The Vendée Globe experience told in 3D on Thomas Ruyant’s boat

Building an editorial story through audio that provides information on all facets of the skipper’s job is the challenge of this podcast project. The result of an encounter between four worlds: the sailor (Thomas), the musician artist (Molécule), the sound engineer (Hervé) and the journalist (Eric). A reporter boat available to listen to on franceinfo.fr since this weekend…

Life is a story of encounters. And this sound journalism experience is one of them. Originally, the artist-musician Molécule proposed to Thomas Ruyant to take microphones and cameras on board, to tell the story of offshore navigation during the Vendée Globe. It’s not nothing in the mind of the skipper knowing that for the boat a gram counts, to make it more competitive.

But the sailor agrees. Because in his eyes, reporting on what is happening offshore is real information to report to the general public. We can no longer be satisfied with a few images taken on a smartphone always at a moment of pause. These crumbs of emotion that carry the beauty of the world tell nothing of the relationship between man and his boat. The ambition is there.

There is a film project which will be in the artistic vein of Molécule, and on the other a podcast project which will explore the encounter between audio and information. And since we’re talking about microphones and Molécule is performing concerts with Hervé Déjardin, sound engineer, in search of new sound spaces, in charge of audio innovation projects at Radio France, and that a friendship is born from their tours, could we not spatialize the sounds picked up by the boat, from the mast to the keel?

And since Hervé Déjardin also works with the journalist Éric Valmir, general secretary of news at Radio France, couldn’t we design together a new journalistic writing through spatialized audio and a minimalist text?
The trio meet and refine a project that could stop overnight. The pickups could very well not work after the second day. They lasted 2 months. The sound recording could give nothing. It was then necessary to build a coherent and comprehensive story while remaining within the dimension of the audio which forces the imagination to represent reality.

Listen to the franceinfo document, 80 days at sea told by the machine and the man who lives with it, Thomas Ruyant, alone in the face of the elements:
The Vendée Globe experience: a sailing trip around the world told by sound.

Molécule, with the Thomas Ruyant Racing team, installed the technical device on board the boat. The voice of the narrator is that of Molécule. Christian Lahondes (Radio France) took his “voice”. The texts were written by Molécule and Éric Valmir. The sound was spatialized by Frédéric Changenet.
This podcast was put online on Friday January 28, 2022, one year to the day, hour to hour, after Thomas Ruyant entered the channel of Les Sables d’Olonne, thus completing his round the world trip.

The Brest public of the Longues d’Ondes festival was able to enjoy a preview of a few excerpts on headphones on Thursday 27 January, immersed in the auditorium of the Oceanopolis. It was a beautiful evening with the discovery, for many, of the sounds of the open sea, which do not always correspond to what we imagined. Have a good trip on board.