From stereophonic to spatial audio processing: Voyage absolu des Unari vers Andromède by Iannis Xenakis
Résumé
Reproducing the creation circumstances of a musical piece is impossible even for
electroacoustic works. The acoustic of the concert hall, loudspeaker setup, technology of
diffusion and historical circumstances have changed from the concert's creation. When
you need to transpose an electroacoustic work from a loudspeaker setup to another you
have to answer a lot of questions and every choice you make assumes attentive sound
experimentations. In a context of a collaboration between the Cité des Sciences et de
l’Industrie and the CICM team of the Musidanse Laboratory (Paris 8 University), the UPIC
works of Iannis Xenakis Voyage absolu des Unari vers Andromède will be performed at
the Planetarium in march 2022. Composed in 1989 for an international exhibition of kites in
Osaka, Temple Kamejama Hontokuji, Voyage absolu des Unari vers Andromède is a
stereophonic piece. How can we take the opportunity of the diffusion setup of the
Planetarium to spatialize this piece ? In the case of UPIC works it could be interesting to
make spectrum adaptation too because of the sound result (commonly qualified of « tough
») due to the UPIC generators. Those questions will be handled with experimentations and
analysis to propose a spatialization which will go beyond the stereophonic version while
respecting the original work. This exploration will give rise to a durable algorithm for the
diffusion which could be suitable for several technical specifications and diffusion setups with a particular ergonomic care.