Acousmatic music remains one of the most mysterious and fascinating currents in contemporary sound creation. But what lies behind this enigmatic term?

The Art of Blind Listening

The term “acousmatic” has its roots in ancient Greece. Pythagoras taught his disciples hidden behind a curtain, deliberately depriving them of any visual information to focus their attention solely on speech. This “blind” listening allowed for a deeper understanding of the message.

Pierre Schaeffer, pioneer of musique concrète in the 1940s, revived this concept to define a revolutionary musical art: Acousmatic listening invites us to discover sounds for themselves, freed from their origin.

When Sound Becomes Pure Music

In my practice as an electroacoustic composer[3], acousmatic music represents that particular magic where a familiar sound - the noise of water, the breath of wind, the resonance of an object - transforms into pure musical material. The composer becomes a sculptor of the invisible, shaping soundscapes that exist only in the space of listening.

Acousmatic music is:

  • The art of making the unheard audible in everyday life
  • Music that exists only in diffusion, without visible performers
  • A sonic journey where the listener becomes an explorer of imaginary universes

The Immersive Listening Experience

Unlike traditional instrumental music, acousmatic music immerses us in a total sonic bath. Loudspeakers become windows opening onto impossible worlds. In my compositions like Hydrophonia, this approach allows creating aquatic environments where the listener can literally “dive” into the sonic universe.

Music of the 21st Century

Today, acousmatic music evolves toward new forms of interactivity. My projects like Ascendance or Music & Me explore how this tradition of pure listening can reinvent itself in the digital era, creating experiences where the listener becomes an actor in their own sonic discovery.

Modern acousmatic music is:

  • Digital tools serving imagination
  • Integration of interactivity into contemplative listening
  • A pedagogical approach that makes contemporary music accessible

Why Listen to Acousmatic Music?

Acousmatic music develops our listening capacity and imagination. It teaches us to hear the hidden music in our daily environment and invites us to rediscover the sonic world that surrounds us.

In a world saturated with images, acousmatic music offers us a space of freedom where only the richness of our inner listening matters.


As an electroacoustic composer passionate about transmission, I develop interactive tools to make the universe of acousmatic music accessible. Discover my creations at jcploquin.itch.io.