Free, reservation required
Improtech Paris 2025
Organized as part of the European REACH project, the international workshop-festival Improtech is dedicated to the union of universal improvisation and digital intelligence cultures. Through conferences, interdisciplinary workshops, and concerts, Improtech has traveled across three continents, gathering major figures in the field. It now returns to IRCAM, one of its founding institutions, for an edition focused on space, composition, and a tribute to American composer George Lewis, a key reference in musical AI.
For three days, a series of hands-on presentations, workshops, and performances will be offered to the public by leading figures, researchers, and artists exploring the exchange between digital intelligence and human expertise in fields such as electronic lutherie, interaction and immersive spatialization systems, gesture control, hacking, social networks, haptic interfaces, digital ritualization of tradition, audio-musical generativity, and creative AI more broadly.
Improtech @ Paris 2025 also includes three concerts: December 2, December 3, and December 7.
Organizing committee
Gérard Assayag, Marc Chemillier, Marco Fiorini, Vasiliki Zachari
Detailled program on improtech.ircam.fr
Program
Wednesday, December 3
10am – 1pm | Studio 2 | Workshops
Resounding Bodies in Space
with Alberto Maria Gatti (composer, designer), Anaïs del Sordo (voice, body harness) and Marco Fiorini (guitar, spatial agents Somax2)
2-7pm | Studio 5 | Workshops
Breathing Media Projects featuring 1000+Yr old traditional Gagaku music reimagined with cutting-edge sensors technology
with Tamami Tono (Sho) and Atsushi Todokoro (video)
Mugic Magic
with Mari Kimura (Mugic sensors, violin), Tamami Tono (Sho) and Minako Ito (Bugaku dance)
The Sophtar: an electroacoustic feedback instrument with embedded algorithms for human-machine improvisation
with Federico Visi (Sophtar Instrument, Somax2)
First Meeting
with Alain Blesing (electric guitar, Somax2) and Claudie Boucau (flute)
Thursday, December 4
Also available online, starting at 9:15am
ID de réunion: 895 8365 2158 / Code secret: 965119
9:30am - 1pm | Stravinsky room | Lectures
Mixed Initiative Co-Creative Design for Long-Term Human-AI Musical Partnership
with Ken Deguernel (CNRS, Laboratoire CRISTAL, Lill)
Generative Spatial Synthesis of Sound and Music (ERC G3S)
with Alain Bonardi (Université Paris 8), Emma Frid, Paul Goutmann, et Axel Chemla-Romeu-Santos
Somax2 for Live Visual Music: Co-Improvisation with Creative Agents
with Sabina Covarrubias (Synesthesic Devices)
Evaluation of AI based improvisation systems
with Gilbert Nouno (Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève), Christophe Fellay (École de design et Haute école d'art du Valais), Nathalie Hérold (IReMus - Sorbone Université) and Pierre Alexandre Tremblay (Conservatorio della Svizzera italian)
Gestures in Electronic Improvised Music
with Pierre Couprie (Évry Paris-Saclay University)
Real-Time Recognition of Instrumental Playing Techniques for Composition and CoCreative Interaction
with Nicolas Brochec (Geidai University Tokyo) and Marco Fiorini (Ircam, Collegium Musicæ)
2-4:30pm | Studio 5 | Workshops
AI at Carnegie Hall and Electronic Instrument Design
with Levy Lorenzo (percussion and electronics)
Activate Cities: Urban Inspiration and Live-coding
with NSDOS alias Kirikoo (electro-hack, dance) and Noam Assaag (litterature, voice)
4:30-7pm | Stravinsky room | Lectures
PURE MALT: Augmented Improvisations, from instrumental gesture to telematics
with Mikhail Malt (Somax2, live electronics, telematics), Cassia Carrascoza (flute, telematics), Li Chin Li (sheng)
TikTok Djam
with Yohann Rabearivelo (PhD student Reach), Ulysse Roussel (Sorbonne Université PhD student), Martin Mahieu and Heny Zouari (violin)
Friday, December 5
Also available online, starting at 9:15am
ID de réunion: 810 4528 8443 / Code secret: 076442
11am-1pm | Studio 5 | Workshops
Hypercept ~ quatuor d’improvisation
with Gyorgy Kurtag (synthesizers), Donatien Garnier (instrument Metaphorminx, poésie) et Emmanuelle Pépin (danse)
Pratiques du Live Coding
with Raphaël Forment (musicien, chercheur, développeur de logiciels libres), Rémi Georges (artiste sonore, compositeur et réalisateur en informatique musicale) et Guillaume Piccarreta (développeur et artiste numérique)
2-7pm | Stravinsky room | Lectures
The Odd Couple - Human & AI Making Music in the Moment
with Oded Ben Tal (Kingston University, London) and David Dolan (pianist, Guildhall School of Music & Drama Londo)
Unity Interfaces for Djazz and Somax: Ludic and Narrative Perspectives on Musical Machine Co-creativity
with Daniel Brown (Picardie University) and Steve Horowitz (composer)
Transmettre son style à l'IA : récit d'une collaboration improbable
with Jean-Rémy Guédon (composer, musician)
Composition and improvisation in contemporary opera
with Sivan Eldar (composer), Jean-Louis Giavitto (researcher, CNRS-IRCAM) and Augustin Muller (IRCAM, Le Balcon)
Extensymbiosis — The Audio–Visually Augmented Trumpet and Multi-modal Corpus-based Synthesis as a Shared Instrument
with Nicolas Souchal and Diemo Schwartz (IRCAM)
The meaning of « co » in « co-creative »
with Pierre Saint-Germier (researcher CNRS-IRCAM)
Saturday, December 6
2-7pm | Studio 5 | Installations
Free entry, limited seats available
WWW
José-Miguel Fernandez composition, AI-Agents Somax2Collider, immersive electronics
Spat’Sonore: a collective of physical acousmoniums with tentacular forms and acoustic instruments (spatsonore.fr)
Batterie fragile
Yves Chaudouët conception of batterie fragile, porcelain and chrome-plated steel
Jean-Brice Godet improvisation, clarinet
Thierry Miroglio improvisation, percussion
Nosfell chant
The Somax Brothers AI-Agents Somax2
Sunday, December 7
2pm | La Dynamo, Pantin | Masterclass
Free entry, limited seats available
Steve Lehman and Miles Okazaki give an exceptional masterclass open to the public before the concert, in which they will discuss their musical trajectory as composers and instrumentalists and shed valuable light on their creative relationship with technology. They will be accompanied by the Somax Brothers (Gérard Assayag and Marco Fiorini) to share demonstrations of the generative software (Dogstar and Somax2) used in the concert and thoughts on interaction strategies and the type of listening and responsiveness that such an experience with the machine brings into play. The masterclass will end with a session of Q&A and a discussion with the audience.
With the support of the ERC REACH project as part of the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, IRCAM-Centre Pompidou, Art Music Denmark and the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region.
