The new soundtrack of the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac makes the collections sing

From Australia to Mexico, via Japan and Cameroon, sounds from the four corners of the world make up the museum’s new soundscape, which will be free this weekend for European Heritage Days.

Open your ears! A new sound trail now accompanies the works installed in the permanent collections of the musée du quai Branly. On Monday, September 16, 2024, the day before the opening to the public, we had the first look at a guided and “noisy” tour with curator Éric de Visscher and the composer who assisted him on this project, Thomas Tilly.

An immersive stroll punctuated by voices, sounds, stories, songs, dances… The curator speaks of “a sensory encounter“with the arts and civilizations of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas.”We wanted to offer a great diversity of sounds“, adds the commissioner.

He first takes us to the foot of an imposing ceremonial wooden post from Chile (Mapuche population, 20th century). As we approach, a recording is heard, as if the sculpture were starting to sing. RMade specifically for this new sound journey, it is the prayer of a shaman who recently came to Paris, accompanied by a drum. It lasts nearly five minutes.

Eric de Visscher then leads us to a three-sided display case, a sort of alcove housing a superb collection of pre-Hispanic terracotta flutes. The sound is spatialized. As we approach a particular instrument (ocarina, whistling vase, pan flute, small whistles), we hear each of their “little musics” obtained on copies of these objects by a passionate flutist. A work carried out by the team of designers Narrative Society Sounds : Julia Griner, Luc Martinez, Simon Cacheux. They worked hand in hand, or rather ear in ear, with the museum.

In front of a display case dedicated to the Wayana people of Guyana, we hear a selection of three songs. Sound artist Thomas Tilly explains that they include “sounds of forest and river banks” recorded in the living areas of these Amerindians, on the border of Suriname. In this sound recording, we can also perceive certain animals important in the Wayana cosmogony. We find some of them in the window, on the skies of huts, colored objects that they hang on the roofs of their homes, which establishes a subtle link between these works and their original sound environment.

To accompany a set of art objects from the Maghreb, the team recreated the atmosphere of a patio with different types of sounds: conversations, women’s voices, a song, the music of a lute, birds… Nothing heavy-handed. Just from one region to another, the lovely hubbub of the world.

Another interesting object from the Syrian desert: the palanquin. It is a kind of chair, richly decorated, that was installed on the backs of dromedaries for the women’s journey. By listening carefully, one can detect the characteristic sound of the passage of these animals.

“Afterwards, adds the commissioner, we perceive a rather particular sound, a sort of buzzing, of breath that we call the song of the dunes. It is a physical phenomenon that occurs in the Sahara, in the dunes. When there is a landslide, along one of the faces of the dune, caused by footsteps or by the wind, the movements of the grains of sand and their friction cause this very dull sound, this humming“.

This sound trail is the result of four years of work by the museum teams, in close collaboration with engineers, composers, specialists in field ethnography, collectors and sound designers. Some audio-naturalist artists, notably Fernand Deroussen, provided them with recordings. Fifty devices made up of 124 loudspeakers and vibrators were distributed on the permanent collections floor. The sounds are also linked to geographical areas.

When you sit on the leather bench in front of the wall art from Australia, you can feel, for example, the vibration of the famous long-pipe instrument: the didgeridoo. Speakers have been installed inside the furniture itself and on the ceiling.It contextualizes and hides the ventilation” explains one of the sound designers pragmatically.

Eric de Visscher, who was director of the Museum of Music (Philharmonie de Paris) assures that “On this scale, it is a novelty in the world of museums. It has been done so far on an ad hoc basis, on smaller and non-permanent exhibitions.“. If there were already sounds in the Quai Branly museum, they were “unevenly distributed and not always very audible“.

To describe the museum’s new soundtrack, he prefers the expression “soundscape” to the now overused term “immersion.”We are not constantly surrounded by sound, we can be surprised” he adds.

To avoid repetitions as in many museums where the sound loops, which can lead to saturation, several sound sequences have been planned with random triggering. There is a lot of variety and several volume levels. Sometimes the sounds are very discreet.You may not even notice them.“, says the curator. There are about 30 listening zones along the entire route, opening up an imaginary space that is as interesting as it is intangible. Listen to the murmur of the world.