Jean-Jacques Birgé
Jean-Jacques Birgé (born 5 November 1952) is an independent French musician and filmmaker, at once music composer (co-founder of Un Drame Musical Instantané with which he recorded about 30 albums, as well as for movies, theater, dance, radio), film director (La nuit du phoque, Sarajevo a Street Under Siege, The Sniper), multimedia author (Carton, Machiavel, Alphabet), sound designer (exhibitions, CD-Roms, websites, Nabaztag, etc.), founder of record label GRRR. Specialist of the relations between sound and pictures, he has been an early synthesizer user and with Un Drame Musical Instantané, an initiator of the return of silent movies with live orchestra in 1976. His records show the use of samplers since 1980 and computers since 1985.
Jean-Jacques Birgé | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Born | 5 November 1952 |
| Origin | Paris, France |
| Genres | avant-garde music |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, musician, sound designer, filmmaker, writer |
| Instrument(s) | synthesizer, sampler, keyboards, electronics, reed trumpet, flute, jaw harp, Theremin, Tenori-on |
| Years active | 1969-2024 |
| Labels | GRRR, MEG-AIMP, Klang Galerie, Le Souffle Continu, DDD, Wah-Wah, Mio, in situ, Auvidis, publie.net, Les inéditeurs, Psych.org |
| Website | http://www.drame.org |
Since 1995, Birgé has become a sound designer in all multimedia areas and interactive composition.
Hardly classifiable musically, he may be likened to composers such as Charles Ives, İlhan Mimaroğlu, Frank Zappa, René Lussier, Francois Sarhan, Jonathan Pontier, Jim O'Rourke or John Zorn. Birgé's compositions follow cinematographic syntax more than the laws of harmony and counterpoint.
He has been writing a daily blog since 2005 on Mediapart, with more than 5500 entries so far.