GRM

Since its founding by Pierre Schaeffer in 1958, the INA’s Musical Research Group (GRM) has been a unique place for creation, research and conservation in the fields of electroacoustic music and recorded sound.
As a response to the expectations of musicians, composers and sound designers, over the years, the GRM has focused on developing a range of innovative tools to treat and represent the sound. Today, the GRM tools and the Acousmographe are widely recognized.
After a pioneering period, from 1948 to 1958 when, notably, Pierre Henry’s works contributed to give an avant-garde image to the Group, the 1960-1975 era –as part of the ORTF research department- made it possible to systematise all the previous discoveries. Pierre Schaeffer then surrounded himself with a new team of composers/researchers including prestigious figures like: Luc Ferrari, Iannis Xenakis, Bernard Parmegiani, Mireille Chamass-Kyrou, François-Bernard Mâche…Then, later, Ivo Malec, Beatriz Ferreyra, Guy Reibel, Philippe Carson, Romuald Vandelle, Edgardo Canton, François Bayle…
The systematic analysis of the sound material Schaeffer proposed to his collaborators lasted for a few years and resulted in the publication of a seven-hundred-pages reference book, the “Treatise on Musical Objects” published by Seuil in 1966. At this point, the GRM had gained its authoritative status.
In 1968, an electroacoustic class was even opened at the Paris Conservatoire (Music Academy) to train new generations of composers. From then on, its activities have consisted in accompanying new and major technological evolutions, particularly as computers emerged, but also to conceive new systems to project sound into space thanks to an exceptional tool used for concerts, the Acousmonium.
As part of the National Audiovisual Institute (INA) since 1975, the Musical Research Group has been at the forefront of the electronic and electroacoustic music scenes, thus reviving its historical repertoire whilst conducting an ambitious scheme of musical creation. Because it is essential to involve the public in this scheme, the concerts organised by INA GRM as part of the Multiphonies seasons and PRÉSENCES électronique festivals also provide a space for discovery and exchange.