“(…) Posing as the doctor to the King of England and the Pope, this charlatan had no real expertise but was yet recommended to two composers. (…)”

“(Created by Michel Magne in the 70s, the legendary Château d'Hérouville was home to one of France's most renowned recording studios. 

To obtain the famous "castle reverb" so characteristic of their recordings, the sound engineers had a most creative idea. They simply converted one of the château's kitchens into an analog reverb chamber ! (…)”

“(…) In 2004, Swedish DJ Eric Prydz scored a smash hit with "Call On Me". 

Originally, it was an unofficial remix of Steve Winwood's "Valerie", produced by Thomas Bangalter (Daft Punk) and Stéphane Quême (DJ Falcon), a bootleg played in their sets.(…)”

“Allegri's famous "Miserere", a 17th-century sacred work, was kept secret by the Vatican. No one was allowed to transcribe or perform it outside the Sistine Chapel, on pain of excommunication.

But during Holy Week in Rome in 1770, Mozart attended services(…)”

“At the age of 24, Quincy Jones arrived in Paris in 1957 to study with the great masters Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen. But tuition was expensive for the son of a modest Chicago family...

His musical genius enabled him to finance his studies in a very stylish way. Quincy worked as an arranger, conductor and musician, notably in the Barclay studio.”

“In the 1920s, recording conditions were a real challenge for musicians !

Sound was captured by a simple bell and etched directly onto wax. To balance volumes, the most powerful instruments had to move further away(…)”

“Flemish composer Johannes Ockeghem (1410-1497) was a master of technical challenges and musical games ! In his "Missa cujusvis toni", he conceived a single score that could be sung in 4 different keys. Instead of keys, a simple "?" guided the singers(…)”

“So you haven’t heard about the birth of Scat ?

Legend has it that in 1926, during the recording of Heebie Jeebies,(…)”

“ Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613) was a famous Italian composer and nobleman renowned for his expressive, avant-garde madrigals of the 16th century.

But behind his great musical abilities lay a man consumed by jealousy, capable of the worst atrocities. His tragic fate undoubtedly shaped his compositions.(…)”

“ (…) A giant 12-meter-long balloon named Algie was specially designed. On the day of the photoshoot, a large team of photographers, filmmakers, a helicopter and even a sniper to shoot down the balloon (…)”

“ (…) Performing ASLSP

Composed of just 8 pages with no tempo indicated, some performed it in a few hours, others in 1 day... This was without counting the meeting of a group of German musicologists and philosophers who, after Cage's death, studied the indication "as slow as possible".

How slow can his interpretation be? 639 years! (…) ”