Crysallis remix multimedia performance for digital audio support and video projection (2003), 20 mn
    • elec Invitations aux écoutes music for documentary film (2003), 50 mn
    • elec Music for Train Station sound installation for multi-track digital audio support (2004), 1 h 15 mn
    • elec Ptyx underwater music for digital audio support, underwater device (2004), 60 mn
    • elec San Vicente Suite (les Sonorifiques) for digital audio support (2005), 55 mn
    • elec Le dernier voyage de Lapérouse for digital audio support (2006), 60 mn
    • elec Oniris, the Dream Tank underwater music for digital audio support, underwater device (2006), 50 mn
    • elec Sonals en bleu permanent sound installation for digital audio support (2007), 40 mn
    • elec Micro Espaces 5808 for digital audio support (2008), 24 mn
    • elec Pousada Caiman for digital audio support (2009), 50 mn
    • elec Seasonals permanent sound installation for digital audio support (2009-2010), 20 mn
    • elec History of Sound for digital audio support (2012), 21 mn
    • elec Sonals de Brest for onboard digital audio support (2012), 4 h
    • elec Sunfony music installation for 30 audio-solar seats (2013)
    • elec L’Origine du monde interactive music (2014), 1 h 40 mn
    • elec Sonals de Besançon for onboard digital audio support (2014), 4 h 30 mn
    • elec Exoplanets electroacoustic sequences for image synchronisation (2015), 1 h 5 mn
    • elec Sci-Fi Memories electroacoustic sequences for image synchronisation (2015), 1 mn 15 s
    • elec Les Jardins de Charlotte concert-musical installation for live mix and spatialization devices and digital support (2016), 1 h 30 mn
    • elec Blue Eye Lounge multi-track sound installation for digital audio support (2018), 7 h 45 mn
    • elec Murmures de la terre sound installation for multi-track digital audio support (2018), 10 mn
    • elec Nausicaä, Voyage en haute mer for multi-track digital audio support (2018), 4 h 5 mn
    • elec Sonic Waters – Innerspaces underwater concert for subclavier, digital audio support and underwater device (2018)
    • elec Speed of Silence sound and touch installation for digital audio support (2018), 30 mn
    • elec Pooling with Matisse for digital audio support (2019), 25 mn
    • elec Tram Tracks Infinite Mix for onboard digital audio support (2019), 3 h 20 mn
    • elec Nice, chroniques du silence soundscapes (2020), 34 mn
    • elec Oscillations 2020 music for generative and interactive video installation by Miguel Chevalier (2020), 40 mn
    • elec Oscillations 2021 music for generative and interactive video installation by Miguel Chevalier (2021), 3 h
    • elec Sea of sound underwater music for digital audio, live electronics and narrator (2021), 2 h 30 mn
  • Unspecified instrumentation
    • elec Nucleus underwater concert for instruments, underwater devices and digital audio support (1989), 1 h 5 mn
    • elec Sonic Waters II underwater music for instrument, underwater devices and digital audio support (1992), 55 mn
    • elec Music on Mars (2014), 1 h 18 mn, Radio-France
  • 2021
    • elec Oscillations 2021 music for generative and interactive video installation by Miguel Chevalier, 3 h
    • elec Sea of sound underwater music for digital audio, live electronics and narrator, 2 h 30 mn
  • 2020
  • 2019
  • 2018
  • 2016
    • elec Les Jardins de Charlotte concert-musical installation for live mix and spatialization devices and digital support, 1 h 30 mn
  • 2015
    • elec Exoplanets electroacoustic sequences for image synchronisation, 1 h 5 mn
    • elec Sci-Fi Memories electroacoustic sequences for image synchronisation, 1 mn 15 s
  • 2014
  • 2013
    • elec Sunfony music installation for 30 audio-solar seats
  • 2012
  • 2010
    • elec Seasonals permanent sound installation for digital audio support, 20 mn
  • 2009
  • 2008
  • 2007
    • elec Rumeurs d'étoiles multimedia performance for narrator, keyboards, digital audio support and video projections, 60 mn
