Johann PHILIPPE et Jacopo GRECO D'ALCEO
Electroacoustic musicians

Johann received a grant to help him purchase a modular synthesizer.

Interview of Johann Philippe
What is your artistic background ?
Originally a graduate in cultural mediation, I joined the electroacoustic composition class at the Toulouse Conservatory in 2013, then the Lyon National Superior Conservatory of Music in 2016, where I was able to study with two formidable teachers and composers: Bertrand Dubedout and François Roux. Both accompanied me on this long journey, which aims at juxtaposing musical and poetic objects with a medium. These eight years have allowed me to experiment and discover my way in the fascinating world of electroacoustic music. I have learned a lot technically, to the point where I am now composing using technologies that I have designed myself. It was during these years that I met Jacopo Greco d'Alceo, my friend and composer, with whom I founded the HYDRA SUPERCLUSTER project, bringing together two unique electronic instruments: the modular synthesizer and live coding. Forged in free improvisation, this project was intended from the beginning to open up to other art forms, to associate music, dance, video, sculpture, and many others. We have since worked on further written forms, allowing improvisation on a formal work. Until 2021, I was using the modular synthesizer of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Lyon. Thanks to Porosus, I was able to design and acquire a personal instrument, which will allow me to bring my musical projects to life for many years to come.

How do you see your profession today ?
Electroacoustic music is an art of listening. It emphasises sound and its poetic imagery. Each sound carries a plasticity that is revealed in the composition. For my part, I feel the desire to associate this sound and formal work with a poetic intention. The latter is the driving force behind the music, as well as its raison d'être. It is what gives a work the status of music. But it is nothing without a piece—that of the composer. The sound material is sculpted and modelled in a constant back and forth with the intention. Another essential point (those who have been in François Roux's composition class are aware of this) lies in the tool. Understood as a technical device and a conceptual context of fabrication, it is an essential element of the creative process. Its appropriation, mastery and diversion allow for a more conscious and precise shaping.

How do you see yourself in 5 years ? in 10 years ?
Electroacoustic music, although strongly advanced by French composers, remains a relatively underground medium. It is most often disseminated either by contemporary music institutions or by more open, committed structures that willingly agree to lend themselves to aesthetic adventure and sharing. The latter also have the advantage of being locally based and offering an alternative to cultural centralisation, which has its limits. Of course, I like to work with institutions, but I tend to favour working with more local structures, insofar as they allow, in my opinion, a greater dynamic of encounters between different audiences and different artistic proposals. In five years' time, I would like to have the opportunity to work with the actors and actresses of the artistic and human experience that I have already been able to work with, for example, at Le Paradis in Périgueux. I hope that we will continue, in HYDRA SUPERCLUSTER, to invent projects that are close to our hearts, and to work together on their realisation. In 10 years, while continuing my activity as a composer and musician within HYDRA SUPERCLUSTER, I would like to be able to settle in a place, a new structure. I would like it to be able to welcome different audiences and to offer artist residencies as well as unique events. I imagine this place as a social space, a refuge for exchange and the free expression of subjectivity. Naturally, I also imagine it as a refuge for electroacoustic music, which I wish to champion, and to continue to see a dialogue with different plastic and artistic universes which, like me, are fond of sensitive and unique experiences.

Interview of Jacopo Greco d’Alceo
What is your artistic background ?
The origin was a quest for truth. I think that very quickly I realised the abundance of lies that rule the world and I understood the power of creating a bigger truth myself. I realised that my role in society could only be achieved through this expression, and music gave me this immense privilege. I studied in Italy, in Milan, before coming to France to the CNSMD in Lyon. That's where I met Johann. Both composers, without hesitating too much, we immediately rediscovered this primary need for the stage and for living music - the old sterile places of contemporary music are not for me. To come back to the question, we had the need to make the music "originate" from us, to incorporate it. To achieve this mixture, a composer must be able to imagine and conceive his sound. The composer exists only through his sound, which unfolds his thoughts. Everyone must find the purest way of doing that. For me it was the live coding, for Johann the analogue synthesizer. Porosus gave us the chance to achieve this ideal.

How do you see your profession today ?
Again, the artist is the liar par excellence. The only difference from a common liar is that he/she is a liar towards others, never towards him/herself. This is a detail that gives her an enormous responsibility in the face of today's reality. The problem is to not lie to oneself. This is one of the most difficult challenges for an artist and today this profession needs sincerity and commitment in the face of this challenge. The artist is marginal, but present in society and he needs to put himself and his ideas in danger. They need to dare more!

How do you see yourself in 5 years ? in 10 years ?
In 5 years, I see myself becoming more and more stubborn and ‘locked up’ in my cage. In 10 years, this cage will be even bigger and more wonderful, so beautiful, that it will be time to leave it, to look at it from afar and to make a new one.

Interview conducted in 2021
Photography credit: Julia Grandperret