Patrick Ascione

Patrick Ascione’s works are out there! They have been performed in concert in Aix-en-Provence, Arras, Birmingham, Bourges, Brussels, Cherbourg-Octeville, Crest, Lyon, Marseille, Millery, Montréal, Paris and Tournai…

Born in Paris (France) in 1953, Patrick Ascione completed classical music studies before training at the Groupe de musique expérimentale de Bourges (GMEB, France) in 1977-79 — the centre that would become the Institut international de musique électroacoustique (IMEB) in 1995. He enrolled in the first session on computer music given by the Institut de recherche et coordination acoustique/musique (Ircam, Paris, France), where he discovered computer-assisted composition.

From 1980 to ’84, Patrick Ascione worked at GMEB as a facilitator while honing his electroacoustic techniques and composing. In 2003 he created an electroacoustic course at École de musique in Cherbourg (France), which he taught until 2008. He then taught at the Conservatoire de musique et de danse in La Rochelle (France).

He quickly understood, as early as 1978, how electroacoustic music offered a physical dimension of sound and was a form of art where ones applies sounds on a medium, as a painter applies colours on canvas. So he started composing pieces with colourful titles like Métamorphose d’un jaune citron and Bleus et formes. Then, he started working on concepts of “spatial polyphony” and space writing as an extension of stereophonic composition, the mode of composition in use in the studios at the time. In 1987-89 he composed Espaces-paradoxes, the first piece in 16 real tracks, integrating the parameters of spatialization and playback (“demixing”) to his writing process. Followed the works Chants sphériques, Couleurs d’espaces, Holophonie ou la baleine rouge, Danse de l’aube, Barcarolle pour studio et bande, Enième

Most of those works were commissioned by major centres (Ina-GRM, CIRM, Musiques & Recherches…) and the French State (Music Office). They have won several international awards.

“The most important thing is not only that the medium we use (computer, magnetic tape…) serves as the faithful memory, the exact transcription of the composer’s will, but that the very nature of this medium allows us to present a whole universe of new senses and as-yet-unperceived perceptible phenomena that would be absolutely impossible for us to imagine and translate into any form whatsoever… That is what makes acousmatic music truly groundbreaking compared to scored instrumental compositions.”

[English translation: François Couture, ii-15]

Patrick Ascione

Paris (France), 1953 – Calvados (France), 2014

  • Composer

On the web

Patrick Ascione [Photo: Gaspard Ascione, May 2012]
Patrick Ascione [Photo: Gaspard Ascione, May 2012]

Calendar

Broadcasts

Date Work Program
November 21, 2021 Patrick Ascione, Et puis l’oubli… (1998), 10:06 Episode 1086 / Martian Gardens Podcast (USA)
October 5, 2021 Patrick Ascione, Danse de l’aube (2000-02), 18:21 Episode 1080 / Martian Gardens Podcast (USA)
May 17, 2021 Patrick Ascione, Ascionerie no 6: Fantaisie diabolique (2011-12), 11:40 Acoustic Frontiers / CKCU 93.1 FM (Canada)
March 29, 2021 Patrick Ascione, Enième (2004), 10:11 Acoustic Frontiers / CKCU 93.1 FM (Canada)
March 12, 2021 Patrick Ascione, Ascionerie no 6: Fantaisie diabolique (2011-12), 11:40 Generation Bip Hop / Jet FM 91.2 (France)
March 11, 2021 Patrick Ascione, Ascionerie no 6: Fantaisie diabolique (2011-12), 11:40 Radio FMR 89.1 Toulouse (France)
March 11, 2021 Patrick Ascione, Ascionerie no 6: Fantaisie diabolique (2011-12), 11:40 Indie Drome / Campus Grenoble 90.8 (France)
March 11, 2021 Patrick Ascione, Ascionerie no 6: Fantaisie diabolique (2011-12), 11:40 Indie_drome / Éko des Garrigues 88.5 (France)
March 10, 2021 Patrick Ascione, Ascionerie no 6: Fantaisie diabolique (2011-12), 11:40 Radio Dijon Campus 92.2 (France)
March 9, 2021 Patrick Ascione, Ascionerie no 6: Fantaisie diabolique (2011-12), 11:40 Indiedrome / Radio Panik 105.4 (Belgium)
March 7, 2021 Patrick Ascione, Enième (2004), 10:11 Ganz weit vorne / HORADS 88,6 (Germany)
February 17, 2021 Patrick Ascione, Enième (2004), 10:11 Pangea #197 / Radio Città del Capo (Italy)