    • elec Sonals en bleu permanent sound installation for digital audio support, 40 mn
  • 2006
  • 2005
  • 2004
    • elec Music for Train Station sound installation for multi-track digital audio support, 1 h 15 mn
    • elec Ptyx underwater music for digital audio support, underwater device, 60 mn
  • 2003
  • 2002
  • 2001
    • elec Carnets du Kerala sound installation for digital audio support and wind device, 44 mn
  • 2000
    • elec Gravité zéro underwater music for digital audio support, underwater and aerial multi-track device, 52 mn
    • elec Marineland music and sound design for digital audio support, 1 h 10 mn
    • elec Sirènes music for documentary film, 26 mn
    • elec stage Vox in Vitro black opera for multi-track digital audio support and acoustic devices, 47 mn
  • 1999
    • elec Mare Sonans underwater music for narrator, choir, keyboards, submerged percussion and digital audio support, aerial and submerged devices, 1 h 20 mn
    • elec Riviera Roulette for digital audio support, 45 mn
  • 1998
    • elec Dry-Wet choreographic and underwater music for digital audio support, aerial and underwater devices, 1 h 10 mn
    • elec Grand Nausicaá permanent sound installation for multi-track digital audio support and compact disc, 1 h 14 mn
    • elec Les Volcans sous la mer music for documentary film, 52 mn
    • elec Sons-frissons for digital audio support, 20 mn
  • 1997
    • elec Liquid Cities-Zuiderbad aerial and underwater sound installation for digital audio support, underwater device
    • elec L’Or des abysses music for documentary film, 53 mn
    • elec Virtual Lagoon underwater music for underwater device, percussion and digital audio support, 55 mn
  • 1996
    • elec Liquid Cities aerial and underwater sound installation for interactive digital audio support, underwater device and video projection, 60 mn
    • elec Zoophonia installation for multi-track digital audio support, 1 h 55 mn
  • 1995
    • elec Millénium for digital percussion "Corps Sonores de la Villette", 16 mn
  • 1994
    • elec Biogenesis for digital audio support, 8 mn
    • elec In Corpus underwater music for live electronics, underwater devices and digital audio support, 1 h 5 mn
    • elec Songes drôlatiques multimedia performance for digital audio and image projection, 15 mn 45 s
  • 1993
    • elec Appel d'Air II for flutes and digital audio support, 27 mn
    • elec Jungle II for percussion and digital audio support, 1 h 10 mn
    • elec Mata-Pau II voyage dans le Rondonia, multimedia show for voice and digital audio support, 1 h 10 mn
  • 1992
    • elec stage Crysallis underwater opera for soprano, percussion, underwater instruments and digital audio support, 1 h 5 mn
    • elec Mata-Pau Mara and the bird, multimedia performance for narrator, percussion, synthesizer and digital audio support, 1 h 30 mn
    • elec Sonic Waters II underwater music for instrument, underwater devices and digital audio support, 55 mn
  • 1991
  • 1990
  • 1989
    • elec Jazz, d'après Matisse for digital audio support and photographic projections, 40 mn
    • elec Nucleus underwater concert for instruments, underwater devices and digital audio support, 1 h 5 mn
  • 1988
  • 1987
    • elec Desert Tracks for digital audio support, 35 mn
    • elec Effractions sound installation for digital audio support, 9 mn 30 s
    • elec Volare choreographic music for digital audio support, 28 mn
  • 1985
    • elec Carnaval for flute and tape, 22 mn
    • elec Walkdog 37 episodes of a dog's life, soundscapes for tape, 2 h 9 mn
  • 1984
  • 1982
    • elec Sonic Waters underwater music for live synclavier, tape, underwater devices, 50 mn
  • 1981
  • 1980
  • 1979
  • 1977
    • elec Hardscore for tape and voice, 10 mn 45 s
  • 1976
    • elec Comix ballet music for tape, 20 mn
    • elec Nuit Solaire for multitrack tape, 9 mn 30 s
    • elec Whoops! music for homo-parleurs system and tape, 20 mn
  • 1975
  • 1974
    • elec Swinging on a Vine for clarinet, saxophone, percussion, synthesizer and tape, 25 mn
  • 1973
  • 1972
  • 1971

