ISAC 2024

Pesaro UNESCO Creative City of Music – ITALY

IRCAM Centre Pompidou Paris – FRANCE

After the success of the first edition of ISAC-2023, which resulted in more than 100 compositions by 77 candidates from 26 countries, IRCAM Centre Pompidou and Pesaro UNESCO Creative City of Music are proud to announce their collaborative effort for this new edition of the ISAC-2024 competition.

The confluence of IRCAM’s 30th Forum Anniversary and Pesaro’s designation as Italian Capital of Culture 2024, presents a unique opportunity for the competition winners. They will have the privilege to travel from Pesaro to Paris, experiencing the world-renowned public facilities for High-Order Ambisonics (HOA) acousmatic listening: Sonosfera® and Espace de Projection.

ISAC-2024
AWARDED COMPOSITIONS

1st PRIZE: "Non è un compendio di etologia numerico-digitale"
by Montella - Laudante - Pisano (Italy)

2nd PRIZE: "Transformations: Music for a Destinationless Journey"
by Ralph Killhertz (Espana)

3rd PRIZE: "Impossible Moments from Venice: The Other Side of the Lagoon"
by Natasha Barrett (Norway)

1st Mention: "Otherness"
by Alex Buck (Brazil)

2nd Mention: "70_O~"
by "WE-LαKER" (United Kingdom - France)

LOCATIONS

Sonosfera® in Pesaro fulfills both needs: a technological standard of 6th order Ambisonics of the highest sound quality level, and a capacity of 60 seats. Sonosfera® is a mobile technological amphitheater for deep listening of ecosystems and music, designed for Pesaro UNESCO Creative City of Music by David Monacchi, opened to the public in Dec 2019. It is equipped with an array of 45 custom-built loudspeakers positioned isotropically (with the only exception of the nadir area) in a self- isolating spherical space with perfect internal acoustics. Sound-transparent circular terraces lift the audience above an acoustically ‘active’ lower hemisphere, while the upper one is also equipped with a 360° projection screen with horizontal resolution of 24k. Sonosfera® puts listeners at the center of the soundscape, in the darkness of a stimulating acousmatic sensorial experience, sometimes “lighted up” by visual analyses of sound. Sonosfera® was in fact originally designed and built for spherical reconstruction and visualization of HOA field recordings carried out in primary tropical rainforest ecosystems, as part of the scope of the long-term project Fragments of Extinction.

The Espace de Projection in Paris, located at IRCAM, is a medium-sized performance hall with adaptable acoustics, accommodating approximately 400 seats. Constructed in the 1970s, its design aimed to offer extensive flexibility in terms of shape, size, and acoustic characteristics. Thanks to this architectural adaptability, different acoustic features can be adjusted separately. For instance, the room's reverberation time can be varied from 0.6 to over 3 seconds. In addition to the hall's remarkable adaptability in terms of its acoustic features, a comprehensive 350-speaker array was installed between 2008 and 2011. This High-Density Loudspeaker Array (HDLA) is composed of four linear horizontal arrays along with a box-shaped array that encompasses the walls and ceiling. The highly dense horizontal arrays are employed for 2.5D Wave Field Synthesis (WFS) and 2D HOA up to order 128. The box-shaped array is specifically designed for 3D HOA with a maximum order of 9. This HDLA creates an unparalleled immersive audio setting for new media and performing arts. It also offers cutting-edge equipment for experimental research in high-definition spatial audio and auditory spatial cognition.

JURIES

There will be two different Juries. Initially, a Steering Committee will pre-select compositions based on criteria such as eligibility, technical feasibility, aesthetics and their potential presentation in Sonosfera® and Espace de Projection. Subsequently, an International Jury will evaluate and select the winners from a short list of best suited compositions.