Workshop: the acousmonium

Armando Balice invites us to discover the history and principles of the acousmonium, related to electroacoustic and electronic music.

From the very beginnings of musique concrète, the question of the concert arose. How to perform music for which there is nothing to see? Throughout history, an instrument progressively developed to answer this question: the acousmonium, a true orchestra of loudspeakers. This workshop will be an opportunity to discover in more detail how it works and its effect on the spatialisation of sounds, its history, and its characteristics.

Today, the acousmonium is a major player in creation, putting listening at the center and shaping its presentation within the concert space.

Composer, improviser — Armando Balice

Biography
Armando Balice is a French-Italian electroacoustic composer and improviser. He is inspired by the abstract idea of blackness and explores the poetics and references linked to it in his compositions. He seeks to develop an intense and deep musicality, almost orchestral, drawing influences as much from modern music of a rowdier, metal, or noise character, as well as from the repertoire of acousmatic or classical music.
In 2025, he released his first album "Du noir tout autour" on the Canadian label Empreintes Digitales. He is the winner of the 2026 Prix Superphonique des Lycées and received the Prix Francis et Mica Salabert as part of the 2023 Sacem Symphonic Awards. He has received commissions from various institutions and organizations, including Radio France, the Maison de la musique contemporaine, Ina-GRM, La Muse en Circuit, Studio Éole, Ici l’Onde, Ensemble Cairn, the creative center Le Logellou, the musical company Motus, as well as numerous festivals.
Armando Balice studied under Jean-Marc Weber, Denis Dufour, and Jonathan Prager before pursuing a Master's degree in electroacoustic music and sound arts at Ina-GRM. He currently teaches electroacoustic composition at the Conservatoire à rayonnement régional du Grand Chalon (Burgundy, France). He is the director of the musical creation company Alcôme.
In 2013, he designed the Alcôme acousmonium (a loudspeaker orchestra dedicated to spatialized sound), with which he regularly organizes concerts of electroacoustic and experimental music, as well as the Ondes Croisées festival.

© Juliette Tixier / pattern © Gwladys Bernard