Liens internet

(liens vérifiés en février 2023).

Discographie sélective

  • Michel REDOLFI, Sonic Waters, Underwater Music 1979-1987, 1 CD Sub Rosa, 2021, SR493.
  • Michel REDOLFI, Music on Mars, 1 CD Signature, 2014, SIG 11075.
  • Michel REDOLFI, Sons-Frissons, 1 CD INA-GRM, 2012, INAG 6031.
  • Michel REDOLFI, Nausicaä - Musique Originale, 1 CD Audionaute, 2004, AUD6004.
  • Michel REDOLFI, Underwater Music, 1 CD Cezame, 2002, CEZ 4022.
  • Michel REDOLFI, Appel d’Air, 1 CD INA-GRM, 1993, INA C 2005.
  • Michel REDOLFI, Desert Tracks, 1 CD INA-GRM, 1988, INA C 1005, réédité par Sub Rosa, 2016, SR418.
  • Michel REDOLFI, Immersion / Pacific Tubular Waves, 1 vinyle INA-GRM, 1980, 3 D 833.12, réédité par les Éditions Mego (Recollection GRM) en 2015, REGRM 014.

Bibliographie sélective

Textes de Michel Redolfi
  • Michel REDOLFI, Georges BŒUF, « L’homo-parleur », Cahiers Recherche/ Musique, Vol. 5, 1977.
  • Michel REDOLFI, L’acoustique subaquatique, Bourse Lavoisier, ministère des Affaires Culturelles, 1981.
  • Michel REDOLFI, Écouter sous l’eau, Alliage : Culture - Science - Technique, 1991, Vol. 10, pp. 47-54. Disponible en ligne sur https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03419532/file/Alliage%2010.10.pdf (lien vérifié en février 2023).
Textes sur Michel Redolfi
  • L’art contemporain et la Côte d’Azur, un territoire pour l’expérimentation, 1951-2011. Dijon : Les presses du réel, 2011.
  • François BAYLE, L’audionaute… Fragments d’une conversation d’été, 2014. Disponible en ligne sur http://www.michelredolfi.info/2019/05/michel-redolfi-par-francois-bayle.html (lien vérifié en février 2023).
  • Laurent BAYLE, Une Vie Musicale, Paris : Odile Jacob, 2022.
  • Joël CHABADE, Electric sound, the past and promise of electronic music, Prentice Hall, 1997.
  • Daniel CHARLES, Michel Redolfi : musique et profondeur. Lien : l’espace du son II, 1991.
  • Daniel CHARLES, « Singing waves : notes on Michel Redolfi’s Underwater Music », in Contemporary Music Review, 1993, vol. 8, part. 1, pp. 57-69. Disponible en ligne sur https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07494469300640191 (lien vérifié en février 2023).
  • Michel CHION, La musique électroacoustique, Paris : Presses Universitaires de France, 1982 (Que sais-je ? ; no 1990).
  • Constantin DOURVARIS, Michel Redolfi : compositions électroacoustiques, installations sonores et concerts subaquatiques. Mémoire de maîtrise de musique, Université de Vincennes - Saint-Denis - Paris VIII, 1996.
  • Daniel HARRIS, New Music for New Listeners, Underwater Music, 2012.
  • Stefan HELMREICH, « Underwater Music: Tuning Composition to the Sounds Of Science », in The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies / Trevor Pinch, Karin Bijsterveld. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2011. Disponible en ligne en version française réduite sur http://anthropology.mit.edu/sites/default/files/documents/helmreich_musique_subaquatique.pdf (lien vérifié en février 2023).
  • Linda HUMPHREYS, L’eau : modèle de composition et objet sonore pour des compositeurs du XXe siècle, et élément de la poétique bachelardienne. Mémoire de maîtrise de musique, Strasbourg : Université des sciences humaines, 1998.
  • Marshall INGGWERSON, « Concertgoers immerse themselves in a pool of sound », in The journal of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), 1983, n° 74, p. 657. Disponible en ligne sur https://asa.scitation.org/doi/10.1121/1.389791 (lien vérifié en février 2023).
  • John A. MAURER, Research in Underwater Sound, with Focus on Musical Applications and Computer Synthesis, CCRMA Stanford University, 1998. Disponible en ligne sur https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~blackrse/h2o.html#main-body (lien vérifié en février 2023).
  • Jean-Claude RISSET, Michel Redolfi, musicien des grands espaces, 2016. Disponible en ligne sur http://www.michelredolfi.info/2019/05/michel-redolfi-par-jean-claude-risset.html (lien vérifié en février 2023).
  • Jeanne VANEL KLARNET, « L’expression du mouvement dans Appel d’Air de Michel Redolfi et Les Plaines du Paradis de John Martin », in BARBE Michèle. Musique et arts plastiques, analogies et interférences, Paris : IReMus, Presses de l’Université Paris-Sorbonne, 2006.
  • Juliette VOLCLER, L’orchestration au quotidien, design sonore et écoute au 21e siècle, Paris : Éditions La Découverte, 2022.