dialogue with F.Mauger on Phonographies
 
You respond to Sebastião Salgado's photographs with "phonographies". The word has not yet entered common parlance. What is your definition?
 
François-Bernard Mâche: "It's a word I invented in the early 60s, on the assumption that an art of sound would develop parallel to that which photography had developed a century or half a century before. For both artistic photography and phonography, the idea is to capture a moment to produce something more than a document, something with a symbolic or poetic charge. As this is what Salgado has done so remarkably well, I wanted to do something similar with sound. I chose, assembled and mixed sounds taken from mostly perfectly recognisable recordings, so as to tell a kind of story, the story of water."
 
How do you know when a phonography is successful?
 
François-Bernard Mâche: "If I can listen to a recorded sound with an image in my head other than the original sound, I've got it. The sound has to go beyond simple documentary identification. It's a signal, not a sign".
 
Where do the phonographs you are presenting come from?
 
François-Bernard Mâche: "For example, to create the image of a stream, I mixed recordings I'd made in Brittany with others I'd made in Asia. In Asia, I recorded in different national parks, like Borneo. The idea was not to recreate a 'soundscape' as the Americans say, but to create a kind of ideal image of the stream. To achieve this, I allowed myself to manipulate the sound, reinforcing certain registers, in much the same way as a photographer can rework contrasts in a print. My aim was not to make nature identifiable but to make it the medium of a kind of active reverie. In much the same way, Salgado creates perfectly recognisable landscapes but, through his choice of framing, lighting and contrasts, he sometimes gives them an almost fantastic appearance. You have the impression that you are standing next to the photographer but, at the same time, the photograph reveals a mystery, just as a painting can.
 
In the same way that you draw your phonographs towards music...
 
François-Bernard Mâche: "That's it. That's exactly it. I didn't want it to become too much music. After all, it's a photography exhibition, and people shouldn't think they're at a concert. On the contrary, I wanted these sounds to pass through the viewer's subconscious, to attract their attention from time to time, but not constantly. It's more a secret influence, an incitement to meditate, that I was looking for.
 
You said you coined the word 'phonography' in the 60s, thinking it would have a bright future. A few artists, like Stéphane Marin, still use it, but they are rare. Are you disappointed?
 
François-Bernard Mâche: "No, no, it wasn't a publicity stunt... At the time, I was part of the first team to create the Groupe de recherches musicales around Pierre Schaeffer. There were people there who were very interested in this idea. Some of them illustrated it. I'm thinking of Luc Ferrari, for example, who did pieces called Presque rien: Presque rien - le lever du jour au bord de la mer, Presque rien avec filles... His natural recordings told something, suggested a story. There weren't many others. After that, recording became easier. It attracted a lot of amateurs, who wander around in nature with a microphone. In my opinion, there's a problem with this: on a postcard, you can easily recognise where the photo was taken, but you can't recognise where a phonograph was taken when you listen to it. Sound is not as permanent as images. There is a moment when things seem interesting but you never find the same sound in the same place. Phonography is a way of making it easier to perceive the natural beauty of sound, but it is never as fixed as photographic documentation, and that frees up the listener's imagination".