Inside IRCAM

Tonight’s concerts present us with Pierre Boulez’s brainchild IRCAM. The Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique / Musique is a sonic laboratory where the production, control and analysis of sound are investigated at the highest technical and aesthetic level.

The Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho uses software developed at IRCAM to extend and expand the sound of a flute while in Roque Rivas’s piece Conical Intersect we hear not only the familiar pitched sounds of breath through reeds but also the mechanics of keys and fingering.