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Jean-Baptiste Masson

Supervisor: David Clayton

Thesis

Thesis

Title of the thesis: A New Listening for a New Music. Ambient Sound, Sound-Hunting and the Tape Recorder, 1948-1978.

Research

Research

Jean-Baptiste works on listening and its relationships with technology and society.

His thesis explores the impact of the recording technology on how people experience and engage with the sound environment. Study cases are done on the ‘sound hunting’ movement that developed notably in France and Britain between 1950 and 1980. This forgotten aspect of field recording uncovers the role of amateurs, addressing an important approach in the history of science and technology. A central point is the link between the technology and the social practice of sound hunting—specifically how a mediated form of listening and the possibility of recording fostered a new interest in ambient sounds and the emergence of a community of sound hobbyists. The thesis also informs the position of amateurs in front of musique concrète and electronic music that were developing at the same time. It shows that they too were blurring the limits between noise, sound and music, and developing an art of hearing. An underlying theme is to consider field recording as an historical category.

Jean-Baptiste is part of the Electronic Soundscapes Network, and he is under a joint supervision from the Department of History of the University of York (David Clayton), and from the School of Music of the University of Leeds (James Mooney).

Jean-Baptiste holds a MA in Musicology and Composition from the Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne (Jean-Marc Chouvel and Daniel d’Adamo). His musical research focus on the organisation of time and narrativity. He is specialised in the music of Giacinto Scelsi, Morton Feldman, Éliane Radigue and the musical genre of drone and field recording.

Papers and Publications

Papers and Publication

Publications:
‘Hunting Sounds: The Development of a Sound Hobby in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s’, Unlikely, Journal for Creative Arts 6, special issue edited by Jordan Lacey, 2020.

‘Field Recording, Technology and Creative Listening’, proceedings of the 4th International Congress on Ambiances, 2021.


Upcoming Publications:
'Field Recording As Discipline and Ethic', Filigrane, 27, 2021.

‘Zen et musique chez John Cage et Giacinto Scelsi’, in Lenka Stranski, Jean-Marc Chouvel and Martin Laliberté (eds.), Mouvements et modèles dynamiques dans la pensée musicale, Sampzon : Éditions Delatour, 2022.


Papers (selection):
'Field Recording, Technology, Creative Listening', Sound Instruments, Sonic Cultures: An Interdisciplinary Conference, econference, December 2020.

'Field Recording, Technology, Creative Listening', Ambiances, Alloaesthesia, 4th International Congress on Ambiances, econference, December 2020.

‘The Beauty in the Banal’, Music, Sound, Space, Place: Ethnousicology and Sound Studies – Joint Conference of the British Forum for Ethnomusicology and the Société Française d’Ethnomusicologie, University of London, City, October 2019.

‘The Beauty in the Banal’, In Pursuit of Sound, University of Cambridge, October 2019.

'La transcommunication instrumentale: ondes radio, voix des morts et musique', Écoutes du fantastique, Université de Franche-Comté, April 2018.

'To Weave Time. The Late Music of Morton Feldman Through the Example of Violin and String Quartet', EuroMAC, Strasbourg, June 2017.

'Zen et musique chez John Cage et Giacinto Scelsi', aCROSS, Paris, May 2017.

'The Dynamism in the Stasis: an Analysis of Limited Approximations by Georg Friedrich Haas', Spectralisms, University of Oxford, March 2017.

External

External 

Jean-Baptiste is a composer whose music covers a broad spectrum, from field recording to string quartet and choir. He also often improvises with friends in the bands Jah Poney and Colonne Drone.

He is a cultural organiser as well, working with different organisations in France (Collège Contemporain, European Creative Academy, Fondation Royaumont).

As a member of the Electronic Soundscapes Network, he was a leading member of the organising committee of Sound Instruments and Sonic Cultures: An Interdisciplinary Conference, econference, 14-18 December 2020.

jbmasson.com

 

Contact details

Jean-Baptiste Masson
PhD Student
Department of History
University of York
Heslington
YO10 5DD