François Bayle

Born in Madagascar in 1932, François Bayle joined Pierre Schaeffer’s Groupe de Recherches Musicales in 1960 and was taught by Olivier Messiaen and Karlheinz Stockhausen in the same year. In 1966, Pierre Schaeffer put him in charge of the GRM, a department that became part of the Institut national de l’audiovisuel (INA) in 1975 and which he headed until 1997. In particular, he was behind the design of the Acousmonium (1974), created the Collection INA-GRM record catalogue, organised concerts and broadcasts and supported the development of advanced-technology musical instruments (Syter, GRM Tools, Midi Formers, Acousmograph). In 1993, he founded the Acousmathèque, a repertoire of 2000 works since 1948, and set up cycles of seminars and portraits of composers. In 1997, leaving the GRM, he founded his own studio and the Magison label.

To date his catalogue includes 107 works, from “Jeîta” (1970), “L’Expérience Acoustique” (1972), “Erosphère” (1980), “Son Vitesse-Lumière” (1983-86), to recent titles, “L’Oreille étonnée” (2008), “Rien n'est reel” (2010), “Déplacements” (2011-12), “Deviner-devenir” (2014), the project “Ouïr” (2015-18), “Persona” (2021) and “Zoom” (2022-23).